One bad thing about being a private person is the number of odd facts people don't know.  You may not know or can believe that antiques are part of my history.  I can appreciate a good antique as well as the next person.  Maybe it's one reason for my enjoyment of museums and the like.  Old stuff is fascinating to me.  But since my college minor is history that may not be surprising.  Several of my relatives spent a great deal of time and money on items another person would toss out.  I can remember going into houses with items lined up in cabinets or other display cases.  Just don't ask me what they were worth as that part of the hobby escapes me. 

I took a group to a town once that has several antique stores.  Most of the ladies who went were older but one took her infant daughter along.  I could not imagine why she would ask me to tag along but it didn't take long to find out.  My job was to carry the infant while she ransacked stores looking for old dinner plates.  The one good outcome of this is that her child weighed far less than what she purchased.  I now have a very few collectibles from the years.  Finances limit my investment in real antiquing.  But it is part of my journey.

We are talking this week about the difference between old and new religion.  Antiques may be very valuable but not really usable.  Most times they are set out for display with the given or suggested idea they not be touched.  Perhaps at one time someone used the plates or sat in the furniture but those days passed.  Some can tell you the entire history of an item along with the price but draw the line at using it again.  Sounds to me like the religion of far too many people out there.  It once was personal and usable but now it is a relic to be admired not actually used.  The experience of God in the past means more than the God of our experience now.  Such is one of the problems with an old faith.

Real faith needs no protecting from the elements of daily life.  Real faith does not require us to handle it with care.  Real faith continues to grow in usefulness as we journey through our days.  Jesus tells us about old wineskins not being able to hold new wine.  He knows our human tendency to allow faith to atrophy into the antique.  Be sure that genuine faith can go through the roughest of spots while remaining whole.  You can be sure that connecting more to the God of your experience only increases the value of your faith.  How can we afford not to live that way?

Bro. Trey

My autistic son had a tough day at school.  His teacher was out all last week as she was on the cruise ship that took an extra long tour in the Gulf without power.  Today was her first day back.  Things started well but seems as if they took a downward slide as morning gave way to afternoon.  He did some things that are not on the acceptable behavior list then let it overwhelm him emotionally.  I usually know how his mind works and my money is on him being embarrassed over the uproar.  The only problem is that feeling led to even more problems keeping his act together.  We talked about it upon my arrival home after running errands.  He was seriously down about the whole thing.  Our conclusion was to just start over tomorrow fresh and with a clean slate.  Today happened but there is always hope for a new beginning the next day.

That is one of the qualities of his autism.  He puts the past behind him to just be a new person tomorrow.  I am sure he will remember today even with its run of bad luck.  Part of my job is to use the failures to direct him to a more successful approach.  But that ability to put the past behind him is really an admirable quality.  Most of us let past issues hang around us until the weight leaves us stuck.  Some deny the reality of bad behavior.  Some will rationalize it so it won't seem so bad.  He just admits to it while looking forward to a new start.  He will probably be a brand new kid when he gets to school.  He will apologize for Monday and just pick up with Tuesday.  He is way ahead of most of us in that area.

We talk about repentance and forgiveness in church without seeing much real progress in our lives.  These are important words because of what they mean not just because we repeat them often.  Songs or hymns about these words do not promise they take root in our spiritual journey.  There are those who know the words yet refuse to move beyond past bad behavior.  It gives them a reason to live with mediocrity.  Some may know the words yet keep reviewing that failure as if they can undo damage.  Then some just give up on the whole repentance and forgiveness thing since they conclude it will not work for them.  God cannot possible find them acceptable after a particular bad behavior or sin.  These are people who always live in guilt who never learn the freedom of grace.  These are those who live in anxiety someone might find out what they are really like.  They may sing about God's grace but it's a foreign language to them.

We should take our sin or failure serious.  Do not fail to understand my point.  I even made sure to talk with my son about his mistakes today.  But never fail to take serious the forgiveness God offers either.  All of us are prodigals but we also have access to a God who forgives and restores.  Let that be the last word of your overcoming sin.

Bro. Trey

One way to measure a sermon or study is to look back to see if the speaker got more out of it than just new material.  Some describe it as living with the sermon before it is delivered.  This is not a given in any week of preparation.  One can study for hours yet not really gain much personally out of the effort.  Not everyone will admit to that but it is true.  Let me also add that you really have to try hard to miss a meaning with your exposure to scripture.  But this does not mean it cannot happen.  Maybe it is similar to the believer who cannot connect what they believe to how they live.  Neither situation leads to a good outcome.

We are beginning yet another new study for the next few weeks.  Easter is approaching so my first task was to look through the lectionary which contains suggested texts for a given week.  Many of our mainline congregations use this for every Sunday of the year.  My usual approach is to look through it during the times of Easter and Christmas.  I concluded this year that there are good ideas for the next few weeks but not enough to just utilize it every Sunday.  The setting for the Easter season is in the gospel of Luke.  Some of the Sundays will find me picking up on the scripture suggested.  I also decided to use a few other texts from Luke even if not in the lectionary.  I say all of this to only point out how my brain works to get ready.  It may not be for everyone but it helps me. 

