These exact words were typed into my idea file for this blog. They came to me after a particularly difficult day of ministry. After hours of prayers, heartache, and tears I finally took a few minutes to look over the internet and some social media. Immediately, one phrase came to mind, “That’s not fair. Why does my life seem always to be a struggle while other people have it so easy?”

I suddenly remembered a line from the Bible in Hebrews 12:1. There it describes, “the sin that so easily entangles.” I heard a sermon on that line I over twenty years ago in which a preacher talked about the addictiveness of sin.

Evil seems to catch us unexpectedly. It comes along so naturally. I hear people say things like, “I never expected things to go this far.” They tell me, “I was just surfing the internet and the next thing I know …” Sometimes I hear them say, “It just started as a conversation and then …”

Sin easily entangles.

It grabs us unexpectedly and pulls us down. The dopamine in our brain is triggered, and we quickly lose control. There is this adrenaline rush, and we feel good at the moment. We disengage and feel a warm feeling of temporary pleasure.

Finally, we come back to reality, and the euphoria is gone. We destroyed a relationship, we hurt someone we love, we made a poor decision, and we feel a sense of emptiness. We hope that one more shot of whatever we felt will make everything better and the cycle gets repeated.

The flip side is quite the opposite. Living for God is hard work. It requires a plan and carefully thought out action. We must make time for God. Bible reading can be confusing. Prayer is not very natural. Worship songs are something we need to be led to sing. We need help to understand theology. Serving others must be instilled in us. Giving appears so against the American dream.

The things of God are not easy to do.

And yet, these are the most rewarding parts of life. Connecting with our maker gives us hope, love, security, and meaning. Serving gives us pleasure and purpose. Communion shows us peace with our past and freedom from guilt. Giving makes us feel the joy that nothing can take away. These things do not have the physical and emotional rush that evil brings, rather they touch something deep inside of us that is hard to explain.

This week there will be the temptation to take the easy way and go with the flow and choose the path of least resistance. There will also be the opportunity to do something far more challenging like choosing to live for God and go with the Bible and the Spirit’s leading.

One will leave you empty and wanting more. The other will bring joy and leave no regrets. Which one will you choose?

Here is a thought for your Sunday afternoon and Labor Day Monday. May God bless you all and I will see you on Tuesday.

I haven’t posted any great articles in the last few weeks. This is partly because I was busy and partly from my lack of reading any really great posts. Here a six good ones to get you through your holiday weekend. Enjoy.

6 reasons to sit in a different seat this weekend

Why is my husband so angry?

Open Letter to Francis Chan

Lies We’ve Believed About Gossip

Thanks Dad, for not (always) showing up

Faux intimacy

The past week has been filled with pictures of the heroic acts taking place in Texas. They have also revealed to us the devastation of the floods in many areas, especially Houston. As a believer, the immediate response is, “How can I help?” Some of us are even more specific in our question, “How can we help the Christians and the Churches in Texas?”

These are great questions, and they are not new. I vividly remember when Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and the desire of the Church I was serving then to help in some way.

Back then, the immediate reaction is to take things into our own hands. Let’s partner with a Church and make things happen. Some Churches collected items and took them down in an effort to show the love of Christ.

Then a sad thing happened. Many of the items had no one to distribute them. A local pastor explained that as people were rebuilding, they did not have the resources to hand out all of the donations. The end product was hundreds and thousands of items and dollars going into dumpsters.

With that in mind, I know many of my Church attendees and blog readers want to help with the recovery project in Texas. My suggestion is to support a group who is prepared to help in such a large-scale project. Many organizations exist with the sole purpose of disaster relief. They are adequately prepared to organize volunteers, money, and donations.

I am going to suggest three groups.

1. International Disaster Emergency Services
This group is a part of our brotherhood of Churches. They have been around since the year I was born in 1972. They have helped in every major disaster of the last several years and are more than prepared to help in this one.

2. Samaritan’s Purse
This group is lead by Franklin Graham and has a reputation for having over 90% of donations actually going to help people. They are the organization behind the shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child and have partnerships all over the world.

3. North American Mission Board.
This is a Baptist organization that is known for their help and compassion. I don’t know as much about this one, but it is a highly recommended resource for people looking to help.

If you are looking for a way to help the flooding victims, these are great ways to get started.

Some days I laugh at myself and my blog. I look back through my posts and realize I have written similar articles over and over. One reason might be my senility, but I know there is a deeper truth. I tend to repeat myself in my blogs and my sermons because there are some fundamental areas we need to be investigating and seeking growth continually.

1. God’s Great Grace for Us. We fail. We sin. We fall short of the glory of God. We wander away from the truth, and we cross boundaries we never should have crossed. We do it, and those around us do it.

We need God’s grace and love to forgive us. We need the second chance in our hearts that only Christ can provide. We need to be continually be reminded of his grace to us and those around us. A believer lives camped out in the shadow of the cross, and there we must remain.

2. Your Walk of Faith with Jesus. Simply put – are you growing as a believer? Do you know more? Are you living more of what you are learning? Are you stretching yourself to apply God’s word and will into every aspect of your life?

