pastorrudytlc

There was a man one day who was ready to give up on God. He was tired. Life was no longer going well, and he didn’t know if God was going to come through for him like he had once believed. He had gotten to the end of his rope, the last of his hope, and wanted to give up. So he whispered to God, “I quit.”

Perhaps that’s you today. Perhaps that’s how you feel because you can’t see God, you can’t hear Him. You feel weary, wasted, wandering and waylaid.  You sense that you have been overlooked in the showcase of life, left in the back row to rot quietly. You feel forgotten. You are totally alone. You want to be loved but only sense loathing.  Even though you once held so much optimism, those days seem like another lifetime alone.

 The man who told God that he was through with faith decided to go to the woods to have one last conversation with the Lord. “God, You disappointed me,” this man feebly cried. “You’ve got me stuck out here, and I don’t know why. I don’t know how long I’m going to have to stay in this prison before my change is going to come. I’m just ready to give up and unless I experience some divine intervention soon, I’m checking out.”

 Just at that very moment, another man appeared as he was also hiking through the brush. After some polite communication, the stranger took a deep breath and shared with authentic enthusiasm, “Look around and tell me what you see.” The man looked around and feeling a bit silly answered that that he saw lots of ferns and also some bamboo. The elder statesman with wide eyed energy exclaimed, “Exactly! Now let me tell you the lessons we can learn about the fern and the bamboo.” The surprised student perked up his ears to listen intently. His tutor continued, “When the fern seed was planted, the ferns grew up very quickly, and they became lush and green and beautiful. But when the bamboo seeds were planted, nothing grew at all during its first year. The same thing occurred with the second year and the third year and the fourth. It wasn’t until five long years later that the very first small shoot of the bamboo came up.” Then old timer’s voice paused allowing all the reality of the illustration to sink in. Then he continued with a question, “How tall is that bamboo you are looking at?” The man answered, “At least a hundred feet tall.” “You are right,” the teacher said. “And the reason bamboo is a hundred feet tall is because during the five years when you saw nothing, things were moving and it was growing deep on the inside. It was growing strong, deep roots down beneath the surface where you cannot see. The reason why it was going deeper first is because it was going to eventually be over a hundred feet tall. It knew how high God had designed for it to be and in order for it to sustain that height; it would have to grow deeper inside where no one could see anything at all.”

 As the man began to comprehend what was being shared, he only turned away for a second and when he looked back, the older sojourner was gone. It was as if he disappeared into thin air. It was in that brief second that the man presumed that he had been visited by an angel. The dark clouds had seemed to vanish and the sun was shining bright once again. In a mere matter of moments, God had lifted up the shade that had held the heart captive in the night.  

When the man got home, he wrote in his journal that night the following life giving sentences. These words literally jumped off the pages. It read, “If God is taking a long time with you on your journey, it is because the Lord is trying to take you deeper on the inside first. He is trying to develop and strengthen you to sustain the destiny in store. His plan for you is high. His calling for you is tall. His purpose for you will one day soar. But just as you can’t build a skyscraper on a chicken-coop foundation, you can’t place a divine destiny on a shallow soul. The higher your mountains, the deeper your valleys will seem. And difficult roads often lead to the most magnificent destinations.”

 If you are attempting to get your fill of the ocean by only sticking your toes in the waves, you have a long way to go. You must be willing to swim out into the depths of God’s open sea of grace for when you get shallow and stubborn; you end up stranded in the sand where the water no longer flows! God still speaks to those who are quiet and wise enough to look up and listen. What might he be saying to you today and who is the messenger of that timely truth? Never underestimate the lengths the Lord will go to get through the density of our pride. If we are too thick of skull, we might very well be too thin of skin. God isn’t finished with a masterpiece that is still breathing fresh air. Let God lead deep and wide today!

Is Christianity more about doing or being? I think that it is actually possible to pull off an external version of faith while still lacking the inner muscle. If you march to a beat where the drummer is not the Son of God calling you to follow Him so you can be with Him, then its time to choose a new pathway. How many times do you hear True Faith defined as having a personal relationship with Jesus? Yet if we examine the amount of time we are investing in sitting at the feet of our Lord like Mary verses serving in the kitchen doing busy work like Martha, we might be unpleasantly surprised!

I think we Believers make a big mistake when we try to substitute doing things for God over just being still and spending quality time with God! Compiling ministry miles like they pad our badge of honor will never satisfy our ailing hearts like just walking with our God in the cool of the day. As a matter of fact, this is why so much of what we do in the Name of Heaven actually lacks divine power because we haven’t invested enough heart to heart time in God’s presence!

As a Shepherd, I haven’t always taken very good care of the Sheep. I mean, I feed them a big meal at the Service and then I send them out without allowing the proper time to digest the dinner. How can we be holy in a hurry? How can we really take in what we have been fed if we have rushed the process and gulped it all down in a single bite? Maybe this weekend, before you leave the table, take the time to let the truth penetrate to the inner depths of your heart and soul. Bring a notebook. Take a walk with God. Be silent. Slow down and see what the Spirit has in store. Believers have been suffering from indigestion for long enough! Sit down and stay a while! Chew your food! Enjoy the company and see if you don’t come away feeling healthier spiritually than you have in a while!

