Tweet This week we continue looking at The Roman Road, as it has been called, a brief walk through the book of Romans, that when combined, can help a person…
Read More
Get New Blog Posts the moment they are released:
There is a special moment of worship that happens occasionally where I sense so strongly the presence of God that all the troubles of the world disappear. I don’t have a care in the world except the glory of God. I call it a sacred place…for a sacred moment… It doesn’t last long, but it lasts long enough that it changes me in that moment! It certainly renews my faith and strengthens me for the journey of life.
I’ll be honest, it doesn’t happen as often as I would like, but it happened twice this week.
It doesn’t seem to be something I can plan. If it were, I’d stay in that place and moment, but I’ve discovered there are a few things that might trigger such a time:
I love to surround myself with leaders. Often, when we think of leaders, we consider those with great experience in the field in which he or she is leading. They are the experts, they have experience, they’ve been tested, and they are ready to encourage followers. Of course, experience is never a bad characteristic for a leader, but there is one trait that I look for in a young leader even before knowledge or experience.
I believe:
“Pastor Ron, my life is a mess and I don’t know what to do to fix it.”
I received a call from a frantic young man recently. He had made some serious mistakes and now desperately wants to bring the broken pieces together again. I’m not worried about exposing someone’s identity, because that exact scenario is repeated dozens of times in the course of a year. It happens nearly once a week. While I’m no longer shocked anymore at the severity of someone’s struggles, I still am often surprised when I find out who some of the people struggling are in my church. This young man seemed to have everything going for him.
Some of us become good at playing church. You’ve seen it many times. The person on Sunday gives the appearance that everything is fine, but when you really get to know them, you realize that things aren’t always as they appear. We’ve become skilled at pretending everything is okay, but when we do so, are we really allowing the church to be the church? Jesus said He came for the sick….the broken…the wounded. (Paraphrase of Mark 2:17)
Here are 4 ways I’ve seen people play church and mask the reality of their life:
Okay, let me be honest…I’m not sure the title of this post is theologically sound. I don’t know if we can “break God’s heartâ€. His heart appears fairly strong to me. He carries the weight of the world on His shoulders, so I’m assuming He can handle most anything we throw His way. I did want you to read the post though, and I do think there is an illustration here that is important for us to consider.
Our youngest son Nate is studying in Europe this summer. (You can read more about his experiences HERE.) For the last couple of years, he has attended school 8 hours away, so the distance is not so much an issue, although it is summer and I wish he were home. The problem for me now is the way we ended our instant messaging today. He will not have Internet for the next 5 days, so I’ll not have any correspondance from him for nearly a week.
I realize 5 days is a short time for many. I sometimes only talk to my mother once a week, but I’m new at this empty nesting. Five days seems like forever right now.
But, there’s a bigger issue that came to my mind…
I consistently encounter people who are desperate for friendships. They feel completely alone. I understand. I’ve been there in several seasons of my life and, as an Introvert, I’ve often felt left on the sidelines while others enjoyed the party.
Here is my best suggestion if you feel all alone:
For several weeks of Scripture memory, I’m walking through what’s been referred to as “The Roman Road”; a comprehensive look at what it means to be a follower of Christ through the book of Romans. You can see last week’s HERE. (It’s important to go with this weeks!)
Here is this week’s memory verse:
Will you commit this verse to memory this week?
So the other day I was at a mall and witnessed something that made me chuckle. This mom apparently had 3 kids and a husband. Of course, that was an assumption I made about them, but for this story it won’t really matter. What I thought was funny was the woman’s purse. It wasn’t huge, but every child and the husband wanted something from the woman and she found it in her purse. Apparently she was the keeper of her family’s stuff.
Ever seen that one before?
She had a brush, money, some kind of medicine and a bottle of mustard. I know…random right…but that’s what made me chuckle. This mom was prepared for whatever her family needed…all within a single purse.
So it made me wonder…
Tweet “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare,…
Tweet One of the most feared sermon messages, at least from personal experience, appears to be a message about money. Still, giving is a part of a maturing believer’s experience….
Tweet This weekend we had the incredible experience of seeing our oldest son Jeremy marry his his school sweetheart Mary. I was privileged to perform the ceremony. It was a…
Tweet It’s been an incredible few days. Cheryl and I returned tonight from Florida where our oldest son Jeremy married Mary, his high school sweetheart. They are a beautiful couple….
Tweet Last week we started memorizing what’s been called “The Roman Road”. You can read last’s week’s verse HERE. Here is this week’s continuation and memory verse: I’d love to…
Tweet A reader sent me a great question recently. He wrote: Do you think Christians should flash their lights to warn of cars on the road of an approaching radar patrol…
This is a premature post. My boys will probably balk at it, but I’ll be honest. I’m a people watcher. That’s especially true when I’m out of town where I don’t know anyone.
This week I’m in Florida to perform my oldest son’s wedding. He and his soon-to-be wife have been together for many years, so we feel she’s already part of the family. They say they want to enjoy life together a few years, but we know they both love children, so, even though we would encourage them to take their time, we suspect they’ll have children within the first few years of marriage.
That means we’ll someday be grandparents and it has made me more conscious of what it will be like at that stage of life. Cheryl and I talk about it often.
Today I saw a family out with a grandmother. It was a beautiful family. The kids seemed well-behaved. The parents seemed attentive. The only problem, in my opinion, was an over-bearing, controlling grandmother. Every time the children did anything she corrected them. She consistently over-ruled the parents with the children. She didn’t appear as a loving grandmother, but rather as a family friend who grew impatient with the couple’s children.
I’ve already told my boys, but I feel I need to tell you for accountability purposes. Here are 4 commitments Cheryl and I hope to make as grandparents: