Nick’s Walk

“Now I will take the load from your shoulders; I will free your hands from their heavy tasks. Psalm 81:6 I suffered with my shoulders, particularly my left, for many months. When I would deal with a drive through window I could barely lift my arm to take the coffee, burger or health food. Okay, so no health food. I eventually couldn’t handle it any longer and went to the doctor. The doc is a friend so I trust his opinion very much. After two scary (to me) MRI procedures, my friend  recommended surgery on both shoulders. One at a time, of course. I had torn rotator cuffs in both shoulders.  After some prayer I decided to put off the surgery. I would like to say being a man of great faith I rejected surgery in favor of faith healing. That would not be true. Something from my last surgery messed me up bad. I am not a friend of pain. I have a lot going on. Oh, and I guess God could heal it. I turned it over to God, sort of, and hoped for the best. I applied the medication for pain my friend prescribed a couple of times. […]

My wife and I had a great time in bed the other night. Now that I have your attention. We were looking at old pictures. This one is from early 1970. We were engaged at the time and married in May of that year.  I highly recommend looking at old pics with a loved one. It was a wonderful exercise. Thanksgiving Booster.  Sometimes we need to remember all that we have to be thankful for. Looking at forty plus years of pictures really let’s you know how much you have to be thankful for. It really has been a wonderful life. Priority shifter.  Looking at the pictures we didn’t focus on cars we owned or houses we lived in or clothes we “loved.” We looked at people and not just any people, but “our” people, each other, children, grands and great grands.  We were reminded of friends and loved ones lost. Looking at old pics really can shift your priorities that might have ever so briefly gotten out of line. Faithfulness.  In the years of pictures, I  saw evidence of the faithfulness of God and  of my spouse. We have been through a lot. We often felt God was […]

Christians shouldn’t really ever be over-stressed. A bit of stress is necessary to motivate us to do the things we need to do and to avoid the things that should be avoided.  When we talk about being stressed, we really mean over-stressed.  Too much stress is bad, really bad. It distracts us and can, in the worst cases, freeze us into dangerous inactivity. Stress is a tool of Satan. Stress summarizes all that satan tries to throw at us. He tries to rush us,  frighten us, push us, confuse us, condemn us, discourage and worry us. Aren’t these things all the elements of stress? When we say we are “too blessed to be stressed” we don’t mean our life is stressor-free? Christians have the same problems as everyone and often a lot more. We have a higher standard and calling than most. We have as much reason to be stressed as anyone.  However, as Christians we have three things going for us that non-followers don’t have. Perspective.  Satan uses “what if” to stress us. What if you lose your job? What if you lose your spouse? What if you get cancer? What if… What if… What if… Christians have […]

  Listen to the song. We pray for blessings We pray for peace Comfort for family, protection while we sleep We pray for healing, for prosperity We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering All the while, You hear each spoken need Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things (Chorus) ‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops What if Your healing comes through tears What if the thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise We pray for wisdom Your voice to hear We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love As if every promise from Your Word is not enough And all the while, You hear each desperate plea And long that we’d have faith to believe Chorus When friends betray us When darkness seems to win We know the pain reminds this heart That this is not, this is not our home Chorus What if my greatest disappointments Or the aching of this life Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy What […]

In my last post, I discussed how God uses a carrot and stick approach to draw us to Himself. I spoke in generalities, which I hope was useful for understanding. However, what’s important is application in each of our lives. How far will God go in my life to bring me to Himself? Unless we see God mirrored what we experience in our lives (the carrot) and unless the insufficiency of our world to truly satisfy is clear to us (the stick), we won’t be drawn to God and follow His Son in executing His plan for us. God truly has a plan for us. It’s not the bed of roses, worldly success, prosperity plan that is far too often preached. It’s a plan that includes more of Him and less of the world. It replaces temporary pleasure with eternal satisfaction. It substitutes fun with fulfillment. It can look miserable and foolish when, in fact, it’s great and glorious. It can seem fanciful, when it’s the only thing that’s real. If instead of God we seek riches, we will never feel rich enough. If we cling to youth and beauty in place of mature growth in Him, we will […]

I think as Christians most of us realize that we were created for a relationship with God. We know that God wants that relationship to be voluntary on our part. Just how far will God go to carry out this end? Consider this. Jesus told us not to fear more times than He told us anything else. We can assume being fearless is important. Yet, we live in a world with storms, disease, violence, destruction, wasps, snakes, spiders, ISIS and the IRS. How are we supposed to be fearless? We tell each other that God has a wonderful plan for our lives, but His plan for His son was humiliation, rejection and painful death on a cross. How can we expect a better plan for us? God said we, His followers, would do greater things than He did. He did some pretty awesome stuff. We can’t seem to get out of bed, lose weight, raise kids without criminal records, pay bills or invite people we know really well to church. Is there an explanation for all this plain madness? I think there is. It came to me in the middle of the night last night. I didn’t eat anything […]

5Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” 6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. 7“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” John 14 The followers of Christ were first called “The Way.” It seems now a more proper name than “Christians” who now seem to include people who don’t believe Jesus is THE way and some who are only slightly sure He’s one of the better ways. I realize that it is the highest political incorrectness to suggest that there is but one way, or one truth or even one life. I think we might have lost the name, The Way, when becoming a Christian became politically correct and the exclusiveness of Jesus became incorrect. Maybe it’s time we stand on incorrectness and those who don’t like it be damned. For in fact, they are. It seems as Christians we have tried too hard to be nice, to avoid offense. When we have chosen to be tough, […]

Sunday at church we had a pot luck lunch. Logistics forced us to set up tables of 8 chairs each. The congregation sat at the tables during the service and afterward for the meal. In the above picture, many were still getting their food. Just about each table was filled.  This accomplished something I have been advocating for many years. I wished we always sat at tables.There are many reasons. Sunday I was in position to look over the entire congregation and how they reacted to the tables. What I saw strengthened my argument that we should do this more often. I am not the only one to think this way: http://www.morethancake.org/archives/2604 http://franconiaconference.org/worshiping-around-the-table/ Made the meal possible. First off, it made having the pot luck possible. The early church ate together. It’s a church thing. Facilitates conversation. A circular table naturally facilitates conversation. I saw lots of it on Sunday. It’s so much more natural to talk to each other when we are face-to-face than when we sit in rows. Enhances community.  Although, as my grandson pointed out, many people sat at tables with friends and family, there were many who were sitting with people they didn’t know. I bet there are some […]