Counting the Cost-Comparing the Choices

So many want to just say a prayer and "BOOM!" you are in...  Jesus said, "... anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
28 "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29 For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30 saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' 31 "Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple." -Luke 14:27-33 (NIV)OR 13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."  -Matt 7:13-14 (NIV)AND Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."  -John 14:6 (NIV)I love Johnny Hart's BC comic strips.  Recently someone gave me a book to look through called "I Did It His Way".  It is a compilation of Johnny Hart's comics that are spiritual in nature.   I find them humorous and yet pointed.  It made me realize that this was a man that counted the cost and willingly laid the truth out there for all to see - knowing that he may get ousted from the local papers but in all actuality, it solidified his career and showed his integrity to stand by what he believed - He did not worry about the consequences since He trusted in His God to use his talents to make the Word of God known in an attractive manner.  It is good stuff.  "Prayer is allowing God to have His will in your life on HIS terms." - Johnny Hart (1931-2007)

The Best Easter Ever!

I don't know enough about the Catholic beliefs and, honestly, I am not one for a lot of ritual type behavior but this year I was curious about why? Why Ash Wednesday? Why Lent? Why give up something during Lent? Part of this was driven by the need in my heart to make sure that the Resurrection Celebration on Easter Sunday carried meaning for me this year. It seems like sometimes I have gotten lost in the routine of Good Friday Communion and Easter services being really spectacular and forgotten that I need to reflect on what Christ accomplished in the spiritual battle we all face.

Therefore, I decided to give something up for Lent – but I felt like instead of just giving it up Monday to Saturday and enjoying it on each Sunday until Easter, that I would give it up completely. It was interesting to cause myself to reflect on Christ, His journey, His sacrifice and His victory every time that I thought of having a hot delicious cup of coffee. I reflected more upon Christ throughout these last 46 days than I normally do and it really changed how I was thinking about Resurrection Sunday.

Additionally, we hosted a Journey to the Cross during what the Catholic Church would call Holy Week or Passion Week (that week between Palm Sunday and Easter). 
This allowed me to reflect upon the events that filled Jesus' last days. I was fascinated by the choices that Jesus made during that last week to ingrain some events into the minds of His disciples. I remembered that Jesus knew, all along, what was coming and when. In fact, John 13:1 says, "It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father." If you KNEW that you had less than a week to live – how would you spend it?
Then came Communion – mind you – two months ago when we started talking about this week and Communion, I was bummed. It did not excite me. So I paused and asked myself, "Why?" and the answer was that it seemed to have lost some of the meaning. So, we simplified, shortened and created a service for Communion that was designed to keep us focused on remembering what Christ accomplished…and it worked!


Then yesterday – WOW! Looking at what the Word of God says about the extravagant love of God! Extravagant - "going beyond what is deserved or justified." The perfect word to describe God's love for man in sending Christ. He loved the whole world sooooooooo much (John 3:16) that He showed it to us by the sacrifice of His Son (Romans 5:8) and purchased us at a very expensive, personal and demanding price (Acts 20:28, 1 Corinthians 7:23). Now that is extravagant AND that is why my Easter was the best ever! Plus – one of the people that I prayed for to yield their life to Jesus Christ did – at the end of the service yesterday! New life on a day that we celebrate new life!

How could it be any better?

God Sees Behind the Mask!

I love this story of the believing townsfolk in this small Swiss town:

"In Basel, Switzerland each year the good protestant townspeople have a festival in which they all don masks and go through the city doing things and going placed they would never consider doing/going under normal circumstances. The mask, which veiled their identity, emboldened them to do these things. One year, the Salvation Army, concerned about the abandonment of moral standards, put up signs all over the city, which read, "God sees behind the mask."             -- Dr. Kenneth Gangel, Scofield Memorial Church, May 22, 1983."

Psalm 139 tells us several truths about God that makes us see how true it is that God sees behind the mask… It tells us that He knows us inside and out. He knows our actions and observes them. He knows our thoughts and our words we are about to speak! Not the ones that we are speaking but the ones that we are thinking about letting come out of our mouths!

He is familiar with all of our ways – This Hebrew word –sakan- means to be acquainted with or to be so well known as to be useful. In this context, it is a more intense understanding and it means to be "intimately acquainted with". God is not just familiar with us like he recognizes us in passing… He is intimately aware of the details of our ways and our thinking patterns.

Verses 7-12 describe our passion to hide from God compared to our complete inability to even sneak away from Him for a millisecond. It isn't going to happen!

This both comforts me and scares me – I am comforted because of the phrase in verse 10 – "even there your hand will guide me and your right hand will hold me fast." There is security in God intimately being aware of your life and knowing that you are in His hands at all times. It scares me because He knows my thoughts – even when I can hide behind my mask with you. He knows my words – what I want to say – even if I do not say them and He knows my heart. I know what is there but you may not because I hide behind a mask.

When I remember that God sees behind the mask, I have the comfort of knowing that He still loves me and forgives me and desires to be in a right relationship with me anyway.

This enables me to be more transparent with you and to take off the mask and learn to trust that I can be who I am, with my struggles, insecurities and problems while still knowing that I am a work in progress just like you! We should be doing this together and growing and pushing each other to conform to the image of the Savior! Join me! Take off the mask and be who God made you to be!

"April Fool's" Lol!

So, just like every Sunday, I came into the office early yesterday to pray, meet with a couple of friends and work through any final service prep that may need to be done and here is what I find staring in my face -

And attached to his neck...

The meeting table and chairs - topsy turvy... Streamers everywhere along with many many balloons! The vandals even left their balloon trash and streamer trash behind?

Toilet Paper adorning my lamp and across my desk.

Notice the picture askew on the wall along with many other ones that were either upside-down on the walls or bookshelves.

The desk itself is wrapped in cellophane!

Every book on the desk - upside down.

Chairs - turned over.

Worst offense- they touched my M & M container and could have spilled them on the floor! In fact, it is now upside down.

On the white board were a bunch of google eyes with a face drawn around it!

Additionally, a bush was moved in to the room along with Vaseline on my door handle. Multiple other violations... fake bugs hovering all around and my phone and chair "vandalized". However, the cool thing was that I know that someone was thinking about something special for me over the weekend! I feel loved!

PS - only a few people have access to my office - still thinking Chris may be in on it somehow.