Twelve Days of Christmas

As we turn the last page of the 2012 calendar, many of us have long since put away our Christmas decorations. I have noticed many posts on Facebook where people are trying to decide what might be the best or most appropriate time to remove their lights and take down their trees.

In truth, the season of Christmas is still in full swing. It began on Christmas Day and continues until the day of Epiphany, January 6. Epiphany marks the coming of the magi (a.k.a. wise men) to see the Christ child. It also celebrates, quite literally, an epiphany – a striking appearance, an “aha” moment. This was God’s personal, self-revelation to us. “Do you want to know what I look like?” asks God, “look to Emmanuel, for I AM with you.”

Until the day of Epiphany arrives, we find ourselves in the Twelve Days of Christmas. This is a time of rejoicing, and the church is dressed in celebration white. I hope that we will enjoy Christmas as long as it is here, and then join the magi as they worship our Savior.

A Word of Comfort in Tough Times

To honor a request from a few people this Sunday, December 4, here are my sermon notes (yes, they are notes, not a full article) based on the Isaiah 40:1-11 lectionary text:

There is an old Renaissance poem called “Two Pictures.” It goes roughly like this: Two pictures hung on the wall of an old Florentine hall. One of a beautiful child with an angel’s face and golden hair; To look at those eyes made you think of the very best of heaven...The other picture was of a twisted face… filled with lust, greed, and hate.

They sat side by side and told a story.

A youthful painter found one day, In the streets of Rome, a child at play, and, moved by its beauty, “He painted its face with a master hand On a canvas, radiant and grand.” Year after year it hung on his wall; it could always lift his spirits, make him dream of younger days, make him bright and thankful.

Through the years, he looked in many faces to try and find someone whose portrait he could paint to contrast with this beautiful picture. HE went to some of the worst places in the country…looking in houses of ill-repute, in the faces of the homeless, and finally in some of the worst prisons he could find. Finally, he saw the face he had searched for years. “He painted the face with a master hand On a canvas weird and wild but grand.”

The story then takes a disturbing twist…That pitiful wreck of a person…whose life was filled with crime and hate…who was shunned and homeless…Was the child that had played in the streets of Rome.

Have you ever been at a place in your life where you knew that you never should have gone in the first place? Have you ever found yourself filled with guilt and shame over the things that you have done or have failed to do? If so, you are not alone. The people of Israel could easily identify with this young man…They had been called and blessed by God in the best of times, and found themselves suffering the terrible consequences of their sin in the worst of times. They were hurting, they were broken, they longed to come home, but they didn’t know where to begin.

A missionary visited the St. Louis Silver School in the Philippines, where silversmiths are trained. They admired exquisite handiwork in the workshop and gift shop, and took home a souvenir--a pure silver money clip embellished with a distinctive design. He carried that clip for the next 24 years. One day it finally broke as he slipped a few bills into it. He had an opportunity to take the two pieces of the money clip back to the silver school in Baguio. One workman, about his age, asked if he could help me. The missionary showed him the pieces in his outstretched hand.

After examining the pieces for a minute or so, he looked up and said, "I designed this clip. I was the only one to make this design. I made all of these that were ever made."

The missionary asked, "Can you fix it?"

He said, "I designed it. I made it. Of course I can fix it!"

The place the people of Israel could begin was with the One who made them, who called them by name. Isaiah tells us that God sought to comfort the people, to make the way for them to return home straight and flat. All that they had to do was to cry out to God, and they were answered with arms that carried them close and gently led them home.

What about God has changed in the last 3000 years? Nothing…the grace, the love, the forgiveness continue to be extended for all who will come…

Marti McDougal is a pastor in Pomona, Kansas. Her 5-year-old son Riley came running into the kitchen one day all full of excitement and discovery. A puzzle nut, he had just finished another of his puzzles when a "revelation" came to him. "I figured it out, Momma!" he announced.
"What did you figure out?" his mother inquired.
"I figured out that you use your hands to put a puzzle together, and you use Jesus to put your heart together."

