Ludington living

We live in such a beautiful place.  This was taken on Saturday September 24th.  It is the lighthouse at Ludington Harbor near sunset.

Children believers are believers. They are our brothers and our sisters. But they are children. Children in age and there also those that are young in the faith. They need to be encouraged, protected, and emulated.

We usually think the opposite. We think that those who have had a long faith life are the ones to be emulated.

for good reason, you that have been believers for several years are more likely to have a healthy devotional life. You spend time with God daily, you know how to make God a priority in your life.

Lived and survived the trials of this human life. You know the ups and the downs the pain and suffering of life. But you also know the beauty and the joy of life. You have learned to have faith and trust God.

And through all that you have learned the mind of God, or at least Gods will for your life.

Yes, those of you who are more seasoned in the faith have found the better way. You have learned that living in a way that you know Christ and make him known leads to a life of peace.

But why would Jesus tell us to be more like children?

Perhaps its because we have cynicism. That, although we may have faith in God we have lost faith in humanity. We have been through the trials of life and we have learned some things, especially about people. We learn that even though we give our best, sometimes we get hurt, sometimes we get let down, sometimes we get betrayed. And those experiences shape how we live with each other and interact with each other.

we do have disappointments and we do have mistrust.

And we can also get tired.

When we pour our energy in to something, when we give our heart mind soul and strength and we run into disappointment and pain, it is hard to sustain.

When we have the best in intentions and you are repeatedly overlooked, unappreciated, discouraged and dissuaded: That can be tiring.

Children and those young in the faith are trying to find God, Their hearts and minds are open to to what God might do in their lives. They are hungry to hear the truth, and they know it when they hear it. They come to church looking to us the more seasoned in the faith to tell them the truth. To tell them about God. To tell them about our savior Jesus. They want us to share with them our faith experiences.

Is that whet they find?

Do we find ourselves comfortable with our relationship with God. Are we looking for the possibilities that God has to offer, or are we content to keep things just as they are.

Children have innocence. They view the world in a way that is closer to the realization of the Kingdom of heaven than is reflected in current reality. If we could see through their eyes we could know more clearly what we need to fix.

Children are most capable and most willing to Learn.

What are they learning? What influences dominate their lives.

Imagine this: you are a first grader. You head of to school on the first day of the school year in the fall. You have your backpack will all the supplies on the list that the school sent you stuffed inside. You Ride the big yellow school bus. You Go in to your school building and find the first grade class room. The teacher reads off everybody's name... but yours. Your teacher checks the other first grade class room, your name isn't there either.

What does it say to a kid when his name is not on any class roster on the first day of school. To most of us that sounds like a administrative, or a clerical mistake. To a kid it says she doesn't belong anywhere.

What does it say when a parent is silent about the types of entertainment their kids enjoy. It says that what ever it is they are watching its okay by me.

Jesus priority for kids: The scripture lesson today says He put the child in the middle of them. Yes we are supposed to emulate the faith of a child but Jesus also says we are responsible for them.

We are supposed to give them the truth. We are supposed to equip them for life. We are supposed to teach them all that we have been taught about Jesus Christ. Jesus talks about Stumbling blocks. Don't put em there. Jesus' words are petty stern about putting things in the way of a child's faith. We want to encourage discipleship and faith. So, what do we want to pass on of our faith.

Jesus is the son of God. The one who came to offer us salvation by giving his life for each of us. That if we just have faith that Jesus was God and that he did come to save us, we can have life and have it in abundance. We can live forever in his presence. When we die we will not be gone but we will simply pass on to another life one that lasts forever, a life where there is not pain or sadness; where there is no sickness or death.

We want them to know Jesus in this life so that they can have a life of abundant love. And when they know Jesus in that way, when they know in their heart that Jesus is the Lord, that Jesus is their savior, that Jesus is God, then they will want nothing more than to make Jesus known to others.

That's what we want for our kids in this family of faith. That is what we want to teach them. But who will teach them?

I preach and teach a little from here. Parents impart important spiritual truth to their kids. Sunday School, which starts its new season next week is a very important way we as a faith community teach our youngest brothers and sisters in the faith.

