Year: 2013

15 “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

Somewhat unexpectedly, it was a wonderful weekend. The Cajun baseball team finished the regular season with a sweep of the Louisiana Monroe Warhawks.  The Lady Cajun Softball team won the Baton Rouge regional beginning with a win over the Northwestern Demons. (Who calls themselves “Demons”? More about Sweeping Demons later.) Speaking of Demons, they then defeated the LSU Tigers in two games. They did not allow a single run against them the entire weekend. Next weekend, the Super Regional. I’m not a great fan of the NBA but even my favorite NBA Team, the San Antonio Spurs, won game one of their Western Conference Championship series. Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t a perfect weekend. My daughter who broke her ankle several weeks ago was looking forward to her first full bath at our house. The well stopped working in the middle of her bath on Saturday night. Rose had to stay home from church on Sunday to wait for the repair men. But those good friends showed up on a Sunday and got us running water again. Speaking of Sunday, church was great. My wife couldn’t come, but my daughter, after all she had a recent bath, was […]

There are 168 hours in a week. We are foolish if we think 1 or 2 hours on Sunday spent at church will be sufficient to support our spiritual lives. Church is important and Sunday worship services are important; but much more is needed to feed the spirit man.  The reality is most folks will not spend more than a couple of hours a week on their spiritual walk so those hours need to be maximized. It’s important that we gather, that we are focused, that we participate. It’s also important that we prep for Sunday. It’s not enough to be an audience. We need to be active and responsive. We need to have our churches and their leaders in our prayers all week. A few minutes of worship a week won’t do. We need to be worshipful always and put our minds on God as much as possible. A sermon of a few minutes to an  hour isn’t going to be enough. We need to read the bible. Talk about Jesus. Find other sources of information and inspiration. We are adults and are responsible for ourselves.  We need to show up full of Jesus. No doubt there will […]

Tomorrow is Sunday so I will be attending services at my church. My church is 16 miles from my house and, according to my GPS, it takes 33 minutes to drive there. I can usually make it in thirty even with a quick stop at the McDonald’s drive through. I guess I may drive a bit in excess of the speed limit. I pass a lot of churches on the way to my church. They are great churches. They just aren’t my church. Just so you understand. I am not the pastor of my church. I am not even one of the leaders. I’m not even an usher, nor do I work in children’s church. I am always ashamed when tax time comes how poorly I financially support my church. It’s my church because Jesus gave it to me a few years ago when I really needed a church. There I found a loving congregation and the best pastor couple I have ever known. There are lots of new faces whose names I don’t know at my church. This isn’t their fault. I’m just not very good at introducing myself and learning people’s names. Got to do something about […]

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, against the powers

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. John 15:2The first home we owned in Lafayette had a small patio in the back. The previous owner had planted rose beds on two sides of the patio. We really enjoyed the beautiful roses for a while, but soon the plants became leggy and less attractive. It got so bad they were taking over the patio. I wasn’t much of a gardener, but I read somewhere about pruning so I pruned the bushes. I cut them way back until there was nothing but stumps. They looked like the bushes you buy at the nursery. We spent some nervous time waiting and watching what would happen. Eventually new shoots sprang out and by the middle of the next summer we had beautiful roses again. Annual pruning became a part of my newly learned garden routine. I eventually learned to be an even better pruner and about other things like proper feeding and keeping away bugs.God is the perfect gardener. He knows all about pruning. It’s not as hard for us to understand why he […]

34 I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 

A few years ago I left a law firm and went into solo practice. It was a huge move for me. I had worked for someone else and had a regular paycheck since I had been in high school. I learned many lessons from that experience. Pastor T told us last week that we are all like pieces in a bucket, all useful. I have found that God likes to give the bucket a good shake every once in a while.  1. You can be replaced. I was handling the biggest cases and the toughest files at the firm. But it didn’t take them long to reassign them. I like to think the clients did not get the same high quality legal representation that I was providing, but who knows. We can get so comfortable in our lives that we think those around us can’t get along without us. Not so. We worry about what will happen to our family if we die. They will miss us, but they will be fine. We are not the only person who can fill our roles. God has us in important roles, but He is the ultimate source. We get so used […]