Been thinking about my dad this week. I suppose it is because fishing season is upon us and with every trip, I want to call dad and tell him about it. As my thoughts turn toward his life, I am reminded of several memories I have that were spiritual in nature and helped to shape my life.

1. Sitting in the Old Green Truck. Dad had an old Ford pickup that I spent countless hours sitting in as we drove to hunt, trap and fish. I always sat in the middle, and my brother sat by the door. Never a great place if you are looking for comfort, but I never had to get out and open the gate. It was there in that truck that my dad explained the gospel to my brother. He spoke of the cross, salvation and eternal life in heaven. I don’t know if dad was aware of how I hung on his every word. It was sitting there that I decided I wanted to give my life to Christ. Sure, I went forward on Sunday morning and made a confession of faith and was baptized, but sitting in that truck with my dad is where I made those fledgling decisions of faith.

2. After my Baptism. Two events happened minutes after I was baptized. My brother and I had gone forward together after hearing dad speak. First, my dad came into a little room with us and shared communion. The three of us took the bread and the cup and had a moment of silent reflection on the decision we had just made. Then we walked out of that room, and my brother began crying. Dad grabbed him and held him there in the back hallway of the Church. I asked dad why he was sad and he said, “One day you will understand this.” He was right, I did not at that moment understand the complete gravity of our decision, but dad did, and so did my brother. It was one of the most beautiful moments I witnessed with my dad and brother together.

3. Baptizing My Son. My oldest boy was very close to his grandfather or Pappy as we called him. It was really no surprise to me when he decided to follow Jesus and be baptized that he wanted his Pappy to be a part. There in my home Church, the family gathered, and my dad baptized my son. It is one of the greatest days of my life.

4. Looking at His Old Bible. After his first stroke, I sat in his chair and saw his Bible. Picking it up I saw page after page of handwritten notes. His cursive writing made many of his notes hard to decipher. Flipping through the pages, I noticed there was not a section untouched. The edge of the New Testament was stained with the dirt of hundreds of uses. Dad had spent hour upon hour in God’s word, and it showed in his life and on that Bible.

These are just some of the thoughts that bubble to the surface about my father. I guess I share these with you to remind everyone of the impact you have on your children. You have the potential to shape the lives of the next generation. You want them to be good people, then you need to first set the example. You want them to be Godly people then you must be living, learning and sharing your faith. My life is marked by several people, but my father’s imprint is the deepest. Where will your mark be left?

Over the last several years I have noticed a recurring theme in my preaching and in my writing. This topic I describe as holding on tight to my faith when I feel like giving up. This issue has been stirred by numerous conversations with people of faith, especially men. I keep finding people who claim to have faith but refuse to do anything with it because of some painful story. As a result, I keep reminding people that real faith will make it through anything no matter how difficult it may seem.

1. Hold onto faith in the face of loss. This year I have faced the loss of my dad. It has been one of the most difficult experiences in my life. I know I am not alone in this. I am sure some of you have wondered how there can be a good God when someone you love is hurting or even passes away. Hold onto Jesus as the resurrection and the life.

2. Hold onto faith when Christians hurt you. Christians are deeply flawed people. I make no pretense that this is not true. We are sinners saved by grace. The cross removes all our sins, but it does not remove the possibility that we will sin again. Unfortunately, our old ways occasionally rise to the surface, and we say and do things that hurt other people. Sadly, it happens more often than you think. Real faith understands that only God is perfect and all of us need grace upon grace.

3. Hold onto faith when people criticize you. Maybe you have not been hurt by the sins of other Christians, but you have been hurt by their cutting words. They had tried to rebuke you or offer correction when they were wrong or misunderstood the situation. Faith does not put all of its trust in other people. It listens for the nugget of truth and throws out the rest.

4. Hold onto faith when you feel bad. There are times that life just gets hard. I don’t feel well, and I am hurting. When pain enters our life in any form, it has the possibility to push us away from faith. Hold on even when you hurt.

5. Hold onto faith when life is hard. Often our struggle is not because of one thing in our life. It is the result of a dozen little things. I was once told that termites destroy more homes than tornadoes. Many times, all of the little things eat away at our faith and do far more damage than some catastrophic event. Hold onto your faith no matter what is eating away at you.