Each believer needs to focus on the idea of growth. Developing spiritual knowledge, depth and lifestyle should be a priority to every believer.

3. Your Relationship with Those Closest to You. How is your Christian life affecting your marriage, parenting, and grandparenting? How is your faith reflected in your life as a child, a sibling, and relative?

Christians need to focus a fair amount of time on how they are living out their faith with those closest to them. Believers should strive to be the best family member possible.

4. The Need for a Body of Christ. The last 50 years have introduced us to a new concept in the life of faith. We now believe we can live outside of the body of believers. We think we can grow in our belief independent of other Christians. I am convinced this is a lie from the depths of hell.

Christians need to connect to other believers. They help us to grow, mature and learn. They push us to become more grace-filled. They help us to minister and use our gifts. I have yet to meet a single believer in my life who I would say is showing any growth in their faith who does not attend a Church meeting regularly.

5. Sharing Your Life and Faith. Each one of us is not just called to grow and become giants in the faith, but rather we are to share our life and faith with the world. We shine our light into the darkness of our world wherever God has placed us. This might happen as we share a little piece of the kingdom of God with a cup of cold water or in the moments of leading other people toward faith. We do not walk with God for merely selfish reasons.

These five topics reappear in a hundred ways in my blogs and my sermons. I have devoted my life to teaching and leading, little did I know how much I would talk about the same things. I guess when we have all perfected these I will move on to other topics. Until then, expect more of the same.

Tonight our Church will kick off its Wednesday evening youth group for Jr. and Sr. High students. Somehow every year I end up being a part of the leadership of this area of ministry. I never wanted to work with teenagers, but each year God has other plans. That is not to say I do not support what the Church does each meeting, in fact, it is quite the opposite. I am a firm believer in the power of youth group.

1. It teaches our youth the Bible. I am not sure where else our young people are going to hear a passage from the Bible read and explained. There is Church on Sunday and hopefully family devotions, but that is about it for teens. I am not sure why anyone would want to miss this opportunity for their children.

2. It exposes our teens to Godly leaders. Each year I am impressed at how some of our adults give up their Wed. evening for 2-3 hours for the sake of our young adults. They model faith, service, and commitment to everyone who attends the group.

3. Our youth hear someone else saying what their parents say. I hope you teach the Bible at home and have spiritual discussions, but if you are the only voice your children hear then they are missing out. They are not getting wisdom from multiple voices that underline to them what you are trying to teach. Our young people need to hear that other people believe the same thing as their parents.

4. Our youth need to make connections with other Christians. This has been a huge struggle for my wife and me in raising our children. Our kids need to get connected to other Christian teens. I am not saying they need to have Christian friends exclusively, but they need to have some. They need to see and hear the faith of people their own age. This is why part of our youth group time is broken down into small groups so that they can talk through issues and get connected to like-minded believers.

5. It offers a spiritual recharge in the middle of the week. If your teen comes to Church on Sunday morning and that is all they receive, then they have to go six more days to hear anything about faith. We offer a chance for each teen to be reminded of the Bible and Godly living in the middle of the week. This will hopefully encourage them on their daily walk of faith in their school.

Every year when youth group kicks off, I am excited to see who shows up. I know that if this group of kids will continue to come, they will grow in some way spiritually over the next year. It may not be through my well-crafted lesson, but the kind words of a leader. It may come in our small group time as they hear the struggles of another teen in their faith. It may come in one of a dozen ways if they open themselves up to the possibilities.

I am thankful for youth group, and I pray God will do an amazing work again this school year.

It was a private moment after her baptism, and she said something quietly to me as her pastor that I wasn’t expecting. She said, “Why did I wait so long to do that?”

She wasn’t asking for my opinion, in fact, I am not sure she was really asking me. It was more of something she was inquiring of herself and just said out loud.

It is a great question. Why do we wait so long to do something we know God wants us to do?

Why do we not make that confession of faith and get baptized?
Why do we hold onto grudges and never offer forgiveness?
Why do we not have that difficult talk with someone we love?
Why do we sweep our issues under the rug until it starts to destroy us?
Why do we put off going to marital counseling?
Why do we avoid taking steps toward spiritual wholeness?
Why do we wait so long to do the right thing?

I suppose each and every person has a little bit different answer to those questions. We wait because we are scared. We wait because we are unsure of the decision. We wait because of the influence of someone else. We wait because there is an unknown future that lies ahead. We wait because … the reasons are limitless.

Here is the thing I have learned over my ministry. Rarely, I mean it is extremely rare that someone acts on what they knew they should do and they regret it. The words, “Why did I wait” are never asked in the frustration of failure. They are posed in the light of success. Why did we put off something that was so helpful? Why did we not do the right thing years ago and get it off our mind?

The Bible’s focus is on the word “today.” Today is the day of salvation. We do not know what tomorrow brings. Act on that decision God has been lying on your heart for so long.

I would venture a guess that if you were to step up to the plate today and do the right thing, by tonight, you will lie down in bed and say, “Why did I wait so long to do that?”