So we began today with looking at the temptation of Jesus for our study.  We sometimes are so familiar with scripture that we overlook the possibility to learn something new.  Most will tell you they know the story but fail to relate to it for their personal growth.  Others live in a way where temptation or testing is no bother to them.  What we really learn is those who desire great things of God often encounter the forces of evil in various ways.  Being an intentional follower does not mean the absence of trials but may mean the opposite.  Courage is needed to face such times in our world.  Evil never will casually approach us but it will come at us full force.  Divine boldness will serve as a huge asset in our battle. 

There is one thing we often note when we think about that temptation moment.  Lots of emphasis is drawn to Jesus quoting scripture in the conflict.  Memorizing verses does matter but my mind wondered if there is more to it than that.  Every verse spoken by Jesus is one from experience not just a good idea.  They are words forged in the divine moment which gain power as we live with God.  They are powerful simply because they are the words of God but also because we experience Him in our journey.  One of the great temptations is to know about God but never truly depend on Him in our heart.  Jesus is doing far more than remembering bible verses.  He is declaring a dependence on God born of real life faith.  That's what I gain from today's study.  God is the one we discover in our tests.  It's not just about what we avoid.  The tests are also about who we lean on to see us through to the other side.

Bro. Trey

Rivalries are a huge part of any sports fan's world.  There is always one team that stands above the others that you want to beat.  We talk a lot about such in our country but it is not limited to American sports.  Soccer teams over in England know a great deal about a rivalry.  Other countries have sports where the passions burn greater for one game over another.  I once read how India and Pakistan enjoy an intense rivalry in the game of cricket.  High School sports often revolve around one game on the football schedule that matters more than the rest.  We had one way back when I played where that one game mattered more than the others.  Sports talkers were debating today on what is the greatest rivalry in sports.  There is no one answer to that question as far as I'm concerned.  But let me share a few opinions with you before reaching any conclusion.

• College basketball doesn't have the usual rivalries as in football.  The one that may stand out over the others is Duke against North Carolina.  These two teams clashed again this evening and have one game remaining in conference play.  There may be a few other schools who have a whiff of a rivalry but none like this one.
• Baseball doesn't lend itself to rivalries of a fiery nature.  There are a few teams who especially celebrate beating another but these teams play each other often in a season.  The one that comes close to that passion would be the Red Sox and Yankees.  You can usually expect a few disagreements on the field during the season when they play.  Sometimes you can even get lucky and a brawl will break out.
• Football is where many of our rivalries take root.  NFL teams usually have one of two teams they play each year where it becomes a matter of pride over who wins and loses.  Your enjoyment of the rivalry depends on your location as well as how long you rooted for your team.  The older a team is will deepen how intense a game becomes.  This means the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers should be the most important rivalry in the NFL.
• College football is defined by rivalries.  Many of them are regional in nature as teams take on a foe that is somewhat close in geography.  Ohio State plays Michigan each year in a big game.  Alabama has Auburn to compete with for bragging rights.  But can there be any larger rivalry than Army versus Navy?  People cheer for their team in the game all over the globe.  This is the one that would receive my vote for biggest rivalry in American sports.

Thank goodness a rivalry is limited to sports.  Or do we deal with such in our church life?  You know as well as I do that competition and conflict are woven too much into the fabric of too many congregations.  People get at odds with another person but choose to act selfish rather than spiritual.  Some even forget what the original problem was as it simply becomes a contest of wills.  There is one difference between this scenario and the sports rivalry.  No one wins in a church conflict.  We all lose as our energy is deflected from doing our divine purpose when we are dragged into a mess.  We know better yet we keep recycling bad behavior over and over.  Rivalries are great fun in the world of sports.  They do nothing to make us more like Jesus in our daily life.  My fear is we will never learn the difference.

Bro. Trey

You knew could be a memorable day by the sounds of the storms passing through our area.  I did not serve in the military but cannot imagine the noise level of the thunder being any greater than incoming cannon fire.  My one prayer was for the power to remain on so my youngest would not pace until its return.  That prayer was answered.  Sunshine was beginning to break through the clouds by the time I headed for church.  Torrential rain gave way to a decent day in terms of the weather.  It also turned out to be a good day all around.

We had our two guest speakers today.  One is a foreign missionary who works with groups in the darkest parts of Brazil and Peru.  His slides were stunning as they appeared to capture people who haven't moved into our contemporary age.  These tribes still live in grass huts with no idea about our common technology.  We then heard a state missionary from Laredo, Texas this evening.  We saw images of life in our country that seemed much more fitting to life in Mexico.  Both of these men are seeing God at work in remarkable ways.  Impossible would seem to be a word neither of them use in their settings.  It was a good thing to be able to sit back to absorb the messages.  Let me note a few thoughts that crossed my mind today. 