I wish faith were an easy project for people. The reality is that nothing in life worth having is easy. Faith is no different. Sometimes having faith takes demanding work. Other times you have to hang onto your beliefs in spite of an ugly situation. I firmly believe that the Christian life is full of blessings upon blessings, but only if we hold on through the dark nights until the light of morning.

I spend a large section of my day inside my own head. Honestly, sometimes it is a dark and scary place. Inside my brain failures can take up permanent residence, evil thoughts reappear regularly and lust, anger, and pride try to distort my every thought. With all this ugliness inside my own mind, I must continually remind myself of the truth of my faith.

1. God Loves Me Anyway. I am sure there are times God is disappointed in my actions or angry at my mistakes. He is our father, and like any good parent, he gets frustrated with his children. Also, like a good parent, those irritations do not diminish his love. God the Father loves us and seeks the best for us even in our failures.

2. Jesus Paid the Price. Quite often I feel this need to punish myself mentally. I feel I am not worthy of God’s goodness in my life. He must be angry with me and my continual mistakes, and if he is not disappointed, then I am with myself. I deserve any mistreatment I receive. The good news of the Bible is that Jesus took up our sins upon the cross. He paid the price for my trespasses, and I do not have to wait for his angry hand to punish me and I do not have to punish myself.

3. My Past Does Not Define My Future. The great Apostle Paul was at one time the evil Saul who gave approval to murder. Yet, God saw something different deep inside him. Once Saul started to follow Jesus his life was never the same. The change was so great that even his name changed to represent his new life in Christ. I believe God sees the same potential in all of us. I do not have to be limited by the mistakes of the past.

4. The Power of God is Stronger than the Power of Evil. When the dark thoughts overtake my mind, I frequently stop and say a little prayer. In those moments, I ask God to give me the power to overcome the evil inside me. I believe the power of God is greater than anything that evil can throw at me whether that be ugly thoughts, guilt and shame or personal fantasies that seek selfish pleasure. “God give me strength at this moment” is a prayer I know very well.

5. Focus on the Good. Paul told the believers in the city of Philippi to focus on “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8) Whenever dark thoughts enter my mind, I have to force myself to flip things over and see the good. Sure, I made mistakes, but those mistakes made me who I am today. Sure, I sin and fall short, but I worship a God who offers forgiveness and grace. We, as Christians, have been blessed in so many ways. Don’t ever lose sight of the blessing you have received in your life.

I often wish there were some magic words that I could recite to make all the darkness go away. There simply is no effortless way to fix my messed-up brain. Every day I have to make an effort to renew my mind and tune it to the sound of God’s word.

Through the years, I have learned that I am not the only one to struggle in with these thoughts. If you struggle too, maybe these words will help you today.

There are two sides of faith.

One side is our belief system based on our knowledge of God’s word. This is an essential piece of faith. We need to believe the right things about God. To this end, we are not left to our own experiences or imagination. God gave us 66 books that have been collected into one volume we call the Bible.

Believers are encouraged to read and study these books to learn more about God and his desire for us. Therefore, many followers of Jesus set aside not only time to read the Bible, but also to read books that explain the Bible. They also sit and listen to sermons, lectures, and lessons on a regular basis. Christians have a quest for knowledge of the things of God.

The other side to faith is our actions based off of what we believe. The knowledge of God is given to us to shape everything we do. It has been said that to know what a person really believes, just look at their actions. Jesus himself challenges his followers at the end of the Sermon on the Mount to put their faith “into practice.”

Those of us who call ourselves Christians need to be constantly reminded of these two sides of faith. I have seen numerous people who have erred by living only one side of their beliefs. They either spend all their time learning, and it has little effect on their actions. Yet another group of people want to do great things but have little knowledge of what God really wants. They do good works but can end up doing them for all the wrong reasons.

Both of these are essential to faith. Jesus taught his followers the truth and then told them to go and do it.

Here is the weird twist. Many times, before people are interested in the Bible and what it says about God, they want to see Jesus in our actions. You are the only version of Jesus that many people will see.

