With this Sunday being Father’s Day I thought I would share something I enjoy. I ran across this article several years ago while looking for a Father’s Day illustration. It is one of the best pictures I’ve ever seen about fathers. I am told it is from Erma Bombeck in her book, “Family — The Ties that Bind…and Gag!”

One morning my father didn’t get up and go to work. He went to the hospital and died the next day. I hadn’t thought that much about him before. He was just someone who left and came home and seemed glad to see everyone at night. He opened the jar of pickles when no one else could. He was the only one in the house who wasn’t afraid to go into the basement by himself. He cut himself shaving, but no one kissed it or got excited about it. It was understood when it rained, he got the car and brought it around to the door. When anyone was sick, he went out to get the prescription filled. He took lots of pictures…but he was never in them. Whenever I played house, the mother doll had a lot to do. I never knew what to do with the daddy doll, so I had him say, “I’m going off to work now,” and threw him under the bed. The funeral was in our living room and a lot of people came and brought all kinds of good food and cakes. We had never had so much company before. I went to my room and felt under the bed for the daddy doll. When I found him, I dusted him off and put him on my bed. He never did anything. I didn’t know his leaving would hurt so much.

I don’t like to just repost something that someone else has written (I would rather link you to it) but I found these questions extremely helpful. They were written by Chuck Lawless over on Thom Rainer’s blog.

12 Questions for a Spiritual Checkup

1. Do you need to forgive someone? Jesus is clear that if we don’t forgive others, the Father does not forgive us (Matt. 6:14-15). So, while we may think our anger is justified, it only hurts us to stay bitter. The cost, in fact, is serious as it harms our relationship with God.

2. Does your daily talk reflect godliness? It’s hard to read Ephesians 5:4 (“Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving”) without evaluating our daily conversations. If other believers heard everything you said last week, would your witness be strengthened or harmed?

3. Does your budget reflect a commitment to God’s work? I know it sounds trite, but what we give toward God’s work really does have eternal dividends. Any sacrifice so others may know Jesus is no sacrifice at all. Would your checkbook show you prioritize God’s kingdom?

4. Do you know your neighbors and co-workers? It’s easy to be so “on the go” that we know our neighbors and co-workers on only a superficial basis, if we know them at all – which makes it difficult to share Christ with them. Even our prayer for them is surface-level if we don’t know them.

5. Do you pray regularly for leaders? Regardless of our political positions, we are mandated to pray for those in authority (1 Tim. 2:1-2). Think about those for whom you might pray: school officials, bosses, mayors, governors, the president. Obedience here is especially important in this election season.

6. Do you read more blog posts than you do the Bible? Obviously, I tread softly here, as I’m deeply grateful you’re reading this post. On the other hand, what bloggers have to say is nothing compared to the Word of God.

7. Do you pray only when you have to? Many of us pray more reactively than proactively. Prayer is not in our DNA; it is only our response when we face something we can’t handle. That kind of praying misses the point of being in a relationship with God.

8. If you’re married, does your marriage reflect the love of Jesus for His church? Do you love your spouse sacrificially (Eph. 5:25), to the point of being willing to die? Would your spouse agree with your response to that question?

9. Are you hiding anything? Hiddenness is usually a sign the enemy is winning in one’s life. Then, the anguish of such sin is only deepened by the efforts we expend trying to keep it covered up.

10. Do you really love God’s church? Paul thanked God for the Corinthians at the beginning of his letter to them (1 Cor. 1:4-9) and expressed his love for them in his closing (1 Cor. 16:24). In between, though, he described them as a mess. Only God can give us this kind of love for His bride, especially when the church is problematic.

11. Are you ready to quit? Maybe your church role has drained you to the point you wonder if it’s worth the effort. If your faith is being stretched to its limit, I encourage you to gather prayer partners and talk with friends before giving up.

12. Where do you most need to strengthen your walk with God for the rest of this year? Reading this post will make no difference unless you make an intentional plan to change. Tell us what commitments you are making, and give us the privilege of praying for you.

Most of the Bible tells us stories of extraordinary days. The stories pick up with the king’s edict or an angel appearing or the death of someone important. We get an inside look at the high points of people’s lives when they are experiencing close encounters with the divine.

I will be honest with you, it is one of the things I dislike the most about the Bible. The reason I dislike this feature is because most of my days are not extraordinary. Most of my days are filled with eating, sleeping, working, office time and talking with people. I have never been the victim of the king’s edict, seen an angel or had to fill the shoes of a dead prophet. My life is mostly ho-hum and ordinary.

Then I begin to wonder. Maybe life is really the result of a thousand ordinary days. When the extraordinary happens we get to see what was formed in the heart of a person over the daily grind of life. Perhaps character, especially Godly character, is the result of giving my life to God in the ordinary. Then when a big event happens character is revealed and not created.

