DOING WHAT YOU LOVE

I am a blogger.  If you don't know what that means, think "creative writing on the internet."  I have been blogging for about four years now. I am also a multiple blogger (my Youth Director once referred to me as "the Mad Blogger").  Before blogging I wrote magazine articles and before that, way back in grade school I wrote (and drew) comic books.  My lack of artistic skill doomed that.  As a pastor, I write sermons and devotionals. Before blogging, Thriving in Christ was an e-mail devotional.

I don't often quote Anne Rice.  Her literary genre I find more disturbing than anything and her attempts at Christian writing are more fiction claiming historical foundations. Dan Brown said that, too.  Nonetheless, she said something recently worth noting:


"I loved words. I love to sing them and speak them and even now, I must admit, I have fallen into the joy of writing them."


People who know me very well understand just how much I love working with words and ideas.  People who don't have that love tend to think of writing as work--no, hard work--a necessary evil.  Writing and the anxiety about writing drains people.  Writing invigorates me.  Where some men would chop would to invigorate their lives, I turn to a keyboard.  For people who work in order to earn a living so they can do what they really enjoy; I am blessed that something I really love helps me earn a living.


I do not share Solomon's sentiment, "Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body." - Ecclesiastes 12:12b.  Instead, I relate to Paul's observation in Colossians 3:17:

"And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

When I write I am celebrating the gift God has given me because of the love He has shown me and the life he has called me to.  I love what I do and when I don't do it, something in me diminishes.  God gave us gifts, spiritual passions, abilities, experiences so that we might do the work of God and do it with joy. Do you love what you do?  Don't make apologies. Don't try to do what others do.  If God has gifted you and blesses you by it as you bless others by doing -then just do it! (C) 2012 by Stephen L Dunn

THE ONLY WAY TO PLEASE GOD

"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." - Hebrews 11:6

Man years ago, as a younger pastor, I stood at the door of the church and soaked up the "That was a great sermon, pastor" accolades.  We all like affirmation. It is the way God wired us.  I had hit a homiletic home run and was reveling in the "atta-boys'."  

But one of my elders waited until all had passed me by and then simply said, "I perceive you are a people-pleaser."  Trust me, that's not a compliment.  Before I could defend myself he said, "You work hard on your sermons.  You really like it when people tell you they like your efforts.  But here's the problem.  On every given Sunday there is someone in your hearing who should not like your sermon. They are in sin or harboring a sinful attitude and if you are doing God's work, the truth that you speak should make them uncomfortable, feel guilty, maybe even angry. If everyone agrees with what you said, you are probably being disobedient to God as a preacher."

Ouch!

But the more I thought about, he was right.  And since then I have been very careful that the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart are God's words from God's heart, not mine.  And if I speak the truth in love, then I have to accept that the truth is convicting to a person not living with God's heart.  I need to be sure my sermons please God, not the audience.

What pleases God?  Truth, obviously.  But faith in particular.

I have found that some people have a faith and others live by faith.  Some people have a set of beliefs that given them meaning, comfort, and even a sense of order.  Others live by faith -- they simply live in daily obedience to the will and purposes of God--trusting that His will is best and that He provides all things needed for those who live by His will. There is simply no other option in their minds.  They never settle for any lower expectations.

The former can often reduce one to a fairly static walk with God, that never really surrenders to His will because His will rarely is safe and comfortable.  His will takes us out on mission.  "A faith" often allows us to justify inaction because at least we believe the right things.

I think that latter is what Paul meant when he said, "The righteous will live by faith." - Romans 1:17.

Anything that doesn't lead you to pleasing God, even at the expense of displeasing men and making yourself feel uncomfortable, is not faith.

(C) 2012 by Stephen Dunn

WHEN GOD'S GOT YOUR NUMBER

Emma Scrivener writes a delightful blog called A NEW NAME. Today I'd like to share with you one of her recent posts. Be sure to follow the link and check out the rest of great thoughts. - STEVE  

When God’s Got Your Number 

 Sometimes the Bible feels like an enormous Rubix Cube, impenetrable and locked-up. You reread the same verses but nope – it may as well be in Hebrew, ( it’s all Greek to me). Or maybe it’s more like one of those fiendish baked-bean jigsaws where every piece looks the same. Rebellion, death. Rebellion, death. Bad king, bad king, bad king, bad king…you’re stuck in a Chronicles loop and there’s no end in sight.

But other times, it’s completely different. The National Lottery ad, made flesh. An enormous pointing finger and a voice that booms: ‘It’s YOU’. Every word, a bullet to your heart. This morning, as usual, I woke up late and in a flap. Stumbled, bleary-eyed into the kitchen. Groped for a cereal bowl. Weetabix or bran flakes? Coffee – or green tea? Must defrost something for lunch: Sunday roast or fish fingers? It’s all too much! Nappy brain just can’t compute.

hen I’m stressed or running late, I make bad choices. Instead of just leaving the house, I’ll start a ridiculous task: cleaning the oven say, or defrosting the fridge.

