sore arm

Trenton and I have been playing a little catch here in the last couple of weeks. He is getting ready for the summer baseball season to start, so we have been tossin the ball around a little bit. I have purposely been asking him to not really throw the ball all that hard so far, because I want him to make sure that he is getting his arm loosened up well, so he doesn't hurt himself. Yesterday was the first day that we did some long toss and I let him "open it up a little." He did fine. I thought I would start throwing a little bit harder yesterday as well. Just in the little bit of time that I did...my arm started hurting. It wasn't a pain in the eldbow or anything like that, my shoulder was a little sore, but it really was more in the muscle. I guess that is what happens when you don't use certain muscles for awhile.
I saw a church sign the other day that said "for a healthy heart, exercise your faith." I liked that. When we go for long periods of time without exercising our faith our heart gets hard and our spiritual health tanks. Then when we do decide to exercise our faith...it hurts, it makes us a little sore.
Here is the catch...what do you do then? If I say well I can't really "throw" anymore, it hurts too bad... eventually i will just not try. But, if I give it a day, and then start back slow and just toss the ball around a little bit and begin to rebuild that stamina and rehab it slowly...eventually the strength and stamina will return. If you say well, exercising my faith was just too difficult...eventually you just wont try anymore. But, if you work at it everyday... it gets stronger and you begin to see a renewed vitality in your spirit.

For a healthy heart...exercise your faith

Trenton and Trevor are pumped

Trenton and Trevor are totally pumped! Let me tell you why. A couple of weeks ago, Jerry and Vivien, Shannon's grandparents were just returning home from a trip to Florida. They decided that on their way home that they would stop and get something to eat at a new restaurant not too far from their home. As they were eating dinner, they recognized former St. Louis Cardinal first baseman Jack Clark, and his wife, in the restaurant. They told the waiter that they wanted to pay for the Clarks' meal. When the Clarks' realized what had happened they went to Jerry and Vivien to thank them. Jerry expressed to him that they have been long time season ticket holders, and they had always gotten a lot of enjoyment out of watching him play. The Clarks' were very appreciative. He asked Jerry and Vivien if they had any children and Jerry told him that they had two children and four grandsons. Mr. Clark gave Jerry his cell phone number and told him to call him and they would set up a time to take the boys to a game. Not only that, but that he would take them out on the field, introduce them to some players so they could get autographs and pictures, and they could sit in the owners box with him.
When Vivien called to tell us, she could couln't hardly wait to get the story out...she was about to burst! I made sure I had all the information straight before I told Trevor. Trenton was in Anderson, Indian at Jr. High Believe. When I told Trevor his jaw hit the floor, and after picking it up, he ran thru the house screaming, yelling and doing a little "I get to meet the Cardinals" jig like i've never seen before. When we told Trenton you could just about hear him gasping for air over the phone. In fact, he called me early the next morning to make sure that he was not dreaming.
So, on May 6th they get to go down on the field at Busch Stadium, and meet some of the players, get autographs and pictures. One of Trevors teachers is possibly offering a little extra credit points for an autograph or two. And then they can watch the game from the owners box.
Can you picture how excited they are? Put yourself in their shoes for a minute. Two young boys getting an opportunity that they may never get again. Do you have a sense of that excitement yet? Now, then let me ask you...when was the last time that you got that excited about worship? When was the last time that you got that excited over being involved in a ministry, or the opportunity to share your faith, or even share about your church? I mean, Albert Pujols, Chris Carpenter, Yadi...they are all incredible ball players, but none of them died for your sins. Ok, so baseball may not prime your pump that much...what if it were a movie star that you got to meet. Or a Nascar driver, or a band or the first guy to ever get a mullet! Baseball may not excite you, so what does? Ok, now answer the question. When was the last time that you got that excited about your quiet time. When was the last time that you were counting down the days till you could put your check in the offering plate?
It's a sobering thought isn't it. How excited we get so excited about temporal things of the flesh and yet we encounter the divine with a laissez-faire attitude.
I want the boys to enjoy this incredible opportunity, but I will also use it as a teachable moment to help them reflect on their attitudes toward their relationship with Jesus. It's definitely been a teachable moment for me as well. How about you?

a long time coming

This story has been sittin on me since before the election back in November. I finally decided that I would write it down.

My children's minister Penny (the one on the left in the picture) was having a conversation with her adult daughter Sanya sometime before the election, and the issue of who each of them was going to vote for came up. Sanya, was appalled when she found out that her mom was not going to vote for Obama. The conversation took a rather humorous turn when Sanya finally expressed her frustration by saying..." Mom, I know what it is...you are not voting for Obama because he is black."

Now the humor in that is... Penny's husband, Ken (Sanya's dad) is African American. Can you imagine?... Penny would marry an African American man, have three children with him and yet her own daughter says that she's not voting for Obama because he's black.