Prayer is the key ingredient if we are serious about stoking the fires of our spiritual connection. But praying is not just a one way conversation where we monopolize the time by doing nothing more than reciting a shopping list that we hope God will deliver upon. We speak and then we listen. When was the last time you heard Jesus speak to you through the Holy Spirit? I’m not talking about using the Bible like a Magic 8Ball where you ask yes or no questions and then let the pages fall where they may. Jesus promised that the Spirit would lead us into all truth. But have you ever tried to communicate to somebody who is already out the door as you are opening up your mouth? We brag about our multi-tasking and we compete with other Christians in the, “Who can look the most exhausted when it comes to presenting ourselves before the Body of Christ Contest?” But doesn’t the very Bible we submit to promise us that those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength and not appear as if they are about to pass out?

Fire Up doesn’t equate to Burn Out! And just carrying your Bible around brings you no closer to the One who wrote it than having your smart phone in your pocket allows you to talk to the friends you say you care about. Remember Eli’s instruction to Samuel when God was calling out in the night? He told the young boy to reply by saying, “Here I am Lord. Speak now for your Servant is listening.” Stop treating God with the same nonchalance you give to the Flight Attendants when they go through their speeches about what to do in an emergency on an airplane. You know when the passengers really perk up? When the flight is in trouble and the lives of those sitting in the seats depends upon following directions. Any chance of experiencing Abundant Life this side of Heaven is strongly linked to listening and obeying the Master! But you can’t pass a test you didn’t study for and God is here to tutor us any time and anywhere we ask. What are you waiting for?

Christian Artist, Kathy Troccoli, will be with us at The Lighthouse Church this coming weekend. She will be in Concert on Saturday Night at 6PM and Sunday at 9 and 10:45AM. No tickets are necessary. Bring yourself and as many friends as possible. One of Kathy’s Songs is called, “Help Myself to You.” The lyrics go something like this:

“Gonna close my door; Gonna shut all the lights; Want to be alone; With You at my side.
Tell me all those things; That I long to hear; In that still small voice; Whisper in my ear.
To be alone with You, Jesus; It’s such an honor for me.

Pour Your life into me; Fill me with Your glory; Let Your love consume me
Oh, to be at this place; It’s an act of Your grace; And there’s nothing that I’d rather do
Than to help myself to You.”

Rather than trying to impress. Rather than looking to stand out and fit in. Rather than going with a consumer mentality. Why not go to church to be with Jesus? Why not go to church to be Jesus to those around you? Jesus is able to give individual attention to a whole host of individuals at the same time and miracles happen when we forget about ourselves, concentrate on Him and live a life of worshipping the One who made you to help yourself to Him.

I have been a Baseball Fan pretty much all of my life. The first time my Dad taught me the game, I knew I was hooked. He passed on his legacy to me that included being a devastated Brooklyn Dodger Fan whose heart got broken when the team packed up and moved to Los Angeles in the late 1950’s. With no other National League Team to root for, he adopted the Amazing Mets to cheer for when they came on the scene in 1962. I followed my Dad in this allegiance and began wearing a wardrobe that consisted mostly of orange and blue ever since.

 I adored the loveable losers of the early days in Mets History. I followed them in the newspapers, checking the Box Scores daily. I taught myself how to keep score of a baseball game. I would memorize and then reproduce every Player’s batting stance which in turn made me a switch hitter early in my own career. I begged Dad every year to take me to Shea Stadium, and finally he did. I will never forget the awe I experienced when I first saw a Mets Game in living color because, up until then, I watched them in glorious black and white on Channel 9 WOR Network out of New York. I truly thought I had died and gone to Heaven and when I got Gil Hodges and Tom Seaver’s autograph, I was sent to another stratosphere.

 I used to work with my Dad, cleaning local doctors’ offices on Tuesday and Thursday Nights and Saturday Mornings. His reward to me for doing so was to give me 25 cents, which I in turn would go right out and buy five packs of Baseball Cards. They were only a nickel a piece back then. It even came with a stick of gum that tasted like cardboard, but I would always chew it faithfully when I was on the mound pitching or playing First Base for our Little League Team, Gogel Tires. My Dad shared with me the nightmare of having his Mother throw out all of his cards after he left for the Navy, so you can be sure I was not going to let that happen to me. To this day, I still have all of my Baseball Cards of my childhood. My Wife asks me, “Why don’t you sell them?” I reply, “It would be like auctioning off a piece of my soul.”

 I have tried to get my Sons into collecting Baseball Cards but they never got serious about it like I did. I realize that times have changed and unfortunately with that, so have the players. It is hard for me to watch what goes on these days in the Major Leagues. For example, Ballplayers strike out at an alarming rate.  This would have sent them to the Minors back in the day, but as long as they hit 20-30 homeruns, they are millionaires.  I hate when a hitter can’t make contact to drive a runner in from 3^rd Base when there are less than two outs. I roll my eyes when I don’t see the hustle of Pete Rose or the fierce competitiveness of Bob Gibson. I could never imagine Tom Seaver or Nolan Ryan begging to get out of a game with only 100 pitches to their credit. And the amount of time some guys spend on the disabled list is just downright wrong!