God knows the hard places in our lives…God knows about all of the things that weigh us down, that we would be mortified if others knew about us…God extends an open invitation for us to return home…to be comforted…to receive the peace and joy that we celebrate this time of year.

What do we need to do…the answer is quite simple…so simple that even a young child can tell us…What do we do when we have hurt someone playing on the playground and want to make things right? We say that we’re sorry and work to show that we are sorry by the things that we say and do from that point forward.

Where do we begin to come home to God? We begin where we did on the playground…we say that we’re sorry and seek to change, and be changed, from this point forward.

The difference between us and the youngest ones on the playground is age…we know more, have more experience…we also struggle with why we have done things – it’s no longer a simple, oops, I didn’t mean to do that – now we sin intentionally…and the things we have done go far beyond a playground squabble. We have hurt, anger, grief and pain that are deep and that can stay with us for years. It makes it hard for us to come home to God…to return to the one that is calling to us…What will we do when we have to see God face to face? Will we find forgiveness or will God say, “I cannot forgive THAT!”?

Bill Welsh, a pastor in Desert Hot Springs, California, had a child in his congregation who was subject to sudden seizures. These seizures were violent and painful, not only for the child but also for the parents and those who witnessed the child's suffering.
"The father and child would come to church regularly and the father's practice was to hold the child. One Sunday morning in the midst of worship, the child was seized [and] writhed painfully ... The father lifted him compassionately, carried him ... to the back of the sanctuary, where he stood still rocking the child tenderly, speaking to him gently until finally the seizure relented ... There was no sign of embarrassment or frustration on the father's face, only love for the hurting child.

And then Welsh said, 'In that moment, while I was preaching, I was preached to. I heard God speak to my heart and say, "That's the way I love you through your imperfections. I'm not embarrassed to have people know that you are my child."'"

-Bob Olmstead, Reno, Nevada, 30 August 1992.

Our life’s journeys may embarrass us at points, but they do not embarrass God. We may feel like we are unlovable, but we are the ones that God loved enough to send Jesus to die on the cross.

Whatever our hurt,

Whatever our grief,

Whatever our burden,

Whatever our distress and pain.

God cried out to us to bring us comfort and healing.

And that’s the cry we all need to hear…

Christmas is not YOUR birthday

I know, it’s a little bit early to be talking about Christmas: it’s not even Thanksgiving yet…but I have a really good reason for being over a month early … because everyone knows that the Christmas shopping season kicks off this Friday (Black Friday) and continues through the end of the year where we swap around duplicates, unwanteds, and gift cards for the perfect gift.

I remember what this time of year was like growing up: I pulled out the Sears catalogue and began to make a wish list of all the things I wanted. I tried to have a good mix of things from quite a few things $5 under to a few big items that I knew just weren’t going to happen…even now, my kids love to pre-Christmas shop from American Girl dolls Toys-R-Us or LEGO catalogs. Even I have been asked to put a gift list on Amazon so that people can know what I want for Christmas.

Is my family alone? Any of you plan on shopping over the next few weeks for Christmas presents? Many of us do. Did you know that in 2010 adult consumers in the US spent an average of $830 on holiday food, decorations and presents? In a 2 parent household, that means the AVERAGE is about $1600 (many of my statistics and ideas came from Michael Slaughter’s book “Christmas is not Your Birthday.”) Many Americans add much of that $1600 to the average household credit card balance of $15,788 at an APR of roughly 14.67%. Merry Christmas everyone!

Now here’s the problem I have with all of this. Let’s imagine that today, November 20^th is your birthday and that I want to celebrate it. How might I do that? Throw a party? Buy gifts? Send a card? Nope--- this is not what I choose to do. Instead, I am going to have a birthday party for you today, but not send you an invitation. I am going to invite all my friends to give ME presents to celebrate the occasion. AND I am going to expect (and send) Happy Birthday cards from all of the people I know and haven’t written since last year.

Tell me: how might you feel about the way I choose to celebrate your birthday? Wouldn’t care too much for it. Well, I imagine that Jesus doesn’t care too much for the fact that this is EXACTLY the way we behave when we celebrate his birth.

