My ways are not your ways…

AS it happens once in a while an important member of our life dies. A few days ago my car died out after many years of service. Its when you don’t have one that you realize how important a car really is. So I started to go “car hunting” on the net. Of course I prayed about it and asked Gods guidance. After spending many hours (there are thousands to chose from) and thinking of a budget for this expense I was ready. One one side was my flesh and on the other was my logic. I saw this beautiful old BMW (1988) and the price was inside my budget. The owned was also a “seller” without a fight his price went down and down… he needed the money to go back to school. I thought “why not” its not worth more than another second hand car anyways and I never ever had a BMW! On the other side there was my logic. Don’t buy it, what you need is a good diesel engin with all the milage you do. You’ll save a ton of money per year. At the wednesday night prayer meeting I showed the BMW to a friend, who really was God sent and he told me how he had owned one and explained to me the expenses, etc… He also pointed out that he wondered WHY I would want to buy it. What were my motives, my real ones! Well that struck a chord and I realized that it was more coveting than anything else. So I told him he was right and opted for the diesel. I went to check it out with my wife and it was a beauty but after trying it I didn’t really feel good about it. There was something wrong…. so I just said to myself: “That’s not for me.” So we went back home and once again I started looking on the net. What I didn’t know was that God was also in the picture and was working for me. My eyes fell upon this other car that had just been posted the same day. Great make, low millage and low price. So I called and made a rendez-vous for the next morning. Off we went and this time the car was just great. What was even better was that we had the opportunity to speak to the person selling it and he was very interested in the good news of the Gospel. He promised to come to hear what I had to say at church in a few weeks. You see although my flesh was disapointed with not having the BMW and my logic about not having the diesel, my spirit was very happy to see God work in my life and give me what I really needed and also bring the message of salvation to this man. My ways are not your ways says the Lord… Isaiah 55:8,9

Good old Saints…

I replaced a friend (pastor) who was on vacation this week. I had the opportunity to preach at the church where he serves. Its not a big church, quite the opposite. A church in the country, which has been established for over 100 years. They still have the same building and when you walk in it is as though you pass through a “time warp”. There were not a lot of people present 20-25 people with a few kids. Almost all were over 60. When I was preaching it was like a sea of white “heads” looking at me. One thing that struck me was their smiles – most of them had great big grins on their faces. Their eyes were wide open as I preached from the “Good Book”. There was a person there that had been a member of the church for over 80 years! In front of me was a bunch of “Good old Saints”! They had seen a lot and lived a lot and were faithful through out the years. I hope that when I will be really old and wrinkled up, I also will be faithfull to the Lord as they seem to be.

How things change so rapidly

I was very happy to see our deacon have a change of heart so rapidly. At prayer meeting he was all smiles and joking around – happy as could be. So thank you Lord for this change. But I know that I will have to be closer & encourage this person. Pastors are not only given to the congregation as a ‘whole’ but also to individuals.

We had our meeting

We had our deacons board meeting. On the agenda was an item about what had happened at our last meeting. I was glad that I did not have to bring this up, it was someone else. This whole issue was well handled by the “chairperson”. All the time that was needed was taken and we went through what had happened. At the end the deacon came to the conclusion that the rotation system was allright and he took the office of secretary as he was supposed to. By the grace of God, things went back to normal. But I will have to work and help all the deacons become better servants of the Lord.

I’m not ready -yet!

I let time pass and since  did not receive any news from the person that made an outburst at the deacons board meeting – I called. I asked to see if we could meet because I did not want this situation to last. Our Lord says that we must be in harmony with each other before we can bring our ‘offering to the temple’. I asked in a gentle and non authoritive fashion explaining my thoughts. But the answer simply was “I’m not ready yet!” I would of wanted for us to speak together before the next meeting. Since it will not be, the only thing left is to bring this to the Board as an item on the agenda. We can not hope to work together for the Lord when there is a spirit of “grumpiness” around. – Any thoughts?