On February 18 I did someone that I have never done before, I turned sixty years old. In itself turning sixty is not a big achievement. It simply means I have lived a long time. When I say a long time even that is a relative term. Sixty will seem old to some of you and to some you will think this guy is just a youngster. I say, "God bless" all of you who still think of my as young at sixty.
When I turned sixty I began to think not of all that I had not accomplished with my life but with all the people God had brought into my life. God has graciously brought some amazing people into my life. And they have greatly blessed and enriched and changed me. I want to mention several because God had used them so much in my life.
The first people God used were my parents. I had the weirdest parents in the world. I know all kids think that their parents are weird. I'm sixty remember and looking back I now see that my parents Were Weird. They were also some of the hardest working and honest people I have ever know. They were not perfect, but that instilled in me a morality that still is intact today.
When I was a teenager God brought a lady into my life named Mary Founier. She was the first person I had ever met who really liked being a Christian and who lived it out all the time. Then a few years later God brought three college students into my life who not only loved Jesus but enjoyed loving Jesus and were excited about serving Him. These four people had a huge impact on the way I saw Jesus. And God used them to direct me to spend my life serving Him; preaching, teaching, and ministering.
The next group of people have had the biggest impact in my life, they are my wife and children and grandchildren. My wife is the most awesome person God ever created. She is not a perfect person, she did marry me, but she is the perfect wife. God has used her to love me, help me, confront me, teach me, and travel with me for almost 40 years. And though not every minute has been the best, I would honestly not trade any of our time together. She is my companion, my lover, and my best friend. Then there is my son. He is not perfect, but a dad could not possibly have ask for a better son. God has used him to show me so much truth over the years and now that he is thirty, now that makes me feel old, God uses him as a fellow disciple of Jesus to teach me ever more truth. I have a great daughter-in-law who loves and supports my son and to watch how she and my son relate brings great joy and delight to my spirit. Then there is my granddaughter, Goober. She is a constant source of joy and challenge. She has such a spirit of joy, wonder, and energy. I want to have that same joy in Jesus, wonder of Jesus and energy from Jesus that she has.
The finally group of people that God has used in my life are the pastors that I have worked with over the years. I worked with four pastors over a twenty year peroid. Three of these men were great friends and mentors. One was a jerk, but God even used him in my life to show me the kind of pastor not to be. I was taught by God through this men how to teach, preach, minister, and shepherd God's people.
The person who has most impact my life is not just a human being, He is the God/Man - Jesus. He is my life. I can not imagine living life without Jesus. Life is hard and at time it sucks. If I didn't have an personal love relationship with Jesus, not only would I not have lived to be sixty, I wouldn't have wanted to. It is not just that I can't imagine life without Jesus, I would have no life without Him. He Is My Life!
I don't know exactly how much longer I have on earth. I know that God has shown me that if He doesn't return or I don't die then He wants me to continue to pastor for ten more years. For those years and how ever many more God gives me I will allow God to Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls.
Joe
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Is God Safe?
I became a Christian when I was 12 years old. I didn't really think much about what God was like at that time. Yeah, I knew He was loving and powerful and eternal, but I didn't focus much on who He really was and what He was like. As I grew up in the church and as God got more and more important to me I began to seek out who this God I had given my life to really was. I have spend a lot of time in the Bible and since it has been almost 48 years since I became a Christian, I have found one huge misconception I had about God. That misconception was that God was safe. God is not safe. In the C.S. Lewis book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Lucy asks Mr. Beaver about Alsan. Lucy wonders if Alsan is a man, and when told that he's a great lion, Lucy worries about meeting him. She asks Mr. Beaver if Alsan is safe. "Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Who said anything about safe? Course he isn't safe. But he's good." I can total agree with that statement that God is not safe, but He is good. The God have come to know through His Word and through experiecing a daily relationship with is not in any sense safe. I believe a better description of God is wild and untamed.
Why do I say that God is wild and untamed? There are five descriptions of God that indicate that He is wild and untamed not a bit safe.
