Support Missions

I started this yesterday and hit a wrong key as neared the finish.  You can guess what happen as well as I can.  It disappeared and I haven't found it since.  So today I will start over again.

I have had a complete heart change toward missions.  As a child I always said that I would be a pastor or a missionary when I grew up.  It took me to age forty to become a pastor and I was 61 years old when I went on my first mission trip.  I had spent my entire life telling myself that I wasn't called to missions!  Oh, how wrong I was.  Thus the change that I am talking about.  Since 2008 I have been to Peru four times and Haiti twice.  I have fallen in love with the people in both locations.

My point for writing this blog is this!  We are past the mission season (June to August) and everyone interested has let down on their interest for the rest of the year.  At the same time, it is too early for those who might be going next year to even work up a thought about going on a mission trip.  We are in a time of non-mission awareness!  Except for this!  In the mission fields, there are people dying every day without knowing about Jesus Christ!

I could write volumns about the good our mission trips have made in the lives of the people we go see. But I really don't need to do that now.  I am suggesting that we simply raise our awareness that while our lives go on day after day with the comfort and peace that we live in, there are people in Haiti that have lived in stick houses covered in Walmart bags since the earthquake in 2010.

Be aware that in the Amazon jungle in Peru there are kids who are living with parasites in their bodies because they have no fresh water to drink.  The next time you draw a cold glass of water out the tap at your sink, think about the young mother that is carrying water in a five gallon pail (sometimes one in both hands at the same time) for long distances for something to cook with and something to drink. Think about the purity of your water as you drink, but also think about the sewage that has run into that jungle mother's water from the village above the river, the parasites that are in that water and the chemicals that might be in that water from a factory somewhere up river.

At the moment of our non-awareness of missions, let's just up the thoughts and prayers for those people around the world that are not as well blessed as we are.  Then you might consider what you can do to help them somehow, now and in the future, and begin to pray for wisdom with what you consider!  

Working together in giving, in service and in prayer we can make a huge difference in a dark world.  You can have and do have a purpose to fulfill in missions!  Think about it!

He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses. Proverbs 28:27  (NIV)

Oh, by the way!  Now that I have finished todays posting guess what I just found?  Yesterday's draft.  Oh well!  I got to say what I felt twice if you only get to read it once:)!

Don't Rebuke An Older Man Harshly!

My heart broke as I watched the interchange between an old man and a young woman at the restaurant we ate at on Saturday morning.  Glenda and I had just finished our breakfast and walked up to the cash register to pay for our food.  There was no one there. About that time an elderly man walked into the room and in light conversation said to me, "I guess I will have to take your money!"  My response to him with a laugh, was "Sure! How much do yo want?"  We laughed together and meanwhile another man came into the area to pay his bill.  Now three of us stood there.  A moment later more people walked into the front area of the restaurant and stood there waiting for someone to seat them.  All together, there were probably a dozen or more people standing around waiting to go in or go out.

As we stood there, the elderly man that I first talked with was wiping blood off his arm with a napkin. He had brushed against the door frame and with his skin thinning, as it does for older people, the blood was running down his arm.  I commented to him that I have the same problem, and we stood there talking some more.  About that time a young waitress came and started taking the money for those who had been waiting to pay for their breakfast.  When the older man got his turn, he laid the napkin down on the cashiers counter.  She exploded.  He tried to regroup in his thinking.  He quickly picked it up, and in his haste dropped it on the floor.  She exploded at him again.  Then she told him, "Get out! Just get out of here!  I'm not kidding!  I am serious.  Go away and don't come back!"  The man was confused.  In his mind he was stuck between "Is she joking?" and "Is she serious?" He was embarrassed and humiliated. As she went on humiliating him in front of the dozen or more people standing there, he threw his money on the counter and turned and left the building.  I paid my bill and went looking for him, but he was no where to be found.  As I said, my heart broke for him.  Worse yet, my anger kindled as I watched this take place and I said nothing to her.  I was as guilty as she was!

In I Timothy 5:1, we are told, "Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. 

Treat younger men as brothers,"

My mind wrapped around this verse and I thought, "If only she knew what she had just done."  My advice to everyone reading this is this;  don't let older people bum you out. Show abnormal amounts of patience toward them even when they don't do just as you would like for them to do.  They are going through changes in their life that we (younger people:)) don't know about and don't understand.  In the last few months I have gone through the same thinning of my skin.  All I have to do is bump against something and the blood runs down my arm.  At any given time I have marks on my arm that look like I have been some sort of battle.

