HCLM BLOG

a friend of mine recently told me, "Ben it is possible to live with one foot in Heaven. I know. I've tasted it." That was so deep I made him say it again. He was talking about experiencing God now like we will then. This is hard to wrap my mind around. Mostly because, if I start to believe what he's saying then heaven becomes super real, and the living Jesus not nearly as far away as I usually think of him. Just thought I'd give you that to think about today.

One: what a beautiful day! I mean at first I was like, "Shorts and a t-shirt in February?! That's just wrong." Then I was like, "Hey who says it's wrong, roll with it and love it!"

I have confessed to you all about my tuesday evening appointments with Biggest Loser. But I held back on my Wednesday meetings. I can keep quiet no longer. I am a LOST fan. As the show concluded this week I thought, "man this show is weird." Today, at lunch, Chris and I talked over the show (dad and I got him hooked this fall). We decided the reason they keep us watching such a crazy plot is because of the crazy good character development. I probably watch lost, less to figure out the island and the time travel and the death threats, and more because I want to see want happens to these characters they've gotten me to care about.

Once a week we (people working in the church office) have a devotion together. This morning as we all walked into the board room to begin, I heard someone call out from the bowels of the office, "Ben has the devotion this week." I have to admit, this caught me off guard. I was, shall we say, less than prepared. Not that I couldn't think of something to say (i've always got something to say) just that I forgot I was supposed to have something specific to say. So...I walked back to my office, and grabbed my bible. Lucky for me I had a Learn Team last night so I had some stuff on top of my mind. 

This weekend I had the privilege of sharing what has happened at Holy Cross over the last 25 years with six pastors from around he country. Whenever I tell the story, I am struck with just how blessed we are and have been!

The Pastors who come take notes and gather information with the idea that somehow what is happening here can happen at their own congregations, and that is certainly our prayer and the reason that we spend this time together, but the fact is that it is the blessing of God that will transform their congregations.

One of the questions that they kept asking was how did you know which things would work? I told them what I have come to believe and that is that we have a tendency to plan where we would like to go and then we ask God to go there with us. Instead we need to look around us and see what God is blessing and then go there! Whenever I have tried to plan just what would work for Holy Cross it has failed. The things that have worked are the things that I would say just "fell into our laps". Again and again God has shown me that it is in His time and in His way that He will bless us in our task of reaching the lost for Christ in the Central Florida Area!

Do you think that this attitude works in our personal lives as well? Should we be looking for where God is blessing you and your family and go in that direction? What do you think?

In Christ,
Pastor Paul

Here is something I prayed today?

Hey Father, teach me what it looks like to be known by you I mean I know you made me for yourself, things work best when our relationship is dynamic But sometimes I struggle with how that looks for us So today, Holy Spirit, would you come Open my mind and heart to new ideas and fresh disciplines to new possibilities and different approaches So I can become who I already am, a man known by you and living with you for the sake of your son in his kingdom. In Him and through Him...Amen

I like to listen to podcasts while I work out; things like this american life or speaking of faith. I know it's not pump you up music, but workouts for me are relaxing and these add to it.

This morning, relishing the anonymity of being one of several people on dozens of elliptical machines, I listened to a conversation with an interesting atheist turned Jew. She wrote a book called the Sparrow. The book sounds a little crazy if not interesting, but it was when she spoke about how she got the title that I was really intrigued.

She quoted from where the Bible mentions that not even a sparrow falls without God seeing it. She said that is supposed to be a comfort. But it has always caused her to question: why then does the bird still fall? If God is watching why does the bird die. I love this question.

Our God is complex. Larger than we can handle or understand. Often we try to explain away the problem of sparrows dieing, like we are trying to get God off the hook. To imagine up our own reason why God might have the sparrow die. But in the end the two things exist right next to each other: Bad things and all powerful Good God. Both are true...some things are just all bad, and the all powerful God is all good. It can be confusing if you think about it too much. We're better off letting this be a comfort--in the midst of bad the all powerful Good God is on your side.

I have a friend whose favorite weather is cold and rainy. Normally I don't agree, but for me today has been nice. It has given me an excuse to drink coffee and eat tasty vegetable soup (made by my talented and beautiful wife).

In the olden days (days were never golden but just older) rain was associated with the blessing of God. Lots of rain was lots and lots of blessing. Usually we associate sun and blue sky with God, maybe that's because we don't grow our own food.

It's good to remember that our God has been around a long time. That people have been dealing with him for a lot longer that we even have a concept of. That American or Enlightenment understandings of scripture, or spirituality, or even God are relatively new. We have definitely learned some new things that help, but I think we are losing some things too. Maybe rain ought to be associated with our good and gracious God. That helps me when I look out my window, welcome the rain and imagine God's blessing coming down with the water.

I know that I've talked about this before, but I have been thinking more about it lately. The more I think about it, the more I see it affecting all sorts of stuff.

It came up in my mind the other day when I heard an interview about the problems with our economy. The guy was a christian that worked with the poor somewhere in New England. He said the reason it was messing with people so much was because the economy had become a God for our culture, and when it fails people's God fails.

I started thinking, "I don't know anyone who would say that money or the economy is their God." But the next thing that came to mind was, "I suppose that a lot of people's security, or hope comes from money, and really isn't that what Gods are for?" That thought made me think another thought, "there are a lot of people in that camp--the camp of looking to money for things Gods provide--I find myself in that camp sometimes, how does that happen?" (sometimes my thoughts run through my head really fast like that). Finally I landed on one thought, "it's hard to find security and hope in a spiritual God for physical things. For some reason I want to separate them."

This brings me to the aforementioned point that affects a lot of stuff. With the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob there is no separation of physical and spiritual. They are wrapped up together, and he is equally concerned about all of it. That God is concerned about my quality of life physically and spiritually. That means I can trust him with my money just as much as my sin, I can trust him with my physical health just as much as my emotional health. That's what makes him such a good God, it's why he's been around for so long.

So after 25 years of car and house insurance with State Farm, I now need to look for a new insurance company! I am having a hard time understanding just how they can simply decide to quit covering the homes that they have in Florida. Equally ridiculous is their commercial that says even though we are dropping your house just keep paying us for your car and by the way why not give us your money to invest.

This whole thing is another reminder that "Service Organizations" are not really service oriented they are profit oriented. I suppose that you can not expect a corporation to continue to do business at a loss, but then they should not be able to do business based on the idea that "You've Got A Friend" this is not something that a friend would do!

All of these thoughts came to me yesterday as I prepared for my Crossways Class where we were discussing the fact that Jesus came as the "Cornerstone" and his pattern of living as a servant to all was a model for us as followers of Christ. No wonder the world has a hard time understanding the actions of Christ Followers as they live to serve those around them and consider the needs of others as more important than their own. Even our "Service Organizations" do not operate in that way.

Christ calls us to see the world differently and to act differently. This is confusing to us and to those around us. You can begin to see why in the early church they separated themselves from the world and tried to deal just with other believers. The Mennonite church has some of that as they don't do insurance but if someone loses a home or property they all simply get together and rebuild what they lost!! Now that is servant living!

Searching for new insurance for my house is going to bring up a raft of new problems and I will try and keep you informed as my frustration mounts.

In Christ,
Pastor Paul