CT Scans & Robins

What a crazy time this last few weeks has been!  I was reminded last week of how much the Father truly does love us!  My 2 month old baby has a lump on her head from when she was born (She was trying to come out sideways) so the Dr. wanted us to go to Akron Children’s Hospital for a CT scan.  Even though the Dr. was sure it was nothing I was still pretty nervous about this test!  She was lying there completely helpless, and I was only able to watch as she slid back into this machine scared.  I don’t want to even begin to intimate that only a parent can understand the love of God, but I think that day I understood it a little more clearly!  I understood how great the love the Father has lavished on us is, and I was even more keenly aware of 2 Peter 3:9 – “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

During all of this, I have been trying to figure out a Robin at the church.  We have windows down both sides of our auditorium, and starting last Monday, I heard a knocking on the windows on one side.  I stood to watch for a while, and saw a Robin fly up and hit the window a few times.  This literally went on all week.  You can even walk down the row of windows and see marks from his beak where he has been trying to get in on every window! 

Still today, this Robin is trying to get in!  I have shewed him away many times thinking he is going to hurt himself, but he still comes at the window.  Our church has been growing recently both numerically and spiritually, but I would still love for people to be so anxious to hear the Word of God that they are knocking on our windows.  Unfortunately, I don’t think this is what God intended…I think we are supposed to be out there telling them about Jesus so they will ask us more, not waiting for them to knock on our windows.  I guess I will relegate this bird to knocking on our doors status, and encourage our church to go out and be the church, and start knocking on the hearts of the lost!

Lovin’ God or Lovin’ Others

Why does it seem that too often I hear about people who are either loving God, or they are loving on others?  I had a friend whose ministry was called LOGALOO – Loving On God And Loving On Others.  As I prepare a sermon this weekend on John 21 I realize that it is not an either or thing!  We have got to be doing both!  I have seen churches that are great at loving God through their worship, and through their faithfulness to His Word.  I have seen other churches who have got the loving other part figured out, but it is to the point that it has become simply a social gospel.  Not the gospel that calls men out of their sin!

Church, we have got to be doing both!  We must love God, and that has to be our motivator to love others.  Even our motivation can mess things up.  I asked my 8 year old daughter today why we are supposed to trust Jesus, and her answer was so that we could spend forever with him in heaven.  I said that is true, but I explained to her that our motivation has to come strictly from our love for God.  We cannot be serving the people God loves because it will benefit us, or our church, and we can’t even do it because we think we will be given some extra jewels in our crown!  Our motivation has to be love – love for God!

“Do you love me?  Feed my sheep.” 

Still in Love

Things have begun to quiet down after a crazy week, and I realized something this morning…I am still madly in love with my wife!  It has been almost 10 years, and a wild 10 years it has been!  4 states, 4 ministries, 5 children, going back to school, 6 weeks in a motorhome, ups and downs of ministry, countless episodes of vomitting children, all this and she still loves me too!

God knew exactly what he was doing when he gave me this incredible woman, and there is no doubt that I married up!  She is beautiful, an incredible mother, a loving wife, a great ministry partner, she can cook like there is no tomorrow, she puts up with her in-laws!  Wow!

You know what though, all that could change tomorrow, and I would still love her!  She could have a horrible disfiguring accident that leaves her looking like the Phantom of the Opera!  She could be left like a potato and unable to be the incredible mother or the loving wife!  She could stop loving being a ministry partner because she has seen too many of the bride’s warts!  She could forget how to cook!  I would still love her!

Why?  Because I chose to love her!  That will never change!   I like to tell her that I have to love our children because we conceived them, but I chose to love my wife and I always will!

 Our relationship with God is the same!  God has chosen to love us!  Ephesians 1:5 says, “he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—”  He adopted us as his children!  Adoption is a choice…Jesus Christ is his true son, but we have been brought into that incredible family at God’s will!  Verse 11 goes on to say we were chosen!

God chose you!  You may not be anything to look at, you might not be able to cook, and you certainly aren’t always pleasant to be around, but God chose you!  He chose you because he wants to look good through you!  God chose us, adopted us, and marked us for one reason…for the praise of His glorious grace!

God chose you, and is still in love with you!