July 31sr The Unoffical Last Day of Summer

As I write this, it is the evening of July 31^st, the year does not matter for come this date every year there is sadness. The sadness is caused by the day slipping into night. It is as if a curtain is coming down on the play that we call summer. For you see today is the unofficial end to the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer. Days that are filled with nothingness, nothingness that crates a joy that comes from just enjoying the season. This joy comes from getting up and deciding just what you want to for this day and this day only. There is no future, there is no past, there is just this day that stretches out before you. If you are a kid, you think of kid stuff, playing, swimming, shooting hoops. If you are a stay at home parent, your only concern is getting through the day without going crazy. You are not worried about tomorrow; all you want is just to get through this day. If you are a working parent, all you desire is getting your kid through the day. So you fill it up with day care, or camp or Vacation Bible School. Remember the old adage that there are no atheists in fox holes. Well during the summer there are not atheists in neighborhoods. Keeping your child busy is all that matters, he or she may be a Baptist this week and a Methodist next week.

But alas, all that ends when daylight returns to the earth on the first of August. For it is on this day when you awake, no matter what your age and realize that you have survived another summer for school will be starting soon. Now more than a time or two in your day, you will think of school. For the child, his or her mind begins to wonder who they will have in class. Will they like their teacher? If they are older, in the next couple of days they will receive a letter telling them how best they can prepare for whatever fall sport they are in. So a part of their day will be filled with getting in shape for the August practices. Parents start looking at back to school ads in newspapers. They wonder about what they should budget for clothes. They begin to inquire of their children if they remember what they did with the class supplies list for the coming year. For the rest of August all that will be done or thought of. will point in some way to the start of school. For the Church what that means all those kids who came to Vacation Bible School are nothing more than a memory. "You say you want me to have my child there at what time?" That same Church that helped that parent get through the long summer day is now regulated to a memory, kind of like the hot weather we never had, or the Mariners being only a game and a half out of first place in early July. After all, my child has soccer on Sunday morning, or that is our family time when we all sit down to a big breakfast and watch Football.

Yes the lazy, hazy, crazy, nothing days of summer are gone for another year. May they rest in peace.

Charlie, Two And A Half Men and Moral Turpitude

For the last week, I have been caught up in watching and listening to CSI, including its various spin offs. You know CSI-Charlie Sheen Insanity! I have read, listened and learned all about Goddesses and Tiger Blood. But yesterday was the breaking point for me in all this mess. What is amazing is that it did not come from Mr. Sheen, but from the studio that produces his show Two And A Half Men, Warner Brothers. The studio fired him from the show in part for violating the “moral turpitude” clause in his contract. Moral Turpitude, are you kidding me. This Warner’s produced show has been nothing but moral turpitude since it premiered back in 2003. But I guess if you are the one doing the moral turpitude it’s okay, especially when your company can make millions of dollars doing so. I remember when CBS was trying to get this show off the ground; they showed clips of William Demarest’s “Uncle Charley” from My Three Sons interspersed with clips of Sheen’s “Uncle Charlie” as the announcer encouraged us to watch “an Uncle Charlie for the 21^st century.” I admit I watched a few episodes and the plots boiled down to wanting to have sex, having sex or having had sex. What is amazing to me is not one of the characters have had to go to the doctor to be checked out for an STD or AIDS, nor have they ever had to take penicillin for their sexapades. I remember a few years ago, I was on a plane sitting next to a missionary who was retiring back to the US and an episode of Two And A Half Men was playing in the cabin. The missionary looked at me and asked, “Is this a popular program here in the states?” I replied in the affirmative, pointing out that it was one of the most popular and watched shows in the country and it had been renewed for another two years. He looked at me saying “Oh dear, the country is in trouble.” Warner Brothers is making so much money on the moral turpitude of Two And A Half Men, that they were paying Mr. Sheen two million dollars and episode. So as the studio rushes to try to save their cash cow, they no doubt will try to sex up the yucks even more with Mr. Sheen’s replacement. And don’t get me started on the amount of profanity included in the lines. I have never seen such laughs gotten as one character refers to someone as a s—of a b-----. What is even more disconcerting is that with “men” now syndicated, it literally plays from morning until night. Teaching a whole new group of viewers, how you can have sex with out consequences, while swearing all the while. That my friend’s is true “moral turpitude”.