Right after God had delivered the people of Israel from Pharaoh and his army by parting the Red sea and letting the Israelites go through on dry ground and then destroying the Egyptian army in the Red Sea, Moses and Miriam sing a song of praise to God. In Exodus 15:3 they sang, "The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name." God is a warrior. I know this isn't the usually picture of God we hear in the church, but there it is. Moses experieced God as a warrior who fought for His people. Four times in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy we are told that God fights for us as His people. In 2 Chronicles 20:15 King Jehoshaphat is told that his enemy will not win the batttle because the battle is not his but God's. This indicates that God will fight for His people and defeat the enemy. A warrior is not a safe person. A warrior is a wild person.
In Deuteronomy 4:24 and Hebrews 12:29 we are told that God is a consuming fire. Fire is never safe. Even when fire is used to warm our bodies or cook our food it is not safe. Living in New Mexico I have seen the Forrest Service do controlled burns that got out of control and destroyed property and homes. God as a consuming fire is not safe.
Exodus 34:14 says, "Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Jealousy is not safe. I have seen jealousy turn a mild mannered, lay back person into a intensely obsessed person who would do anything to get what they wanted. I know that jealously is not seen as a good trait in people. God being a jealous God means that He who created us and redemmed us wants us for Himself. The fact that God is jealous means that He loves us passionately and would do whatever it took to establish a relationship with us like sending His Son to die for our sins on the cross.
In Pslam 18:47 and 94:1 God is described as the God who avenges me. I remember one time a bully was picking on a friend of mine who could not really defend himself. Another friend and I went and took care of the bully and we were not controlled in how we did it. A person who is out to avenge a wrong can be very intense. God is intense as He avenges the wrongs done against His people.
Pslam 140:7 says, "O Sovereign Lord, my strong deliverer, who shields my head in the day of battle." God is my deliverer. He will rescue me from the enemy, Satan. God will not be safe when He comes to defeat the enemy, He will be focused on getting me out of the enemy's control. He will be wild.
I have to come to know and experience a God who is strong, passionate, wild, and untamed. He is not safe and nice. He is good. He is a God who will Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls of my life and guide me into unsafe but awesomely good places.
Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
Why do I say that God is wild and untamed? There are five descriptions of God that indicate that He is wild and untamed not a bit safe.
Right after God had delivered the people of Israel from Pharaoh and his army by parting the Red sea and letting the Israelites go through on dry ground and then destroying the Egyptian army in the Red Sea, Moses and Miriam sing a song of praise to God. In Exodus 15:3 they sang, "The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name." God is a warrior. I know this isn't the usually picture of God we hear in the church, but there it is. Moses experieced God as a warrior who fought for His people. Four times in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy we are told that God fights for us as His people. In 2 Chronicles 20:15 King Jehoshaphat is told that his enemy will not win the batttle because the battle is not his but God's. This indicates that God will fight for His people and defeat the enemy. A warrior is not a safe person. A warrior is a wild person.
In Deuteronomy 4:24 and Hebrews 12:29 we are told that God is a consuming fire. Fire is never safe. Even when fire is used to warm our bodies or cook our food it is not safe. Living in New Mexico I have seen the Forrest Service do controlled burns that got out of control and destroyed property and homes. God as a consuming fire is not safe.
Exodus 34:14 says, "Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Jealousy is not safe. I have seen jealousy turn a mild mannered, lay back person into a intensely obsessed person who would do anything to get what they wanted. I know that jealously is not seen as a good trait in people. God being a jealous God means that He who created us and redemmed us wants us for Himself. The fact that God is jealous means that He loves us passionately and would do whatever it took to establish a relationship with us like sending His Son to die for our sins on the cross.
In Pslam 18:47 and 94:1 God is described as the God who avenges me. I remember one time a bully was picking on a friend of mine who could not really defend himself. Another friend and I went and took care of the bully and we were not controlled in how we did it. A person who is out to avenge a wrong can be very intense. God is intense as He avenges the wrongs done against His people.
Pslam 140:7 says, "O Sovereign Lord, my strong deliverer, who shields my head in the day of battle." God is my deliverer. He will rescue me from the enemy, Satan. God will not be safe when He comes to defeat the enemy, He will be focused on getting me out of the enemy's control. He will be wild.
I have to come to know and experience a God who is strong, passionate, wild, and untamed. He is not safe and nice. He is good. He is a God who will Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls of my life and guide me into unsafe but awesomely good places.
Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
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