So today I am living this ordinary day trying to prepare my soul for when God is ready to do something special with my life.

Last night the elders of the Church and myself had our regular meeting. We try to meet every other week but it is harder to do in the summer so this was our last meeting for four weeks. Right before the meeting started I got up and walked around the table to close the door. Our meetings are private and we do not want anyone listening in our conversation. Now, I know that this behavior sounds very suspicious so let me explain what happens behind that closed-door.

1. We Share Needs – After we handle a few business items that need to be discussed. I open to floor to any needs that we know. Some of these are known to a large group and some are known only to a couple of people. Some of these are very personal and some are rather generic. This is our time to open up about any issue God has put into our lives or the lives of the congregation we serve.

2. We Try to Get the Whole Story – With there being four of us leading the Church we are able to use our different stories and experiences together. One or two of the men at the table have long-term leadership at the church and have known people for years. A couple of us are fairly new but ask a lot of questions. I know this is hard to believe but often the story one of us has heard does not match what another of us has heard. We are not doing this to gossip, rather we want to know what is really going on in people’s lives. Only in having an accurate account of events can we decide the best way to proceed.

3. We Talk About the Best Way to Help the Situation – This is one of the most interesting parts of the discussion. Each one of us might have a different idea on how to help the situation. For example, one of us might think we need to pay a bill, one of us might think we need to take food and still one of us might think that it is best to do nothing. We talk about these options. What has been done? What could we do? What should we do? What would be the most helpful now and in the long run? What will we do?

4. We Try to Develop an Action Plan – If at all possible we assign duties. One of us will go talk to them and one will call and arrange meals. One of us will pray and the other one will not get involved in this issue. This is not always possible, but sometimes we need to do something very practical.

5. We Pray For God to Work – Last but certainly not least we take the time to have each one of us pray. Each one of us specifically addresses God about one or two of the needs we have discussed. We ask for him to work in the situation, to show us how to help, and to be present in the solutions we are trying to seek.

Last night we sat behind the closed doors for almost two and a half hours. We discussed six needs within our congregation and tried to exhaust all areas of discussion. Not everything was resolved but we took a few steps in the right direction. I cannot give you the details of each situation and the discussion we had about them. Those are private and all four of us know and respect that simple fact. Your secrets are safe with us and that is why I closed the door.

Lots of great reading around the web lately. Enjoy

Remarkable For Being Unremarkable

A Secret Your Husband Needs You to Know

31 Ideas to Encourage Your Kids On A Bad Day

7 Times I Have Wanted to Leave the Local Church

5 Spiritual Dangers of Skipping Church

The #1 Reason Pastors Give Me As To Why Their Churches Are Growing

Finally – I do not usually enjoy articles about current social issues, but I thought this was incredibly perceptive.

If Rachel Dolezal Isn’t Black, How Is Caitlyn Jenner A Woman?

I had an illustration that I wanted to use yesterday in my sermon but it didn’t quite fit. I thought I would share it today for your enjoyment.

It is an obituary that appeared in a Church newsletter –

I know that all of you were saddened to learn this week of the death of one of our church’s most valuable members — Someone Else.

Someone’s passing created a vacancy that will be difficult to fill. Else has been with us for many years, and for every one of those years, Someone did far more than the normal person’s share of the work. Whenever leadership was mentioned, this wonderful person was looked to for inspiration as well as results. Someone Else can work with that group. Whenever there was a job to do, a class to teach, or a meeting to attend, one name was on everyone’s lips, “Let Someone Else do it.” It was common knowledge that Someone Else was among the largest givers in the church. Whenever there was a financial need, everyone just assumed that Someone Else would make up the difference.

Someone Else was a wonderful person, sometimes appearing super-human, but a person can only do so much. Were the truth known, everyone expected too much of Someone Else. Now Someone Else is gone. We wonder what we are going to do. Someone Else left a wonderful example to follow, but who is going to follow it? Who is going to do the things Someone Else did? Remember, we can’t depend on Someone Else anymore.

– Author Unknown

I often ask myself, “Why do some people grow in their faith when others do not?” One person accepts Jesus as their Savior and begins to grow and mature into a wonderful Godly person. The other person accepts Jesus as their Savior and remains at the same level of faith for years with no signs of growth or maturity. Is the difference the person or the circumstances that surround them? This question leads me to analyze my own life. What has helped me the most to grow as a believer in my faith? I think I have four solid answers.

1. Listening to Sermons – I know this is not at the top of everyone’s list, but it has been huge for me. Through the years I have listened to thousands of sermons and now iTunes help feed the hunger. I love hearing the Bible explained, listening to various points of application and the stories of life all intermixed. Honestly, even poor sermons give me the chance to hear scripture proclaimed and teach me something about my faith. It is rare that I walk away completely empty and I remind myself that one gallon of gas will get me further down the road of faith than nothing.

