This last week (I think on Monday night) we discovered that a "momma mallard" had decided to nest right up against our house in the front landscape bed. She is sitting on eleven duck eggs! I really don't know what else to do so I've left her alone. She has been setting out there now all this week. I've watched it rain and if I go to the front window and look down she's there. I watched it get cold enough one evening this week for the furnace to come on and one day we set a record with the heat and yet when I looked, sure enough she's still there! I've been thinking about some of the lessons that you and I could learn from a duck. I know that God the Creator put within this momma duck the natural instinct to mother her nest and to keep her baby ducks warm and safe. I know that she will stay there in all weather and in all circumstances because it is her calling. I also know that the poppa mallard residing the edge of the woods in our back lawn is not only there to help her and oversee her but Mallards mate for life! He's not about to leave and head for more comfortable places because his "Mrs. Mallard" is here in our lawn. Now tell me there aren't some valuable lessons our society could learn from this Mr. and Mrs. Mallard who've taken up temporary (I hope...) residence in our landscape bed.
We too need to realize that our Creator made each of us with a purpose in mind. We need to be aware that God has given each of us something specific to do and we must not only care enough to discover our purpose but we must be faithful and commited to fulfilling it regardless of how the weather (circumstances) around us may change. And, if we have been blessed with a mate in life let's determine to be faithful for a lifetime to the one we started out with. I think our whole world would be a better place if all of us would just behave a little more like a duck!
Let others see Jesus in you this week and His handiwork in your life. Who knows, someone may observe you this week and say, "Hey, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...." Well you know! :-D>
Friday, April 16, 2010
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Re: Is God's payday on Friday?
I was talking with someone recently who was a little disappointed that though this person had been in their own eyes being "generous with God" (I assume by giving an offering) that God had not yet returned the "ten fold" spoken of in the Bible. Sometimes we take a too simplistic view of what the Scripture is trying to teach us and sometimes we just don't see the blessings!
As I drove home one evening this past week I was thinking about how God repays by His blessings. I was driving my 2004 Buick. Now I like my car for lots of reasons. It's roomy and comfortable, it's air conditioned and has cruise control and it's paid for but mostly because in the more than six years that I've owned my car it's not required very much. I recently had to put some tires on it, my son-in-law replaced my brakes and I've had the oil changed on a regular schedule. But for more than six years of ownership it's run consistently well. Now other folks may say, "good car" but I say, "good God!" God is good to us in so many ways that sometimes we simply fail to see His hand at work in our lives or our situations.
I've been studying a lot lately the life of King David. Now David was the richest, most influential man in his day. Yet David with all his power and wealth could never do what I get to do every day. I turn a knob and hot water runs out. I wake up to warm house because the furnace kicks on before I get out of bed in the morning. I open the door on the fridge and fill a class with cold, sweet tea. I ride down the highway in complete comfort at 60 (or so...) miles an hour in an automobile designed to keep me warm in the winter and cool in the summer. David traveled but his view seldom changed as he rode in his kingly chariot (if you know what I mean.) God's goodness has been poured out in our lives everyday. How sad that so many of His own children are so selfish even with Him who is the giver of every good gift connected to our lives. How sad too that many fail to see that God's payday is not Friday. It is in fact, every day!
As I drove home one evening this past week I was thinking about how God repays by His blessings. I was driving my 2004 Buick. Now I like my car for lots of reasons. It's roomy and comfortable, it's air conditioned and has cruise control and it's paid for but mostly because in the more than six years that I've owned my car it's not required very much. I recently had to put some tires on it, my son-in-law replaced my brakes and I've had the oil changed on a regular schedule. But for more than six years of ownership it's run consistently well. Now other folks may say, "good car" but I say, "good God!" God is good to us in so many ways that sometimes we simply fail to see His hand at work in our lives or our situations.