But that is not the worst.  As we age, our minds are not as sharp as they once were.  It takes just a moment longer to sort things out.  At the intersection of two streets, we need an extra moment to make sure someone isn't coming from the side direction.  At the difficult moments is life, it takes an extra second or two to even see the potential danger. In the conversations of life, we may repeat a story or say something that is offending and not even mean it that way.  

When dealing with older people, encourage them as you would your father.  As Christians, it is important for us get a good handle on this.  There are enough people in the world that will just verbally blow the old man or the old woman away!  We must be the light of Jesus and show love in every situation.  Think about this!

The Trials of Job!

"This day stinks!"  No, I am not saying this, but I hear it all the time!  I have a situation in life where hardly a day goes by that I don't hear this negative comment or that negative comment.  Frequently I ask this person, "Don't you have anything that makes you happy or that you are thankful for in life?"  Don't think that I am talking about Glenda, because she is thankful for me:)!

Lately, I have watched many of the comments on Facebook!  Again, some people are incredibly negative in many of their attitudes about life!  But I want to share an incredibly positive post that I read yesterday.  It is from my high school music teacher, Ruth Parks, who is in her mid-nineties!  It was so positive, and that is her total attitude toward life, that I posted back to her that when I grow up I want to be just like her!

Here is what she said from the assisted living home that she lives in.  "Yesterday was a day with extra nice things happening -Mildred Thompson's super apple pie, my very favorite pickles from Donna Augustyn, and good fresh fruit from Barb Hoyt. Then last evening got to go to a meeting with Dean Reeverts at the Bethel Baptist Church --good food, good music, good people. These are the memories you like to store up against times that AREN'T so good. I am thankful."  She is such an inspiration!

But then, that brings me to the subject of "me!"  One thing that I have found in my expertise on negative comments is that I can spot them a mile away.  I just can't spot them when they are right under my nose; that means when they come out of my own mouth!

For the last several days, I have been reading from the Bible book of Job!  Now if you want to hear some negativity, get in there and read!  I told Glenda this morning that I could feel really depressed when I get done reading it, if I didn't have inside information as to what is really going on.  Satan is tormenting the poor guy into total anguish and he doesn't see where it is coming from.  He is blaming God for all the bad stuff going on his life, while at the same time trying to defend God from his wife and friends!

I have some idea of what Job was feeling!  Years ago I went through a situation that was absolutely devastating!  Financially I almost lost the proverbial "shirt off my back!"  I prayed.  I begged.  I even tried bargaining with God; "If you save me from this, I will do such and such!"  Nothing worked and I ending up losing the business that I tried so hard to save.  I was, saying it mildly, angry with God!  In my mind, He had let me down big time!  I said some terrible things about him, to him and to anyone that would listen!  In my attitude toward life for several years after that, I don't think I started a day without thinking "This day stinks!"

But, over a period of time, God had a plan for me!  It didn't match my plans or any of my desires for myself.  But some things had to change and it was in God's plan to bring these changes into being.  Now, thirty years later, I can look back and see God's hand in every part of my life back then.  He was leading and carrying and sometimes shoving me through what would have been good, but not as good as what He wanted for me!  I have more than once asked for forgiveness for the attitude toward life that came from that time!  I see now that those changes that I fought so hard against were the best thing that could have happened to me!

If you are going through some rough times in life right now, don't get angry with God!  Make a conscious effort to spend more time looking for the blessings in life that you might be taking for granted.  Spend more time praising Him for who He is and thanking him for what you have.  Get very proactive in giving Him credit for what blessings that you have in life over complaining and condemning everything that happens right now!  There is a greater time coming for those who have hope in Jesus!  Praise him for that hope and for the promises He has given us in His Word!  Think about it!

We Are Living In Some Terrible Times!

I took Glenda out for breakfast this morning to a restaurant that we have been to a couple of times over the last few years.  I had some business to take care of in a certain part of Rockford and when asked where she wanted to eat, she came up with the same restaurant that I was thinking about.  We sat there and visited, watched people and talked about our day before our food finally came out of the kitchen.

