This past Sunday at Church, we had an incident. After a rain, our gravel parking lot turned to mud in several places. People walked through it on their way into the building, and quickly, our carpet, which was only three weeks old, was covered in mud.

I decided to let it dry and come back and vacuum it later. After a series of people going over it with the vacuum, I brought in my cleaner. Now, I have to give you the backstory of this cleaner I own.

Five years ago, my boys decided they wanted to go Black Friday shopping. The central place they wanted to go was Nebraska Furniture Mart. They got there early, waited in line, and ran to grab some of the cheap items for sale. They were not very successful at grabbing the best stuff, but they came home with a few purchases.

My wife went with them, and she grabbed a box that she thought was a vacuum for $40. When she got home, we opened it to discover a carpet cleaner. After a discussion about the price, we decided to keep it. The cleaner then took up residence in our hall closet, and was barely used. It remains looking brand new.

When I saw the Church carpet was a mess, I immediately thought, “I have something to clean that.” Monday morning, I arrived early and spent about two hours making the carpet look like new again. While I was filling the tank and emptying the dirty water, I began to wonder if this was all a tiny little part of God’s providence. Years before I had a mess, he had given me a way to handle it.

I am not convinced that God cares about every little detail like that, but I know the principle is still valid. God is working in our lives long before we need him. He is preparing us for whatever comes our way and giving us the grace we need to make it through every muddy season before we see the first dirty tracks.

These things are not the same:

Bible study compared to watching a few TikTok videos about Bible-related things.

Sharing what you believe about Jesus (aka Evangelism) compared to posting Christian stuff on social media.

A conversation with your full, undivided attention compared to a text message.

Doing meaningful ministry compared to offering criticism of a Church program you attended.

Giving sacrificially compared to throwing some change in the Salvation Army kettle.

Discipleship as transformation to be like Jesus compared to attending a twelve-week class.

One thing that is vital in our culture is defining our terms. Quite often, I say things and mean them one way. The people listening hear what I say and define it differently. Calling things by Bible names and having Biblical definitions is indispensable to the unity of the Church.

At first, this sounds like an exciting proposition, but the longer you call yourself a believer, the more difficult it is to agree.

People love the concept of coming to Church, accepting Jesus as their Savior, and serving alongside other followers of Jesus. We are all sinners saved by the same grace.

Then, the years start to roll past. Without any fanfare, we find ourselves accumulating experiences and understanding the longer we are a believer. Our knowledge grows of all things religious. Suddenly, someone new walks in, and it is hard to accept them as equal to me. After all, they do not have the wisdom that comes with years of being a Christian.

If we are not careful, we can develop an air of superiority when it comes to faith. We feel like we have seniority, and our thoughts and opinions are more valuable than those of new believers. We deserve special treatment and added respect because of our superior faith.

It is true that I rarely find people who say it that directly, but the attitude persists. I hear it when people demand the types of music or songs that they prefer. I see it when people start to claim seats in the auditorium. This mindset of “I have been here longer, so I deserve special treatment” can grow with every year you are a Church member. You might think it is justified in your case, but so did the Pharisees.

This is post number 3,000 since I started this blog.

I started writing a blog in the early 2000s, and due to several events in my life, after about five years, I decided to quit. Eventually, I deleted all the posts and thought that I would never write again. After four years of silence, I decided to chronicle my journey as a pastor in Alaska.

At first, I hoped to explain what it is like to be a preacher at a small Church on the last frontier. At the same time, I was a man who had walked through personal struggles and failures, and God had given me a second chance. So, I decided to wed the two together and make a new blog. I was never seeking readers but rather a way to record my experiences and lessons I was learning so that I would not forget them.

In 2014, I moved back to the “lower 48” and started a new ministry, and I kept writing. Many of my early posts were poorly worded, filled with grammatical errors, and contained links to other people’s work. During this time, I discovered how much I loved to write through trial and error. I was able to keep an online journal of my ministry, ideas, and experiences while doing it in a way that I enjoyed.

A few years ago, I committed to writing five days a week without pausing. Building a platform and self-promotion is not my purpose. With that said, I do find joy in the fact that my writing has blessed others. My stats say that in the last twelve years it has taken to write these posts, there have been a little less than 40,000 visitors who have come to read. It is tough to calculate how many posts have been read, as some people will stop once every week or two and read several posts simultaneously. Ultimately, none of that matters to me. I am just happy to write, and more than one time, I have gone back to read old posts with delight.

Today is post 3,000, and I have no plans to stop. As with all ministry endeavors, God can do something that will cause me to change directions at a moment’s notice. Until the day that it is clear to me that I need to stop writing, I will keep doing it. And I want to thank all of you for reading. I appreciate all of you, and all praise to Jesus.

What a physical trainer does for the body is what the pastor is trying to do for the soul. They both want people to achieve a life that is the way God designed it. One seeks physical health and happiness, and the other seeks spiritual health and happiness.

The trainer and the pastor watch with great excitement when people attend either the gym or the Church regularly. They both desire people to change their habits, get rid of the things that are destroying them, and work hard to achieve the desired results. When people do all that is asked of them, there is great joy in the trainer and the pastor as they see lives shaped for the better.

Both people also struggle with a great deal of disappointment. They have to sit back and watch people ignore their instruction, continue to embrace bad habits in their absence, and never gain a better life. It is painful to see people with so much potential waste it on junk food and junky living.

This time of year, people are making a mess of themselves both physically and spiritually. Come January, they will vow to make changes. People will join gyms, get personal trainers, and make resolutions. They will go to Church, get a Bible reading plan, and commit to developing a quiet time with God.

I hope that neither of them will be disappointed in you come February.