 The other night I witnessed an outfielder for the Mets not even attempting to run to first after he struck out swinging but the catcher dropped the ball and it went to the backstop. It was like the player couldn’t be bothered. That would have meant a certain benching back in my day. The Manager explained later that the reason he didn’t run was that he didn’t want to put pressure on his hamstrings when it wasn’t necessary. Are you kidding me? If a GM and Manager are afraid of offending the players enough to correct them, how is this ever going to become a better product on the field? Another player is too injured to be in the night game but not so much that he won’t play a round of golf in the daytime. And yet he will still get far more money in a year that I might ever see in a lifetime. Something is very wrong here but have we reached the point of no return? I would say so!

Much like I abandoned the NBA years ago because it became nothing more than a glorified one on one exercise, I am tempted to seek greener pastures for the American Pastime. There are many days I teach my Son Joel what not to do when we watch a Mets Game together! Business has ruined the Game I loved, but at least I have my precious memories of an earlier time.

 I remember fondly the times that we kids would just play ball in the sandlots every day and didn’t need much adult supervision. I look back to the days when being on a Baseball Team was an honor and a privilege and we players hung on to all the words of our Coaches. We listened and learned and improved. When I fell in love with Major League Baseball, the players were just regular guys who also had to work in the winter just to make ends meet. It was a day when the Game was the thing and not just an avenue for personal glory, advertising endorsements and making an insane amount of money. Not everything improves with age. And in a day where our younger generation needs positive role models more than ever, we are not discovering true treasure out on the diamonds!

 So Parents, don’t force your kids to sign up for a sport they don’t even have an interest in. Teach them to listen and learn from their Coaches. Model for them what good sportsmanship looks like. Relax and go have a catch. Never forget it’s a game at heart.  

What lures us has the potential to lord over us. We all have our own unique cravings. What whets my appetite may repulse yours. Some days I begin to get a hankering for “Liver and Onions.” Others, I might yearn for a “Pizza Pie filled with Anchovies.” I can already imagine some of my readers responding with words like, “Oh yuck! Not me.” And I totally understand it. God loves us all the same but we have not been wired in unison. Diversity is the spice of life. It is the reason that Crayola makes many colors of crayons.

Many people have told me that they would die if they had to get up and speak before a group of people. Personally, I thrive on it and passionately come alive. But if you made me sit in an office all day and crunch numbers, I believe I would put my head in a blender before the day was through! I can play Baseball but not Backgammon. I can sing but can’t dance. I can talk all day and never run out of something to say. You might practice the old adage that silence is golden. My point is that God dished out strengths in many shapes and sizes. All have one even though all don’t have them all. Are you able to identify where you excel? If you don’t know, are you willing to ask someone who knows you to answer that question about you?

 With the pluses also come the minuses! All God’s children are created with natural talents and abilities and then, with their coming to Faith, are also bestowed Spiritual Gifts. But just because we are given the Spirit doesn’t mean we don’t act stupid every now and then. Last weekend at The Lighthouse, we were studying the exploits of God’s Judge Samson. Let’s just say that Samson was a very stubborn individual who may have been more clueless than cued in to what God was hoping to accomplish through him.

 In Judges 14:15 we read, “On the fourth day, they said to Samson’s wife, ‘Coax your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your father’s household to death.” Judges 16:5 informs us, “The rulers of the Philistines went to Delilah and said, ‘See if you can lure him (Samson) into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can over power him so we may ties him up and subdue him…” The Hebrew word for “Lure” means “to find an opening, the point of a person’s greatest vulnerability.” We might refer to it as “The Achilles’ Heel.” The same word is used in the New Testament in the Book of James 1:14 where it says, “Each one is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.” The Greek word for “Enticed” adds the imagery that we are drawn to be trapped and caught by specific “Bait.”

It’s the picture of a fish that is nestled away, quietly resting underneath a sheltered place. All of a sudden a cunning fisherman drops the bait. Now a tried and true Fisherman changes the bait depending on the waters and the fish he is looking for. The sad reality is that many a fish will lose its life by trying to feed itself with an artificial dish. Just think about swimming to your finality by attempting to satisfy your inner hunger by chomping on plastic. Something tells me that too many human beings are doing just that as I write this sentence! Bait is specifically designed to the nature of that fish. Bait is meant to entice, deceive, fool and do it in!

Jesus called us to be “Fishers of Men.” But Christians aren’t the only one reaching for their Poles. Hell is also “Going Fishing.” But while Believers are hoping to lure someone to life, the enemy is longing to hook you to hurt you. I believe there is a wall in Hell with Lures that have our names on them. We need to be aware that we are all vulnerable to being duped by the devil. Samson followed his glands over his God. How about you? What has the capacity to take you out in a moment if you attempt to operate within your own power?

 One of my buttons is my inability to shut up and walk away from someone antagonizing me. If an individual challenges my competence in doing something that I know I am passionate about, I become susceptible to a verbal battle. I need to walk away. I don’t. The longer I stay, the better the possibility that I am about to get myself in trouble. When I am being baited, I need to run to Jesus. When I am being lured, it is time to call on the Lord!

