Sorry, but I haven’t been in the mood to write much of late. Been busy with the church, family, family and the church! Which, given my priorities, not bad at all. Hope all my readers are doing well, especially those living in tornado alley.
Dear Elisa,
It wasn’t the anniversary that I had planned for. I didn’t see the new glasses we needed for Andy, nor the expensive medicine for his asthma. I didn’t plan on the sickness I had earlier in the week than rendered me immobile and slightly unconscious.. I didn’t plan on the inability to get a last minute babysitter or the lack of funds to take you to a restaurant that is deserving of your patronage.
But then, nothing in our nine year marriage has been anything that I planned. I hadn’t planned on one church closing under my tutelage and two more that should have. I didn’t plan on having you move six times in nine years since we got married. I didn’t plan on the lack of stability in our finances. I didn’t plan on the fact that we would still be renting a house at this stage of our marriage and be living pay check to pay check.
In fact, very few of my plans have come to pass, other than the red roses. The red roses I got for you tonight I did plan. That was easy. Since I was the first man in your life to buy you a dozen red roses, when we got engaged, I plan on being the only man to buy you a dozen red roses, so you can definitely count on those for our anniversary. You were deserving of red roses and I’m glad I found a florist in town that had some.
I didn’t plan on our two guest that joined us for our anniversary dinner tonight either. Were they not the most fun two little boys? Yes, Joey was in his typical, no-nap terror, but once we got him calmed down, and got Andy working on his homework, it was another typical night in our wonderful home. To boot, we had steak which you seasoned to perfection, baked potatoes cooked up right in the oven, not the microwave, and a migraine inducing chocolate cake to die for… literally. My head is killing me, but it was worth every bite.
Even getting the boys to bed was typical, but joyful. Joey didn’t want to leave my side all night, until we prayed. As usual, he bolted for your lap and you got to feel every ounce of his 58 lbs. as he landed on you. The joys of motherhood and big boys. Now we get to reflect on our nine years as we lay in bed, hoping the migraine medicine kicks in quickly. For most couples, this would be Mommy and Daddy time, but given the “other” visitor… we’ll just have to kiss each other on the cheek and call it a night. After all, there is nothing typical in our marriage and I don’t imagine there ever will be. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not good, great and wonderful to boot. Thanks for joining with me nine years ago. May He bless us with many more to come. I love you.
Your husband,
Timothy
I guess this could be from the “what-we-learned-over-the-last-week” category. It is one of those lessons I haven’t actually overcome yet, because the battle for a coffee maker is not yet done.
Last Wednesday, I finally realized I had a problem with my Black & Decker coffee maker which I got for my birth day some years ago. The problem: I was only getting half a pot of coffee after preparing a full pot. I know I should have noticed this on Monday when it started, but alas, I hadn’t had my coffee yet.
I realized that the water was draining out of the tank onto the counter before it made it through the coffee grounds. All the water had run down the counter and found a big roll of paper towels that absorbed it all up. Thank goodness for the roll of towels. But something was definitely wrong with my coffee maker.
I tried to open it up to see if I could discover the problem. But given that they use a special screw on the bottom, so we can’t open it up and see what the problem is, I couldn’t do it. I decided to throw the coffee maker away with much wailing and gnashing of teeth. It was the first coffee maker that I was given that was actually new.
Given that I’m an avid coffee drinker, I borrowed one from work, which was really neat because it made exactly two cups of coffee and you had to have those two cups placed just right, or it spilled every where. This coffee maker would not do. The problem? It made exactly two cups of coffee. Once those were done, you had to make exactly two more cups of coffee, etc. Given that my dream coffee maker makes 12 cups, I could see the writing on the wall for this coffee maker.
On Saturday, I had enough. We managed to make sure we had just the right amount of money and off to Sam’s Club I went. My goal: get an inexpensive coffee maker. One that would last… well, 10 years! I found the Oster DVXG-!@$@#A-43-o-18-12y model that I think can only be found in Sam’s Club… $38. Just what I wanted, inexpensive and it made 12 cups of coffee. I really was satisfied with my purchase. A lot of times I try to buy the very best I can afford, but this time, I was much more frugal, and bought the very best that I could afford.
I decided to take it out of the box on Saturday night and run the pre-requisite water through it so as to prepare it for our evening cup of decaf. Needless to say, I was giddy with the expectation. A NEW coffee maker!!! I pulled the coffee maker straight out of the box and took two steps to set it on the counter. Something dropped off the coffee maker and hit the floor. Given the sound of crackling glass, I knew it could only be one thing: the decanter. “Did that just happen?” I thought to myself. I looked down and saw the decanter still wrapped in its bubble wrap protection, to keep it from breaking. Obviously the bubble wrap was no match for our ceramic-tile floors. The decanter was shattered.