I've been studying a lot lately the life of King David. Now David was the richest, most influential man in his day. Yet David with all his power and wealth could never do what I get to do every day. I turn a knob and hot water runs out. I wake up to warm house because the furnace kicks on before I get out of bed in the morning. I open the door on the fridge and fill a class with cold, sweet tea. I ride down the highway in complete comfort at 60 (or so...) miles an hour in an automobile designed to keep me warm in the winter and cool in the summer. David traveled but his view seldom changed as he rode in his kingly chariot (if you know what I mean.) God's goodness has been poured out in our lives everyday. How sad that so many of His own children are so selfish even with Him who is the giver of every good gift connected to our lives. How sad too that many fail to see that God's payday is not Friday. It is in fact, every day!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Lesson learned this past Monday
I'm usually "off" on Mondays. Sundays are long days for Pastors and Monday has just always been a good day to stay home in the mornings, refresh the spirit and ease into a new week. There are always several Mondays in the course of every year that require setting aside the "day off" mentality and just going ahead and getting something done that must be done even on Monday. Last Monday was one of those days. While my wife, daughter and granddaughter took off seeking adventure I needed to stop in at the office and work through a file of information in preparing for an early Tuesday morning meeting with a local business man.
When everything that needed to be done was done I locked up the office and headed back toward the house. I know that Pastors are expected to always be able to "rule over their spirit" and never, never have a bad attitude about anything BUT I was battling my own spirit a little but on Monday afternoon. I was internally grumping on God about the way life has been over the last year or so. It's been busier than ever and it's been a difficult time for many of the folks who make up our good church family too. Lots of folks have been hurting at some place connected to life and of course that makes the counseling part of church ministry require a greater demand on one's time too. Anyway, these are some of the complaints I was making to God as I pulled out of the parking lot and headed west on Laurel Road toward home.
Now just down the road from our church there is a residence that provides care for mentally and physically challenged young adults. Just as I passed the residence there was the bus that picks these folks up daily and transports them to places of specialized therapy parked by the road. The bus driver and an aid worker were helping to unload a young lady and her wheelchair from the rear lift door at the back of the bus. It was a chilly Spring day and the young lady had a blanket wrapped around her. Both of her hands were visible out of the blanket and both hands were gnarled and twisted in ways that would prove she had no use of them. As I paused by the bus I noticed as she looked up to the bus driver and gave her the largest smile I've seen on any face in a long time. It was at that moment that the Spirit of God said to me "there but by the grace of God go you or someone you love more than yourself." Now God didn't speak to my ears but He most certainly did to my heart. When God speaks to one's heart it's often even more loud than if He had spoken to your ears. Well needless to say my attitude was adjusted and all through the rest of the day I was praising the Lord of His marvelous works in my life and for His grace that been given to me even though I certainly had not deserved it.
No matter how long the day or how difficult the path of today God's grace is going to carry us all the way through. Proverbs 1:5 says "A wise man will hear, and will increase learning..."
Last Monday I learned a good lesson. I needed to open my eyes and listen with my heart and be a wiser man.
When everything that needed to be done was done I locked up the office and headed back toward the house. I know that Pastors are expected to always be able to "rule over their spirit" and never, never have a bad attitude about anything BUT I was battling my own spirit a little but on Monday afternoon. I was internally grumping on God about the way life has been over the last year or so. It's been busier than ever and it's been a difficult time for many of the folks who make up our good church family too. Lots of folks have been hurting at some place connected to life and of course that makes the counseling part of church ministry require a greater demand on one's time too. Anyway, these are some of the complaints I was making to God as I pulled out of the parking lot and headed west on Laurel Road toward home.
Now just down the road from our church there is a residence that provides care for mentally and physically challenged young adults. Just as I passed the residence there was the bus that picks these folks up daily and transports them to places of specialized therapy parked by the road. The bus driver and an aid worker were helping to unload a young lady and her wheelchair from the rear lift door at the back of the bus. It was a chilly Spring day and the young lady had a blanket wrapped around her. Both of her hands were visible out of the blanket and both hands were gnarled and twisted in ways that would prove she had no use of them. As I paused by the bus I noticed as she looked up to the bus driver and gave her the largest smile I've seen on any face in a long time. It was at that moment that the Spirit of God said to me "there but by the grace of God go you or someone you love more than yourself." Now God didn't speak to my ears but He most certainly did to my heart. When God speaks to one's heart it's often even more loud than if He had spoken to your ears. Well needless to say my attitude was adjusted and all through the rest of the day I was praising the Lord of His marvelous works in my life and for His grace that been given to me even though I certainly had not deserved it.
No matter how long the day or how difficult the path of today God's grace is going to carry us all the way through. Proverbs 1:5 says "A wise man will hear, and will increase learning..."
