Tag Archives: Family

The Day After Election Day

Posted on by

0

Today is the day after Election Day.  Today is a day for many of great joy and for others great depression.  For some they feel crushed and worried because their hopes for our nation were defeated, for others there is celebration because their hopes carried the day.

For some “my guy” won. For others “my guy” lost.

To both sides, today, I offer these words as a Pastor and as a friend.

By the way, they’d be same words I’d have offered you yesterday and the day before.

It’s the same advice I will offer you tomorrow.

Pray.  Read your bible.  Go to church.  Love your families.  Teach your children.  Men, be the Godly spiritual leaders of your homes. Wives, be the Godly woman that God has created you to be, enabling your family to be the family God needs.

Teach your children the truth of God.  Value spiritual truth more than worldly truth.

Be salt and light.

Remember the words of Psalm 2 1:3:

Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
“Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.”

If your guy won, remember that God is the true king.  If you guy lost, remember that God is the true king.  And true change for our nation starts in the home, in the families, in the churches.

Remember – pray.  Read your bible.  Go to church.

Be faithful.  Love God.  Love neighbor.

Be salt and light.  And remember John Wesley’s final words upon the earth -“The best of all is, God is with us.”

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

First Things First

Posted on by

0

Just a reminder, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

Jesus must be first in our lives. There is no other way that life works. Jesus must be first. Only when He is first, does everything else fall into place.

Listen to what happens in Luke 9:57-62:

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

We see in today’s text that different people respond to Jesus’ call to follow Him. One says, I’ll follow, but Jesus warns, it will be tough. You will have no place to lay your head. Scripture doesn’t say, but it implies that He does not follow.

Jesus is saying – I must come first.

Next, Jesus gives the call and the other says, I must bury my father. Jesus response sounds cold, uncaring for family. That’s not who Jesus is, through. If you remember at the cross, one of the last things that He did was that He made sure His mother Mary was taken care of.

Jesus is not uncaring for family. He is just saying – I must come first.

Finally one says let me go and say good by to my friends and family, and Jesus responds – no. I must be first!

Jesus does not desire to separate us from those that love us. He does nto desire to separate us from those that we love. What is saying is this – first things first. I must come first.

In every relationship, in every moment, in every thought, in everything in our lives, He must come first.

That’s where life is found. And when He is first, everything else makes sense. When He is not, when something or someone else is first things don’t make sense. But, when He is first, life is as it should be.

Today, in all your life, keep first things first. Keep Jesus first. And everything else will make sense.

Family Resemblance

Posted on by

0

One day my daughter Sarah got in an argument with my wife Holly. We were at Holly’s parents and Sarah saw a picture of Holly when she was a little girl and asked Holly when it was that she (Sarah) had taken that picture. Sarah said, no mama, that’s me. Holly said, no Sarah, that was me as a little girl. And Sarah didn’t believe her.

When you see a picture of Sarah and Holly side by side when they were the same age, you could see why she would be confused. I’m not going to say that they look exactly alike, but it’s very close.

We look like are parents and other family. It’s neat to see that family resemblance sometimes. It’s neat to be able to look back and see those common traits in families through the years.

Listen to what happens in Genesis 1:26-27:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Today in Genesis, we see the story of our creation and formation. And we see our greatest family resemblance. We look like our Father. Our heavenly Father.

We are made in God’s image. Each of us. We are made in the image of God. That doesn’t mean that we “look” like God, it means that we are each of what I have heard it called a “sacred worth.”

Each of us, no matter what’s going on in our lives; no matter what we’ve been told; no matter what we’ve done; no matter what we are doing, we are each of a sacred worth. We matter. We are important. Christ died for us.

You matter today. You are sacred today. You are special today. You are vital part of God’s creation and God’s plan today.

You have a family resemblance. You take after your Father. Nothing can take that away. Nothing. Nothing.

Live with that knowledge and confidence today. Live with that assurance. You are a specially created child of God today. Don’t let anyone tell you different.

You were made in God’s image. You matter. You are important. Never forget that.

