The Bible says that children are a blessing. May the following things help us to pray and be thankful for our children.
"If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into Heaven?" I asked the children in my Sunday School class.
"NO!" the children all answered.
"If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me into Heaven?"
Again, the answer was, "NO!"
"Well, then, if I was kind to animals and gave candy to all the children, and loved my wife, would that get me into Heaven?" I asked them again.
Again, they all answered, "NO!"
"Well, I continued, "then how can I get into Heaven?"
A five-year-old boy shouted out, "YOU GOTTA be dead!"
A PARENT'S PRAYER
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray my sanity to keep.
For if some peace I do not find,
I'm pretty sure I'll lose my mind.
I pray I find a little quiet,
Far from the daily family riot.
May I lie back and not have to think
About what they're stuffing down the sink,
Or who they're with, or where they're at
And what they're doing to the cat.
I pray for time all to myself
(did something just fall off a shelf?)
To cuddle in my nice, soft bed
(Oh no, another goldfish dead!)
Some silent moments for goodness sake
(Did I just hear a window break?)
And that I need not cook or clean
(oh well, I've got the right to dream)
Yes now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray my wits about me keep,
But as I look around I know,
I must have lost them long ago
It probably just hit me at the right time but I found this video clip humerous and entertaining. It is the one in the middle. The first one is good but the one on the Sound of Music is great. It brightened my day, I pray it does the same for you:
This quote from When Life Gets Hard by James Gordon Gilkey caused me to think this morning. Someone once asked King George V to write an inscription on the fly leaf of a Bible, and these were the strange words he penned:
"The secret of finding happiness is not to do what you like to do, but to learn to like what you have to do."
(Phil 4:12 NIV) I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.(Phil 4:13 NIV) I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
(Eph 6:18-20 NIV) And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
It is good to be ministering with the Monterey Church of Christ. Please click on this web site to learn more about the church: http://www.montereychurchofchrist.org/
This past Sunday morning we talked about prayer from Ephesians 6:18-20. Sunday night we talked about the parable of the weeds (wheat and tares) from Matthew 13.
We are thankful for the following things:
Our Wednesday night program at the church. We have many children and teens.
The Teenage Sunday School class is going well. We are thankful for Vance and Gay Cross being the teachers. There hasn't been a teen class for a while and we are excited.
We are thankful for the cooler temperatues and the beauty of sunny days.
Otto and Dottie left on Tuesday. What a joy to have them visit. On Wednesday my Dad came and visited with us. On Thursday we went to Baton Rouge for the boys dentist appointments. No cavities or problems! On Saturday Dad (Grandpa Huss) went back home. What a joy to have all of the company!
We sold the green van!!! Last week a man called and was interested in it. However, he got a better deal and decided against our van. Then, his first deal was not that good after all and he decided to buy our van. He paid what we were asking with few questions. What a blessing and an answer to prayers!
Saturday night was trick or treat night. Zach was a cowboy; Zane was Batman; Alex was the headless horseman; Andy was a pirate. We went and visited with several in the community on that night! A special thanks to Debbi Hamilton for the meal! Ask Crystal for the pictures!
I am thankful that Paul & Julia Avery came back from St. Louis. Paul taught the Sunday school class Sunday morning.
Sunday afternoon we played basketball with some teenagers. We had 10 this week!
Some prayer requests:
For Celebrate Recovery. Pray that those who need the program will get connected to us. We have been working with many who need this program. We haven't met for several weeks.
Crystal and the boys are homeschooling. Keep praying that their education will go well. Also, pray for the Monterey School: http://mhs.cpsbla.us/
This upcoming Sunday Vance and I are going to do something special for the morning worship. Can't tell you what because it is a secret but pray that it will have a positive impact!
Some upcoming events to keep in prayer:
1. November 3rd is the first home basketball game. November 6th is homecoming and basketball games at the school. We are so there!!!
2. November 8 the Gideon's come to speak during the morning worship service. After the service, the youth are having a dinner fund raiser. Come and enjoy the food and fun.
3. November 14th from 4 to 6 pm is the Children's Fall Festival here at the church.
4. November 27 is Thanksgiving. We should have my Mom and Lou with us and maybe some others. What a joy!
We thank all of you who pray for us. What a blessing! (2 Cor 1:10-11 NIV) He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
Crystal teaches Alex and Andy a Bible lesson every day. Here is a story from a recent lesson:
So today's Bible lesson was from Luke 7... Jesus raised the widow's son. Short story even shorter, Jesus touched the coffin and told the young man to get up. V.15: "The dead man sat up and began to talk,....." Care to take a gander at what he said? Some of Alex and Andy's responses were:
*What's going on?
*What am I doing in this box?
*Hey! Put me down!
*Who died?
*I'm hungry. When's supper?
OK, so this side of Heaven we won't really know what he said. And if it were that important, Luke would've included it. There's no real profound nugget of truth in saying that he spoke. The miracle was that he was raised back to life. But this was just one of those times when I experienced reading a well-known story through the eyes of 9 yr. old boys. Try it sometime. Their insights might give you a much-needed chuckle!
I think it is nestalgia and longing to go back to my 80's childhood but recently I have been listening to U2's The Joshua Tree album. (By the way, that is the only album I have of theirs. Might be a good Christmas present to get me some of the others. Just a thought!) U2 is a secular band with a Christian twist. Sometimes I hear Bono quoting verses from the Bible and then I hear him cussing up a storm. I didn't know this but U2 is currently on a concert tour of the US. Here is part of a blog entry by Todd Hiestand who recently attended one of their concerts(http://www.toddhiestand.com):
I was asked recently what my favorite moment of the night was. That’s an easy answer. I have always loved their song “I Sill Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” its simply a classic. But its not the musical genius that gets me in this song, its the lyrics.