The meal was tasty and knowing we had some business to take care of, we didn't spend a lot of time eating.  The waitress brought us our bill and I paid for the meal.  As we were about to go out the door, she brought up a story of something that had happened to her.  She had "taken a little road trip" a few weeks ago and stopped at a gas station to buy some drinks and snacks to eat and drink as they traveled.  She paid for them with her credit card.  When they got the bill a few weeks later, it was charged an additional $160.00+ from this same gas station.  She told us they were able to get it fixed, but the gist of her story was that you can't trust anyone anymore.  And then she added, "We are living in some terrible times!"

As I drove away from the restaurant, I thought about what she had said.  My question is this:  Why can people see these terrible times in the physical realm, yet have no clue what is going on in the spiritual realm?  Jesus said in Luke 15:54-56,  "When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, 'It's going to rain,' and it does. And when the south wind blows, you say, 'It's going to be hot,' and it is.  Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don't know how to interpret this present time?

Paul writes in II Timothy 3:1-5, "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. ² People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, ⁴ treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— ⁵ having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people."

Paul is digging into the spiritual realm around us when he prophesies about these things.  Why in this day and age would someone charge an extra $160+ on this lady's credit card?  Because they love themselves more than they do her!  Because they love money!  Because they need money to buy more pleasures!  There are all sorts of reasons for it.  But it is not just an issue of extra money on a credit cared, but the violence and heart ache all around us, too! 

If you recognize that things are changing, and in a big way, but don't understand why?  Get into the Word of God and begin to read about some of the last days prophecies before the return of Christ!  Satan is going to take the return of Jesus in a passive way!  He has some tough times coming for us all!  Are you ready for Jesus to come again?  Think about it!

All About Beans!

The other day, I stood in the window and watched Glenda pick green beans out of her garden.  She doesn't have a real big garden.  It is just enough to get her fingers dirty and for her to say she worked in the garden.  But this year something has changed in her garden.  She has one tiny, little row of green beans.  The difference is that this year they are producing like crazy.  We have had fresh green beans now for a couple of weeks.  Almost to the point that she came close to complaining about how many green beans there were the other day!

In years past, she would plant the same amount of green beans and the rabbits would eat them off--or the heat would stunt their growth--or the drought would kill them before they could produce.  This year, the rabbits are around but not getting into her garden.  We have had plenty of rain and the heat hasn't been too bad until the last week!  The results are a great crop of green beans.

What I am writing about isn't really about green beans at all!  It is the persistence that she has kept in her heart to plant green beans!  Year after year, she has planted green beans, never knowing if she is going to reap a good harvest or a lousy harvest.  She has been persistent in what she is doing and she is reaping the benefits this year.

But I am not really writing about persistence in planting green beans either! What I see is the heart ache that is experienced year after year in planting the seeds of the Word of God in the lives of people around us.  I have now just completed my 25th year of ministry and if there is one theme that has rung true in every year of ministry, it is "Someone who is dear and close to you will turn their back on you and walk away at sometime!"  Often times it is the ones who are closest to you.  Now I am not talking about those who are feeling called by God to go work in another ministry some where.  I am talking about those who not only turn their backs on me, but they turn their backs on God and on the body of Christ!  It may seem like a bit of downer, but I have gone through each year of ministry wondering who it will be this year!

The effort that goes into these people sometimes is much and sometimes is little.  Either way, it still hurts when they turn away and quit the body of Christ all together.    This summer, I am watching several families who have been faithful and true to the church but all of a sudden something has happened and they are gone.  For many of them there is no answer.  When I call them they say, "Oh Pastor, you don't have to worry about us.  We will be back!"  But they never come back.  I don't know if the heat got them, the lack of rain got them or a rabbit bit them off at the ground.  They are just gone!

But the focus can't be on the ones who say one thing and do something totally different.  The focus should be on the years when the vines are producing to the max.  The Word of God is planted each year at New Life Bible Church.  There is a harvest each year, be it little or be it much.  There are lives being changed for the good because of the persistence of people like Glenda who keep on planting and weeding and watering and picking to receive whatever the good Lord provides for us.

Satan is turning up the heat and in these last days before the return of Jesus Christ, the Bible says many will turn away from the faith and hate and betray each other.  Are you finding all sorts of little things about the body of Christ, your pastors, even God that is starting to offend you?  Don't let it happen!  Take control and stay true to the salvation that Jesus provided for you at the cross!  Think about it!

It's Time To Retire!