Connections: Family Podcast

Posted on by

0

The sermon podcast for Sunday, May 8, 2011 is up on Asbury Church’s website. This is the second our sermons in our new series “Connections.”  This month we’ll be talking about the “Connections” or relationships that define us.  This message deals with “Family” as well as Mother’s Day.  The text is John 15: 1-8.  You can listen to it by clicking here, or you can listen to it here on this blog by clicking below. And, as always, you can subscribe to my sermon podcasts through iTunes.

Delight

Posted on by

0

My kids make me really happy.

My reflection is a little later than I anticipated because they wanted to spend time this morning snuggling. And I’m a sucker for that.  Anytime my kids want to snuggle up to me in the morning, or at night, I just can’t help it.

Now, are their times they drive me crazy.  Of course.  Just like there will be times in the future I drive them crazy. And just like I’m sure I drive Holly crazy all the time 🙂

But, I love them. I delight in them at all times. And outside of my walk with God, they really are my truest joy in all my life.

And every parent understands that.  Every grandparent, Aunt/Uncle, each of us, we know what it means to delight yourself in that child.

Hear the words of the Psalmist this morning, from Psalm 18:

18 He delivered me from my strong enemies
and from those who hated me; *
for they were too mighty for me.
19 They confronted me in the day of my disaster; *
but the LORD was my support.
20 He brought me out into an open place; *
he rescued me because he delighted in me.

He rescued David this morning because He delighted in David.

This morning, God delights in you.  You make Him happy.  He really does love you.  No matter what you’ve done.  No matter what.  Just as a parent delights in their child, so does God delight in you.

You make His eyes light up.  You are precious to Him.  You are His delight.

Today, no matter what.

We had an awesome Sunday this past Sunday at Asbury, and I knew it was going to be a great day when our first song was “Come as You Are” by the band Pocket Full of Rocks.  It starts off this way:

He’s not mad at you
He’s not disappointed
His grace is greater still,
than all of your wrong choices

God delights in you.  He’s not mad at you.  He loves you.

He delights in you.  Live in that knowledge today and each day.  You are His delight.

May He be our delight.

Not Me!

Posted on by

0

As I was reading through the scriptures for today, something from Exodus 32 really stood out to me.  It was the conversation Moses had with Arron after the golden calf.   They were talking, and this is that conversation:

21Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?” 22And Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn hot; you know the people, that they are bent on evil. 23They said to me, ‘Make us gods, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 24So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, take it off’; so they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!” 25When Moses saw that the people were running wild (for Aaron had let them run wild, to the derision of their enemies),26then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him.

One of the things we see a lot in the Old Testament stories is this notion of – not me!  I didn’t do it.

Adam – did you eat the fruit?   Nope, the woman you gave me gave it to me.

Eve – did you eat the fruit?  Nope, it was the snake that made it happen.

Arron – did you let the people lose their minds?  Nope, they came to me and made me do it.

It’s a refrain I hear a lot from my two kids.  No me!  I didn’t do it!  Not me!  Not my fault!

It’s always someone else’s fault.  We see that in the Bible. We see it in our kids.  We see it in ourselves.

I know me, it’s easier for me blame others than to look within.  I don’t want to look within.  I’d rather blame you than work on me.  It’s less painful for me to lay my problems and my mistakes upon someone else than for me to look within myself and see what I need to fix.

Or rather, allow God to fix in me.

Sure, none of us are perfect. All of us fall. All of us make mistakes. That’s ok.  Instead of pretending like we are perfect, it’s better to admit our mistakes, take responsibility and work on what we can fix.

And know that even in our mistakes and failures, God’s love never, ever ends.

He doesn’t love us because of what we’ve done (or not done).  He loves us because it’s who He is.

He is love.

In spite of our mistakes.  He loves us.

Not our fault? I don’t know about that.

Being loved by God?  I do know about that. We are. Today, and each day.

April 16, A Remembrance – No Greater Love

Posted on by

7

I don’t normally read from the King James.  I read from the NRSV normally because it’s the standard pew Bible edition for most United Methodist Churches.  I also like the TNIV, even though they are no longer making it, the NIV, the Message, and most all of them.  I always tell folks read the Bible that speaks to them.