I tried the old decanter from my Black & Decker which I could not part with since it is made from stainless steel. It was too short.
My next step was to go on the internet and see if I could order a decanter. Maybe it could be here by Sunday morning. Remember, I wasn’t thinking straight. I just busted my Oster decanter on our ceramic-tile floors. I began to realize that the decaf cup of coffee I had my hopes for was now over. So was the fresh pot of coffee I was looking forward to before Sunday services. It wasn’t going to happen.
Late Sunday afternoon, I was committed to taking the Oster back to Sam’s Club. The way I figure it, they didn’t secure the decanter well enough to keep it from falling when removing the coffee maker from the box. Therefore, they need to replace it. We will see how that goes.
I loaded up the boys and headed out to Sam’s, all the way talking to one of the members of my church for a pastoral call. I told her what I was doing and she said she had one I could have if it didn’t work out at Sam’s. You never know what they will take for a return. It didn’t work out at Sam’s. They were closing just as I arrived.
I called the member back and asked her if I could borrow the coffee maker. She said that she would actually give it to me and now I had my fourth coffee maker in a week. This one was a Mr. Coffee, much like the one pictured here. I was really excited about this. If it worked out, I would take the Oster back and get my money back and have a great coffee maker to boot.
Since the Mr. Coffee was used, I had to clean him up. I spent the good part of an hour working on getting him to an almost new looking condition. I had scrubbed, wiped, rinsed, cleaned, etc., trying to make it look like a new one and was satisfied with my accomplishments. I decided to add a cup of vinegar to the first pot of water that I planned on running through the maker in order to help clean off the parts I couldn’t reach. Since we live in an area with a lot of minerals in the water, running vinegar in everything is a part of life.
As I went to add the water to fill it all the way up, I noticed something that was very troubling. The vinegar was no longer in the tank. “OK maybe there is a secret reservoir where the vinegar is now working its magic… I will add some water as well.”
You guessed it. The water was leaking out almost as fast as I had poured it into the tank. I called Elisa for help and we used several towels cleaning up the water and vinegar. I couldn’t believe it. This was the same thing that my Black & Decker did. How could two coffee makers, made by different companies, end up doing the same thing?
I went back to the internet. This is when I discovered the problem. Apparently the coffee makers have a certain O ring in them that gives out after time. It is made of rubber or plastic. Along with time, heated water and more time, the O ring becomes hard and no longer offers the seal that it was meant to provide. This was the same thing that happened to the Shuttle Challenger, except in that case, it was cold temperatures, not hot temperatures that caused that O ring to give out. The freebie Mr. Coffee was a failure.
I do appreciate the woman that gave me the Mr. Coffee and I’m glad she gave it to me. For half a moment I thought about fixing it, but when I turned it over, I found the same weird screws on it that the Black & Decker had on it. They must use those in order to keep us from fixing their faulty coffee makers, forcing us to go and buy new ones every five or six years.
As I drink my cup of hot tea this morning… (there is just something fundamentally wrong with that) I ponder my next move. Back to Sam’s? Or do I head in an entirely new direction? Do I go to the church and look in the closets loaded with old coffee makers and try to get one of those to work? Do I give up drinking coffee all together? I’m not sure. But who knew that the very thing that doomed the Shuttle Challenger would befall not only my Black & Decker, but also my Mr. Coffee? You would think they would have a solution by now. I don’t know what is next, but I do know I’m not going for another cup of tea.
Since my previous post was on the reasons I can’t stand Christmas shopping, I thought I would tell you why I like Christmas in general, even though there is nothing Scripture that tells us to set the day aside as a holiday. In other words, the day itself is purely an invention of men, and has very little to do about Christ and His incarnation.
Given that, here are the reasons I love Christmas:
I hope you have reasons to love the season as well. Merry Christmas.
I probably shouldn’t post something like this, but the reality is that I hate to shop for Christmas. It’s a fun holiday and the implications of what the incarnation actually mean for us are vital to the Christian walk. But shopping for Christmas??? I see nothing in Scripture to support such an activity… yet, here we are. So without further adieu…, from the Department of Bah-humbug… I give you my Top 10 reasons I hate shopping for Christmas.
OK, I know that all sounds negative, but that is how I feel about Christmas shopping. Maybe I need to do a Top 10 Reasons Why I love Christmas!!! Believe me when I give you the reasons I love Christmas, none of those reasons will have anything to do with gift’s, Sam’s Club, shopping, etc.