 None of us will ever get to a point where temptation will become a thing of the past. Life is hard, but God is good! When we are weak and we will be, it is the perfect point for God to be strong. When we humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord, He lifts us up so that after the trolling net comes and goes, we are still swimming free in faith!  Whose arms are calling you? Whose arms you running to? Whose lap are you laying your head upon? Stop looking into the mirror to find your purpose and start trusting in the Master!

God’s love takes broken things and makes them beautiful. As I write these words, Ellie Holcomb is about thirty feet away singing them at The Lighthouse Church. I have come to understand that all the king’s horses and all the king’s men could not put me back together again. Only the amazing grace of my Lord and Savior Jesus has salvaged me from the wreckage! I surely would have been leveled and left for dead if it hadn’t been for the reality of faith pumping lasting truth into my weary soul and battered heart. I think my best quality is that God has so much room to shine through me because there are many holes in my being. I may be a cracked pot, but God has never abandoned this jar and because of that, there is quite a display of glorious light to be seen.

 Nothing has ever been easy for me. I am not a fortunate son by any means. My relationship with God is not just a casual compartment of my life. His love for me is everything I am and all I hope to be. I have lost loved ones. I have buried my own children. I have every reason to be forever paralyzed with enough issues to fill a medical journal but God has been my ever present help and sincere strength in the midst of my struggle with anxiety, worry, physical issues and OCD tendencies. If you are wondering what keeps me going when nothing goes the way I had hoped, it is the reality of our Lord who keeps the very words that he himself claims to be.

 This past week my daughter Leah was taken to the Hospital for an emergency C-Section. She was eight months pregnant when all of a sudden, her blood pressure began to spike and it became too dangerous for this child to stay inside of her Mama. Needless to say, I became very proactive in my prayers, begging God to spare our family from yet another tragedy. I got out my “fighting words,” as Ellie Holcomb sings. As a matter of fact, she was just singing it as I penned this last sentence. “Fighting words” are when you combat the lies of Hell with the truth of Heaven. We are not alone nor will we have to go through anything without the most righteous chaperone that ever lived. Jesus brought us all the most precious of gifts in that little Lucia Ann Savage, my newest granddaughter. She was born four pounds and ten ounces and is doing remarkably well. A blood clot was discovered in my Leah and now the Doctors have the insight to monitor this so that she may be spared of what could have been a disaster if everything had gone full term. We never know what is really going on from our seats of limited vision! Yet God sees it all and works even when we detest what is up on the screen. Thank you Lord for being God in spite of what we do or think!

 Ellie Holcomb’s new album is called Red Sea Road. She is singing that one now as I finish up my thoughts for this week. Nobody in their right mind would plan a journey that would force human beings to walk through a large body of water. Especially when they are being chased by an army that both outnumbered them and was looking to slaughter them all. Even the Israelites cried out to God, “Why in the world would you take us out of Egypt just to drown us in the desert?” But God had a plan to make his power undeniably known to his people so that they would know that they could trust him no matter where, no matter what and no matter when! We never walk alone on a Red Sea Road! Thank you Jesus for once again being our reason to sing praise because even in our dark, you show up with the light! And no batteries are necessary!

When my Baby Leah had her baby Lucia this week, I could not contain the love flowing out of this Papa’s soul. I would do anything I could to fight for her and my new granddaughter’s life. When I walked into the nursery and viewed this tiny little display of God’s creation, I once again was reminded that when it all comes down, only love and life remain. How blessed we are and how foolish we are to be so ignorant of what God has been faithful to make known to us. I want to walk in the light as the Lord is in the light and let it all fall where it may! Scriptures tell us that he has allowed our hearts to fall in pleasant places. Any place that Jesus may be present is exactly where we want to be.

 Thank You Lord for the gift of yet another amazing week in this thing called life that you have ordained for me to live. Thank you that I have laughed and cried. I have prayed and vented. I have been up and down and all around emotionally. But when it all comes down, if there is anything good that happens in life, it’s from Jesus! And for that I am grateful. Trust the Lord Family. He is the ultimate hope and resting place.   

It will officially be twenty years this weekend. Twenty years ago this June 25^th in 1997, I officially accepted the call from God and the invitation from his people to come and become the Senior Pastor of the Lighthouse Church. I had been an Associate Pastor since 1982, working with Teens, College and Career and Singles up until my coming back home to the State in which I was born and raised in, good old New Jersey. While I started my full time ministry working under Ron Hutchcraft in Youth For Christ up in my stomping grounds of Northern Jersey, I also served Churches in Dayton and Stow, Ohio and Omaha, Nebraska. It was from Nebraska that I came back to accept the position with the Lighthouse and become inundated with the new and wonderful challenge of living and serving God in South Jersey.

 It is hard to believe that all this time has passed. I do remember walking on the Boardwalk in Wildwood praying and seeking the Lord’s direction. I guess that is not the quietest place to try to hear from Heaven. Earth gets pretty loud there with everybody hawking their goods and trying to distract you from holding on to any clear thought, never mind attempting to make a life changing one.  But I can confidently give testimony that God made it quite apparent through his word that if I trusted him enough to take on this assignment, I would clearly see and experience the glory of God. The Lord was going to create some “Holy Wood” in Wildwood and all of Cape May County.

