A few years ago, I made a big mistake. Honestly, that is an understatement. I sinned. I cross boundaries God did not want me to cross. I denied what I believe. I broke trust with people I love. I failed and fell short of the glory of God.

Since that time, I have claimed the power of forgiveness in Jesus Christ. I understand that he died on the cross to pay my debt of sin. I did not deserve his special treatment, and that is called grace. I am forgiven, and my life moved on.

The only problem is that when my life quiets down for a few moments, my mind drifts back to that mistake. At those times, I begin to beat myself up about my failure.

“How could I have been so stupid? I knew better. It is no wonder some things in my life are such a mess; I completely deserve it. If I were God, I would punish me in a way I would never forget. How could anyone love me? If people knew what happened, I would be humiliated. My sin is greater than I can bear.”

These are just a few of the lines that race through my head when I think about my sin. Sure God may forgive me, but I still deserve some punishment for my sin. Even if it all just happens inside my own head.

Recently I was driving down the road and had started the process over. The pain I was feeling was genuine, and I couldn’t escape it. Then as clearly as I am writing a thought went through my brain, “Jesus paid all of your debt on the cross so you can stop beating yourself up.”

The Bible never speaks about us “forgiving ourselves.” The Bible pushes us to remember that Jesus paid it all. Mentally torturing yourself is of no value. Each one of us can let go our sin and shame in the name of Jesus. God forgives you, and that is enough. The price for sin has been paid in full.

I wish I could say that this concept changed me and this will be the last time I will struggle. I know better than that. One of the aspects of faith is continually clinging to the cross even when I don’t feel like I deserve it. It is about letting go of punishment, even self-punishment because the cross was enough.

In yesterday’s sermon, I talked about “My Crazy Spouse.” I tried to focus my thoughts on two concepts. First, I need to accept responsibilities for the problems I bring into a marriage. Second, I need to work on improving my marriage more than complaining. I lifted up the Biblical example of two people who are selflessly serving each other.

Then I gave six actions steps to help improve your marriage. I thought these might be beneficial to repeat. (Please note, these were gathered from at least five sources and none are original with me).

1. Become the kind of person you would want to come home to. Does your spouse enjoy going to work and staying there more than coming home? What could you do to change that trend?

2. Do one thing to improve your spouse’s life. This might include you taking on a new task or making a simple purchase. There are numerous ways we can reduce our mate’s stress level if we care to do it.

3. Compliment your spouse. Criticism is easy; compliments are difficult to say. In the end, those compliments are far more beneficial.

4. Ask your spouse about themselves. Listen intently. This will mean you need to shut off the TV and put down your phone. For an added bit of fun, what if you agreed with your spouse and told them they were right about something.

5. Remember the small stuff. It is important to learn your spouse’s love language (Those are: words of affirmation, gifts, service, time and touch.) Then do little things that show your spouse you care enough to make them feel loved.

6. Overflow with Forgiveness. Develop a short memory. The Bible says to “keep no record of wrongs.” Make sure to forgive your spouse’s flaws as they have forgiven you.

All six of these steps are simple and relatively cheap. They do require us to give our time and attention, and those are the two most valuable commodities in the world right now. When you are willing to sacrifice those things for another person, it is the ultimate act of love. Those actions will build a great marriage.

Here a couple of thoughts for today about dying Churches and the traditions they hold onto. Great thought for today.

1. This weekend I am kicking off a new three-week sermon series called My Crazy Family. I will be exploring marriage, parenting, and grandparenting. You can join us every Sunday at 9:30 am for worship.

August 6 “My Crazy Spouse.”
August 13 “My Children are Driving Me Crazy.”
August 20 “Crazy Old People.”

2. On Sunday, August 13th our leadership will be spending all afternoon in a meeting planning for the future. One of our biggest topics of discussion will be the possibility of transitioning to two worship programs each Sunday morning. The old rule of Churches is that you will stop growing when you are 80% full in worship, and several times this past year we have surpassed that number. For us to reach more people with the message of Jesus Christ, we need to make some changes. Please be in prayer for our leadership as we decide a plan for growth including two worship programs on Sunday morning.

3. As we look toward the fall, we are going to participate in Operation Christmas Child again this year. This is also known as the Christmas Shoeboxes. Ashley Stephens has volunteered to lead the program, and a few people have already stated that they would help her. Three ways you can help with this project. One, be in prayer for as we move forward with planning and collection. Two, volunteer if you would assist in any way. Three, begin setting aside money now for the purchase of needed items or simply for making a cash donation. I look forward to this being another great year to make an impact in our world in the name of Jesus.

4. Our next Membership class is scheduled for October 15th immediately following worship. The Church will be providing lunch, and we will jump right into the material. It will take about two hours total to cover all the material. This will include what it means to follow Jesus, why you should be a part of the local Church and what is the next step on your journey of faith. We are encouraging everyone to take the class who would like to become a member or continue as a member of ACC. Please see me (Pastor Matt) if you have questions.

These are a few of the things going on around Adrian Christian Church in the coming weeks. I hope you will join us in worship and prayer. May God bless you all.

The world is currently full of advice. There thousands upon thousands of articles, podcasts, posts, lectures and blogs like this one out there to help you in life. They touch on every topic under the sun for every person on the globe.

