A Pastor's Thoughts

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything but it’s not as long as I had originally thought.

Last night I encountered one of my least favorite things in ministry – someone asking for money.  The story I was told was vague and had to do with a pregnant wife and the hospital and no money for gas.  I really wasn’t sure if they were on their way to the hospital or coming home or what.  I never have any cash on me and gave the guy the only dollar I had.  My guess is that he left cursing me because my dogs had probably made him soil himself and it wasn’t worth the effort.

Whenever I am asked for money, the story is almost always the same.  It’s vague and usually it is money for gas.  There’s usually some kind of urgent emergency tied with it, the hospital in most cases.  Have I believed any story that I’ve been told?  No.  And that’s the first problem.  I have to believe that any person who would have approached Jesus with a lie would have left empty handed.  They might have received a valuable lesson from Jesus, but not what they wanted.  I do not have the benefit on knowing with 100% accuracy that a person is lying nor am I bold enough to flat out tell the person that I don’t believe their story.  I once had the opportunity to try to verify a person’s story by asking for more details and wasn’t surprised to not get a return call.  If your wife’s uncle is really in the hospital in NC, I don’t think it’s too much to ask for his name and the name of the hospital so I can call and verify that he’s really there.

This brings me to problem number 2.  If the people are lying, what are they using the money on?  I’m not going to assume that everyone who asks for money is going to use it on drugs, but let’s say that they need money simply because they were careless with it.  On one hand, I’m not responsible for what a person does with the money.  If they use it wrongly that’s not my decision.  On the other hand, if I give money when I have a strong feeling that it will be misused, this could be wrong on my part because I am enabling a lifestyle where that money will be poorly spent.  Even if it’s not on drugs or alcohol, by bailing out someone who has mismanaged their money I allow them and even encourage to misbehave again.  I’ve proven that someone will always bail them out from their poor decisions rather than help teach that all decisions have consequences.

And of course there is a matter of finances.  Like last night, I have limited finances and the church has limited finances.  I strongly believe that it is part of my duty to wisely use what God has blessed me with.  Enabling someone to continue to make poor life choices doesn’t seem like a good use of my finite resources.

I know that more compassionate people will counter that there are legitimate problems in the world and I understand that and believe it.  It’s a thousand times worse when children are involved and live in poverty because of the poor decisions of a parent.  It would be an easy decision to make if I knew that the problem was legitimate and that it would go to directly help the one in need but I have to believe this is rarely the case.

I will bend over backwards to help someone with a legitimate need.  Particularly if there is someone connected with the church, I will do everything within my power to help a person.  I am not compassionless or enjoy seeing people suffer for poor decisions.  But I want to know that my money is actually going toward a need.

If Jesus were in my shoes and had limited knowledge and finances to help, I don’t know what He would do.  I’d like to believe that He could handle these issues better than I but I don’t really know how to handle them any better than I already am.  And I hope that’s good enough.

I’m pretty much posting this everywhere that people might read it and pray for it.  I’ll try to remember to post an update next week.

I have an awesome prayer request that I’d appreciate if you’d pass along for anyone who is so inclined to pray about such things.  We’re planning on launching a youth group.  We just happened to be blessed with a Newsboys concert in our town this weekened so we decided to use that as the time to launch.  Since we only have about 2 youth aged teens that regular attend our church I had no idea what to expect.  But we have 15 coming to the concert and most have expressed an interest in youth group!  Even more, a couple of the parents that we’ve connected with who also feel the need to attend/come back to church and are interested in coming to our church.
 
So, my prayer is first of all a huge praise for making this happen.  But I’m just asking that we would have an effective launch of our youth group and that we’d make good connections with not only the teens but their parents as well.  God has already blown me away by this and I’m asking that He would just totally floor me when the dust settles and we really see what He has done.

I’ve been working a lot on the book of Daniel lately.  It began by compiling an extensive Bible study that my good friend and mentor had done and putting it online.  While I was doing this I began to think about what my next sermon series should be about and I came to the conclusion that Daniel would be a good book to study. 