What would it say to our kids if we had a list of 30 people willing and wanting to be able to teach them to love and trust God in the way that we hope for them. What if the waiting list had 40 names or 50. Our kids would know that this message, this good news about Jesus Christ is important to us.

Sunday school for kids is not a form of day care. It is the most important ministry this church can offer. Teaching the faith to the young believer is a gift you give not only to that child but to the world. A child raised in the way that that child should go is a child that will make this world a better place. Because God will use that child and work through that child.

Think for a moment, who taught you about the faith? Who was it that was an inspiration in your life?

Take a moment and thank God for them.

So how is it with you today?

How can you encourage one of these young disciples in their faith life. How would you want to be encouraged?  

Our Daily Work

I am in the midst of a week of vacation.  I haven't gone anywhere, I haven't done anything out of the ordinary.  I have been going about the mundane details of life as usual.  The only exception: I haven't done any "church" things.  I would like to say it has been relaxing and rejuvenating but the truth is I would rather be "working," that is, doing what God has called me to do.  I love preparing for worship.  I love talking with people.  I love proclaiming the Lordship of Jesus. That is the "work" I have been called to do.  Sometimes the thing we are called to do changes.
 When we find that we are no longer able or circumstances are such that our life's work can no longer be done in the way we have been accustomed, we have to listen carefully to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.  Sometimes our next step, our new direction, our purpose is clear and obvious.  this is, however, the exception.  More often it is a subtle nudge.  It's a shifting of energy that is nearly imperceptible.  When we calm ourselves, when we live lightly on this earth and put our trust and hope in God through Jesus Christ the way will reveal itself.  When it is discovered, it is usually painfully obvious that this was the way.
The Law of Moses and the prophets was the way for hundreds of years.  Jesus is the new way.  Jesus presence in ancient Palestine marked the division of history.  Things were one way and then Jesus seemingly made them different.  But how different?  although Jesus ushered in the New Covenant it was always about God's love for his people.  Jesus presence represented the zenith of that love, the extent to which God would go to be in right relationship with us.
This loving gesture has been made to all people of all times in all places.  This is the ultimate form of inclusiveness.  All those who have found freedom in devotion to the Lord Jesus have the task of knowing Jesus ever more and to go and make Jesus known to all the world starting where ever we are.
There will be another change in humanities relationship with God.    First, Moses and the prophets, then Jesus and the New Covenant, what's next?
Jesus will come again and we will be in the presence of God eternally.  There will be no need to seek Him, He will be with us.  We will see him.  Evil doers and all causes of sin will be removed and we will live and "work" in the way that we were truly designed.  May God bless us all as we try to get closer and closer in our daily work that we have been called to do.

Fix it, don't pitch it.

Matthew 18:21-35 “Don't throw that away. Fix it!”

We live in an increasingly disposable culture. The time from purchase to landfill is getting shorter and shorter. Products are designed to fail or become obsolete so that we buy new new and better products. So that we can throw those away as well. And on it goes.

This morning I want to consider our role as Christians in today's world. How are we as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ supposed to behave and how are we supposed to influence the world around us.

Well, I like to look to my dad as an example.

My dad, whom some of you have met grew up on a Dairy farm, was an iron worker for many years and is now retired. He can fix just about anything. From reinforcing the neighbors barn to keep it from collapsing to helping me build a model rocket when I was a kid he always know how to go about doing things. I on the other hand did not receive that particular gift from god. Often when I try to do repair work the problems gets bigger and I have to get help.

Because of my inability to be a proper handy man I tend to be a person who tends toward throwing things away and buying new. Yes, I am part of the problem. One time I was at camp with my high school FFA and it came time to go home and I couldn't figure out how to let the air out of my air mattress I was sleeping on. It was one of those things that people take to the beach or pool to float on. I think it cost me 3 bucks. I couldn't get the air out and everyone was packing up. I didn't want to hold them up, so I cut a hole in it to deflate it quickly. I threw it in the trash and was ready to go. When I got home My dad asked where the air mattress was. I told him what I did. He was disgusted with me. With the unnecessary waste.