The Bible affirms that we need lots of good advice. Proverbs 15:22 says, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers, they succeed.” (NIV) Advisors and their advice are inherently good, but not always correct.

Recently I was reading an article about youth sports. At first glance, it sounded like good advice, but upon further investigation, it had an unbiblical note to it that I just couldn’t shake. I dug a little deeper to find out the author was not a Christian and appeared to have only one child. Suddenly, the advice sounded different to me. A red flag went up, and a few words of advice on advice came to mind for anyone who calls themselves a follower of God.

1. Always Consider the Source. Please, please, never read an article and accept it at face value. I notice that on my blog one of the most popular posts is my “About Me” section. People want to know who I am and part of my story. That is great. I wish more people researched who was speaking to their lives.

2. Ask if the Author is a Christian. To me, this is a defining moment. As a follower of Jesus, I want to know what other people on this journey think. Sure, almost everyone has some agenda in their words (including me), but I want it to be a Christian agenda. Do the words connect with Scripture concepts in any way? Do they seek to glorify God in some way? Big questions.

3. Find Out About Their Journey. Recently I received some advice from a woman about marriage. My issue was that I discovered that it came from a lady who was now in her fourth marriage. Yes, she had been married her whole adult life but to four different men. Her years of marriage experience was really just a few years repeated four times, and not to sound arrogant, that is entirely different from my 23 years to my one wife. I believe she was well-intentioned and had good insights, but I took it with a grain of salt so to speak.

4. Find out if They are Ahead of You in Life. One of the problems I had with the article about youth sports was that it was written by a young, first time parent. The advice sounded like something I would have said ten years ago. Now my children are grown, and I see it differently. I would plead with you to seek the counsel of people who are where you want to go on your journey, not those standing beside you. There is an enormous amount of wisdom in years of experience.

5. Think for Yourself. My professor used to say, “I milk a lot of cows, but I make my own butter.” His principle was simple. Get all the info you can about life, then make your way. Never take advice from another person’s journey completely. Each person has a different road to walk. Pray for wisdom. Test theories. In the end, walk your own path and use the brain God gave you.

Unfortunately, for every piece of good advice I hear or read, there are three pieces of bad counsel from a Christian perspective. Use your head, ask questions, and allow God to guide you with the wisdom of others. Just make sure it is wisdom and not foolishness.

I caught myself in the middle of my prayer saying words I rarely say out loud. In a moment of total honesty, I said, “God I want to grow, but …”

These words were honest because I do want to grow as a Christian person. I want to have a deeper relationship with God. I want to know my Bible better. I want to serve and give more. I want to be a Godly husband and father. I want to live for Jesus in every area of my life.

But … I finished my sentence, “Please make it easy and painless.”

I want a deeper relationship with God, but I don’t want pain and suffering to be a part of it.

I want to know my Bible, but I don’t really want to give up my free time to do it.

I want to serve and give, but I want to do it with my extra time and money.

I want to be a better husband and father if it doesn’t require me to do anything differently.

“God, I want some big things, but please make the price tag cheap.”

Unfortunately, that is not how the world works. Anything worth having comes with a high cost. It takes blood, sweat, and tears. You must feel pain before you can experience the gain. The road to deeper faith is paved with struggle and sacrifice.

I am trying to change my prayer. It is not easy. I want to say, “Your will be done, no matter what the cost.” But those are hard words to say and really mean them.

If there is one thing that builds our muscle of faith, it is to work with resistance. I would rather it come easy like a relaxing Sunday by the lake, but frequently it looks more like work clothes on a Monday morning. I hate that, but if I really want to grow then …

Ty Cobb holds the major league record for the highest lifetime batting average. He averaged .366 over 24 seasons. He played over 100 years ago, and his record still stands.

I don’t know much about baseball, in fact, I am not a fan, but I still marvel at that number.

That number means that every ten times at bat he hit only three of them to get on base. Every 1,000 times he came to the plate to hit he was called out 634 times. He was a successful batter only one-third of the time.

I am drawn to that number as a leader because not everything I do will be successful.

I noticed today while looking over my blog for the past seven months that on average only one per article week gets many hits. It seems that each week I write people seem to connect with only one of my posts. Out of five original pieces of material just one gets noticed.

For me, that is enough to keep writing. If I can produce five articles every week and one is a success, then I am doing well. That means each year I write 52 good posts that people connect with and helps them on their spiritual walk. That means in the four years I have been writing I have produced over 200 pages of useful material. That is two hundred times more than I would have written had I waited for the perfect words and the precise time and published them knowing for sure they would be well received. These words came at the cost of four failures a week.

The best baseball player in history got on base only one-third of the time.

I don’t know what you are dreaming of doing, even if it is for the Lord and through the Church, you will fail. Don’t let that stop you. Most of the lessons you teach will feel like a waste of time. Many of the programs you plan will not produce the excitement you hoped for. You may work tirelessly for months and see little to no fruit. That’s okay. Keep swinging. Because one day, it will connect. The ball will fly, and the runners will advance. You will score, and victory will be yours.

I don’t know when success will happen. I am not sure how it will happen. I promise you that if you keep coming to the plate, eventually you will get a hit. People will remember the enormous impact you had .366 of the time.