• God really doesn't need a lot of fancy stuff to make a miracle.  We tend to get caught up in our technology and such until we neglect the divine aspect of mission.
• We tend to see our world in terms of our American upbringing.  The temptation is to forget there is a world beyond ours.  God does have a heart for all people including those we do not think often about.
• People first need a relationship with God for wholeness.  But there are many avenues or ways to meet their other needs to introduce them to faith.  The limits are only determined by the needs of the people.
• Mission is too often thwarted by the negative person or the critic.  Our best efforts at courageously following Jesus get dashed by those who do not and will not ever understand.  Even the ministry of Jesus met head on with detractors of all types.
• Once there is a growing change of heart by those who are followers of Jesus then you can expect society to change.  History records several great revival movements that did more than fill the pews at church.  God changed a community as people joined Him at work.  It sounds simple but is never going to be easy.

Taking a Sunday off from preaching can be a good thing. It was for me today. Getting to listen as God speaks always builds character.  I know that God is working in even the worst places one can imagine.  It tells me there is always hope for His working even here. 

Bro. Trey

Sunday is going to be odd for me.  You may remember a post prior to my illness about the number of consecutive Sundays when I was speaking.  My best guess then was about 160 Sundays in a row where I preached in my church.  We may be approaching about 180 now but that streak ends this week.  The feelings about that are weird since it's been such a part of my world.  A missionary will be speaking this week for a mission conference.  There will be another one that evening.  I keep thinking there is something missing from the last few days.  The hard part is knowing how to take advantage of the break.  So far there is some success and some failure.

Part of this week was spent doing pastor things.  One good thing is there wasn't the pressure of needing to do other stuff.  There are always visits to make, meetings to have and other duties that can get put aside with the weekly demands of research.  My guess is most ministers do the other stuff of the job with the sermon details somewhere in their mind.  They may not always tell you this but my hunch says it is true.  Being original is not something most ministers do naturally.  But it also could be that my case is unique in that struggle.  Most of us try to deal with the other aspects of our duty while balancing our time needed to get ready.  That is a never ending process.

You should also know there is guilt that runs through my mind this week.  Part of me feels like I should be keeping the streak alive.  Let me remind you that there are times when our feelings just lie to us.  I know this full well.  So one of my efforts is to skip the guilt to do things that are healthy in the long run.  For example, I made time today and will tomorrow to look ahead to the Sundays heading into Easter.  We will probably stick to Luke's gospel for our scripture as we look at various topics.  One of my biggest failures is in not making time to map out a few weeks of study.  I can change that this time.  Now it may not make the sermons any better but an attempt is being made.  There is also time to think about goals and issues of the congregation.  I will try to report on those in the very near future.

We can all use a change in the routine.  You probably don't even know how far in a rut that you are until you climb out.  Our problem is we enjoy our routine as it is safe and predictable.  We may say we like change but just wait until it happens to check your response.  Guilt, anxiety and other emotional cripplers may challenge us if we want to try something new.  It is always worth it to take on those feelings for the sake of new life.  God tends to do all of His work in a new fashion.  He seldom repeats Himself.  So take a walk on the wild side soon.  Break your normal schedule to see what He has in store.  You may be surprised to the point you don't move back into your rut.

Bro. Trey

Did you know there was a big football game today?  You couldn't watch television without being reminded of it in various ways.  Super Bowls come and go but we will get wrapped up in it again next year.  My number one complaint about the game is how it is overblown to be something it cannot be.  Don't get me started about the commercials either.  It is supposed to be a championship game between the two teams that survive the tournament.  Just seems like some are still looking for a perfect game and that just won't happen. 

There was a very good article this past week in "Sports Illustrated" on how God and sports relate.  Part of the question is just how much should the two go together at all?  I can imagine two thousand years ago that those in athletic contests did spend some time praying.  But many of those events were indeed life or death competitions.  Today you see athletes praying before of after a game in groups.  You often witness or hear one talking of his faith or being thankful to God for an outcome.  More than a few sport journalists find fault in all the religious stuff being brought into the field of play.  It doesn't bother me very much but we do need to think about questions that are raised.

Does God really care who won the game today?  Many of the players from the winning team were already thanking God or talking about Him in the interviews.  No doubt that will be a topic of conversation on the airwaves tomorrow.  I do not really know if God had a pick in the game.  I do know there are occasions you have to wonder as to how or why some things happen as they do during a contest.  No one can prove it but you have to ponder as to how things play out at times.  My best answer is that it sure does look like divine intervention on occasion but winning a ballgame is probably not high on God's to do list.  The athlete who has faith in God is not promised victory just for belief.  My guess is there are some believers on the team that lost today.  We should indeed be grateful for any success that comes our way but do not think a loss equals spiritual failure.

I do not know if God cares who wins a Mexican League soccer game.  Maybe He pays attention to a Junior League hockey game in Canada or Russia.  We tend to ask the wrong questions usually.  Can an athlete thank God in defeat as much as in victory seems to be a better inquiry.  Are we willing to embrace all sides of a contest with an attitude that pleases God?  What I do know is God cares about all of our life from a view beyond the bleachers.  His interest is eternal which may not show up on a scoreboard.  Maybe you can make sense of this rambling somehow.  Perhaps you can find food for thought about something that may or may not be a big deal.  If not, just wait until next year!

Bro. Trey