Okay, here’s the truth: December 25^th is highly unlikely to be the day that Jesus was born. From the Gospel account of the story, the shepherds were keeping watch over their flock in the fields…not a winter-time activity. More likely in the spring when it was warmer and when they would have to be concerned about the little ones that had just been born.

December 25^th was just the day that the Catholic church would celebrate the Mass of Jesus Birth – you know the “Christ Mass.” But now we have chosen this day to mark the birth of Jesus, and I doubt that any amount of solid logic will stir people away from it. The problem is that we get so caught up in the “Christmas Spirit” that we lose sight of Jesus. Again, reality check: we really celebrate consumerism more than Christ at Christmas.

What do you imagine Jesus thinks about all of this? I think that we have a pretty good idea. So, before we jump headfirst into another spending season, I thought we might take a few moments to consider: What would Jesus want for his birthday?

How many of us struggle to find the perfect gift for someone else? Looking for that thing that is just the right size that shows that we are not stingy, but also shows that we aren’t foolishly spending money we don’t have? The hardest part is having to give a gift that is almost perfect: we hope it will be, but we just don’t know. Maybe that’s why we wrap our gifts. If the other person doesn’t like it, at least we gave them a sense of anticipation! But if we KNOW what the other person wants, then we can give it to them with confidence; we just know that they will love it!

What if we knew exactly what Jesus wanted for Christmas? Would we get it for him this year?? I believe that we have our answer in the scripture lesson for today (Matthew 25:31-46). In the day of final Jesus’ final return, everyone will be judged. Notice that the picture is clear: everyone will be divided into two groups, either sheep or goats. I want us to notice what the two groups have in common. Both groups were unclear as to when they did (or failed to do) the things that Jesus describes. It is because that they didn’t see a man with pierced feet and hands sitting in need and ignore him…they did not help that person down the street because they saw a crown of thorns on their heads. They didn’t realize that the way that they give to Jesus is by giving to the least of these. That’s it; no other commentary needed. If we want to give to Jesus, we must give to those in need. If we want to celebrate Jesus’ birthday, we have to do it with those who are hurting, lonely, overlooked and ignored.

And this is consistent with other teachings of Jesus. One day Jesus was teaching the people, and a crowd of about 5000 gathered to learn – bigger than any Occupy Wall Street crowd. As evening approached the Disciples said, ”send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and but themselves some food.”

Jesus responds: “They do not need to go away. YOU give them something to eat

Michael Slaughter says,

”The resources of heaven do not fall from the sky; they are released through God’s people! God creates miracles through the resources that you and I hold in our hands. Moses’ staff, David’s five smooth stones, the widow’s oil, six water jars at a wedding reception, another widow’s two small coins, an a boy’s lunch comprising five pieces of bread and two small fish – these are the resources that miracles are made of!

‘But we only have five loaves of bread and two fish’ the disciples answered.

‘But we are living in the greatest recession since the Great Depression,’ we might say today.

‘But you don’t understand Jesuss; we can’t afford to pay both the mortgage and a health care premium in the same month.’

But Jesus, we are just a small struggling church and we don’t have the resources.’”

Again, in the words of Rev. Slaughter, “

But…But…but…It’s time to commit to losing our big buts!”

Jesus asks that we bring what we have, where we are. It may not be much in our eyes, but in the hands of Christ it can be enough to make a difference to thousands.

For this reason, I want to challenge all of us to do something different this Christmas season. Let us plan to give a gift to Jesus – since it is his birthday! On Christmas Eve, as we celebrate our beautiful candlelight communion service, I want us to bring our gifts to the manger – not for our own benefit here at Antioch/ Dacusville church – but for the benefit of the least of these at Epworth Children’s home. The ‘how’ of the gift is much trickier than the ‘where.’ Here’s the challenge:

Pray for/Remember those less fortunate AND (choose one or more below)

1) Give some gift to Epworth by Christmas Eve

2) Reduce Christmas spending by 25% ; give that to Epworth Children’s Home

3) Give the same to Epworth as spent on Christmas gifts (50/50)

4) Ask that people make donations to Epworth in lieu of buying presents

Be creative! Let us celebrate the sacrificial gift of Christ at Christmas with a little sacrifice of our own – in this way we honor the one whose birth we say we celebrate and we remain his faithful disciples as well.