One of the most confusing times in life for me was when I graduated from High School.  I suddenly found myself looking at going out into the world as an adult.  I welcomed that challenge, but it wasn't going to be without some struggles!  What bothered me was the social restrictions that came with going into a time in life when I should have been absolutely free as a bird.  The Viet Nam war was going on hot and heavy and a high school graduate had two choices in life.  Go to college or go to war!  I had been offered a full time job and either one of those choices got into my way.  I made myself go on to college.

I hated college for a number of reasons!  I won't go into all the details but it just didn't work out for me!  Part of the problem was with the college and the other part of the problem was with me!  I eventually ended up dropping out of college.  I then lived with the pressure of the inevitable draft notice that would eventually come in the mail.  It did come, and I ended up spending three years of my life in the Army.  That was really the beginning of things settling into what I expected out of life on the day I graduated from High School.  But it took eight years out of my life to get here!

Forty years have gone by since then and I find myself in another unsettled time in life.  I am facing retirement!  Before, I was being squeezed into adulthood on society's terms.  Now, I find myself being squeezed into something else, still on society's terms. 

At eighteen, the world around me was in chaos!  War was going on in Viet Nam and people were coming home dead or changed in a big way!  Rebellion and crazy living was every where.  There are people my age whose lives are still being affected daily by that war and that time of life that is forty years back in history!

When I was younger I had a picture in my mind of what retirement would be like.  It is strange but now that I am ready to retire, I don't see any of the imagined things anywhere near!  Where did they go?  Why is society dictating to me again what I can do and what I can't do?  This isn't fair, but what is truly fair in life?

In my sixty-six years of life, I have been told repeatedly one thing about life!  According to the world around me, there is nothing fair!  Life is full of injustices!  Life is full of heartache!  Life is full of bitterness!  Life is full of "poor me attitudes!"  But I don't buy that lifestyle and I have found that I don't have to be a part of them.

I have found that I can do something about all the injustices, the heartache, the bitterness and the poor me attitudes!  I can ignore them when they come to my being and help others around me who are in bondage to them!  According to John 10:10, Jesus came into the world so that I can have life and have it abundantly.  I have great things in life including my wife and family.  I have a great home and beautiful flower beds that are truly my castle.  I have great people around me all the time who work with me to get things done that are important to my ministry.

The office is full of these people right now!  They are chattering and laughing and visiting as I am trying to think of what to write here.  Other people's lives are being changed and helped because of their positive vision of life!  I have been blessed to be able to help them form their positive thinking! And what is even neater is that they are building up others around them who are working toward that same understanding and vision to help ever more people around them.  Life has been great, and once I figure this retirement things out, I bet it will just get better!

I Don't Know What To Think

My mind tells me today that I should write something on my blog!  My heart agrees since I have had several things on my heart to write about.  My fingers are their usual fat little selves who like to type two letters at once, and so I spend a lot of time back spacing and retyping.  All par for the course.

The problem is that my mind, which is the instigation behind this post, has nothing more to offer!  It is claiming near insanity right now and rolling its eyes at the very idea of coming up with something intelligent!  Thanks, mind, for hanging me out all by myself!

Let's talk about Peru.  That is one the things heavy on my heart right now!  We leave on Tuesday for nine days.  We are flying to Lima, through Mexico City, and then taking a bus to the central highland's city of Huancayo.  I was there for the first time five years ago and absolutely fell in love with the people, but even more with the homeless street kids who need so much and have so little.

Seven of us are going down to work in a brickyard daycare that is run by a lady I met five years ago.  I have had very little information about her sense until I found her on Facebook this spring.  We have built up a dialogue about the needs down there.  My prayer is that we can be used effectively to help these kids.

We will also be working with a small Methodist church on the edge of this city of almost 350,000 people.  My daughter,  Shelly and her daughters, Ashley and Lindsey, along with others from our church were able to minister here in 2009!  They are looking forward to going back and renewing friendships they made then.

One of my close friends, Jorge, who usually takes us into the Amazon Jungle also lives and works in Huancayo.  I have been in contact with him and plan on having lunch or dinner with him one day while we are down there.

And so, this whole trip looks to be a win-win situation all the way around.  Now I have to settle my mind, control my heart and tame my body who is not happy with idea.  I keep telling myself, "I can do all things through Christ which gives me strength!"

What A Wonderful World?

Jesus said in Matthew 24:10-14, "At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.  Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.  And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."