 The very next day I preached about the need to break camp and advance and never stay satisfied to try to live the Christian faith while stuck in neutral. After we were done, at a Sunday Picnic held at the Seashore Campgrounds, Gerald Stout, Paul Brant, Jim Carpinelli and Art Hall cornered me and invited me to the dream of a lifetime. I remember taking the job without even knowing if they were going to pay me, never mind what they were going to pay me! I also recall saying to them to please hold off making any announcement until I told my wife and family that we were moving. They hadn’t seen what I saw. As a matter of fact, I’m not sure anyone did because it wasn’t actually visible to the natural eye yet. But I knew what God was going to do by faith. I had a complete confidence that the best was yet to come.

 No, it didn’t happen overnight! It was quite funny to hear believers in the area tell me right to my face, “You won’t last here. Cape May County will eat you up and spit you out. Outsiders think they know it all but they never stay.” One of my favorite passages in the New Testament is where it literally tells us that the crowds were trying to discourage Jesus from moving forward in miraculous power and the Lord just “ignored what they said.” In the original Greek text, it gives us the insight that these words didn’t even penetrate the ear drums of our Savior. I knew early that I wasn’t going to get my props horizontally, but knew they would eventually come mostly vertically! And just like he said he would, Jesus has done infinitely beyond what I might have even hoped to imagine. This is my home. This is my life. This is where I sense that I will graduate to Glory from. And none of it would have ever happened without simple trust and obedience in a God who is the ultimate promise maker and keeper.

 The other night, my son Joel graduated 8^th Grade from Dennis Township. Joel has only lived in one house and gone to one school system his entire life. I shared with him that this was not the case for me. My Parents didn’t take into account how the many moves they made did affect my psyche. I went to Kindergarten, changed schools for 1^st thru 4^th Grades, went to a new 5^th Grade School, a new 6^th Grade School, two different 7^th Grades, and two different High Schools. I had no sense of stability when it came to developing lasting and deep relationships. My older Children Rudy, Leah and Abbie had to experience quite a few moves also until we came to Cape May County twenty years ago. Rudy was in 5^th Grade, Leah in 4^th and Abbie in 1^st when we arrived. Since then, this has been home base. I am grateful for the consistency and longevity the Lord has allowed me here. I am grateful!

 Many thought and were misinformed when they assumed that my greatest work here would be constructing an actual building for the Lighthouse Church to call their home. I am so thrilled with what I affectionately refer to as “The Holy Recreation Center.” But it is just the instrument that God uses to see the real ministry take place and that is the transformation of lives! The addicted are set free, the lonely are given community, the lost are found, the believers are equipped and all the applause goes to Calvary. I once prayed years ago that the Lord would make it hard to go to Hell from Cape May County. I sought that the Lord would be so real that even the hardest heart couldn’t ignore God’s presence and the difference he makes. I am in no way shape or form ready to retire or worse yet kick it into any maintenance mode. I believe the best is still yet to come!

 Dear Lord, continue to ignite the light into our daily lives. May the other Churches who seek to serve you be encouraged and strengthened for the battle. May the Christians excel at loving God and others as the Holy Spirit fills us to spill us! Thank you for the last twenty amazing years, but fire me up for what is just around the corner. I love being part of this Family, this Community and this County. Allow me to continue to offer good news to as many as possible and effectively as possible until you finally invite me to my next move and then, “I’m Going to Heaven!”           

I am not sure what comes to your mind when I say “Rude Awakenings?” Thanks to “YouTube,” you can now experience a whole internet channel dedicated just to them! They include things like molasses and pillow feathers, hot sauce on the lips while sound asleep, air horns and silly string, being saran wrapped to your bed at midnight and hot wax on a hairy shirtless man while sleeping on his belly!

 When I was going to Philadelphia College of Bible, I used to share an apartment with five other guys. We all had a roommate named George who we terrorized only because his biggest crime was being such a heavy sleeper. After he shared his, “Good Night,” his faithful friends would spring into action. George was treated to rude awakenings in places like the Student Center, a nearby Pathmark Super Market, the local Penndel Train Station and the middle of the Campus Parking Lot!

Because he couldn’t stay awake, he never knew what would be happening to him in the wee small hours of the morning!

 Some of us today are going to wake up in places that we don’t want to be only because we have become apathetic and comatose to all that matters most! We have allowed the culture to lull us to sleep, and while we snooze, we lose the choice to take some matters into control. This is why the Bible shouts to us in verses like Revelation 3:2 “Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.” Jesus rose from the dead and not just so we could sleep in and throw the covers over our heads! Jesus rose from the dead to show us what we would miss if we aren’t aware and alert and right behind him as he leads the way!  

 When Mary and the Apostles got the rude awakening that Jesus didn’t stay dead and that there had been a resurrection just like the Lord promised there would be, they weren’t just given a progress report. They received purpose and fresh new marching orders. We have been given the same assignment. Believers, this is no time to be napping! This is the time to be noting that if we ever had hoped to practice following the Lord as our rightful leader, the moment is now!  