The Secret to Our Weight Loss (which is no big secret)

       Over the past eight months I have been working to reduce my weight to what is generally considered "healthy."  My wife, Ashley, had been working for several years - slowly, but surely, reducing her weight as well.  Since January 2011, we have lost a total of 90 pounds between us and have dramatically changed our lives.  Because of this, many people have asked us "how did you do it?"
       Truthfully, it was one of the most difficult, simple things to do.  I'll break it down into four parts in order of importance to my success and then give you a recap of the results at the end.  Please feel free to send me any specific questions about what we have done. Of course, I'll go ahead and tell you that this or any change in diet and exercise should always be supervised by a qualified physician (and I am not a physician).  So...here goes.

       1. Spiritual Grounding -This is not the first time that I have tried to make a change, but every time I tried to "diet," I failed miserably.  What made this change different is that Ashley and I began our journey very differently.  We made our relationship with God in Jesus Christ as a primary focus of our change.  We took seriously the call for disciples to spend time in prayer, Bible study, and fasting.  This time is different because God through the power of the Holy Spirit has been with us throughout.

       Twelve step programs are definitely onto something: you have to admit that you are powerless over your addiction before you can begin the process of healing.  Many of the eating patterns that are encouraged by modern food processors are inherently (and I believe intentionally) addictive.  Without God's help, it was impossible for me to break the cycle of addiction to certain foods.  Even now, I sometimes have to take time to refocus my efforts on what I want my spiritual and physical health to be.

       2. Combined Effort -The second critical element is that my wife and I are in this venture together.  I think that you may have noticed that there were lots of "we" mentioned in the previous area.  That is because Ashley and I committed to this journey together.  We talked, prayed and planned together.  We made a commitment to change the way that we would eat -- together.  We hold each other accountable for our journey toward better health; we each have a stake in the other one being around (and in good health) as long as possible.
       We had tried for years to change things separately.  The problem is that when one person is trying to eat healthy foods and the other one continues to bring things into the house that aren't, the healthy eater gives in more often than not.  When we were not working together, we would undermine each other by the choices we would make.  Once we made the decision to work together, things began to fall into place. 

       3. Changed Diet - Again, I will state that you should always discuss changing the way that you eat with your physician. We knew that we had to come up with a plan that was doable for the long term.  One of the main books that we used as a resource was Dr. Dan Colbert's book Toxic Relief.  Bottom line is that we began to examine what we ate and now try to live by the basic idea "if God didn't make it, we should probably not eat it." For example, God made sugar cane, but we make refined sugar; therefore, we avoid refined sugar in all of its many forms.


       Processed foods are all suspect, as are additives, preservatives, and fried foods. You're beginning to get the picture.  Eating big snacks after 8:00pm is out; we just cannot eat that late and maintain a healthy weight.  Our meals and snacks consist of lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean meats (Well, my wife is a pescitarian so she only eats fish, eggs, and dairy)
       We continue to support one another in learning about healthy eating choices through ongoing reading and education.  It also helps to talk with others about what we're doing.  I have discovered that most people are supportive even if they do not want to eat the way that we do.

        4. Moving your Body - One more reminder about your physician -- before you begin any exercise, the two of you should have a conversation.  Yep, no surprise here. Parts 1 and 2 work to get the heart and mind working together toward success.  Changing the diet and exercise work to remove the excess weight and build up a new, healthier body. Honestly, I could have lost much of the weight that I have without a lot of exercise, but working out has strengthened my muscles and accelerated the process.  For my part, I try to exercise 4-5 times a week with a minimum of 30-45 minutes.  We try to make our family times active as well so that we can all work together to be healthier as a family.