A friend of mine posted a picture yesterday that bothered me to my very core. I know his heart was right in one way, in another way it concerned me deeply. My pastor friend posted a picture of his worship team in a little back room of their Church praying together.

Several things bother me about this photo.

First, if everyone was praying why was your phone out? Why were you not focused on the prayer?

Second, why show me the picture? I think he wanted his Church to know how serious their worship team takes their responsibility. The leaders of his Church are not just performing on stage; they are trying to connect with God. And yet, this picture made even their prayer seem like a performance.

Social media provides us with an opportunity to share every aspect of our lives with the world. It seems like everyone is always performing for the camera and now it has invaded our spiritual life. Every week I see well-intentioned people posting pictures of their Church, a worship moment and even a prayer time. It appears that everyone wants me to know about their spiritual connection. I can only assume they want to inspire me to a greater level of holy living by showing me these pictures.

Honestly, this is not something new. In Jesus day, there was a group called the Pharisees. They loved to put their religion on display. They would offer long public prayers, makes sure everyone saw their giving and made themselves look sad, so others would know they were fasting.

I am convinced that if you were to have a one on one conversation with a Pharisees, they would be able to explain how their actions were meant to inspire others. They were showing off their faith to an unbelieving world. They wanted to be a light for others to follow to the truth about God. They could explain to you that they had pure motives in all their showy religion.

Jesus stands in contrast to this thinking in the Sermon on the Mount. He tells his followers to be careful about doing their acts of righteousness before men. He challenges them to give, to pray and to fast in secret (Matthew 6:1-18). Jesus says that God sees what is done in secret and that is where righteous acts should be performed.

I am so thankful that you want a living and vibrant faith. I am glad you want a deep connection with your Creator and Savior. I am thrilled that you are serving, praying, giving, reading, journaling, having a quiet time and growing deep roots in the faith. All I ask of you is that you put your camera away. You don’t need to post those pictures. Let your heart be open to God in secret, and he will reward what is done there.

I often think of Jesus 12 followers we call the Disciples. Within that group are people of widely varied backgrounds and some obvious political differences. There was a zealot and a tax collector in the group. That means one man worked for Rome and another was trying to see them expelled from their land, even if force was needed. There were fisherman in the group who would have clearly hated the Roman taxes. It was a hodgepodge of backgrounds and viewpoints, and I am sure they did not agree with everything. Yet, they were all choosing to follow Jesus together.

Fast forward two thousand years and Jesus’ followers have not changed very much. Each week as I look out over the crowd I see people who have polar opposite political views. The collection of individuals who follow Jesus usually have very little in common other than their faith in Jesus.

I often wonder if this is by God’s design. He puts us together with people of different viewpoints so that we can learn to overcome our differences.

Yesterday I was listening to a little talk radio. After about 20 minutes I changed the channel because of the constant yelling and bickering back and forth. One person stood firm as if he had everything figured out completely and the other person felt the same way. Anger, yelling and general bad behavior is how these people treated their differences.

For Christians, there is another approach to disagreement other than getting louder. Jesus calls us to love our enemies. The Biblical idea of love is about action. In simple terms, I treat people who I disagree with the way I would want to be treated. One sign of spiritual maturity is how we handle the people we most adamantly do not agree with on a topic.

I think God brings together people of widely varied backgrounds to teach us how to be his followers during disagreements. What if we stopped yelling at that person and started praying for them? What if we stopped sharing political pieces meant to hurt and posted articles intended to help? What if we sat quietly and listened to the other side and then smiled and hugged the person? I do not think we will ever reach agreements with every other Christian, especially on political issues, but maybe we can learn to work together for the overall good of the kingdom, even if it is just that piece of the kingdom in our hearts.

I have spent the last two days in Indiana helping my mother. She is searching and sorting through all of my dad’s stuff in preparation for a city-wide garage sale in a couple of weeks. Mom has been working on this project all summer, and I have been called in to finish some things. My area of expertise is in the fishing, hunting and camping gear. Dad and I spent countless hours together in the woods or on the lake through the years. I know about most of what he owned and even a little history to many of the items.

My project started in the garage and proceeded to the shed. Boxes have been pulled down, and every container opened to examine the contents. During the project, I have been continually reminded of the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. (20) But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. (21) For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The once treasured items are now garage sale fodder. Items that my dad saved money to purchase are now worthless. Many of the things had the option of trash them or burn them. The years had not been kind to all the of father’s possessions. Here in the Midwest the moth and rust are not the problems. The moisture and mold slowly destroy what the mice and bugs do not use as food or a bathroom.

I can’t help but think about how much money was represented in each original purchase. Thousands of dollars will now be sold for hundreds. What was bought for hundreds will now go into the garbage.

I know my father had faith in God and was a generous man. He gave to the work of the Lord and people in need throughout his life. He gave above and beyond in his tithes and offering. I am not sad in my thinking about how my father had a hard heart. I just keep pondering the use of our money.

Here in the Midwest maybe Jesus would say to us, “Do not store up for yourself stuff where mold and mildew damage and where mice and ants destroy. Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven because if you don’t know, one day, all your precious items will end up in the trash or a yard sale. For wherever you store your stuff is, there your heart will be also.”