But, when I quote scripture off the top of my head, I quote the King James.  Why?  Because it’s what I grew up reading and hearing, and it’s what scripture still “sounds” like to me.  Especially the Psalms, or John 14 (in Father’s house were many mansions).

And the passage I’m thinking about this morning. When I think of John 15: 13, I always hear it in the KJV

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

I always think of that verse on April 16.

See it was on April 16, 1978 that no great love was shown to me.

On April 16, 1978, my mother was murdered.  She was killed as she was walking out of our house, with me in her arms. She was walking out of the house because she did not want me raised in an abusive situation, in a situation full of drugs and destruction. She was walking out of the house because she wanted me to have a better life.

She was walking out of the house because she loved me.

And in that, she laid down her life for me.  Literally.  I sometimes tell folks I have the burden and blessing in my life of having had two people lay down their life for me, Jesus and Mama Sarah.

And, every day I wake up and know that I am here, I give thanks for no greater love.

And every time I look at my daughter Sarah and mourn over the fact that she will never know the grandmother she was named for, I give thanks for no greater love.

Every time I look at my grandparent that adopted me, even though they had raised their kids already, and had other plans for life, I give thanks for no greater love.

And every time I get the chance to teach my children about what love looks like, I give thanks for no greater love.

Today is a bittersweet day.  I have no doubt that I am and have been loved.  I just wish the price weren’t so high.

But, greater love hath no man (or woman, mother, or father) than this, that they lay down their life for their friends.

I give thanks for no greater love.

Acolyte and/or preacher in Training

Posted on by

0

Sarah wanted to help me light the candles before church tonight

Being a Pastor versus Being a Son

Posted on by

2

I’ve had the chance the past few months to put on some different shoes.

As a pastor I’ve very used to the hospital.  I’ve spent time visiting in Jackson, in Memphis, in Tupelo and in nearly every every major hospital in Mississippi.

But, in past few months, I’ve had a different perspective.  My mom has had to undergo a couple of surgeries.  Nothing major, thankfully, but she’s been in the hospital more the past few months than at any point in my life.

And, mama is also 80.  I was raised by my grandparents (long story) and they are in great health. But, 80 is 80 and when she is put to sleep, I’ll be honest if you don’t start getting nervous.

So, for the first in my life, I’ve come to the hospital in a different position.  Not as a patient.  Not as a pastor. But, as a son.

I like being a pastor much, much better.

Maybe it’s just want I’m used to.  Now, there are advantages in being just a son. For instance, I didn’t shave today. Also, I’m wearing blue jeans and my favorite Ole Miss pull over.  I forgot my hat at home, or I’d be wearing a hat too.  So, I’m pretty comfortable.

And, there is that feeling about not worrying about others. When you are pastor, your concern is your church member. How are they?  Do they need anything?  Do you need to lift their spirits?  Pray?  Quote scripture?

Today, I’ve watched part of the Cotton Bowl, read the paper, checked my email. Blogged (what I’m doing right now).

I haven’t had to worry about providing care to anyone.

And, that’s the problem.  As a pastor, I have something to do.  A job.  A purpose.  I can be helpful.

As a son, I feel helpless.  Sure, I can pray like I always do.  I can stay busy.  I can do lots.  But, it’s different.

As a son, I wait.  I fret.  I worry.  I pace.

As a pastor, I’m calm and relaxed. Confident.

As a son.  I worry.

I really do love what I am called to do and who I’m called to be.  And, I know as a son the things that I know as a pastor.  I know God is at work, God is here, God’s grace is always there.

But, I get so busy taking care of others that I don’t have to worry about things myself.

And, perhaps, it’s not just preachers that do that. Perhaps we get so busy living life that we can forget to remember things we know.

God is good. God is at work. God is here, even know.

So, the pastor and son are not that different. And maybe, just maybe, we all have that same battle within us.

And, maybe, just maybe, God understands, knows, and loves us anyway.