       That's it...four parts including Spiritual Grounding, Combined Effort, Changed Diet, and Moving your Body. What were the end results? For me, I have transformed from

         With the exception of my socks and shoes, I have had to almost totally replace my wardrobe - a wonderful problem to have.  Not only have I replaced my XL sizes with Medium, I have weaned myself from ALL of my prescription hypertension medication.  I now take supplements (garlic, red yeast rice, cayenne pepper, etc) that naturally keep my blood pressure in the normal range.  Another benefit has been the lessening of my springtime allergies with the total elimination of any hint of allergy induced asthma I had experienced every year since 1994.  Also, Ashley says that my terrible snoring has all but disappeared.


       This has been an incredible journey that I am excited to see where it goes.  Fortunately, I know that God goes with me to give my family the grace and strength to continue to make the best choices for our family.

       Thank you to all those who have cheered for us on the way.  I hope this helps those who face the same struggle that I do.

Grace and Peace,

James










    Sept. 2010


 




 



    
                            
May 2011
 

Preview for May 13, 2011 sermon

Here is an excerpt from Phillip Yancey's book  What's So Amazing About Grace?

During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods' appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time until C.S. Lewis wandered into the room. "What's the rumpus about?" he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity's unique contribution among world religions. Lewis responded, "Oh, that's easy. It's grace."

          After some discussion, the conferees had to agree. The notion of God's love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of karma, the Jewish covenant, and the Muslim code of law -- each of these offers a way to earn approval. Only Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional.

          Aware of our inbuilt resistance to grace, Jesus talked about it often. He described a world suffused with God's grace: where the sun shines on people good and bad; where birds gather seeds gratis, neither plowing nor harvesting to earn them; where untended wildflowers burst into bloom on the rocky hillsides. Like a visitor from a foreign country who notices what the natives overlook, Jesus saw grace everywhere. Yet he never analyzed or defined grace, and almost never used the word. Instead, he communicated grace through stories we know as parables.

          -Philip Yancey, What's So Amazing About Grace? (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), 45.

Enjoy God's beautiful gift of grace in Jesus Christ!

In Honor of Holy Humor Sunday

A preacher's little boy inquired, "Daddy, I notice every Sunday morning when you first come out to preach, you sit up on the platform and bow your head. What are you doing?"

The father explained, "I'm asking the Lord to give me a good sermon."

The little boy said, "Why don't he?"

Edited from H.A. Williams' book Tensions:

            No wonder the Pharisees, who seem to have been always wholly serious, had to have Jesus put down. He made their piety look ridiculous.

            Who in reality had ever witnessed a pious man blowing a trumpet before he put a dollar in the offering plate? And then there were camels going through the eyes of needles, not to mention camels being swallowed easily by those who choked when they swallowed a gnat.

            And worse: idlers who were given full pay, stewards who were successful cheats, wicked sons being distinguished on their return home - what had all this nonsense have to do with religion?

            …but Eternity had the last laugh after all. Here are Caiaphas, Pilate, Herod and all theirs, have done their duty getting rid of a dangerous fool. He is safely dead. Now they can concentrate on the serious matters to which their lives are dedicated.

            But behind their backs,  the fool has popped up again like a Jack-in-the-box and is dancing about even more vigorously than before. People here, there and everywhere are falling under his spell…

            If that isn't funny, nothing is. The resurrection is the supreme, the final, the ultimate joke. And since laughter is highly contagious, perhaps even the hardest heart will in time catch the disease, turn around, see the joke, and then laugh with the rest of creation because the kingdom of God has drawn near."

---

---

An elderly pastor was searching his closet for his collar before church one Sunday morning. In the back of the closet, he found a small box containing 3 eggs and 200 $1 bills.

He called his wife into the closet to ask her about the box and its contents. Embarrassed, she admitted having hidden the box there for their entire 30 years of marriage. Disappointed and hurt, the pastor asked her, "WHY?"

The wife replied that she hadn't wanted to hurt his feelings. He asked her how the box could have hurt his feelings. She said that every time during their marriage that he had delivered a poor sermon, she had placed an egg in the box.

