Reunion

Reunion. I had the privilege to head down to South Carolina this past weekend to spend time with my wife’s family on her father’s side. I got to meet her aunts and uncles as well as most of her cousins and their children. She hadn’t seen some of them in over fifteen years, so it was a great reunion with a lot of hugging, laughing and eating. It was great for me to get to know that side of her family.

It got me thinking about reunions and stories the Bible tells about seeing family that you haven’t seen in many years. It brought me to the story of Joseph and his brothers. After being sold into slavery by his brothers, Joseph made his way up the chain of command in every situation that he was in. It culminated in being the second highest in command in the empire of Egypt.

When his brothers arrived in Egypt because of a drought, Joseph was finally reunited with the very members of his family that tried to do away with him. For most of us, that would have been the time of retaliation, but not for Joseph. These were his brothers, and whatever they had done to him was in the past and he was overjoyed to see them after many years.

It also brought to mind the story of Jacob and Esau and the opportunity they had to reunite after a major falling out over a birthright. The point is, no matter what trials and tribulations we go through as families, when we have the opportunity to reunite and see each other once again, our family bond is stronger than anything else we go through.

There will be a final reunion that Christians should be looking forward to; the reunion of believers to Christ and to other believers. That glorious day is coming, hopefully soon, when we will be able to spend eternity in the presence of our Lord and Savior. We will once again see family that also put their trust and faith in Christ. Oh, glorious day!

“Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.  Therefore encourage one another with these words.” - 1 Thessalonians 4:17-18.

Have a great day and God bless.

Father’s Day

Father’s Day. This is always one of the hardest days of the year for those of us that have lost our fathers. For those of you that still have your fathers, be thankful for the time you still have with them and that you have the ability to celebrate with them today. This day always reminds me of my father and the things that he had taught me throughout his life.

My dad taught me the meaning of work and providing for your family. He taught me that, as a dad, we have to do whatever we have to in making sure that our family is provided for. In all the things that my dad provided for us, the most important thing he provided was his time. He was always present for everything we did as kids. He was at all of the sporting events, even coaching most of the time, and all of our school events. It never stopped, even with all my traveling for college sports.

My father was loyal to my mother and loyal to his friends. My dad taught me to help those that are in need and whenever you borrow something, you give it back better than you got it. This post would be too long if I listed everything my father taught me. I’m thankful and blessed to have had him as my dad.

I’m a father now, have been for almost 11 years, and I know that at times I fail, but I do my best to do the things that my father taught me with my own children. I have a lot of improvements to make, but I’m trying. If I can become half the day that my father was, I’d be happy.

We have a Heavenly Father that is the greatest example of what true Fatherhood looks like. He is always accessible, He is always providing for us, and He always has our best interests at heart. Do you know Him as your Heavenly Father too?  There is never a better Father than God.

Have a great day and God bless.

Mr. Grinch

“You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch!”  Doesn’t seem like the right time of year to be talking about the Grinch, does it?  The kids watched the new Grinch movie yesterday on Netflix and Timothy spent the rest of the day singing those words. I ended up watching it with them too as I worked from home.

As I watched the end of the movie when the Grinch’s heart grew three sizes that day and he decided to bring back all the Christmas stuff that he had stolen from Whoville, I realized just how much of a Christian theme the end of the story had.

The people of Whoville did not arrest him, they didn’t chastise him for what he did and they didn’t kick him out of town telling him
never to return. They showed him grace. That’s forgave him. They invited him in to join in the celebration with them. They allowed him to have a place of honor in the festivities.

That’s what God does for us. When we spend most of our lives robbing and stealing from the love of God, He still shows us grace. When we see the error of our ways and our hearts grows three sizes and we decided to return to Him, He shows grace. He doesn’t condemn us, He doesn’t turn from us and He doesn’t send us away telling us never to come back. Like the prodigal son, He puts us in a place of honor and celebrates our return to Him.

Do we treat people that come back to us with a changed heart with that same grace?  Do we look to really find what the root of the issue was?  The Grinch wasn’t really mad at Christmas, he was lonely and looking for friends and a family. What are those that hurt us really looking for?  Love?  Friendship?  Family?  Let us show grace to those who repent and seek our forgiveness. “Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” - Colossians 3:13.

Have a great day and God bless.

Scared

Scared. Have you ever been scared to death?  Have you ever scared someone else to death?  I have to admit, I like scaring people. I get a kick out of scaring people and I know for a fact some of you do too, but I won’t mention any names. I remember scaring one of my friends from high school pretty good.

There was this man who built an elaborate labyrinth out of the middle of the woods as a tribute to his son who had died in a car crash when he was a teenager. Why he decided to build a labyrinth, no one knows. What we did know was that it was a painstaking task because it was a brick and mortar labyrinth and not just made of bushes. There were statues and everything inside the labyrinth. The entrance slowly came up out of the ground until it was well above ten feet tall at the center.

Well, as the story goes, we were in the local grocery store and we heard one of our friends planning a trip up to the labyrinth that night with a group of girls in the next aisle over. So we decided to beat them up there and hide within the labyrinth until they got there. We made it there and parked somewhere different so our car didn’t give us away. After about a mile trip into the woods to find it, we were ready for our visitors.