People are watching you to see if this thing we call following Jesus is worth their time and energy. The words you use, the actions you do and the attitude in which you do them are all under examination.

I know that can leave us feeling great pressure to be perfect. In my experience, I have found few people looking for perfection. Most people are interested in grace. They want to know it is okay to fail and still be loved. What if today you told someone, “God loves you, and so do I, no matter what you have done.” Maybe for a few minutes, you will be Jesus in Nike shoes.

Over 50 years ago, my dad was influenced by the preaching of a man named Albert Amos. Dad told that me that he was impressed at how Albert preached with authority and conviction and did it all without notes. Albert told dad how he was speaking one time outdoors, I do not remember the exact story, but his notes blew away. Albert vowed to never end up in the same predicament again. So he preached without notes while my dad sat in the crowd listening.

One day as an adult male in his thirties dad stood up and responded to the invitation to accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Dad would tell me that his knees were knocking, and he was scared to death, but he went anyway. There in a beautiful moment, he made his confession of faith and was baptized.

I never met Albert except through the stories my dad told. Once I did get a chance to see his signature in a book a local man gave my father as a gift. That is as close as I came to him. I don’t know any details of his life from his upbringing, his ministry experiences or his final years of life. I have just collected a few random stories my dad told about the preacher who impacted his life.

I also have no idea if Albert kept any contact with my father. I assume he moved on to another ministry, and eventually, the distance stood as an obstacle that was too big to overcome. Dad drifted into his memory and finally into a faint recollection in the back of his mind.

As a preacher myself I have stood in Albert’s position a few times. I have been overwhelmed at some adult who came to accept Jesus. I have connected with a few people and helped them in their walk with Christ. I moved on in ministry, and they slowly drifted into my past. I do not know what happened to them once we parted ways.

I often find myself staring off into space and wondering where their journey took them. Did they stay faithful to God? Did they give up on their faith? Did they teach their children? Was their life molded and shaped by God and the world changed by their service? I will never know the paths their lives took them on this side of heaven. I know that I hope and pray they carry the message of Jesus for the rest of their lives.

I think Albert Amos would be happy with the rest of this story. Dad lived a life of faith. He taught me, and I eventually went into ministry. My children have accepted Jesus, and I pray they will one day serve a local Church and make their own impact for Jesus.

My dream as a minister is bigger than having a few people like my sermons. My prayer is that people will respond to God and allow their relationship to transform their future. I want you to tell me about how your children and grandchildren are now walking with Jesus. That is what would make me happy.

Here is your thought for Sunday. I hope you have a blessed Day

Here are the best articles I have read this week. Not a lot to share, but I hope you enjoy.

Pastors don’t trust your people…

THE 15 SECOND KISS EXPERIMENT

How Spending Too Much Time On Your Phone Hurts You (and your family)

What the Christian Critics Missed in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast

I thought I would add a video for you to enjoy this weekend too. This is one of my new favorite songs from Elevation Worship called “I Can’t Believe”

I was going through some old posts I had saved on my computer. These were written almost 10 years ago on a different site when I was serving another Church in a distant city. I kept some of them on my computer and read through them occasionally to get inspiration or a laugh. This one caught my attention, and I thought I would repost it as it was written. I hope you enjoy

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I had an interesting experience last week while donating plasma. A lady at the plasma center who was also donating sat down next to me reading a book called “Growing an Engaged Church.” I have never read it. My initial guess is that it might be about how the church as a group can engage people at a deeper level. I went to Amazon, and it says that we need to stop “doing Church and become the Church.” I judged the younger looking lady to be a college student. From the look of the underlines in her book, she was reading it for a class – probably a class on practical ministry.

If that is the case, I find it very interested how the rest of the morning played out. She sat and read her book without ever looking up to see the people around her. There was Kyle who came into work at 8:00 am for a full day. He estimates he helps over 50 people a day with their donations. Or there was the nice lady that helped me when the donation was complete. Her name was Barb. She had been in that day since 5:30 am and was feeling exhausted. She is working two jobs to make ends meet and worked 16 hours the day before. She wore a huge button that was a picture of her and her husband on their wedding day. She knew people who lived in my little community of Epworth and wondered if I knew them too. We had a nice chat while she unhooked my machine.