Eternal life is not about a quantity amount- counting the sum of your days! It’s a quality of life that happens inside of us, because the minute we enter into an eternal relationship with Jesus, the one who is the Way, the Truth and Life will be just that inside of us. Wherever you may be no matter whatever you may see. Wake up Christian and stop hitting the snooze button! Do you know who wants to lead you around today? Do you know who is willing to show you the wonder you would miss if you stayed determined to wander around on your own?

 I want to talk today to everybody who needs hope.  Your past doesn’t have to define your present and steal your tomorrow! Jesus wants to be your tour guide. And what better to understand the reasons why you were created than to be able to hang out with the Lord who created it all!

 There is a wonderful scene in the movie “Saving Mr. Banks.” It is the story of Pamela Travers and the great Walt Disney and the perseverance and patience that it took to get Mrs. Travers, a cantankerous woman who is very sad because of a stormy past, to surrender the rights of her beloved creation Mary Poppins so Disney could make a movie about her! Things are not going well because Mrs. Travers refuses to let go and surrender- and even smile! She is definitely punishing herself! She has allowed her guilt as a little girl of not being able to rescue her father, the real Mr. Banks, to literally suck the joy out of every day!

 Walt Disney is beside himself because he doesn’t know what else to do to get through to her, so he does something incredible. He invites P.L. Travers to spend the day at Disney Land with Walt Disney himself! Can you imagine being able to spend a day at Disney Land with Walt Disney himself? Can you imagine sleeping in on a day where you got that kind of invitation? Can you imagine the magic of that day because you would learn and see things that you would never know if the Master, Creator and Designer were not there to point it all out to you? Jesus is giving us the same invitation today! Wake up and walk this wonderland called Earth with Him!

 We were made to live for so much more and with Jesus inside us and beside us, there is a whole new world to see! As the song in Disney’s Aladdin sings, “A whole new world, don’t you dare close your eyes!” You have a longing to be loved, to be known fully and completely, and to utterly and perfectly be loved in a way nobody on this earth can offer. You have a longing for healing to be set right that no therapist in this world can give you. You have a hunger for meaning that no mere achievement on this earth can bestow. God has placed eternity in the human heart. We know better.

You don’t have to believe in the Bible to see this. Look at the pyramids.  Visit a nursing home.

The Bible says the reason God has placed eternity in the human heart is that we were made for an eternal existence with him. That’s not just about its duration or its length, but it’s also about its quality. Eternal life is life with God every moment, and the most important thing we’re doing in this life is to prepare for that life that is going to come.

 Maybe you really need hope. Like a bigger, deeper hope. Not something glib and superficial. You need to tell him. Maybe you’ve never really resolved the issue of where you’re putting your ultimate hope, and maybe this is your day to say, “Jesus, I want that to be you. I want to make that commitment to have you be my forgiver and my friend and my leader.” Maybe you have some questions, some things you don’t understand, and you just need to make the decision and say, “I’m going to get really serious about searching and exploring. I’ll make that commitment to stop closing my eyes to the God who is standing right in front of me.”

 My room-mate, George, couldn’t stay awake and he never knew where was going to wake up one day. Don’t make that mistake especially when you can be safe and secure in Jesus today! Rude awakenings lead to real assignments that would be missed if we continue to snore when we were created to soar! Wake Up!!!!

Real treasure is always found when you look in the right place.  It’s funny that while we think the secret to striking it rich is by seizing matters into our own hands, maybe the genuine fortune is found when we are willing to entrust our future into hands that are just a bit bigger than the ones that we received at birth.  Did you ever think, even in your wildest dreams- that you could actually experience firsthand the most perfect ending to your life story if you would just dare to look up and trust the one who made you in the first place?  Do you understand that you hitting the proverbial jackpot and soaring to even greater heights than you could ever possibly imagine might be connected more upon your humble dependence rather than brash independence?

 There is an old story I would like to share with you today about three trees.  These three little trees stood and dreamed of what they wanted to become when they grew up.  The first little tree looked up at the stars and said, “I want to hold treasure.  I want to be covered with gold and filled with precious stones.  I’ll be the most beautiful treasure chest in the world!”  The second little tree looked out at the small stream trickling by on its way to the ocean.  She proclaimed, “I want to be traveling mighty waters and carrying powerful kings.  I’ll be the strongest ship in the world!”  The third little tree looked down into the valley below where busy men and women worked in a bustling town.  She shared, “I don’t want to leave the mountain top at all.  I want to grow so tall that when people stop to look at me, they’ll raise their eyes to the heavens and think of God.  I will be the tallest tree in the world!”

 Years passed by and the rains came and the sun shone and the little trees grew up tall.  One day, three woodcutters climbed the mountain.  The first woodcutter looked at the first tree and said, “This tree is beautiful.  It is perfect for me.”  With a swoop of his axe, the first tree fell.  The tree cried out loud, “Now, I shall be made into a beautiful chest and I shall hold wonderful treasure!”