As you can imagine, when we jumped out from inside the labyrinth, our unsuspecting visitors were scared out of their minds. A lot of screaming and running ensued and people were a little upset with us. But everyone got over it and we still laugh about it.

It’s scary to come across things we don’t expect along our path. We probably spend way too much time being scared about things that we create in our own minds that never materialize. The Bible speaks pretty often about the idea of fear, in fact it tells us 365 times to “fear not”. “You came near when I called on you; you said, 'Do not fear!'” - Lamentations 3:57.

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” - 1 John 4:18.

Have a great day and God bless.

Lawn Mowers

Lawn mowers. Lawn equipment and I don’t play well together. It seems that both lawn mowers and weed eaters like to mess with me no matter how well I try to maintain them. Well, the lawn mower monster showed up again yesterday and bit me. There is nothing worse than being in the middle of mowing and have the lawn mower break down and you have to leave the rest of the yard looking like a jungle. I have about a quarter of a well groomed lawn.

I was riding the mower yesterday and all of a sudden it started running a bit rough and then it just cut off completely like it had run out of gas. I knew I had a full tank when I started so that couldn’t be what the issue was. When I lifted up the hood of the mower, a small fuse connected to the carburetor was smoking. I knew that couldn’t be good. I went to the hardware store to see what their thoughts were on what had happened. They sold me a small part and said that should fix it. Well, not being mechanical at all, I did more damage to it than I had started with.

I got upset with the fact that I didn’t get the yard done. Then a got more upset that the lawn mower was broken and then it just rolled into being disappointed in general. I came in the house and my wife knew it was bothering me even though there really wasn’t much I could do about it at that point. I felt bad that I had let my situation dictate my attitude for the rest of the evening.

I have so much to be thankful for: no one was hurt, the lawn mower can be fixed and I have awesome friends that have offered to let me borrow their mowers so I can finish my yard. The Bible says, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” - Philippians 4:8.

So through all of this I will think of the good things that God has blessed me with and I will praise Him for it.

Have a great day and God bless.

Edification

Edification. About a dozen years ago or so, my wife and I went to the NC State Fairgrounds for a concert of one of my favorite Christian bands, Third Day. A group opened for them that I didn’t know much about, called Building 429. They were very good and we both became fans of their music. What I always find interesting is how Christian bands come up with their band names. Some of them are very evident, Third Day, Casting Crowns, etc.

Building 429 had a very interesting story of how they came up with their name. They took their name from the scripture found in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” - Ephesians 4:29. So, the “429” comes from chapter 4 and verse 29 in Ephesians. And the word “Building” comes from the word used right in the verse.

As a Christian, we should not allow any corrupt talk come out of our mouths. Whether we are talking with unbelievers, and most importantly, if we are talking to believers. Every word should be used to edify, or build up, one another. There is enough negativity in today’s world that, as Christians, we should not be adding to it. As our mothers always told us, “if we don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all!”

We never know what problems and issues other people are going through and we should be the type of people that change someone’s day for the better instead of adding any additional grief. We need to be careful with our words. We live in a culture where sarcasm and quick-wit seem to rule our conversations. I admit, I can be a sarcastic person most of the time and need to do a better job at biting my tongue.

If you get the chance today, or the rest of this week, use it as an opportunity to build someone up instead of tearing them down. Remember Building 429 and let no corrupt words come out of your mouth. Some people may be surprised at the change in your conversation.

Have a great day and God bless.

Bus

Bus. My senior year of high school, a group of us took a yellow school bus to our senior prom. We got all dressed up and rode as a group to the prom instead of all of us riding separately. The lady who drove us to all of our high school sporting events drove us to the prom, picked us up and drove us to the after prom party and then came back and picked us up the next morning. We used to call her “Fred” and she got all dressed up as well and even decorated the bus for the occasion. What a fun time we all had together that night.

When I tell that story to people now, they sort of cock their heads and look at me strange. But we knew who was on our bus and that we were ultimately safe during all of our travels. My good college buddy, Peter Pessetto, always tells his clients to check who they have on their bus. Some people don’t need to be on our buses with us because they drag us down and we need to make sure we only have those on our bus who build us up. The same thing goes in the Christian life. We have to make sure we don’t let Satan on our buses.

Not only do we need to check who we have in our lives but we also need to check what things we let into our lives that can give Satan a foothold. “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.”  - Ephesians 4:26-27.  It’s not just the people on our bus that can lead us into temptation to sin, but there are also things we let into our own lives that tempts us to sin. We can’t let those things have a seat on our bus either.

“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?  What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?” - 2 Corinthians 6:14-15. “Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty."  - 2 Corinthians 6:17-18.

It’s good for each of us to take a look at who, and what, we have allowed on our buses. Sometimes we need to remove people from our bus because they are not equally yoked with us. We also need to remove actions in our lives from our bus that do not glorify God. Have you looked recently to see what you have on your bus?  It may be a good time for a role call.

Have a great day and God bless.