Now I could stand up here and start talking about recycling and environmentalism, but I wont. I could talk about the necessity for an active economy to provide jobs for folk, but I wont. I wont because those issues have been taken over by political parties and distract us and divide us when we are trying to discern Gods will for us. We are Christians. Our first priority is God.

We live in a world that is full of brokenness. Throwing away a 3 dollar plastic air mattress when I was 15 is just the smallest symptom of that brokenness. I have a lot of respect for the work that my predecessor, Pastor Bob, does. He goes into the prisons. A place where the brokenness of this world is most evident and tries, with God's help to mend some of the brokenness. And that is what we are called to do in this world as Christians. To fix this world rather than throw it away.

I lacked the ability to take air out of a mattress so I threw it away. We lack the ability, as a society to rehabilitate criminal offenders so we throw them away. Prison is not a pace that is designed to make people better. It is a place where we put people to keep us safer. End of story.

There is brokenness in all of us and it needs to be fixed. Our brokenness gets passed on to our kids and they pass it on to theirs. Some people are so broken they do and say things that hurt others and create brokenness in their lives as well. There was certainly brokenness in the lives of those who perpetrated the attack on America 10 years ago. Whatever grievance they had, what ever war they thought they were fighting, they gave in to their own brokenness has humans. It is like there is an unseen enemy who is doing all he can to make our lives unhappy and unfulfilled. It is as if there is an adversary who is constantly working against us and if we do nothing he advances and causes more and more brokenness. The perpetrators of 9/11 created even more brokenness in the world. But we don't have to accept that into our lives. We can be sad, we can remember, we can take precautions. But we don't have to be broken. We don't have to give in to evil as they did.

Doing nothing is not an option. As Christians we are called to fix the brokenness.

Jesus tells a story about a king who wished to settle accounts. One of his slaves who was to be sold to cover his debt to the king pleaded for forgiveness. The king forgave all his debt. When that same slave refused to forgive a fellow slave a minor debt the king was enraged and punished the slave severely. Jesus makes the point at the end of his story. “So my heavenly Father will also do to eery one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

God want us to forgive each other. More to the point God wants us to overcome each others brokenness. You may do me harm but that harm should go no further than that. I shouldn't let your sin cause me to sin. I shouldn't let the broken relationship of in this part of my life cause more broken relationships in other parts of my life.

Our mission is to know Christ and to make him known. We know Jesus by loving him and by obeying him. Jesus gives us this parable as an example of how we are to live. The king forgave a great debt. Someone described the debt as the amount of money 60 men could carry in backpacks. Conversely the slave refused to forgive a debt the equivalent to what one person could carry in his pocket. The king was enraged because he set the standard. He forgave and so he expected his slave to do the same. Likewise Jesus sets the standard and is the example for us. We measure our behavior against Jesus behavior.

So when Peter asked Jesus how many times should we forgive another member of the church who sins against us. Jesus came up with this story about the king and the slave. Jesus is saying that we are forgiven SO much. We are loved so much. That we have to do the same. Any offense what we can come up with to hurt each other is minor in comparison to all that God has forgiven.

We have been called to make Jesus known, that it, we are called by god to proclaim the kingdom of God. Living into the kingdom of god means doing as God does, doing as Jesus does. That is loving extravagantly, forgiving each other. Do we need further instruction? We have it in holy scripture. Look at the 10 commandments. Instead of reading them as punishable offenses read them as ways of living that seek to prevent further brokenness.

Today is indeed September 11. it has been 10 years since the brokenness of some affect us all. Today I ask you to think about the people around you. The people sitting next to you right now and the people that you love and know in your day to day life. If you hold anything against them, if their brokenness has hurt you, I ask you to release them from the hold that you have over them. Forgive them. We learned from the events of 10 years ago that we may not have tomorrow. I ask you if your brokenness has caused harm to another, ask them for forgiveness and forgive them if they refuse to give give it.

So how is it with you today? God has given us this beautiful life. He has surrounded us with people that he loves enough to die for. These are gifts that are priceless. Don't throw them away even if thy are broken, fix them.