Penny could not hardly contain the laughter when she was telling me that story. I appreciate her letting me share it.
I will be glad for the day when we can have eyes that will see beyond the color of skin and see the real issue...the spiritual issue. It doens't really matter if a person is black, white or any other color what is truly important is does that person know Jesus.

That's my prayer that we have spiritual eyes, to see the people around us as Jesus sees them... and when that happens...we'll let's just say it will have been a long time comin'.

My youngest son, Trevor, is preparing for his birthday. He has been checking the mail, even after I tell him that I have already gotten the mail. He can’t wait to see if there is a birthday card in the mail.

Trevor was born on April 29, 2000. He was a big baby to say the least. He weighed well over 9lbs and was almost 22 inches long. Many of you already know that when Trevor was 18 months we started noting that his growth was tapering off. We would mention it to the Dr. and she indicated that it was normal for there to be times that he would not grow as at the same rate that he had been growing. He went from a big baby to an average sized 18 month old. We continued to talk to the Dr. about his lack of growth and we were always assured that he was fine and that we did not need to worry that his growth would start up again soon. We began to think that since Shannon is somewhat “vertically challenged” that Trevor might be the same. Finally after asking several times about his lack of growth, we insisted that our Dr. give us a referral to Children’s Hospital in St. Louis.

We met with the endocrinology department at Children’s and began a series of tests. Initially they were concerned about a pituitary gland tumor, but what we found out was that the posterior part of his pituitary gland had never formed. So, Trevor was diagnosed with Human Growth Hormone Deficiency Syndrome. He was three years old and still looked like an 18 month old. He was developmentally fine in every other area; language, etc. He was just tiny. It was humorous to hear this tiny little boy speak in full sentences.

The Dr’s at Children’s told us that we were going to have to start giving Trevor a shot of humane growth hormone every day, six days a week. The needles would be small insulin needles so the shots wouldn’t really hurt him, but just be more of an annoyance to him until he built up his tolerance to them. They also told us that eventually he would be able to give himself the shot. He has been on the shots for six years now and you would definitely never know that he ever had any problems growing.
Along the way I would ask him if he wanted to give himself a shot. He has always turned me down. That was until about a month ago, when I offered a little bit of cash to go along with the sense of accomplishment. Honestly, I didn’t think he would take the deal. I should have known better though, he’s a little money hound. I offered up a little bit of money and he grabbed the needle out of my hand, wiped off the spot in his belly (which he would never let me do…it always had to be in his arm) stuck the needle in, gave himself the shot and then held out his hand and waited for me to fork over the cash.
I was very proud of him, and we celebrated his accomplishment. I have made the analogy that Trevor’s medical situation is a lot like our spiritual conditions. We all need that daily shot of studying the Word, prayer, silence, worship and listening in order to keep us growing spiritually. I can’t tell you how many times that I have shared with people that if we don’t have that daily shot, we stop growing, and we die spiritually.

Trevor has reached a milestone in his physical development. He is now mature enough to give himself the shot. He does not have to rely on me to do it for him anymore. How about you? Are you still relying on someone else to give you the shot of faith that you need to grow? Or are you doing digging into the Word on your own and maximizing your daily time with God. Education classes, community groups, preaching all of that is wonderful, you can’t substitute those things for your personal time in His presence.
Keep on the grow! Let me hear about your personal, spiritual milestones like Trevor’s.