The pastor felt that 3 poor sermons in 30 years was certainly nothing to feel bad about, so he asked her what the $200 was for.

She replied, "Each time I got a dozen eggs, I sold them to the neighbors for $1."

At the conclusion of the sermon, the worshipers filed out of the sanctuary to greet the minister. As one of them left, he shook the minister's hand, thanked him for the sermon and said, "Thanks for the message, Reverend. You know, you must be smarter than Einstein."

Beaming with pride, the minister said, "Why, thank you, brother!"

As the week went by, the minister began to think about the man's compliment. The more he thought, the more he became baffled as to why anyone would deem him smarter than Einstein. So he decided to ask the man the following Sunday.

The next Sunday he asked the parishioner if he remembered the previous Sunday's comment about the sermon. The parishioner replied that he did. The minister asked: "Exactly what did you mean that I must be smarter than Einstein?"

The man replied, "Well, Reverend, they say that Einstein was so smart that only ten people in the entire world could understand him. But Reverend, no one can understand you."

---

A farmer named Muldoon lived alone in the Irish countryside except for a pet dog he for a long time.

The dog finally died and Muldoon went to the parish priest, saying
"Father, the dog is dead. Could you possibly be saying a Mass for the poor creature?"

Father Patrick told the farmer "No, we can't have services for an
animal in the church, but I'll tell you what, there's a new denomination down the road apiece, and no telling what they believe in, but maybe they'll do something for the animal."


Muldoon said "I'll go right now. By the way, do you think $50,000 is enough to donate for the service?"

Father Patrick replied "Why didn't you tell me the dog was Catholic."

A slightly "humor impaired" preacher attended a conference to help encourage and better equip pastors for their ministry. There were many well known and dynamic speakers present to provide the guidance necessary.

One speaker boldly approached the pulpit and, gathering the entire crowd's attention, said, "The best years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman that wasn't my wife!" The crowd was shocked! He followed up by saying, "And that woman was my mother!" - The crowd burst into laughter and he delivered the rest of his talk, which went over quite well.

The next week, the pastor decided he'd give this humor thing a try, and use that joke in his sermon. As he surely approached the pulpit that sunny Sunday, he tried to rehearse the joke in his head but it suddenly seemed a bit foggy.

Getting to the microphone he said loudly, "The greatest years of my life were spent in the arms of another woman that was not my wife!" The congregation inhaled half the air in the room. After standing there for almost 10 seconds in the stunned silence, trying to recall the second half of the joke, the pastor finally blurted out, "...and I can't remember who she was!"

---

The teacher who was helping one of her kindergarten students put on his boots.

He asked for help and she could see why. With her pulling and him pushing, the boots still didn't want to go on. When the second boot was on, she had worked up a sweat. She almost whimpered when the little boy said, "Teacher, they're on the wrong feet." She looked and sure enough, they were.

It wasn't any easier pulling the boots off than it was putting them on. She managed to keep her cool as together they worked to get the boots back on, this time on the right feet. He then announced, "These aren't my boots."

She bit her tongue rather than get right in his face and scream, "Why didn't you say so?" like she wanted to.

Once again she struggled to help him pull the ill-fitting boots off. He then said, "They're my brother's boots. My Mom made me wear them."

She didn't know if she should laugh or cry. She mustered up the grace and courage she had left to wrestle the boots on his feet again. She said, "Now, where are your mittens?"

He said, "I stuffed them in the toes of my boots..."

Her trial starts next month.

---

  

          A woman left work right away after receiving a call that her daughter was at home sick with a fever. She stopped by the pharmacy to get some medication but discovered when she got back to her car that she had locked her keys inside.

She didn't know what to do, so she called home and told the baby sitter what had happened. The baby sitter told her that her the fever was getting worse and suggested, "You might find a coat hanger and use that to open the door."

The woman looked around and found an old rusty coat hanger that had been left on the ground, possibly by someone else who had locked their keys in their car. Once back at her car, she had no idea what to actually do with the coat hanger.