Merry Christmas!
Good Morning from Roswell, NM. We have finally landed here in our new home, and while the world looks for aliens every where, the only type of aliens we believe in is alien righteousness, which is saying that we need a righteousness outside of ourselves. Namely, the righteousness of Christ.
Other than that, not much is going on here in Roswell that I know of. We have been so busy unpacking boxes that I’m quite oblivious to the worries of the world right now. I did hear that Urban Meyer took the coaching job at Ohio State, and once again, the Texas Aggies failed to grab up a really good coach. They should have heeded my admonition … Fire Mike Sherman.
BTW, my blog got hit a ton last week after the t.u.-A&M game, all posts from last year where I was calling for Mike Sherman to be fired. Apparently after the tough loss to t.u., I wasn’t the only one with the desire for a coaching change in College Station.
To my regular readers, I think I will start posting more regularly when life returns to normal. After the move across country with my family this week, not sure what normal looks like. If anyone knows, please share with the rest of us. I guess I could say that normal is … routine. What is routine becomes what is normal. Hhm? I’m thinking there is something wrong with that premise, but it will have to do for now.
I’m now in Roswell, NM, at First Christian Church as pastor. I wrote about the call below.
I arrived on Tuesday and have spent the first several days getting to know as many of the congregation as possible. I have also had some good home-cooked meals and discovered that Roswell has a Whataburger! I didn’t waste any time getting there. I ate there for lunch on my first full day here. I think Whataburger is the best burger chain in the land. For those of you who are White Castles junkies, please, don’t even try.
I start preaching on Sunday and plan to start with John 1:1-14 and deal with the person of Christ as God and His purpose in becoming flesh. The purpose is an overall view of the gospel from the view point of eternity. Just the words In the beginning… will take some time to develop and explain.
Besides aliens, Roswell also has one of the larges aviation graveyards in the country, along with one of the larges runways in the country. The story goes that the SAC air force base south of town was closed during LBJ’s presidency because this area voted Republican. Since that time, the town has struggled and companies like American Airlines, Japan Airlines and a host of others started parking their old air planes at the airport. There are thousands out there now and I met a man on the flight into Roswell that was looking to pick up a few 747s for his cargo business. He had plenty to choose from. I wanted to take pictures but was prevented from doing so since I had to shut off my iPhone during landing.
That is all I know about Roswell for the moment… except that it should be known more for John Chisum and the Chisum Trail than the silly fascination people have for silly green men. BTW, if the aliens were so advanced that they traveled billions of miles to visit earth, how is it that they came all this way only to crash? Couldn’t be all that advanced could they?
To those who have been praying for us, thank you. After searching for a permanent call for almost 5 years, your prayers have been answered. I received word on Sunday that First Christian Church of Roswell, NM (please, no redundant alien jokes), voted overwhelmingly to extend a call to me so that I may be their next pastor. We have been in contact with this church since early September and went to visit them in early October.
First Christian Church is the second oldest church in Roswell, and has been on the decline for a number of years. They were a part of the Disciples of Christ denomination when they began, but as that denomination drifted to the left theologically, FCC drifted right. FCC left the DoC about 15 years ago and they have continued to pursue the scriptures in order to be true to what the word of God says.
In that process, they began to sense that they should pursue looking into becoming a part of the PCA. That is where I come into the picture. In early September, Dominic Aquilasent me their information and asked if I were interested. You bet! (The elders contacted Dominic because they have mutual friends in the PCA). I really was excited about the prospect from the get go and sent my resume and MDF to the search committee immediately.
What was about the church that got me excited? I think part of it was that they were non-denominational and looking to come into the PCA. They were also going through Embers to a Flame, which is a church-revitalization ministry out of Birmingham, AL. I’ve taken two churches through Embers and neither one has followed up with Fanning the Flame, which is very helpful in church revitalization. I’m not sure they will follow through with FTF, but it helps that they see that God is not through with them yet and that they have the hope of God’s hand in their lives.
I am also excited because they have a hunger for the word of God. Not just to know more about God’s word, but to have God’s word in their lives so that they may be used by the Holy Spirit for God’s glory. This was obvious when I was there earlier in the month. I taught then in Sunday school and preached for them and both times they were truly blessed, as was I.
