PASTOR'S ARTICLES FROM 2017

I have heard it said that until you learn to live with your own mortality you can't really begin living. Fear of death is a huge giant in our culture.

I never realized there could be so many answers to the question, 'When you look at a cup do you see that it is half full or half empty?' An entrepreneur sees that the cup is waiting to be filled. A consultant says the problem is that you have too much cup. An accountant would insist that if the cup is a fixed cost, and the water is a variable cost, then the unused capacity should be considered a sipping expense. The marketer would advise that if we position the cup properly we could sell it to both the optimist and the pessimist. Ben Franklin once commented that the optimist is usually disappointed, while the pessimist is often pleasantly surprised. The Bible says, 'My cup overflows' (Psalm 23:5), which really changes the whole way of looking at cups. A closer look at Psalm 23 gives us many reasons why our cups are indeed running over.

My friend, Betty, had suffered the loss of her beloved daughter, and was in desperate search for something to help heal her broken heart. She spoke to her minister who suggested she volunteer at the local helping agency to get her out of her house and help her to think about something else besides her grief. She started volunteering one day a week, then two, and soon she was helping every day of the week. By the time I got on the Board of Directors she was the director of the agency. Her kind heart, common sense, and desire to help others helped her become an amazing director. I asked about her story, and it went something like this.

While we struggle with evil's existence, let us not forget that God has acted decisively to do something about evil.

Like many Americans, my celebration of Memorial Day in the past was a relaxed day off, until my eldest son, Lee, enlisted in the Army. His brother, Brian, and sister, Catie, followed in his footsteps, and it completely changed the way I viewed Memorial Day. I am very proud of my three children, and very grateful that all three returned home from war safely. My wife and I wanted to worry about their safety, but we realized our worry would not help them one bit to be safe, so we prayed: A LOT! My children had many positive experiences while serving their country overseas. Thank you Lord for bringing them home safely.

I think one of the most highly valued character traits listed in the Bible is humility. The Bible is consistent in proclaiming if you are arrogant or prideful there are many bad consequences. If you are humble before the Lord you earn the highest praise from God, and our humility opens doors in our lives for God to use us. However, the Bible does not have a lot of information about what humility is. We think we know it when we see it. So, as you read the following story think about what it teaches about humility.

Agape love is when we choose love even though to do so will come at a great sacrifice. Jesus defined this love best on the night He would be arrested.

Jesus never demanded that His followers should fast. In the Old Testament, the Jews were commanded to fast on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:27-32). Since all of Jesus' disciples were Jewish, it was more noteworthy that they didn't fast when He was with them (Matthew 9:14-17). I remember when I first started thinking about fasting that there were many parts of scripture about fasting, but few people actually did it. Since I have a bit of a competitive streak I started trying to learn to fast so I could have a better faith than anyone else around me.

In Minnesota, during the summer of 1876, there was a swarm of grasshoppers destroying the crops. It was the fourth year in a row that the wheat, corn, oat, and barley fields were destroyed across the state. There was a fear that the grasshoppers would return, so Governor John S. Pillsbury proclaimed a day of prayer and fasting on April 26, 1877 (that was 140 years ago this week!), urging every man, woman, and child to petition God's protection. When the appointed day arrived, schools and businesses were closed as people prayed for Divine intervention.

After Jesus is raised from the dead there is this wonderful scene on the beach in Galilee, where Jesus deals with his friend. They have breakfast together after a record breaking catch, and Jesus is alone with Peter (John 21). Jesus asks Peter, 'Do you love me?' The great power of this question is more obvious when we read it in Greek. The word for love Jesus uses is 'agape,' which means unconditional love. So, Jesus is asking Peter, 'Do you love me unconditionally?'

When Peter was on the mountain where Jesus was transfigured he had the most amazing mountain top experience. His mountain top faith must have seemed a distant memory when he denied Jesus the third time, heard the rooster crow, and remembered that is exactly what Jesus predicted would happen.

My family likes to play a game called 'Liar's Dice. Everyone starts with five dice, and rolls them without anyone knowing what everyone else rolled. Then the bidding begins. The object of the bidding is to convince others, lying if you must, that you have made a good bid. When someone calls, 'Liar,' then everyone shows their dice, and count only the bid number. If you lied you lose a dice. If you are right the person who called you a liar loses a dice. Last one with dice wins.

These days there are many places that we do not always feel safe or welcome if we want to let our faith show for others to see. There are plenty of news stories of government leaders, business leaders, and students who have had to decide to compromise their faith or serve jail time, pay fines, or some other public penalty or ridicule.