2. Spending Time With Other Christians – I love spending time with other people of faith, especially those who have experienced life yet remain grounded in their beliefs. I learn from their words, their attitudes and their actions. Much of my faith has been molded by people God has used to say the right word at the right time. Rarely did they know what was happening, but in reflection their life changed me.

3. Serving Other People – Nothing pushes people to grow like serving. It moves us beyond ourselves and into the lives of others. It demands that we learn in order to teach others. It gives me the opportunity to test my faith when I would rather hide. Even when it feels like I have failed miserably God does things that I had never imagined. Serving is an opportunity for growth in me and through me.

4. Decisive Moments – There have been moments that I heard or saw something that radically changed my views. Sometimes this comes through a sermon. Sometimes it comes through conversation. I have never known when or where these moments were going to strike, but they always come unexpectedly. In those moments I have made decisions that were life altering. Through my life I have decided to go to Bible college, I have lost a best friend, a started preaching, worked with a new Church and a dozen other moments have come that God used to direct my life to new levels of faith.

So that’s my list. I know there are other small things I could add to it but these are the big ones. What would be on your list? Is there anything you would add or change?

Here is the funny part about all of these. All of them can be found in Church every Sunday morning. Yes, they can be found outside of Church too. But all of them are offered every week to anyone who wants to grow. Real growth happens not when we do some big event, it usually happens through the weekly grind of the ordinary.

One of the Bible verses that I repeat to myself regularly is in the letter from the Apostle Paul to his young friend and evangelist Timothy.

1 Timothy 4:16 (NIV) Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

The first words are what captures my attention. Watch your LIFE and DOCTRINE closely.

Doctrine reflects what we believe. The main idea is to hold on to a faith that has a deep understanding. We have read the Bible, studied its meaning and drawn some big conclusions about God.

Life is a description of how we live. The main idea is that the faith that is in our head is seen in our actions. It is one thing to say I know the right things and it is quite another to do them.

Paul tells Timothy to watch is life AND his doctrine closely. We must continually be examining both areas of our lives. The tendency for many of us is to focus on one aspect of faith. As a result, we have people with vast knowledge who do nothing with it or we have people doing great actions but have no real understanding of why they are doing them. We have people in the Church who only want to sit in class and be fed and we have people who are always active in their faith with little knowledge. Paul tells Timothy that both are needed. Doctrine not being lived out is worthless and action without doctrine is social care.

A Christian in someone who has a knowledge of what God’s word teaches and is trying to live out all they are learning. Watch both sides carefully.

My upcoming sermon series will start in July and it will focus on the age of the kings during the Old Testament. The first sermon is about the life of King Solomon – so I have been thinking a lot about him lately. To me he is one of the most tragic characters in the Old Testament. If you know his story, then you know he starts out in greatness. He asks God for wisdom and he is given more than any other man in history. He knows right and wrong spiritually, personally and logically. As a result he grows in wealth and power beyond any other individual in all of history. That part of his story you may know. He is the writer of the Biblical books of Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs and much of the Proverbs. His name is synonymous with wisdom and wealth.

The rest of Solomon’s story is a sad tale that many people do not know. In an effort to bring peace with other nations Solomon married many women from all over the world. Over time they being to sway his heart. His marriages violated the will of God and in an effort to keep his wives happy he brings idolatry into Israel. It is not that he rejects the God of the Bible but it is that he tries to add other gods beside him. While trying to serve God he compromises his integrity by also serving idols just to make other people happy. His life ends with one compromise after another and God decides to take the kingdom away from his children. The final result is that the glory and blessing Solomon experience will not be felt by his children, grandchildren and generations after them.

To me this is one of the saddest Bible stories and it is also the most applicable to us. There is always the temptation to try to add something to the worship of God. Maybe it is the worship of stuff, the idolization of our children, the lure of sin or a dozen other possible compromises. To compromise our faith in God is always a greater temptation than the rejection of God. While it affect us, the most tragic side effects are not felt in our life, but they ripple out into the future generations.

King David, Solomon’s father, prayed in the Psalms (86:11) for God to give him an undivided heart. That would have been a wise prayer for Solomon to pray. As I look around the Church I think it would be a good prayer for everyone. When I look into my own heart I realize it is good for me too.

Here are my collection of blog posts from the last couple weeks that are well worth reading.

Why Marriage Counseling Doesn’t Work

10 Things We’ve Learned in 10 Years of Marriage

6 Reasons Why Church Membership Matters

20 Truths from A Field Guild to Everyday Mission

The Do Over

Students Give Senior Trip Money to Principal Battling Cancer