It really is amazing how God has worked in my life to prepare me for this call. I must confess that about four months ago, I got fed up with looking for churches in my current denomination and just decided to quit looking there all together. What I wanted was not more denominationalism, but a church that has a true desire to seek God’s will and leading in their lives. Please note, that these things are not mutually exclusive. There are a lot of churches in the PCA that are doing just that. The movement of the Spirit was more for me than for the PCA. I felt like God was bringing me to the point of letting go of the PCA in order to prepare me for the next call.
The irony of all this is that this non-denomination church came to my attention through Dominic, who is entrenched in the PCA. FCC is non denominational as I mentioned above. But their desire is to be a part of the PCA. I truly believe God was preparing my heart for this church. I will still be a member of the PCA, working out of bounds. And if and when FCC is ready, they will join the PCA as well.
Joining the PCA is NOT a priority. That is a goal that we will have as church leaders. The main goal is to teach and preach Christ crucified in order to build up the body of Christ for the work of the ministry (Philippians 1:18, Eph. 4:11ff, 2 Cor. 4:5). If we join the PCA, that is icing on the cake. I pray that over the next couple of years, that the congregation comes to the point that they desire to join the PCA and understand all that it entails. Not that there is anything to fear. What I mean is that I hope and pray that the see joining the PCA as a benefit to who they are in Christ, that we will be joining together those who have like minds about the Word of God, His Mission and His purpose with us so that we can work together and carry out the Apostolic mandate found in Ephesians 4 on a grander scale.
However, if we do not get to that point, as long as we are being true to the overall calling of Christ, I will be fine with that as well. What I truly want is a ministry that bears much fruit, and a church that does the same. We may not all be theologically on the same page, or even have the same goals. But if we truly show the love of Christ toward one another, and are seeking His will, then I can certainly live with that. I long to live with that. May He use my desires and theirs for His glory and for the building up of the Kingdom, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
The subject of Grace Presbyterian Church came up again last night, this time between Elisa and our 6 year old, Andy. He called it “Satan’s Temple.” That was so disturbing that Elisa brought me into the mix since calling a group of people “Satan’s Temple” really is quite serious. He said that he called it that because the people there were so bad.
I made sure that he understood there were a lot of good people in the church who are good friends and were not behaving in a godless manner. He agreed. But he knew enough to know that there were people there who were behaving less than cordial (I was going to say “Christlike” but they were not even close.)
Is Grace Presbyterian Church Satan’s Temple? I’m not sure. But I will say that Satan can and does use believers from time to time to try and disrupt the plans of God. Remember that Jesus had to rebuke Peter when he was being used by Satan to prevent Jesus from going to the cross (Matthew 16). We cannot say that those who were so ugly are without faith at GPC. But we can say that seem to be acting in a manner that is less than Christlike.
I can also say that the actions of a few have truly grieved the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4:30-32 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
The group that rose up two Sunday’s ago to confront the elders and demand my removal were not acting in a manner that can be construed as “kind to one another; tenderhearted, forgiving one another…” They were grieving the Holy Spirit according to God’s word. That is really all we can say about them and what they did. They were not acting in a manner that was submissive to the leadership and in their rebellion against that leadership, they were rebelling against Christ as well.
That should grieve our hearts as well. Whenever those who are called Christians act in a fallen manner, it should cause us to grieve and examine our own hearts. When these people were so ugly, how did we respond? Did we try and get even by sending across some well-worded zinger? Or did we respond in kindness as Christ calls us to do?
I know there were times when I responded in anger and with the zingers, and for that I repent. It was wrong to respond that way even though justice was not being carried out. My responses in anger and harsh words, would probably be hailed in more worldly circles, but we are not called to be of the world. We are called to be like the ONE we know who didn’t respond with anger, but took on the death of a sinner even though He was innocent.
It is that reminder and the reminder from Ephesians 4:30-32 that allowed me to respond the way I did when things came to an end for me at GPC. I knew that tensions were growing in the congregation, although I wasn’t sure about why the tensions were so high. I did know that I was staying very close to that verse. I came across it while preparing what ended up being my last two sermons. I was preaching on the Maker of the Church, the Sender of the Church and the Equipper of the Church, from Matthew 16, 28 and Ephesians 4.
I really wasn’t writing these sermons for the people of GPC here in Jackson. I have already preached these things here. While I knew it would be a good reminder to those who love God’s word, I also knew that some in the church would reject the message out right, simply because they were no longer listening to anything I said. I could have said, “Jesus wants you to be rich, happy, wealthy and wise, just believe in Him,” and they would have rejected it.