So after compiling the entire Bible study for the website I decided to turn around and study the book again to preach from it.  And then to promote the website I’ve been writing a series of short articles about each chapter on another blog.  If you’re interested you can follow the blog at http://hubpages.com/hub/Studying-the-book-of-Daniel. 

So I have Daniel on the mind a lot right now.  The Bible study site has an in depth commentary on the book with each chapter being discussed for about ten pages.  My sermons are about half of that length or less.  And my blog posts are around 500 words each.  I’ve really run the gamut on the topic.

No matter how many words that I’ve used to speak on the book of Daniel, I still come to the conclusion that it is an amazing book.  There is perhaps no greater book in all of the Bible in terms of the range of subjects.  There are children’s stories such as Daniel and the lion’s den and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the fiery furnace.  And on the other end of the spectrum are incredible prophecies such as Daniel’s seventy sevens.  Throw in some miracles and the amazing conversion of Nebuchadnezzar and the book has it all in just 12 chapters.

Every chapter displays the power of God in a new and magnificient way.  This is something that has really come out in my sermons.  This makes Daniel an important book to study because the church needs a reminder of God’s power. 

All in all I just can’t get enough of the the book of Daniel right now and I’d highly recommend the study of it to anyone who was looking for a book or series to study.

I posted an article at http://hubpages.com/hub/Its-not-the-end-of-the-world so I won’t repost the whole thing here.  However I’m still bothered by Christian perspectives on disasters and other bad things.  Within five minutes of posting the article I got a response on facebook that basically said that the truth is the truth whether I wanted to accept it or not, the signs prove that Jesus is returning soon. 

Of course the entire point of the article is that we simply don’t know because all of the things that are being pointed to as signs have been around since Jesus left us.  Things might be worse now or they might just get more television coverage.  There is no way that we can know for certain.  Every generation has seen disasters in their lifetime and has had reason to believe that they were signs of Jesus’ return.

Of course I reread Matthew 24 over the weekend.  There are a few things that are absolutely clear.  One part has been fulfilled – the destruction of the temple in AD 70.  Another part is still definitely future – the abomination that causes desolation.  This leaves us looking for signs to mark the time of Jesus’ return.  The more I read, the more I believed that Jesus was purposely vague.  This wasn’t vague like Nostradamus or other so called prophets that can be twisted in a number of ways until they are proven right.  Instead it is vague as a warning.

Matthew 24 closes with Jesus saying that no one knows the time of His return, not even He.  This means that anyone who claims to have figured out the date is a liar because they claim to know more than Jesus.  The chapter closes with a warning to be watching for His return.  I believe that is the point. 

Every generation has seen signs of Jesus’ return because God wants us to be watching and waiting.  We should live our lives as though Jesus could return at any moment, because He can.  The things that are going on in the world today could be signs of Jesus’ imminent return, or they could be more of what we’ve always had.  We simply don’t know for certain.  Things could get much, much worse.

I have always believed that Jesus could return at any moment and have tried to live my life in light of this fact.  He could return today.  Or He could be another thousand years off.  We simply don’t know.  What some Christians are offering as proof is not a guarantee if for no other reason than God’s measure of time is not the same as ours.  The birth pains that act as a sign could be a hundred years long.  It is not our job to interpret the signs.  Instead, we need to live our life like He could return at any moment.

I rarely post on political issues because frankly I don’t like religion and politics to mix.  They intersect in a number of ways but often people are just as if not more dogmatic about their politics as their religion.  That being said, I’m rather bothered by what is going on in the Middle East.  Obviously I’m disturbed by people being jailed, beaten, and even killed for peacefully protesting the government.  But I’m equally disturbed by the American and internation response to all that is going on.

Middle Eastern politics are very dangerous waters to wade into, I understand that.  It would be bad to bet on the wrong horse so to speak only to have the wrong party end up or stay in power.  It’s certainly not a stretch to imagine a vindictive leader saying that they will no longer supply oil to the US.  With all of that in mind, it should still be a no brainer that killing one’s own people in order to stay in power is wrong.  Why hasn’t these actions been forcefully decried?  It took about a week from the start of unrest in Libya for the president to even issue much of a statement condemning it. 