Meanwhile, the lady with the book never looked up. She did eventually talk on her cell phone to someone. Then as she was about to leave she began talking to a young man directly across from her. They apparently know each other from college. After a short conversation with him, she slipped out quietly. Probably no one but myself noticed she was there … or gone.

The nice lady and I finished our conversation 5 minutes after I put my coat on to leave. She asked nicely if I will be back in a couple of days. I responded in the affirmative, and she said “Well, I will see you in a few days” with a smile.

The reality is simple. We don’t need more books about becoming “engaged” with people in the community. We need more individuals who care about other people.

When are you going to serve the Lord?

Two conversations.

The first one was with a younger woman. I spoke with her about getting involved at the Church and serving the Lord in some capacity each week. She replied with a statement of eager anticipation, “Oh, I would love to help.” Unfortunately, it was followed by a list of reasons that would not allow her time to help us. She said that her job demanded much from her and her kids were always busy. She talked about spending time with her husband and their need for recreation. She was busy all the time right now. She did add one disclaimer. One day her kids would be grown, and her job would be more secure. There would come a day when she and her husband’s life would calm down, and they would feel less stress. One day, when she is older, she would gladly be a part of the work of the Lord at our Church.

The second conversation was with a much older woman. In Church circles, we call them “Senior Saints.” Those wonderful older people who are now in their retirement years and enjoying the last leg of their journey on earth. She spoke of being lonely now that her husband was gone. She longed for a connection with the people of the Church in deep and meaningful ways. My wife explained to her that she could be a real blessing to the ministry of our Church. She could serve with other older ladies to make an impact on the next generation. She could connect with other people as they stood side by side fighting the good fight. Her response was a quiet, “I have done my time. It is time for the younger ladies to step up and do something.”

Do you see the problem?

There seem to be several people who claim to follow Jesus that believe serving Jesus is someone else’s job.

Sure, we want our church to have nurseries and children’s programs. We want our Church to have small groups and Sunday School classes. We want fellowship dinners and special events. The only catch is that we do not want to help make them happen.

The Church moves forward in a community when people stop saying “one day” I will serve. It will make a greater impact on the lives our neighbors when we stop saying it is no longer my time. We will change the world for Christ when we step up and say “Today, I will serve the Lord.”

When are you going to serve the Lord? How about today?

Numerous times I have heard Christians talk about other people “making a decision to follow Jesus.” They are usually talking about a big public decision that came with a confession of faith and in our Church, it also included baptism. Christians celebrate these as huge markers in our journey of faith. I do it too. Each year I am excited about the baptisms that happen in our Church. I am encouraged by each and every person who takes a big step for the world to see.

Through my years as a Church leader, I am getting less excited about that one time someone made that one big decision. Lately, I am more excited about the ongoing decisions people make to following Jesus.

-I am excited for the child who decided to come to Church as a teenager even when their parents say it is “up to them.”
-I am encouraged when a teenager makes the decision to pursue a life of faith above all else including sports, school, work and a social life.
-I am impressed by any college student who attends Church and tries to remain faithful to God when all their friends are walking away.
-I am overjoyed when a recent college graduate connects with a body of believers and commits to growing in their faith.
-I am thrilled when newlyweds decide to build their marriage on Christian principles and patterns.
-I am moved by new parents who bring their children to Church and start their family on a journey of faith together.
-I am touched as parents of a young family make Church and faith a priority over all the “big shiny things” that plead for their children’s attention.
-I am wowed by parents of teens who believe that faith is the single most important thing for their kids over the thousand activities that compete for their time.
-I am amazed at newly empty nest couples who commit to ministry over recreation and self-centeredness.
-I am honored to watch senior citizens continue to serve, grow and love when they could sit back and rest on the accomplishments of the past.

I picture faith like a journey with God. Frequently there are exit ramps on this road with bright lights and exciting attractions, but faith just keeps moving forward with God. With every new phase of life comes a new decision to follow Jesus. One time public decisions are wonderful steps on this adventure, but they are meaningless if you quit somewhere down the road.

The journey of faith is filled with numerous decisions to follow Jesus. I hope and pray that you continue to choose to follow him day after day and season after season.