So she bowed her head and asked God to send her some help. Within five minutes an old rusty car pulled up, with a dirty, greasy, bearded man who was wearing an old biker skull rag on his head. The woman thought, "This is what you sent to help me?" But, she was desperate and also very thankful for the assistance.

The man got out of his car and asked her if he could help. She said, "Yes, my daughter is very sick. I stopped to get her some medication and I locked my keys in my car. I must get home to her. Please, can you use this hanger to unlock my car?"

He said, "Sure". He walked over to the car, and in less than a minute the car was opened. She hugged the man and through her tears she said, "Thank You So Much! You are a very nice man."

The man replied, "Lady, I am not a nice man. I just got out of prison today. I was in prison for car theft."

The woman hugged the man again and with sobbing tears cried out loud, "Oh, Thank you God! You even sent me a Professional!"

         One day God was looking down to earth and saw all of the evil that was going on and decided to send an angel down to earth to check it out.  so God called on a female angel and sent her to earth for a time. When she returned she told God, "yes it is bad on earth, 95% is bad and 5% is good."

          Well, God thought for a moment and said maybe I had better send down a male angel to get both points of view. So God called a male angel and sent him to earth for a time. When the male angel returned he went to God and told him yes the earth was in decline, 95% was bad and 5% was good.

          God said this was not good and decided to send a letter to the 5% that were good and encourage them, something to help them keep going. Do you know what that letter said?.........................................

          Oh, you didn't get one either?!

Careful of Our Compasses

I found this great story on a website while doing some research for sermons.

It was April and the Aboriginals in a remote part of Northern Australia asked their new Elder if the coming winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was an Elder in a modern community he had never been taught the old secrets. When he looked at the sky he couldn’t tell what the winter was going to be like.

Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he told his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the tribe should collect firewood to be prepared. But being a practical leader, after several days he had an idea. He walked out to the telephone booth on the highway, called the Bureau of Meteorology and asked, ‘Is the coming winter in this area going to be cold?’

The meteorologist responded, ‘It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold.’

So the Elder went back to his people and told them to collect even more wood in order to be prepared.

Conscientiously, a week later the Elder called the Bureau of Meteorology again. ‘Does it still look like it is going to be a very cold winter?’

The meteorologist again replied, ‘Yes, it’s going to be a very cold winter.’

The Elder again went back to his community and advised them to collect every scrap of firewood they could find.

Two weeks later the Elder called the Bureau again. ‘Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?’ he asked.

‘Absolutely,’ the man replied. ‘It’s looking more and more like it is going to be one of the coldest winters ever.’

‘How can you be so sure?’ the Elder asked.

The weatherman replied, ‘Our satellites have reported that the Aboriginals in the north are collecting firewood like crazy, and that’s always a sure sign.’

--http://sustainablelivingwise.com/forecasting-weather-patterns/

Even though the point seems rather obvious, I have been thinking about the implications of this story. In life, we sometimes are unsure about our way. We don't know where we want to be long term. We are not clear about what we might want the future to bring; so, we look for signs all around us that would indicate where we might go from here.

Some signs point us toward more prestigious jobs, fancier cars, a new group of friends, a particular brand of clothes, the list goes on and on...We judge the success of others by their appearances, and expect that others will do the same for us.

One day near the end of last year, I was playing with a compass in my office. As I held it on a flat surface I had nearby, I noticed that it was pointing the wrong way for "north." Then it dawned on me. In my "infinite wisdom," I was using one of those note pads that attach to the refridgerator -- by a magnet. Of course, the pull from the magnet was causing the compass to be unable to see true north. Instead it simply pointed to the closest thing that attracted it.

During the season of Lent, we take time to be careful of our compasses. We check to make sure that our lives are pointing -- not to the nearest fad or fancy -- but to our "True North" in Jesus Christ. He alone can guide us. He alone can steer us through the obstacles of life. He alone is worthy of having everything directed by and toward Him.

May we lay aside every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles us and run with endurance the race that is set before us. [Hebrews 12:2]