Everyone I talked to in the Church about their New Year’s resolutions seemed to mention some form of Bible reading. As a pastor, I must say that this initially excites me. I want people to read their Bible and learn what God’s word has to say.

But the longer I have thought about it, there is also a disappointing side note. No one mentioned wanting to “worship more consistently” or “love their neighbor more fully.”  No one told me about a resolution to “overflow with the fruit of the Spirit” or “become more financially generous.”  I have not heard of one person who wanted to “live at peace, offer forgiveness, or become a vessel of grace.” 

Everyone wants to read their Bible more. That is a wonderful place to start, but you are missing the point if that is where your faith ends. The goal is life transformation. You are a new creation that is becoming like Christ in all you do.

Maybe this year, you need to worry less about injecting more Bible into your soul and instead act on what you already know.

Shallow relationships abound. Fake friendships fill our social media. The people who genuinely know us are a sacred few.

For me, the definition of a deep relationship is twofold.

A real friend knows what makes you laugh and what makes you cry. They know what brings you joy and what brings you pain. They know what jokes to tell and when to give you a hug.

Until you have someone like that, you lack the meaningful connection you need.

Until you become someone like that to someone else, you are not the friend you claim to be.

I own an entire box of knives. I do not mean one or two; my box has over fifty.

My wife recently asked me, “Why in the world do you have so many knives?”

There are two reasons for my collection. First, I have inherited some, found some, and picked up a few cheap ones. Those get added to the box with little consideration.

The second reason for this vast array of knives is that each one serves a different purpose. I have butcher, fillet, hunting, and kitchen knives. They are different lengths, thicknesses, curves, and shapes. Varying jobs require unique tools.

The Church is God’s knife box.   

While watching NFL football recently, the quarterback dropped back to throw the ball. A receiver was open, and he released a long pass. Immediately after the ball left his hand, he was hit by a defensive player who laid him out on his back. 

The ball continued to fly 20, 30, 40, and 50 yards downfield. The receiver grabbed it out of the air in full stride and ran another 20 yards for the touchdown. The crowd went wild at this incredible throw and reception. 

At this point, the camera returned to the quarterback, who waited for a three-hundred-plus-pound defensive lineman to get off him. The play was over when he stood up to look downfield. The whole play was athletic poetry, and one of the main characters did not see the results; he only did his part.

Often, I think a great life for God is like that picture. We do our very best in his service. We preach, teach, lead, connect, serve, share, and speak the gospel into people’s lives. Then, life hits us, and we fail to see the impact of our actions. We spend our time trying to get back up while the ball moves forward unbeknownst to us. 

The value of a godly life is usually not seen immediately; it happens years, decades, and even centuries later. When you measure what you give your life to, don’t look for quick reactions; some plays take time to develop, and you might never see the goal scored from the ball you threw.

Even though I am a believer, I rarely look for something mystical to happen. I believe God can show up at any moment and do something supernatural, but it is an extraordinary experience and not commonplace.

With that said, a few weeks ago, I had a dream that might been slightly supernatural. Let me share, and you can decide for yourself.

In my dream, I was standing on the stage preaching like most Sundays here at the Church I lead. While I cannot remember the exact content of my words, I started talking about our need to change and rid ourselves of sin. As I moved on to the next point of my message, an unknown man stood up and was obviously upset. He gathered his things, and before he walked out, he shouted, “I can’t take it anymore. This guy doesn’t believe what he is preaching.” I stopped to address his disruption, and he said to everyone in the room. “This man doesn’t take sin seriously enough. When he preaches, he doesn’t yell when he talks about it. If he wanted people to stop, he would do everything, including shouting to get people to stop.”

At that moment, I woke up. And as rarely happens, I remembered it vividly. It has stuck with me for the last three weeks. Occasionally, I mutter to myself, “Do I take sin seriously? God, was that you speaking to me?”

I am not saying my dream was prophetic or the voice of God, but it is certainly something I have been unable to stop thinking about. It might have simply been my subconscious processing my weekly sermon, as often happens, but it is a question worth pondering, no matter its origin.

Do you take sin seriously? And are you doing everything within your power to rid yourself of it?

I spent a few hours helping to clean up around the Church after our Christmas programs. It was a fantastic couple of weeks. We had the children perform one Sunday, with volunteers helping our young people sing about Jesus. Their parents and grandparents came to listen to them and hear about the power of the Holy Spirit. 

When the morning program was over, another group of volunteers began working and setting everything up for our candlelight program. They decorated, prepared candles, blacked out the windows, and cleaned up to ensure everything was ready. Then, on Christmas Eve, we had our teens and adults lead worship with special music to delight those in attendance.