We are at a time when the world is on the verge of total meltdown.  Many nations are on the edge of total financial colapse.  Many more are facing rebellion and anarchy from tyranical goverenment officials who think they are above the law.  People's minds are spinning with fear, confusion and anger at decisions made that constantly lessen their position and standing in the world.  I saw a mention on the internet the other day that the writer of the article thought that President Barrak Obama of the United States was the only person in the world that could save the European Common Market.  That kind of thinking is the beginning of a thought process that smacks of the anti-christ!

Yesterday we expereinced another brutality at the end of the Boston Marathon!  Two bombs were detonated and two or three people were killed!  A hundred more were injured!  One eight year old boy was killed, his mother severely injured and his sister lost a leg.  That is some major carnage within one family.  What is the purpose of all of this kind of evil?

I am convinced that every school shooting, every bombing, every scare that is put into the hearts of the masses is just one more attempt to turn off the love that people have for each other.  Jesus said, "because of the increase in wickedness, the love of most will grow cold."  We are at a time in the United States when referandums are being passed in far too many states to increase wickedness-more and greater abortions, legalized marijuana, gay marriages and the list goes on!  Everytime we, as a people, vote to increase wickedness, we take another swipe at the love that people have for each other.  Every increase of wickedness is one more destructive blow against love across the world.   Is there any wonder that these terrible, dastardly deeds are happening with more and more frequency?

This may sound harsh, and some may say "Unloving!"  But what I am about to say is for the sake of some love and some faith prevailing in the end.  Liberal Americans are going to keep pushing for every form of wickedness.  Stupid Americans will not wise up and will not quit voting wickedness into being.  Whiney Americans will continue to blame God every chance they get by asking, "Why would God let something like this happen?"  Christian Americans need to get some solid sense of what is coming and begin to stand up for what God loves and His kingdom ways of living.  God is right where we will allow Him to be, and He is in control of all that is happening.  It is us, as Americans, who are shutting Him out, and it is us who have lost all control for what we want in our lives!  Think about it....

Can I Just Strangle Somebody?

Wednesday I began to get a sore throat and a cold was coming back.  By Wednesday night I was down for the count.  I had a fever and felt terrible.  The problem is that this is now a problem that has gone on for over eight weeks! I don't like to have to go through a second round.  I hate feeling sick!

But there is something else going on today, too!  I don't have any idea why, but I feel like I could strangle the next person that walks in my office.  Beside my head hurting with the cold, my heart hurts and I don't know why.  What is strange about this is that I am preaching on temptation on Sunday and one of the things that I recognize about giving in on temptation is the feeling of "I just don't give a care about life!"  This kind of feeling ususally comes after some kind of tragedy, or argument or disappointment comes along.  I have had none of those to push me into this lousy feeling.

So I guess I will follow my own advice to others and just praise God through it.  I don't know what is causing this in my spirit, but like David said in Psalm 42:11, "Soul, get over yourself!  Put your hope in God and praise him, for he is my Savior and my God!" (Minor Gary paraphrase-but look it up.  The paraphrase is pretty close to the original!)  So here goes!  "Soul, get over yourself and praise your God!  He is awesome and worthy of my praise even when I don't feel like praising him!"   I'll check back with you in a day or so, but I'm pretty sure it will work!  It has before!  Think about it...

No Kisses For Grandpa!

I was talking with my three year old granddaughter today on the telephone.  I asked her what she was doing, and her response was "I don't know!"  I asked her if she was being good.  She responded, "Yes!"  I asked her is she was acting like a princess today, and she responded, "Yes!"  So then I told her that she was being a good little girl and acting like a princess!  That seemed to go right over her head.

About that time her daddy told her she had to go!  I asked if she would give me a kiss!  And that is where things got really strange.  She said, "No!  You can't kiss over the phone."  Now that was news to me.  I have twelve grandkids that range from 21 to 1!  I think if I asked to get a kiss over the phone from anyone of them, they would gladly send one on its way. (The older ones would probably think Grandpa has lost his mind, but I think they would still do it!)  Glenda and still send kisses over the phone when we are apart.  I sent her a kiss all the way from Haiti last fall.  This leaves me with several questions.  "When did they change the phone system so that you can't kiss over the phone?"  How does this three year old know the rules and Grandpa doesn't?  Did I miss some recent change in social protocal?  Why haven't my more "hip" children  been keeping me informed about these things?