We aren’t dealing with a leader who is new and unknown.  This is the same headcase that has been in power since 1969.  His response shouldn’t be a surprise.  At the moment of unrest a travel alert should have been issued and all non essential US personnel should have been removed from Libya because we know what this man is capable of.

Shortly after entering office President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize.  This was obviously given on the basis of the hope that he brought rather than anything that he had actually achieved.  He marked a clear change from the Bush administration and the international community was greatly in favor of this.  But now it’s time to earn that prize.  So far the response has been peace at all costs.  And by peace, I mean that the US won’t get its hands dirty.  Let’s do nothing while Libya’s cities are bombed from the air by its own leader. 

I’m not suggesting that the US invade Libya or any other Middle Eastern countries.  We can’t afford another war financially or with the price of lives.  But right now peace only means that the US isn’t fighting.  The leaders of our country and the world should condemn what is going on in the strongest way possible and make it abundantly clear that any leader who attacks his own people must go.  Sometimes peace has to be fought for as thousands of demonstators are doing in several countries.  Unfortunately the US response appears to be that peace means not causing a stir.  There is a difference, just ask those who are dying.

I was at the gas station the other day when I saw a sign that said “Looking for love?”  I couldn’t see the bottom half of the sign so I don’t know what they were advertising.  I assume that it was something related to Valentine’s Day but for all I know it could have been cupcakes.

Of course this got me to thinking about how often we look for love in all of the wrong places.  At worst we replace love with lust.  We also fill the God shaped hole in each of us with all kinds of meaningless things such as television, camping, romance novels, etc.  We were created to love God but so often we get caught up in loving the created rather than the Creator.

God wants us to enjoy life and we should enjoy the many things that God gives us.  (Obviously this does not include the things that are forbidden as sinful.)  But we need to remember that God gave them to us and they should never take the place of God.

One of the most frustrating things as a pastor is looking out over the congregation each Sunday and noticing who isn’t there.  Obviously there are sicknesses to deal with and then there are vacations and other reasons for traveling.  But pretty much every week I notice that someone isn’t at church and I can’t help but think “What better thing did they have to do on Sunday than worship God?”  Rarely do I hear an explanation and when I do it’s even more frustrating.  For instance, if your life is so busy that Sunday morning is the only time you have to go grocery shopping, you need to cut something out of your life and whatever that thing is, it shouldn’t be God.

As our thoughts turn to love around this time of year, thank God for those that He gave you to love.  But also take time to remember your love for God as well and be sure to express it.

Needless to say I’ve been working recently, just not my normal work.  My wife and I had the fun and excitement of packing the entire house.  After Christmas we had three weeks to get our new house ready to move into.  This meant commuting 35 miles from my mother-in-law’s house each day so I could paint, and tear up carpet, and clean.  Ok, my wife and other ladies did most of the cleaning.  But still everything was exhausting work, especially when you go home and you’re not sleeping in your own bed and you know that you get to get up and do the same thing over again the next day.

I started preaching at my new church on the first Sunday of January but it really didn’t feel the same since we weren’t moved in.  Last week was dedicated to unpacking which makes this the first week that I feel like I’m really “working.”  What I’ve discovered is that I actually kind of miss working.  I love preaching and in many ways it doesn’t even feel like work (except when I’m working hard to finish a sermon at the last minute.)  But this is my first week that I’ve had hospital visits and reports and other administrative stuff to do.  And strangely it feels pretty good.  Two weeks from now I might be ready to tear my hair out but for the moment this is alright.

When I interviewed for this position I was asked the question whether I felt that being a pastor was a job or a calling.  My response was one that I’ve heard from others but is true for me as well.  You should only be a pastor if you can’t find fulfillment doing anything else.  If you can be happy working in an office or on a construction site or elsewhere, that’s great.  Do that.  But if nothing else will bring you fulfillment like working in the ministry then that is a clear sign that God has called you to it. 