Mark

Over the last few months there has been a great deal of conversation about a movie called Fireproof. Our Recycled Youth’ers even turned the auditorium into a drive in theatre and watched the film together.
Fireproof is an incredible story of a young fireman who is on the verge of losing his marriage. He is challenged by his dad to take a “love dare,” in which sets him on a journey of reconciliation with God and re-capturing the heart of his wife. If you have not seen this movie, you should!
What is interesting about that movie is that it was made by a church. The Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia made the film. They used mainly volunteer actors from their church. The lighting people, camera people, makeup artists, set designers, decorators, caterers…were mainly volunteers. It’s hard to imagine a church making a full length feature film, but that is exactly what the Sherwood Baptist Church did. What is even more amazing is that they have done it more than once. In fact, they have made three movies, Flywheel, Facing the Giants and Fireproof. The story of how a church got into the movie making business is chronicled in the book, Prepare for Rain. Prepare for Rain was written by Michael Catt, who is the executive producer of the movie, and the preacher at Sherwood Baptist Church. Prepare For Rain is an intriguing little book that is worth the read.
The introduction of the book is the inspiration behind this article. You see, in the movie Facing the Giants, one of the characters is a discouraged football coach named Grant Taylor. Taylor is a teacher and coach at the Shiloh Christian Academy, and he has a conversation with another teacher at the school that is a prayer warrior. As Taylor is questioning whether or not God is working in his life and ministry, the other teacher tells him the story of a couple of farmers. Both farmers needed rain desperately. They both had been praying for rain, but only one of them went out and prepared his ground to receive the rain. Then the question is asked, “Which one do you think trusted God to send the rain?” Of course the obvious answer is, “the one who prepared his fields for it.”
Are you asking God for “rain” in your life? Is your marriage drying up? Are your finances drying up? Is your spiritual life drying up? Are you personally dry, emotionally, relationally, spiritually? Are you asking God to refresh your spirit? Are you asking him to rain down peace in your life? I would venture to say that there is some area of your life in which you are experiencing a drought. If that is true in your life, let me ask you what are you doing to prepare for the rain that God wants to send your way?
Are you spending time in the word, outside of the time you spend in the word on Sunday mornings at church? See, time in the word is what will cultivate a receptive heart. The Word of God exposes our sins that need to be repented of. The Word exposes negative attitudes and sins that have created a dry, crusty, hard heart. Attitudes and sins like unforgiveness, greed, idolatry, (which is in it’s simpliest form putting anything ahead of your relationship with Jesus) pride, divisiveness, gossip, unfaithfulness and the list could go on and on. Preparing for rain comes from time in the Word, and in communication with Him. Not only talking to Him about the need for rain, but listening to Him, thru the Holy Spirit on what we need to do to prepare for Rain.
I don’t know about you, but I desperately want “Rain” in my life personally and in the life of GCC. I am asking you to not only pray for rain of blessings in the life of our church, but also to join me in preparing for rain. Let’s join together in the vision of Honoring God Above All Else. Join me in loving God with everything that we have and loving others as well, and not just each other, but let’s have the heart of God to reach the unchurched in our community. Prepare for rain by sharing an invitation with someone you know that is lost, to come to church with you. Prepare for rain by sharing names of people that our prayer team can be praying for, so that when you share your testimony of what God is doing in your life, they are more receptive. Prepare for rain, by not looking at what GCC can do for you, but what you can do to serve others. Prepare for rain by being faithful in your giving to the ministry of GCC, missions and our VFC stewardship campaign. Preparing for rain, may be tough, hard work and a bit uncomfortable, but there is always hard work, sweat and a measure of uncomfortable when you prepare the ground to receive the rain. Let’s prepare for rain together.

inadequate

Ever fell like you are in way over your head? I have to admit that is the way i feel right about now. I was asked awhile back to preach chapel at St. Louis Christian College... my alma mater (i think that is the first time i've ever actually used that word) And I am really feeling the stress of it. See, I'm not some super leader, mega church pastor that is asked to speak lots of places. I am at a small church in southern Illinois. I'm not a hip church planter, I'm not cool and creative. I'm not the guy that thousands of people clamor to read my next blog. I'm not the guy that those students are gonna want to intern under. So, since I write this blog mostly for myself, I need to fight off the temptation of thinking it's about me, because it's not. For the next few days, I'm gonna just hang out in I Cor. 2:1-5 and let that be my prayer for my message on Tuesday at SLCC.
"And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you execpt Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God."

Fortress

I am struck in Ps. 46 the number of times the word fortress is used. Fortress… it’s a place of protection. I imagine thick, impenetrable walls, guarded by high towers. No one can hurt you there. But also there is training, where you sit down with your commanding officer and he shows you how to protect yourself, to fight the enemy to defeat the enemy. There is discipline…you have to work out to be built up, but it’s not just for the sake of working out it’s repeated action so that in the heat of battle you don’t have to think of ways to gurad yourself, it comes naturally. You work out in the word so when you need recall the discipline of being in the word just overflows. There is nourishment…you are fed and strengthened, there is fun and laughter with those people that you are fighting the enemy with. There is rest. When you have been under attack you can sleep easy and get the rest that you need because you know that you are protected and that rest gets you ready to engage once again. There is a storehouse of ammo. You can stockpile all of the offensive weapons that you need. There is the shield of faith, the belt of truth, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness…(btw righteousness is not from the things that you do…all of the church services, prayers, service, singing, preaching, teaching, leading etc…those things do not earn you righteousness, those things are what comes from being made righteous thru faith in Christ. To look at it the other way around is well, it’s likened to a mestrual rag…bloddy tampon…you don’t offer God that and he says…oh cool…you are now righteous. Righteouness comes thru faith in Jesus… anything else but Jesus is crap or rubbinsh/dung as it says in Phil 3.) in that fortress is also the protective footwear of peace. That fortress is a place where you can receive care and respit when you have been injured. And you take up the sword of the Spirit. You can’t stay forever in the fortress, eventually you have to reengage, but you always have that fortress to return to. And don’t think that when you leave the fortress you go alone. You engage the world with an army of brothers and sisters in Christ. You engage with the power of the Spirit knowing that the enemy is already defeated, but has not conceded his defeat quite yet. Fight the good fight of faith! HooRah!