 The second woodcutter looked at the second tree and said, “This tree is strong.  It is perfect for me.”  With a swoop of the axe, the second tree fell.  The tree cried, “Now I shall sail mighty waters!  I shall be a strong ship for powerful kings!”  The third tree felt her heart sink when the last woodcutter looked her way.  She stood straight and tall and pointed bravely to the heavens but the woodcutter never even looked up.  “Any kind of tree will do for me,” muttered the third woodcutter as he swung his axe and leveled the third tree to the ground.

 The first tree rejoiced when the woodcutter brought her into the carpenter’s shop.  But the carpenter fashioned the tree into a feed box for animals.  The once beautiful tree was not covered with gold or jewels of any kind.  She was coated with saw dust and filled with hay for hungry and lowly barn animals.

 The second tree smiled when the woodcutter took her into a shipyard, but no awesome sailing ship was made that day.  Instead the once strong tree was hammered and sawed into a simple fishing boat.  She was too small and too weak for the open waters of the ocean.  Instead, she was taken to reside in a little lake. 

The third tree was confused when the woodcutter cut her into strong beams and left her to lie in the lumberyard.  “What happened?”  The once tall tree wondered.  “All I ever wanted was to stay on the mountain top and point to God…”

 As time went by and days became months, the three trees nearly forgot their dreams.  Then one night, golden starlight poured over the first tree as a young woman placed her newborn baby into the feeding trough.  “I wish I could make a real cradle for him,” the tree heard the husband whisper.  The mother just squeezed his hand as majesty seemed to embrace the smooth and sturdy wood.  “This manger is beautiful,” she said and suddenly the first tree realized that she was holding the greatest treasure that this world would ever know.

 Years later, on what seemed to be a normal evening, a tired traveler and his friends crowded into the tiny fishing boat.  The traveler fell asleep as the second tree quietly sailed out into the middle of the lake.  Soon a thundering and thrashing storm arose out of nowhere.  The little tree shuddered.  She knew she did not have the strength to carry so many passengers safely through this battering wind and rain.  The tired man awakened and stood up in the boat, stretched out his hand and authoritatively proclaimed, “Peace!”  At once, the wind and the waves died down as quickly as it began.  And suddenly, the second tree knew that she was carrying the most powerful king this world would ever know.

 One Friday morning, the third tree was startled when her beam was yanked from the forgotten woodpile.  She flinched as she was carried through an angry, jeering mob.  She shuddered when soldiers nailed a man’s hands and feet to her.  She felt ugly and harsh and cruel.  But on Sunday morning, when the sun rose and the earth trembled with joy beneath her, the third tree learned first hand that God’s love had changed everything.  It had made the third tree strong.  And every time people see the third tree to this day, they think of God and that was better and made this cross the tallest tree in the world.

 The next time you panic because you think that you might be missing out on fame and fortune, sit tight and keep your heart in God’s hands and trust that his care is taking you someplace worth going because it is turning you into someone worth being!  And a good name is far greater than any riches and being used to bring honor and glory to the living God is the greatest privilege that any one of can ever experience!  So today, offer your life as a living investment into God’s hands and then fasten your seat-belt and enjoy the journey and reap treasure that time cannot erase and no amount of earthly rust can spoil!

I read the Book of Job this week. Maybe it just seemed appropriate. Did you know chronologically, it is the oldest of the recorded Scriptures in the Bible? Job walked with the Lord before there was such a thing as the Hebrew People and prior to having a recorded written sacred Law which was given to Moses on Mount Sinai. In many ways, Job was a Priest for his family, recognizing and representing God before his wife and his sons and daughters. What we do know is that God thought pretty highly of his servant. So much so that when the enemy threatened Job’s reputation, the Lord allowed Satan to mess with his possessions and his people. The only ground rules from above was that the devil could not take Job’s life.

If you know the story, Job suffered injustice at the hand of the darkness. Job lost his property and all his family within hours of each other. When that didn’t seem to shake Job’s faith, Lucifer went at Job’s health and physical body. It got so bad that there were huge sores on Job’s body and he sat in an ash pit using broken pottery to scrape his withered skin. The best counsel Job could receive from his wife was to “Curse God and die!” This Job did not do. Proclaiming that Jehovah was the One who gives and takes away- he praised him in the pit with a ringing endorsement of, “Blessed Be The Name of the Lord.”

 Something jumped out at me this week that may have gone unnoticed before. In Job Chapter 1 and Verse 22, we read, “In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.” I was surely convicted by that nugget of truth. Maybe this is where my own sin takes root because I do blame the Lord when circumstances go don’t well. I am more of a complainer than a worshipper when I find myself in situations where I can’t make any heads or tails out them. I look up and wonder, “Why God?” Why does my life always seem to be hard? Why must it always be that things don’t go the way I would like them to?” I even get to the point where I question whether He even loves me at all. I know life isn’t fair but sometimes things almost seem comically and cosmically stacked against me.