This morning, having negotiated breakfast/washing it was my wardrobe. Nothing seemed to fit. Too small, too itchy, too dark, too bright. Why have I nothing to wear? What’s wrong with the iron? A good ten minutes, fussing over identical jumpers. And in the background, a little voice – you’re too late for church now. May as well stay at home and read the papers. Nope – you’re up now, so let’s go. Crumpled and shamefaced I shuffle into church. Find the right page, keep your head down and relax.

What’s the passage?

Matthew 6:24-34:

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own”.

OK, Lord. You got me.

LIVING AT PEACE

Reading: "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." - Romans 12:8

Many years ago Dianne and I had the great privilege of attending the Billy Graham School of Evangelism in Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada. The School itself was housed at the Chateau Lake Louise, a magnificent five-star hotel next to pristine Moraine Lake, fed by a glacier.

One afternoon, the two of us and our friend George Reser decided to hike out to the glacier.  This was November. The path, which was quite narrow and snow-covered was not easy-going.  On one side of the path was a fairly steep drop into the icy waters of the lake.  The other side, a mountain side with more ice, a little brush, snow, and nothing to invite anything but a veteran climber to tackle it.  I was the epitome of the word novice.

That region was inhabited by some magnificent creatures, the Rocky Mountain Goat.  Bigger than a man, strong, somewhat gruff-looking, agile and sure-footed.  They really are an awesome part of God's animal kingdom.

As I reached midpoint on the trail, now as narrow as two feet placed sided-by-side and even more perilously close the the frigid lake waters, I saw one of these creatures heading straight down the path towards me.  I quickly began to assess my situation and had no desire to meet the goat head-on.  Between us perched next to the path was a large boulder.  I moved to it, stepped off the path (on the upward slope) and hid behind it.  I figured I'd let him pass before I continued on.

I waited, and waited, and waited.  No animal passed by. Finally I crept towards the front of the boulder and stuck my head out to see what had happened.  And my face greeted the goat's face on the other side of the rock looking at me, engaged in the same investigation.  Sizing m up, the goat perked up, then turned and went straight up the steep hillside to higher ground.

The goat saw no reason to challenge me on the path, or maybe just took pitty on this two-legged mountain novice.

In a world of confrontation, demanding of our rights, asserting ourselves, and just plain belligerance; we are reminded that such attitudes and the actions that result are often in conflict with God's purposes and inflict unnecessary pain on the persons we cross paths with crossly.

Maybe it's time for us to re-embrace Paul's counsel and find God-honoring ways to live at peace with people.

(c) 2012 BY STEPHEN L DUNN 

IT HAPPENS TO THE BEST OF US

I have been very busy as of late--providing pastoral care to families, working projects to help strengthen our congregation's ministry, and coaching some of our leaders. Today I am in Ohio to visit some of my kids and to speak tomorrow and Friday for the Great Lakes Conference. I know we are overdue for a devotional and so I am sharing this one from my good friend Dale Miller, who has contributed before.-STEVE

 
Wednesday, June 6, 2012

"It Happens to the Best of Us!"
"These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come."  1 Corinthians 10:11, NIV
 
        A pastor was building a fence while the neighbor's twelve-year-old son watched.  The pastor smiled and said, "Interested in carpentry, huh?"
        "Nope," the boy replied.  "Just waitin' to hear what a preacher says when he hits his thumb with a hammer!"

        I know you've heard it said before, but it's more true today than ever before . . . You are the only Bible some people will ever read . . . and they're watching to see how your life lines up with what you profess.  Some are hoping for confirmation of the life-changing power of Jesus in you.  Others are looking for a chance to say, "See!  Christians are all hypocrites!"  We all want to set a good example, but sometimes we mess up and fall short.  And as humbling as it is to mess up, God uses those failures to "make it clear that our . . . power is from Him, not . . . ourselves" (2 Corinthians 4:7, NLT).

        God doesn't glaze over the shortcomings of even the most notable saints.  They're "all . . . written down so . . . we don't repeat their mistakes" (1 Corinthians 10:11, TM).  Abraham, the "friend of God," lied about Sarah being his wife (See Genesis 12:10-29).  Moses, the mighty leader, got angry and disobeyed God.  David, a man after God's own heart, committed adultery and then tried to cover his tracks with murder (See 2 Samuel 11:15).  Peter, leader of the church, denied Jesus not once but three times (See Luke 22:54-62).  John Mark gave up and went home during a missionary trip (See Acts 15:38).  They're all in there . . . warts and all . . . and Paul says, "We are just as capable of messing up as they were" (1 Corinthians 10:12, TM).

        So don't get discouraged when you stumble.
        Admit your mistake . . .
        Apologize to the people involved . . .
        Ask God for forgiveness . . .
        Forgive yourself . . .
        Learn from what happened . . .
        And move on!
                Because it happens to the best of us!

Not even close to being close to perfect,
Pastor Dale



Pastor Dale Miller, Jr. is privileged to serve as the Senior Pastor of the Newburg First Church of God
"Where Christ is found, love is felt, and lives are changed!"
260 Newburg Road, Newburg, PA  17240

Mailing address: PO Box 160, Newburg, 17240