Every Sunday morning, when I speak to the Church, I have wonderful people who display all the scriptures I use on the screen. For a few years, I simply printed the words on a paper outline that I took to the podium to preach. That way, I could talk seamlessly throughout my sermon. My outline was there, all the Bible passages were there, and I could speak without pausing to flip pages.

Then, about five years ago, I made a drastic change. I stopped carrying an outline up on the stage with me and started taking only my Bible. In fact, most weeks, it sits on a little table in front of the congregation throughout the whole program. Then, throughout my sermon, I will stop and flip to each of the passages and read directly from my Bible.

I orchestrated this change for a few reasons. First, I wanted people to differentiate between when I am speaking my interpretations and when I am preaching the Bible. In a culture of Biblical illiteracy, I realized that most people had no idea when I was using God’s word and when I was using my own.

Second, I wanted people to see the high value we put on the Bible above all else. My words are fading noise, but the word of the Lord stands forever. I want people to see their preacher picking up a Bible, holding it, reading from it, and then explaining what it says.

Finally, my desire is to encourage people to take a paper Bible that we provide for free and go home and read it themselves. Audio versions and digital Bibles have their place in the life of a believer. But there is also a role for paper pages where you can highlight, write, and make notes on the side. The printed page is not holier than its modern counterparts, but it does enable us to have a more tactile relationship with it.

In most settings where I speak nowadays, I carry a Bible with a few notes scribbled on the side, and I use that alone to preach. My hope is that when I am all done, people will value the scriptures far more than anything I have said.

One thing I love about attending worship programs at Church is that it forces me to do things I would not do naturally.

Every week, it forces me to spend an hour or two focused on God.

Every week, it forces me to spend time with other believers.

Every week, it forces me to sing or at least listen to songs that give glory to God.

Every week, it forces me to pray or at least listen to other people pray.

Every week, it forces me to hear scripture read out loud and then have someone explain it.

Every week, it forces me to evaluate my actions, ponder my motives, and improve my relationships, including those with God.

Do I love attending Church programs? Honestly, not always.

Do I always walk away with a heart, mind, and soul filled with a love for God? Honestly, not always.

But when I am a part of these gatherings, I open up myself to the things of God that I do not do any other day of the week in the same way. My struggle is that the rest of the week, I adjust according to my feelings. I sing, pray, and read when I feel like it. However, being a part of a group of people pushes me to do things that I do not feel comfortable with.

I need a reminder that God deserves my praise even when I do not feel like giving it. God is all-powerful, and I pray because of his sovereignty, not my feelings. I focus on him because I am a mess, and he can make sense of it all, even when I don’t want to.

Church forces me in directions I often do not want to go, but I am thankful for it, as odd as it sounds.

My wife and I went to the Sight and Sound Theater in Branson, Missouri, to watch their production of the play “Miracle of Christmas.” It is the backstory of the birth of Jesus set to music, singing, and dancing.

The man who sat next to us began to tell us that his son was in the show. He loved the performing arts and went to college with the purpose of joining the theater. The man then went on to explain that there is an audition for every show and that the more than 300 paid employees take their jobs very seriously.

I saw this illustrated when the show began. I watched the opening scene with curiosity as over 50 performers filled the stage and acted out Mary and Joseph’s betrothal to one another. As I gazed on, I began to notice three men on a balcony during the scene, and I could not take my eyes off them. They were up to the left above all the others, but they were also a little hidden by the staging. I am not sure how many people could even see them, but I observed that each one of them acted, sang, and danced as if they were center stage. Every one of them, including the third townsperson in green who was almost hidden by a pole, gave their full effort to the scene. What makes the productions of the Sight and Sound Theater so captivating is that every single person, no matter how small their part, works with all their ability.

I could not help but mentally note that for the Church to be all that God wants it to be, every person who is a part of the body of Christ must give a full effort to their role. We often focus our attention on the people who are on center stage, like the preacher or the worship leaders, but if other people don’t serve or give a full effort, the whole thing falls apart.

Your part in the drama of God’s redemption of the world may only be the third townsperson, but know that someone is watching you. And your contribution is vital to the whole production.

Numerous people have told me their story of faith, and I hear a similar phrase. Somewhere in their sharing of events, they say, “Then (fill in the blank) happened.”

The blank can be anything. Then, they found cancer. Then I got the phone call that Dad was gone. Then, my spouse left me. Then I lost my job. There are hundreds of events that hit people unexpectedly and knock them down emotionally.

Then, the fantastic part of the story is that they turned to faith. They went to Church for the first time. Someone prayed with them or served them in the name of Jesus. Their eyes were opened to the goodness of God in their darkest moment.

The good news is that God can use even the most terrible situations to draw people closer to him. It may be difficult to see that in your current circumstance, but the gospel truly does create light at the end of every tunnel if we choose to see it.

I heard someone describe Christmas as receiving a set of 3D glasses when you have only lived in a 2D world, and I thought it was a perfect description.

When Jesus comes, suddenly, you see the Old Testament differently as our Faithful God brings his blessing of grace into the world.

When Jesus comes, you understand God as loving and compassionate, not only as wrath and vengeance.

When Jesus comes, you understand that sin can be defeated and death removed.

When Jesus comes, you see the life God desires, which is illustrated clearly in everything Jesus does.

When Jesus comes, the light of the world shines into every corner, and the value of every human is highlighted.

Jesus adds dimension, color, and warmth to a world that was formerly flat, gray, and cold. That mighty work begins on page one of Jesus’ story. His birth ushers in a new way of viewing the world and changes our perspective on everything.

Why do I celebrate Christmas? Because it pulls back the cover of this world and begins to reveal God in a new and loving way.