 Job’s Buddies would be quick to tell me what they told him. It must be because of unconfessed sin stacked up in my life. My bad fortune can be blamed on selfish decisions and unholy secrets. But like Job I know this is not the cause of the case. I have understood in the big picture that bad things happen to all of us, whether godly or pagan. But I know that I haven’t always been cooperative when I don’t like the daily agenda. I shout up to Heaven because I don’t want to be hemmed in or held back. I want to be free to live, to move and go where I know I would serve the Lord. But not my will but His be done and for reasons, I don’t understand- like Job defiantly cried out, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”

 Confession is good for the soul. How many of us are egotistical and some days live like God is supposed to revolve around us rather than to seek Him first beyond anything and everything else, including our own well-being. The Lord owes me nothing and yet gives me everything. My inability only highlights His accessibility and keeps me running into the arms of my Heavenly Daddy when the undertow of earth would long to drown me in its despair. Job knew he wasn’t going to find the solution to his struggle in any horizontal direction. He was going to need to get vertical if there was to be any victory.

God met Job in the middle of his perplexing ordeal. He is willing to do the same for me and you. But rather than pile up my own defense and try to argue my way into good times again, I need to humble myself and hide behind the power of my Lord. I can’t wait for all to be right with my world before I attempt to fly again. That day might not ever come in my own timetable. But if Jesus is willing to be my rock below me and the force before me, I can follow His light as He leads me into a path that will eventually bring me into the wide open spaces of praise.

 So I won’t curse God and die; but I will celebrate His presence and live no matter what! Like Job, I know that our Redeemer lives and it won’t be long before all the aches and pains of this old world will be a distant memory. So as Job 23:10 says, “But He knows the way I take and when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.” God’s gold can not be appraised by worldly standards but it can be recognized by anybody. Don’t allow the darkness to destroy the shine. When life shoots you down, raise your praise and trust His cover!             

If you were to hang out with me and really get to know me, chances are very good you wouldn’t like what you see. Just this statement alone lifts God’s love and grace for us to a whole new level. Like it or not, we are all performers and we do our best to control the elements so that the script sheds a positive light upon our life’s work. But sooner or later we discover that this task in the long run is both impossible and a huge waste of our precious time. Dust happens on the lens and dirt stains the bright white outfits that we picked out so carefully to impress our audience. If we don’t look up to where our salvation truly arrives from, we will be stomped to death in the stampede of the failure we can’t avoid.

 Life this side of heaven might promise us an alluring paradise but there is no delivery service that can produce what we are diligently looking for. Escape is no real alternative as it only masks the inability to solve the problem on our own. Since we were young, everyone has been asking, ‘What will you do?” Today I have the guts to reply, “Who cares what I do if it only prohibits me from being authentic and coming clean?” I have experienced quite shockingly that God is not my ticket to ride; He is my only avenue of ever working it out. And yet even with my life totally surrendered to Him, I am not exempt from the drama and pain that come with breathing the air this earth has to offer. You can’t have it all if you won’t admit the good, bad and ugly that comes with it.

 I believe that Christianity has suffered from those who have exerted way too much energy in homogenizing it rather than preaching the heart and soul of it. The ‘Good News” of Jesus has nothing to do with promises of a better existence here. It doesn’t even guarantee easier times and never fail days! Followers of Jesus have physical deficiencies, emotional hang-ups, anxiety issues and terrible days that turn into adventurous seasons where God is not the way out but the only way in to making sense out of the misery and mining the golden nuggets from the cavernous caves we can’t avoid no matter how hard we may try. Faith must be willing to get its work clothes on. If there will be fruit growing in our garden, then there will be both the expectation of weeds and the understanding that the sin isn’t that they are there, but the ignorance of covering them without pulling them up.

 Believers shouldn’t be asking, “What am I doing wrong?” when nothing seems to be right. We should be looking for the Lord in all the right places! Healing is not just making blind eyes to see and lame legs to walk. Healing is also making blind eyes, in spite of the continuous and aggravating blindness, being able to blaze miraculous trails into the great unknown. It is living with the weakness and watching God still using you in remarkable fashion. No, it isn’t the way any of us would draw it up, but it still is divine intervention. If I wait until all is as it should be to write my psalm of worship, it might sit unfinished and unheard. So I sing with my blood boiling and I raise my hands in defiant revolution that this world can do me in. What profits a man if he gains the whole world but lose his own soul?

 It’s all about soul. It has very little to do with happiness. Jesus didn’t have a home to call his own and he was battered and beaten up by those who shared history with him. I don’t think the Lord would call his time with us a vacation, a trip, a holiday to the beach. I think he did what he had to do so that there would be endless hope in the cup we were given with predetermined holes. Faith believes what God says even when it is contradicted by what we see! When nothing can change my world, the Holy Spirit still redeems me! Even when we are not privileged to all that the Lord is doing behind the scenes, we are not abandoned in ignorance. He who began this good work will bring it to completion in his own way and time! I want to but must not put the book away. It’s too early to run and it’s too late to start all over again. Give us this day our daily bread and let us hold on to the promise that “Thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory.” If it doesn’t belong to the Creator then the created go the route of anarchy and nobody wins.

 So on this quiet day where I can’t hear the music, I trust the songs of angels accompany me. I will join the choir again but not today and even if nobody around me understands, the God above surely does. And that’s enough. It must be. Let it be!