Waiting For Manna

Besides pastoring Lost and Found, I am also a substitute teacher. What that means when the regular classroom teacher is gone, I step in teach or babysit, depending on the lesson plan. But what I want to share with you is how I find my job for the day. I log on to a computer web site around 5 am and wait for a job to come up that I might be qualified for. But it is not just me, hundreds of people are on the same web site hoping to find work as well. So when a job comes up, if you want it, you press the accept button. Problem is, others may also be pressing that button. If you make it through round one, you get to press it again to confirm that you want the job. if you are too late, the computer tells you that this job is being held for another sub and you go back to square one and wait. This little game show could be over in ten miniutes or take as long as 2 plus hours. If you do not have a job by 7 am, chances are that you are not going to get work that day.
In reding this, you no doubt have figured out that I did not get work today. So why do I do this little ritchual day after day. Becuse I know that eventully i will get a job. If I quit looking, I will end up with nothing. Faith is alot like that. Sometimes we have to wait upon the Lord for His answer to our need. So I keep praying and believing, for I know when He does it will be what is best for me. If I get frustrated and quit, then I know i will end up with nothing but my continued frustration. So I continue on.
If you are in the midst of frustration, I would invite you to go to the Lord and share with Him your needs. Believe that He will answer you and look forward to it. Give it a try, to do nothing, leaves you with nothing.

The "Power of One"

At our Church's General Convention in Orlando this summer I had the privilege of attending a workshop led by Stan Tolar and Louis Bussel. The workshop was entitled the power of one, the subject personal evangelism. In the midst of the presentation Dr. Tolar spoke of a new personal evangelism program he and Dr. Bussel had developed that was being tested in four Churches in Oklahoma. He mentioned as an aside that he could use a few more Churches. After the meeting I went up to Dr. Tolar and chatted with him about Lost and Found. To make a long story short, Dr. Tolar selected Lost and Found to be a test Church for this exciting evangelism program. In fact just a few days after Dr. Tolar was selected a General Superintendent, he took the time to send me the material. The course is called "the power of one. "
For the past month we have been talking about selecting and then praying for five people that you would like to invite to Church. Are you one of those people? I hope so because if you have been hurt by the Church or just looking for a new Church. I would love to have you come and check out what we call the Lost and Found difference. What is that? It is a place to laugh, discuss, pray and most importantly heal. Not mention eat and drink coffee. We start every Sunday with the entire family worshiping our Lord Jesus that inculdes a children's moment before they go off to have their own lesson time.
The power of one means many things. Jesus has the power of one. You as His witness have the power of one. The world has been changed starting with one person having a dream, vision or goal. We as a body of believers have already changed the culture of Cedar Springs Camp where we worship by our bringing in golf clubs, one club at a time until they had enough putters to run a successful program. The Lord upon His return to the Father left us the greatest power of one, The Holy Spirit!
So we will see you this Sunday morning at 9:30 at Cedar Springs Camp 4820 Highway 92 in Lake Stevens as we together begin our fall journey. As we explore God's word learning about the power of one.

Kinda Makes Ya Wonder

Every once an a while, something happens that causes you to shake you head and wonder. One such event took place on August 20th in Minneapolis. The Evangelical Lutheran Church was in convention debating the issue of Gays in pulpit ministry. This issue itself could create numerous blogs. But what I want to talk about is the weather.
As the issue was being debated on the inside of the auditorium a tornado warning was in effect for the area. For many of us when we think of a tornado, we think of the Wizard of Oz and the one that picked up Dorothy causing her life to go from black and white to Technicolor. But things like that only happen in the movies, don't they? As the afternoon of the 20th wore on and the debate raged inside of the auditorium the tornado touched down. According to Christianity Today, the tornado touched down on the convention center at the exact time the ELCA were in debate the Gay clergy issue. The only damage occurred according to the Catholic Digest wire service about a block away from the convention center. Where the hosting ELCA church had their cross topple to the ground. Other than that, no other tornado damage was reported.
As Ripley would say, "Believe it, or not."