Times are changing!  As I find myself getting older, the more I find things just aren't what they used to be.  I know that I will probably never feel the thrill of running across the outfield and catching a fly ball.  I know that I will probably never be able to read a book again without my glasses.  I know that I will probably never be able to take two steps at a time when going up stairs, but this no kissing on the telephone has me completely bummed out!

Oh well!  I'll get over it.  They are all coming down for dinner tonight.  I just bet I'll get a kiss from my little three year old before the night is over!  But I really have to admit, I just can't get over the fact that the rules have changed about kissing on the telephone and no one has informed me untill this morning!  That's just not right!

Logging In Is Getting More Difficult

Uhhhhggggg!  I am about to pull what little hair I have out by the handful!  Everything I do anymore on the computer is prefaced with "Log In!"  But when I do, I am repeatedly told that I have the wrong user name or the wrong password!  I can't imagine!  By now I probably only have fifteen or twenty log in names and passwords.  How can I keep them all straight?

You might suggest, "Use the same one all the time!"  Makes good sense, but doesn't work!  So I try to do something different and they tell me that won't work either.  My answer today is to write everything down on a yellow sticky note and post it next to my computer.  It is right where I can see it, and the whole world who would like to get into my business can see it, too!  Go ahead!  I have nothing to hide!

Today I signed up for something new that I haven't been into before.  It not only had to have a log in name and password, but then it repeatedly told me my password that I selected wasn't safe enough.  It wouldn't let me use it.  I changed to another one.  Still not safe enough.  Changed it again.  Still not complex enough and needed to made more difficult for someone to guess.  After four or five tries, it was finally accepted!  Now no one has to guess!  In order to remember it, I had to write it down and stick it on the wall.  But it didn't stop there.  I had to have a six number verification code!  That is to make sure that when I log in with my user name and now extremely complex password, that it is really me logging in.  I wrote it on the sticky note next to my computer, too!  By the way, when I just went to log in again from earlier this morning, they told me I had the wrong verification code.  I looked and I had typed it in just as I had written it down.  When I went back to verify their verification code, they had sent me a second one already!

Now here is my point!  It will be real easy for you all to get.  Please follow the conversation that I am about to print!

Dear Father God,
(Please Log In)
Okay, God, here is my user name and password!
(Sorry, Gary, you have something wrong with one or the other!)
I'm sorry, Father, try this one!
(No, Gary!  You must use the proper case for your password.)
Okay.  I'll try it again!
(Sorry!  Your password and the confirmation didn't match.)
Well, I really want to talk to you this morning!
(Get your user name and password right and you can come to me!)
Okay, Father, I'll try it again.
(Great!  You have it exactly right!  Now could you please type in these funny looking words to verify that you are really you!)
Okay.  I'll try but I can barely read them.
(Sorry!  It is apparent that this isn't really you at all because you can't read the squiggly words and numbers!  You have just used up your log in time.  Please contact our office and we will reconnect your account once we verify that you are you!)
Oh God!  I just wanted to talk to you for a few minutes!  I'll try later in the week!

Isn't it great that we don't have to "log in" to talk to God?  Think about it...

Giving The Business, Or Getting The Business!

The gas station near our home has a way of doing business that really rubs me wrong.  Without any warning the price of gas can go up as much as 15 or 20 cents a gallon.  Many times, when I am in Rockford, I could stop and get gasoline at any station for about the same price that I saw at Winnebago Corner earlier in the morning.  The thought goes through my head, "I should get gas but I will give my business to the station in Winnebago."  When I drive the fifteen miles from Rockford, I find out they decided to raise the price of their gasoline up to 20 cents a gallon and I find out that I got the business in a way I didn't like!

My question today is this.  In our daily Christian walk, as we go through life, are we getting the business from people around us or are we giving them the business?  Let me explain this in a little different way.  As the pastor of the church, what would happen if I put out a plea for funds to help me with a mission trip that I am going on.  Many different people would stop and think, pray about it and then say, "Let's help Pastor Gary with the expense of this trip."  They would look at this as a business transaction, much like I did with the local gas station.  Their attitude would be to help in an area of need. But what would happen if after I got your trust, and your money, I didn't go on the mission trip? What would you think after I was supposed to go and didn't, and I spent your money to buy myself a different car.  Would you feel that you helped me in a time of need, or would you feel that you were taken advantage of- or given the business?