This week I feel as if God has reaffirmed my calling.  Even the parts of ministry that I don’t particularly enjoy, I have missed because it is a part of what God has called me to do.  I’m thankful that God has me where He wants me and that I’m doing what He wants me to do.  I pray that He will continue to guide and direct me in the next step.

This week my wife and I are heading home for Christmas and then we’ll spend the next two weeks getting our new house ready to move into.  The last few weeks, really I suppose the last six or seven months, have been chaotic and I hope that things will really start to calm down in January once we get unpacked.  So there’s a very good chance that I won’t be posting anything for a few weeks.  Once things get settled down I hope to be back to work creating websites full force. 

In the midst of all of the chaos I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and remind all of you the real reason for this season.  Getting together with friends and family is important this time of year as is a sense of generosity and giving.  But it all comes down to celebrating the birth of our Savior.  No matter what else you do in the midst of your celebrating remember to celebrate the wonderful gift that God gave all of us.

It’s been a while since I posted and for fairly good reason.  November and December are always crazy, especially in the church.  But this year has been particularly hectic with packing to move and not knowing where I’m going. 

Pastors talk about walking by faith a lot.  As Christians we are called to live by faith.  But mainly we treat this as some sort of abstract concept.  God is a safety net when all else fails.  Very rarely are we required to really depend on God for our daily needs.

When I resigned my position in October I did not have a job lined up.  I didn’t even have an interview set – I had just been in talks with a church about their position.  Nevertheless I believed that this was what God was asking me to do as it was what was best for the church and for myself as well.  This didn’t mean that it was easy or stress free.  For the next 3 1/2 weeks I tried to patiently wait as I anxiously checked my email for word about an interview.

After I finally had an interview set, I got an unexpected blessing a week before my interview.  I have been approved to teach university courses online.  This is something that I had applied for over four months ago and will go well along with pastoring a smaller church.

Finally after about seven weeks in limbo I have a new job to start in just a few weeks.  I thank God that my step out in faith has been rewarded and that He hasn’t let me down.  What I have learned through this experience is how difficult it is to truly live by faith.  I consider myself to have a strong faith and while I trusted God there were times when I had to wonder if I interpreted His instructions correctly.  After all, God is good but what if I acted foolishly and impulsively?

I would never advise someone to quit their job or make any other major decision without first considering the costs.  Jesus instructed us that we must consider the cost of being a disciple and this applies to our walk of faith as well.  One should also pray for wisdom and discernment and ask if this is something God is truly calling them to do. 

If God is calling you to do something and you understand the cost of doing so, do so with boldness.  Taking a huge leap of faith is difficult but I truly believe that God will reward those who listen to His calling to do so.

I’ve had a good but very busy week this week.  I had meetings at the beginning and end of the week and decided to stay in PA in between rather than come back home.  So I thought I’d have a nice and relaxing couple of days off.  Nice, yes: relaxing, no.  I ran around all week and caught up with a few people I haven’t seen in a while.

Among my triumphs of the week was reconnecting with my former pastor and mentor.  On top of me being away he now spend 4 1/2 months of the year in Jamaica teaching at Jamaica Bible College.  Aside from catching up, he gave me a copy of his collection of Bible studies – very in depth studies that he’s written over the last 25 years or so.  He had them all formatted and together on one cd and was distributing them to pastors at our meeting.  And he gave me permission to reprint them online which is great for everyone.

Over the next several months I’ll be posting these Bible studies as I have the time.  There are 24 of them and they are 60 pages minumum with most being over 100 pages.  I’ll be setting up new websites and formatting them to work well with an online format.  I don’t know how long this will take but if my early estimate is correct I may need to create 2500 or more web pages.  Needless to say, this won’t be quick and easy but I think it is a very worthwhile addition and I believe that it will also be of interest to a number of people on the internet.  As always, I’ll include updates when I get the studies posted.