Last Monday I learned a good lesson. I needed to open my eyes and listen with my heart and be a wiser man.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Just Getting Started
Today (August 6th, 2009) I am stepping into a new arena in the world of the "web." I'm posting my first blog. I've been blogging for a long time (more than 34 years) only I do it on a platform on Sunday in front a lot of people and use verbal posting rather than printed postings. Anyway, as a young man who was trying to sell me something one day said, "it's the same, only different!" This day happens to fall the day following my 37th wedding anniversary. I met my wife in tenth grade and our first dates were very limited by the fact that I wasn't old enough to drive a car, I didn't have very much money and our parents were pretty restrictive about 10th graders dating! But... she lived across the street from me and it was easy to hang out at her folk's house or at my folk's house and that's what we did. By our senior year we were "steadies" (does anybody still use that word?) and then in 1970 I went off to Michigan to college and she stayed home in Brunswick and went to work for the Grants department store in Medina. We married between my second and third year of college and a new family took it's roots on August 5th, 1972. She wore a beautiful white wedding dress, her bride's maids wore floppy "hippie" hats and I wore a King Edward style tux with ruffled shirt and zipper platform boots.... we were stylin'!
Now the question is, where has life gone? 37 years of marriage, three married children, five grandchildren with number six scheduled for arrival early in 2010 and lots of life experiences now written in the history book of our lives. The Bible asks this question in the book of James, "For what is your life?" It also gives the answer, "it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, then vanisheth away." That's a pretty good description of life! When I counsel young couples about to get married I tell them that both life and marriage goes through "seasons." The Spring is the early time. It's all new and fresh and fun and everyone loves the Springtime. Then comes the Summer of marriage. Summer is the busy time. You're raising kids, mowing grass, paying a mortgage, it seems that your work is never done. Following Summer you'll come to the Fall season. It's a time when the kids are out of the nest for the first time. They're off at school, off to the military, married or just expressing their independence. It's a time when the two of you are back where you started, alone again together. If you've worked on your relationship and stayed friends through the Summertime you'll so enjoy the Fall season of your life together. Finally comes the Winter. Winter is a difficult season. However, if you're prepared for the winter you need not fear the cold! Winter can be filled with beauty and with the great anticipation of an approaching Springtime in land where as the songwriter once said, "we'll never grow old!"
Final thought for all the folks who have not yet celebrated your 37th anniversary.... don't get distracted by the noise around you today. Don't just live for today. The farmer toils in his soil by faith and anticipates the wonderful day of harvest. So many people around me right now seem to be living only in the moment of today only doing whatever seems to have the potential to make them happy even if it's just for today. Don't sacrifice your future happiness on the altar of your immediate happiness. The best is yet to come!
Now the question is, where has life gone? 37 years of marriage, three married children, five grandchildren with number six scheduled for arrival early in 2010 and lots of life experiences now written in the history book of our lives. The Bible asks this question in the book of James, "For what is your life?" It also gives the answer, "it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, then vanisheth away." That's a pretty good description of life! When I counsel young couples about to get married I tell them that both life and marriage goes through "seasons." The Spring is the early time. It's all new and fresh and fun and everyone loves the Springtime. Then comes the Summer of marriage. Summer is the busy time. You're raising kids, mowing grass, paying a mortgage, it seems that your work is never done. Following Summer you'll come to the Fall season. It's a time when the kids are out of the nest for the first time. They're off at school, off to the military, married or just expressing their independence. It's a time when the two of you are back where you started, alone again together. If you've worked on your relationship and stayed friends through the Summertime you'll so enjoy the Fall season of your life together. Finally comes the Winter. Winter is a difficult season. However, if you're prepared for the winter you need not fear the cold! Winter can be filled with beauty and with the great anticipation of an approaching Springtime in land where as the songwriter once said, "we'll never grow old!"
Final thought for all the folks who have not yet celebrated your 37th anniversary.... don't get distracted by the noise around you today. Don't just live for today. The farmer toils in his soil by faith and anticipates the wonderful day of harvest. So many people around me right now seem to be living only in the moment of today only doing whatever seems to have the potential to make them happy even if it's just for today. Don't sacrifice your future happiness on the altar of your immediate happiness. The best is yet to come!
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