As followers of Jesus Christ, we need to make sure that we are not taking advantage of other people around us for our own sake.  We should not go through life manipulating people for our own advantage in any situation.  We are supposed to be helping people in our walk with Jesus and not hindering them.  We are supposed to be making other people's lives easier, rather than making them more difficult.  We cannot walk up to people with a great big hearty slap on the back and big laugh and overwhelm them with our deceit and our trickery!  Jesus told his diciples that you will know a tree by it's fruit.  If it produces good fruit, it is a good tree.  If it produces bad fruit, it is a bad tree.  You may claim to be a Christian, but if you are producing the fruit of deciet and frustration and hurt in everyone's life around them, you are really giving Jesus the business in the end!  Think about it...!

Winner, Winner, Loser, Loser!

I just came through one of the most exciting times in my life!  The IHSA State Basketball Finals were held in Peoria this weekend and my grandson got to play in them with his Winnebago High School team.  The team went into the finals with a perfect 31-0 record and were rated 2nd in the state in Division 2A.  It was incredible for him and it was incredible for all the fans to watch during the season.  They blew out a lot of teams, won by one or two points with a few teams and came from behind a couple of times to win with last second shots!

But disaster struck in the first playoff game at Peoria!  Our boys couldn't hit the side of the proverbial "barn door!"  They made an incredibly poor 11-54 shots!  They got clobbered!  It was so humiliating to watch that it hurt!  But here is where the two teams separated.  The winner (Seaton Academy-Chicago) went on to play in the championship game and the loser (Winnebago) went on to play in the 3rd/4th place game.  Winnebago came back like true sportsman and won their second playoff game.  Two opposing players in the championship game got into a tiff with each other.  The Seaton Acadamy player (who had been fouled) swore and got a technical.  He then put his hand on the ref and got a second technical and was ejected from the game.  Seaton Academy went on to lose the game!

At the trophy presentations, Seaton Academy wouldn't come out of the locker room and take their second place trophey!  They refused to be recognized as the second greatest team in Illinois 2013 basketball!  Their lack of sportsmanship showed that regardless of how good they were, they didn't have the class to be second place, or any place, in my opinion!  They were winners with athletic talent and losers in sportsmanship!  We have to ask ourselves, in training up our children, which is the better characteristic to have in life--excellent raw talent or an excellent attitude toward others in win and lose situations!  Think about it...

The Blame Game

Are you a part of the "blame game?"  Not sure what I am talking about?  Let me explain.  At some point in my life, and I am not sure just where it happened, I became resposibile for my own actions.  Up until that time if I got a ticket for speeding, it was the cops fault.  It I didn't get the hours at work that I wanted, it was because the manager didn't like me.  If something went wrong at home, it was my parents' fault or my wife's fault or my kids' fault.  If I was late getting to work, it was because of the guy who drove so slow in front of me.  It had nothing to do with the fact that I left the house five minutes before I was supposed to be at work, and it was a twenty minute drive!

Some people never reach an age of responibility and go through their whole life blaming everyone, and everything, around them for their circumstances in life.  "Stupid car!  It broke down on me again!"  What we should be saying is "Stupid me!  Why didn't I change the oil in the car instead of spending $100 to go to........?"  They say, "Stupid boss!  He fired me because I was late for work again!"  Insead they should say, "Stupid me!  He warned me three times that if this happened again I would lose my job!"

Part of the process of change for me was the realization that there was only one common denominator between all the things that I was blaming other people for.  That common denominator was me!  At one point in my life I realized that all of those other people couldn't possibly be wrong in what they did to me.  I realized that they were doing what they did to me because of my actions or inaction, my attitudes or my dysfunction!  I realized that if I wanted everyone around me to change, the change needed to start with me first.

What did I do?  I quit praying, "God change them," and started praying, "God change me!"  I adjusted my lifestyle to get places early instead of always being late.  I adjusted my spending to take care of the things I needed to count on in life, like my car, my house, my church, etc, instead of spending to just take care of me!  I actually worked harder at listening to what the people around me said about me, and spent less time telling them how unjust everything is life is!  (Sometimes listening to what they don't say to your face is as telling as what they do say!)

Guesss what happened?  I became more dependable!  I became less irritating to those I had to work with and they actually came to a point that they liked being around me!  I became a better person, a better worker and a better citizen.  Then guess what God did?  He put me around people who were just like I used to be! "Ohhhh!  Poor me!"  Think about it!