I remember when I was in college I had some friends who didn’t like this song. They used it to try and prove that Bono couldn’t be a Christian. Their point was simple: if he really had Jesus in his life, he would have found what he was looking for. Now, I get that and I understand what they were trying to say. Knowing Jesus makes my life worth living. But I think this response to this song shows a hole in many people’s theological framework, most specifically their understanding of hope.
Now, I might be wrong on my interpretation of this song, but that is the great thing about music, its often multilayered in meaning. But, I interpret these lyrics, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” as a cry for the New Heavens and New Earth.
The song begins with the idea that the songwriter has gone through great lengths to strive after God and moves on to the idea that he’s even tried finding ultimate meaning in the “lower” parts of this world (I hear the voice of the writer of Ecclesiastics in these lyrics).
The point is, he’s still looking for something that he has not yet attained… He even believes that, “You broke the bonds, And you loosened the chains, Carried the cross, And all my shame….” And yet he is still running and longing after something.
How is this possible? How can someone still be longing for something more even if they understand the significance of the cross?
Well, I have a pretty good sense of the significance of the cross. Of the resurrection.
And frankly, I long for something.
I long for the New Heavens and New Earth.
For all things to be made new.
For their to be no more wars.
No more famine.
No more crying.
No more pain.
I long for a New World.
The Apostle Paul longed for it too in Romans 8:19-24,
The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.
So, in that moment in the concert, I was able to sing and cry out with 60,000 people a song of longing and a song of hope. There were chills. There were deep emotions. There was even some holding back of tears.
The more I understand this full redemption of our broken world as the ultimate understanding of hope, the more I long for songs like this one. Songs that sing of our longing for the Kingdom to come in all its fullness.
We sing a similar song as Israel. They sang of their longing for the Messiah. We should be singing of our longing for the Messiah to come again and make all things new and heal this broken and fractured world.
This episode from the life of Jesus is told in 3 of the gospels. Here is Matthew's version: (Mat 8:2-3 NIV) A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.
It is so important to touch people who are hurting. My wife and I are not naturally touchy feely kind of people but it is important to at least give people a hand shake or a pat on the back. There is power in a touch.
Look at this story from Thomas Rosica: "In 1992, some Catholic nuns invited me to Egypt to an area where lepers and severely handicapped people were kept, in chains, in underground areas hidden away from civilization. The stench from this place was overpowering, the misery shocking, the suffering incredible. I descended into several hovels... The sister accompanying me said: "Simply touch them. You have no idea what the touch means, when they are kept as animals and monsters." I laid hands on many of these women and men and touched their disfigured faces and bodies. Tears streamed down my face as the women and men and several children shrieked at first then wept openly."
Jesus could have just healed this man without touching his leprosy ridden body but he didn't. He touched him. May we do the same!
Mark 7:7 says, "They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men."
It is amazing the number of traditions that we are taught about the Christian faith that are simply not true. I found this to be true when I was teaching The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer to Alex and Andy a few weeks ago. Here is an excerpt:
The crusaders who went out to fight the Islamic empire were determined to defeat the warriors of Islam. But the Crusades went on for years and years, and the crusaders spent a long time living in Arab countries. And although they thought of Arab warriors as their enemies, they still learned some of the Arab customs. For one thing, they started to take baths more frequently! The Muslim warriors washed often, because they had to bathe before their daily prayers. But in England and France, people only took baths once or twice a year. So when the crusaders came home clean, they were suspected of having become Muslims. Have you ever hear the saying, "Cleanliness is next to godliness?" Well, during the Crusades, dirtiness could prove that you were still a good Christian!
Mark 1:35- Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
I like these words from John Piper in Bible Study Magazine:
A person must build into their life a regular encounter with God, personally and quietly meditating on His Word. I think the early morning is the best time, because it sets the tone for the whole day. If for some reason that time can't work, then midday or evening.
You don't need hours and hours with God every day, but you do need to have time with God orienting your mind, taking something into your heart, letting your heart express itself to God in communion- taking faith's renewal and walking with God through the day, reminding yourself of what you saw in the morning.
I don't think you need to be a "professional" preacher like me in order to enjoy deep and glorious things with God. In fact, some of the deepest saints that I've ever met, who outshine me, have not been "professional" Christians.
John Greenleaf Whittier wrote the words to the hymn, "Dear Lord and Father of mankind." (http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/d/e/dearlord.htm) Here is one of the lesser known verses:
"Drop Thy still dews of quietness
Till all our striving cease,
Take from our souls the strain and stress
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace."
I found these words from James Gordon Gilkey's book When Life Gets Hard, to be helpful to me:
No other hymn we possess suggests so clearly the pressure and tension under which most of us now live. No other hymn states so appealingly our longing for rest, quietness, inward peace. No other hymn phrases so accurately the prayer which numberless men and women now make day after day- "Take from our souls the strain and stress." Ours is a generation that is overworked and overtired. To such a generation Whittier's words made an immediate and unrivalled appeal.
Suppose now the prayer which I mentioned a moment ago- "Take from our souls the strain and stress"- is the one you offer continually. Suppose you are exhausted by the intense and incessant demands life puts upon you, suppose one of your major personal problems is to reduce your devastating sense of strain. Can you gain inward quietness? I think you can. Centuries ago Isaiah wrote "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you" (Isaiah 26:3). Those words are true, utterly and permanently true. If you and I hold in our minds the truths of God and the pattern He has given life, then our sense of strain will fade and the "perfect peace" Isaiah promised will take its place.
The song begins with the idea that the songwriter has gone through great lengths to strive after God and moves on to the idea that he’s even tried finding ultimate meaning in the “lower” parts of this world (I hear the voice of the writer of Ecclesiastics in these lyrics).