After everything was finished, numerous people, including some new believers, served the Lord through the season. We also had a large number of guests who heard the message of Jesus and the possibility of life change.

When the dust settles and Christmas is over, it is time for everything to be picked up, packed up, put away, and cleaned up. This week, one of those jobs includes me taking time to get wax off the chairs and floors from our candles that people held. I get an iron hot, then put a paper bag on top of the wax and hit it with a hot iron. It works pretty well, and the stains are barely noticeable. 

While cleaning up the wax, I rediscovered a significant black mark. It is the remnant of a group of middle school students doing a VBS project. It has been on our floor for about four years now. Every year, I wonder how I can remove it, too. So far, nothing has worked. 

This time, I sat and looked at it for a while. I have grown rather fond of that spot. It reminds me that the building exists as a workshop for the kingdom of God, not a museum for the saints. The goal of our Church is to use the building it owns for the glory of God as much as possible. It is to be used to teach adults, teens, kids, and even middle school students to be like Jesus. That stain is a mark of people doing ministry, which is terrific. 

A clean carpet looks nice, but the purpose of a Church should lead it to value stains over lack of use.

No one is exactly sure where the term came from, but I found five stories trying to explain it. So, no one can trace the precise origin, but in the golfing world, they ask for a “Mulligan” whenever someone wants a second chance.

If someone hits the ball and it is a terrible tee shot, or it lands in the rough, never to be found, they can ask their competitors for a Mulligan. That means they get a second swing at the ball. The first mistake is forgotten, and an opportunity exists to improve.

We are into the first day of the year, and I am asking for a Mulligan. I have had some inappropriate thoughts, said some insensitive words, had the wrong motives, and used the wrong tone of voice. I messed up. I was not focused and did not have my mind in the game.

I promise I will be better tomorrow. Please give me a little grace today, and don’t judge me by this first swing. And in the name of Jesus, I will do the same for you.

Here are the top posts I wrote this year. Maybe you have read them and need to revisit them. Maybe you have not, and this is your first time to check them out. 

Thanks to everyone who reads what I write. These are the ones people shared and visited the most this year. Enjoy.

Honorable Mention – Down in My Heart and Looking for a Reason

5. Next

4. Building a Sermon

3. What I Am Learning About Discipleship

2. False Narrative

**1. Redefining Love

Have a Happy New Year, everyone.

This year, I have marked a few milestones in my life. 

I have been blogging (again) for ten whole years. Tomorrow will be post-2750. I always debate quitting, but God continues to show me that he is working through my writing for the good of his kingdom. Plus, I genuinely enjoy writing, even if no one ever reads it. It is incredibly fulfilling to go back and read old posts to see how I have grown as a Christian.

In September, I completed 30 years of preaching in a local Church. I spent 18 months doing it part-time as a college student and then went into it full-time. There have been several occasions where I thought about quitting, and one time, there were a couple of months between ministries where I didn’t preach, but overall, this is the career in which I invested my life.

My third son graduated from college and started his career. Three of my four boys have undergraduate degrees and are doing well in their jobs. My final son will be done before long, and my boys will all be officially adults. The time has flown.

I am celebrating 29 years of marriage. It has been a fantastic journey of ministry, parenting, and marriage. Our life is always an adventure of family and following God together. This year, we took a lovely trip together through Tennessee and Arkansas. We dream of taking a wonderful extended vacation for our thirtieth anniversary next year.

If you know me, you know I continue to dream of the future and am never content with the past. What does God want me to do at the Church I am leading? What are the next steps on our journey of faith and ministry? How can I have my most significant impact for the kingdom of God?

My plans include continuing to find a staff member to help me in ministry work. I am going to disciple as many people as possible. That consists of a one-year Bible reading group, at least 3-4 people in individual intentional discipleship, training and developing our leaders, leading a small group or two or three, and preaching 48 times. 

Every year at this time, I sit at the edge of the calendar and gaze into the new year. It is hard to imagine what the next 365 days will bring, but I am ready for God to lead me every step of the way, and I hope you are as well. 

Our Church is working through the process of developing an emergency preparedness plan. If we are to have an intruder or a conflict situation, how will we deal with it? We want to be prepared to handle anything unexpected.  

Before we completed this plan, we started by creating an emergency prevention plan. What steps can we take to keep from having emergency issues?

When you make a plan for the next year as an individual or as part of a group, remember the saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Doing the things that prevent a crisis often seems boring, tedious, and unnecessary. But I guarantee you it is far better to do those things now than clean up a mess later. Monotonous activities done regularly are not surprising, which is precisely the point.