I was preparing those two sermons for a church that I was interviewing with in New Mexico that invited me out for a visit. One of the elders called me and asked me to preach on the purpose of the church so that those in the congregation could be reminded why it is that Christ has made the church. After the first sermon, I could tell the contentious bunch at GPC was even more contentious and when I preached the second one, they were spewing venom from the back pews.
This didn’t surprise me. While praying with Elisa the previous day, I prayed that the Lord would tender the hearts of those who belong to Him so that they could hear the message and rejoice. I also prayed something more serious. I asked the LORD to harden the hearts of those who were rejecting HIS word and make it obvious to all who were there. I’m not sure why I prayed that, but I did.
And He answered that prayer. While I was confident in the message given to me to preach, those whose hearts were hardened, exploded that Sunday. I don’t know the full extent of it, but they went after two elders and an elders wife. The vicious attack led the elders to conclude that it was better if I resigned. They asked me to that night, and I did.
I knew the LORD would take care of me and my family. He had a job waiting for me in New Mexico and I thanked the two elders who had stood with me for the two years at GPC. I don’t begrudge them at all. They were actually doing me a favor by asking for my resignation. They provided me two months severance and the opportunity to leave that church. I was thankful and relieved the battle was over. It was a blessing from God.
The sad reality is that those who attacked did not need to. Had they been patient, the LORD would have moved me and my family on without the need for them to sin against the LORD and His elders. They added more burning coals to their already scalded heads. That is what people do when they are not walking in the Spirit. The flesh has a tendency to destroy itself and what is left of that church will now turn on itself. The two elders that were raked over the coals, resigned after I did and left the church. The congregations is now down to about 15 people. While I’m not sure what will happen to them, unless there is some repentance on the part of those brood of vipers that ran us off, that church will remain Satan’s temple. As long as we operate in the flesh, as they did, we too can be used by Satan. That is why we need to keep our eyes on Christ, walk by faith in the Spirit, and trust Him with His church. After all, it’s His church to deal with. He can redeem those in it, or leave them to their flesh, the world and the devil. I thank God He has redeemed me and brought me out of Satan’s Temple
It’s not even 11 a.m. and this week is shaping up… to be one of those challenging weeks that will lead to all kinds of statements like, “just trust in Jesus.” “God works all things together for good…” “Pray more…”
I say that because I’m hoping to stem the tide of such statements. I am trusting in Jesus. I am praying. I know that God works all things together for good to those who love Him. I even know that not all things ARE good, but that He works them together FOR good. I know that with the stress of life that He is working in and through me to make me more like Christ, knocking off that in me that isn’t necessary so that I become more like Him. I know all those things.
BUT, that doesn’t make a week like this any easier. The pain of this week actually got started last week. Last week, we were hoping to hear from the church plant in Texas about a call to be the pastor there. We did hear, but not what we were hoping to hear. What did we hear? “No!” Sometimes God is very clear in His answers to us. This was a definite and clear answer to the prayer: “Lord, please work out a call for us so we can move to Texas.” There were other variations of that prayer, like the permanency of a call, God’s glory in the call, God’s hand in my life so that I bear much fruit in the call, etc. Some of those prayers may be answered in the future, just not with that church.
That led to the loss of money to move to Texas. One of the committees that overseas such church plants was willing to fund our move down to Texas. Without the money, the move became impossible.
That led to having to tell the rental agency that we would not be able to move into the house we rented and the loss of $1,400 in deposit money. Ouch! Fortunately, there is the possibility of reimbursement through the church. I won’t go into the details, but let’s say that someone is being benevolent with us. This still doesn’t help us completely, since we are still responsible for the rent until the agency finds someone to rent the house. If the Lord doesn’t answer our prayers on this quickly, I’m about to die to my desire to have an impeccable credit rating. Not sure how that will happen.
On top of that, the music leader the church here in Jackson hired earlier in the summer stepped down yesterday morning. Both he and his wife felt like the Lord was telling them to move on from the church. Needless to say, this was truly disappointing because they were such a blessing to me, my wife, and many in the congregation.
On top of all this, I’m having trouble with a nasty cough that seems to only want to manifest itself when I talk or laugh. In fact, I cough so hard that it causes me to pass out at times. I had an epiphany last night when one of these coughing attacks occurred, in which I passed out and hit the hard wood floors. “Hey, they don’t call these hard wood floors for no reason.” This lead to the very sore back I’m dealing with this morning.
So how am I dealing with all this? Well, trusting in Jesus, knowing all things work together for good… praying more, etc. His greater good in my life right now is certainly veiled to my fallen eyes. But His word assures me it is there, regardless of whether or not I feel it. Hopefully the events in my life will improve as the week goes on…
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