Some Days I Just Want To Go Back To Egypt

Today is the second anniversary of me getting laid off from the private school that I had been working at for six years, after I had been offered the position of the first full time school counselor in the schools history including a substantial pay increase. The spring before, there had been a huge upheaval and the principal/superintendent was let go. The gentleman who the school board brought in had big plans. Within the private school world that is a big deal because very few private schools have full time school counselors. I spent the summer preparing for my new assignment including researching additional classes. Then two days before school was to start, I got THE call. The voice on the other end was that of the principal. “This is one of the hardest things I have had to do”, he began. “The board wants me to cut another million dollars of the budget, so I am going to have to let you go”. He then begged off because he had a meeting. Wow, I thought to myself, let me go and save a million dollars. This must be how a pro athlete feels when they are let go. Yes, it was the only time in my life when I ever felt like a pro athlete. In the last two years I have had some highs and lows. But as one lady at church put it weeks ago, “people have hurt me or let me down, but God has never failed me”.
Yet in the last couple of weeks as the pressure has mounted. Continued therapy from my car accident: not being able to work because of the pain and therapy; bills needing to be paid; sniping with my wife has led me to longingly think back to my teaching days. Saying, “Oh Lord, why did all that have to happen to me”? Then I try to force myself to remember how hard was to get days off because the school had no money for substitutes, that was especially troublesome when my father was dying of cancer. Or dealing with the parents who believed they paid your salary and treated me like a hired hand and not an educated person.
A few nights ago in my devotional I was reading about as the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness they became frustrated with God. They were tired, hungry and angry with God, to the point where they were saying that “He just led us out here to die”. “We were better off being slaves in Egypt. At least there, we had our bellies full”. You read that and you wonder how God’s people could just give up on Him. Where was their faith”? Then you turn off your lights, lay in the darkness and begin to pray. As you whine about this and that, thinking about your past life. That life may not have been the best, but at least you had a twice monthly pay check. You could always depend on the money. But now God, I have to make choices about money and how to spend it. Sometimes just spending time in prayer hoping that a trip to the mail box will contain a check. Knowing that little old ladies feel sorry for me and buy me a ticket to Mariner game and blah, blah.
Then it hits you, YOU ARE AN ISRAELITE!

Roll Tide - Roll Jesus Right Out

Once upon a time in the section of the US of A known as the South, there were two great powers. One power controlled the hearts and minds of the people on Saturday afternoon. It did not matter what the people were doing come kick off time most things in the south came to a halt. Some gathered around their radios. Others turned on their televisions. Those lucky few who had tickets came to the great stadiums of the SEC. Dressed in school colors of Tennessee, Ole Miss and Alabama. They cheered, they booed, they cussed out the referee (but never around the women folk). When darkness fell upon the land, all returned to normal. For the people had to get ready for the other great power. For the next day was Sunday and the people would once again allow life to come to a stand still as they gathered to worship their Lord Jesus Christ. For decades these two powers lived in respectful co-existence. Saturday belonged to SEC football and Sunday was the Lord's day. Unfortunately those days like my hair line seem to becoming a memory. This morning I read how yesterday( Sunday) the University of Alabama had their football media day. I was in shock, "The Tide" dared to have their media day on the Lord's day! Where were the protests of the Godly? You know what this means? If a major college can have their football media day on a Sunday in the "Bible Belt" with ne'er a protest or concern, we Christians in the rest of the county have no chance! Sunday is now lost!