People Need The Lord

For some reason, only God knows, one song has captivated my mind & heart of late. It's called People Need The Lord. The chorus goes:

People need the Lord, people need the Lord.

At the end of broken dreams, He's the open door.

I see it this way, kids have bullies and expectations to live up to. Young adults have other pressures like fitting in and getting a good education. Young parents have no money and mouths to feed. After the children are gone from the house, there are ailing parents and medical issues. For seniors, there are too many doctors’ appointments and too many funerals to attend.

Add to this, all of us have a burning desire to know what life is really all about. We have many question about life and death.  Is God real, is He listening, does He hear our silent cries in the night? Has He really prepared a place for me? I have found answers to all of these in the bible. They are there and by the way, He hears and helps, directs and holds us when no one else does.

The writer of this song doesn’t give us all the answers; he just tells us where to look. Listen to what is said:

Everyday they pass me by,   I can see it in their eyes.

Empty people filled with care,   Headed who knows where?

On they go through private pain,   Living fear to fear.

Laughter hides their silent cries,   Only Jesus hears.

We are called to take His light   To a world where wrong seems right.

What could be too great a cost   For sharing Life with one who's lost?

Let me finish by saying, that God cared enough to send His Son so the end of trouble begins with Him. And yes, “People need the Lord”.

Something to think about

Rob

Put Those Feet Up

They tell me, summer is a time for relaxing. Really? I have some problems with that. Nothing like what I used to but still, really? If you are one of those ‘A’ type personalities, you have difficulties with this and probably never really take a vacation even when you take a vacation.

Many years ago, too many to think about, I thought that sleep was a huge waste of time.  At one point I had one full-time job and two part time jobs. All this happened while taking classes at seminary and raising my two girls.  Can you imagine, even had a very full day planner that was busting at the seams.

As a pastor, some old time minister once said to me that ministers never take holidays as they are on call 24/7.  Unfortunately for me, I relished the thought of being ‘on’ all the time. For some reason it even pushed me to be more productive and more focused and more, more, more.

I remember working in one church where the board went to the senior pastor with some concern that I would burn myself out. To which he replied, ‘don’t worry about it, that’s his problem’. Well, never did burn out.

Today, I think differently, and not because I'm less driven, but because of what I have learned from living that lifestyle. First, I can’t do it all. Came to that conclusion a few years back when a verse talked to me, “Jesus said, I will build my church…” Second, we need time to ‘be still and know that He is God.’ Lastly, we are not Superman or women. We are created by Him and as a human we need rest. And sometimes it's 20 minutes at 3pm.

Twice in Psalms 62 David tells us that we ‘rest in God’.  I’m old and I discovered the following is true; more so than being always working and doing things, we can take time off, we can go on vacation. Why, because God doesn’t and it’s not all up to us.

This summer relax, take time off to enjoy God’s creation, to spend time with those who love you and just be. That’s it, just be.  And don’t worry, He’s got all the rest covered.

Something to think about.

Rob

Through Stained Glass

One of the parts of church that I have always been captivated by is their stained glass windows.  Have loved it so much that my wife and I have taken up the hobby of working with stained glass. Been at it maybe a year and probably not good at it yet but we try.

There are a number of interesting points of stained glass work. But I’ll tell you the two main ones.  First thing you learn is how you put it together. The new way seems to be copper foil. With this you wrap the glass with copper foil and then solder the pieces together. With the other, which is the old way, you piece the project together with real lead and then just solder the ends together. The results are similar.

This week I had opportunity to look at some stained glass in an older church in Brantford. They are so beautiful. But that was not what actually caught my attention. I’m old and don’t get out much. In fact we don’t get invited to parties anymore. I guess we put a damper on the drinking and stuff that goes on at these parties.  Even if we are invited, we are the first ones to get up and go home.

As I looked and appreciated the beauty of these windows I found myself asking, why do we put them up in the first place? Can it be that we on the inside want the world to look beautiful? Or maybe we want the world to see the beauty of God we celebrate on the inside. Then again, we could be hiding behind these windows so we don’t have to look at what is happening in society. Maybe it could be we don’t want the world to see in?

As Steve Brown put it, maybe we are on the inside, where nothing is happening, with our noses to the glass wishing we were part of the fun of the world. Here is what I really think. If there is something exciting on the inside, the world would have their noses to the outside of the glass wanting to see what’s going on inside and wanting to join us and Jesus. Which side of the glass are you on?

Something to think about.

Rob

Not Much

There are days.  You probably have them just like me. These are the days you don't feel good about how you got through the day. Seems like you didn't do much. Nothing accomplished and you might even think of yourself as a bit of a failure. It happens to me. Many mornings I get up and thank God for the day and ask Him to help me in those things I want to get done and all those things I need to accomplish.

Then it happens. No, it's not any one great big road block, it's just those insignificant detours. It's getting off on a siding and sitting there for longer than you expected waiting for the other train to go by. Life throws this stuff at us all the time. Have you ever thought to yourself, you were not just getting things done but you were not even making it happen? You felt that no matter what you have done, nothing is working out.

Don't feel bad. You are not alone, I'm not alone.  We are actually in good company. Remember that guy Peter who started off seeking to change the world and he ended up in prision and died? Or how about John who ended up on an island were he passed his time watching the sun rise and then seeing it set? Or how about that Moses guy who sat in the dessert watching sheep? For forty years!

But did they? Not at all, they knew God had something special for them to do and they took the time to find out what it was.

Yesterday I introduced the Gospel of John to someone who has never read it. John told all of us about God's love in Christ and taught us about grace and joy and peace. Someone once said, when life presents you with a bunch of lemons, make lemonade.  When things don't go as planned, change the plan and ask God to show you where to go from here. John did and he wrote a gospel that we are still reading today.

Something to think about

Rob

What Next?

When I asked the children at church the other week what they are doing for summer holidays they had a interesting answer.  There were all those things kids like to do. Here are some that you might have related to. Go swimming, and Canada’s Wonderland, take a road trip, play with their friends, video games.

When I was younger we spent most of our day hanging around with the other kids in the neighbourhood. Most of us didn’t have the luxury of summer camp. We didn’t even have day camp in our neighbourhood. We did have VBS and usually went to all of them. Let me say this before I go on, we didn’t get into trouble because we were bored. There was the community pool and sometimes a father would pack us all into his car and take us to the cold, very cold beach at Lake Ontario.

As I continued to talk with the kids we discovered they only had a vision for the first week. After that, they were not too sure. Summer vacation has probably has been like that for over 100 years. Again back to my youth. One year we ran out of things to do. Even sleeping in lost its luster after a couple of weeks. Two weeks before September we decided to have a block Monopoly tournament. After a week at it, I think none of us wanted to ever play Monopoly again.

Too often many of us are like our children, we never prepare for next week or next month let alone next year. A number or years ago I asked the congregation where they wanted to be in a year. Many people had never been asked that question, even though I believe we need to ask ourselves it all the time.

Here is where I stand. I believe we start a new year each and every day we get up out of bed. That is the time to ask, “Where do I want to be a year from now and even five years from now”. We all need a one year and five year plan. The saying is true; if you fail to plan you plan to fail.  Just yesterday I had opportunity to ask some young people what their summer plans were. It warmed my heart to hear most of them had a plan of what they were going to be doing for nine weeks.

We all should be doing likewise. Even with our heart and its connection to our Father in heaven. Where do you want to be at this time next year in relationship to Jesus Christ? It is a question to ask and a movement to accomplish it every year. I want to be even closer to the Lord next year and the next year. What about you?

Something to think about.

Rob