Persistence

Strange what you remember on a given day. I remember that my dad had this quote from Calvin Coolidge framed on his desk. Stranger still, Calvin Coolidge was a republican, and I only know of one time that my father didn't vote for a democrat. Calvin Coolidge was our 30th president, in case you are wondering. But, his words inspired my father, and me. I find it encouraging, especially when the going gets tough. God bless you all.

"Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race." --Calvin Coolidge

Accomplishing God's will, His way

Proverbs tells us, "Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he." In short, the writer is not talking about something revealed in a trance; he is talking about the revealed will of God. Where there is no revealed will of God, they perish. And then the second part of the verse fits in; he that keeps the law is happy. For the Christian, the revealed will of God is his or her law. Case in point, God revealed His will for Jonah to go to Nineveh. Jonah knew what God wanted and he didn't immediately or willingly follow God's will, but Jonah, and any Christian, should give the same respect to God's will, that they give to the law. In other words, if you ain't in God's will, you ain't happy.
Sometimes God reveals His will to us, and then we want to take the ball and run with it. By take the ball and run with it, I mean that we take what we believe is God's will, and then we try to use our human intellect and abilities to go about accomplishing God's will. It is sort of like God trying to tell us something, and we try to finish His sentence. God wants to be involved in the whole process, from revealing His will to the accomplishing of His will, and we ought to want God to be involved in the process. After all the clay doesn't tell the potter how to mold it, why should we tell God how to use us? God is glorified when we seek His will (the vision), and when we willingly participate, not take over, in accomplishing His will. So, in preaching to myself, I hope that you are blessed by it.

Words

I've been told that Abraham Lincoln, when he was upset with someone would write a letter to them telling them exactly what he thought. Then he would tear it up and write the letter that he would send. It helps to write down what you are feeling. Something about looking at your feelings on the page helps you to process them. It seems that when I am most in the mood to write a letter like this; I shouldn't write anything.
Our words are powerful things, they have the power to build up, and they have the power to tear apart. One of the things that I do, that my older nieces chuckle about now, is that I try to tell them often that they are good girls, and I tell the nephews that they are good boys. And they are, but I think it helps to hear it. Especially as they are becoming young women and young men. One of the things that gives me hope, is seeing the young ones and what they can become.

Nobody knows . . .

I was told a story once of a father and son who went on a fishing trip. They both kept journals. The father had a difficult day, concerned with the business of the day; something that he was unable to avoid was a fishing trip that he had promised his son. The two went fishing. Years later the two journals were compared: on that day the father recorded it was the worst day of his life, and the son had recorded that it was the best day of his.

It just goes to show you how drastically different two people can see the same day. I am firmly entrenched in seeing the world my way. Sometimes that is good and sometimes I am less patient or less kind than I should be. The thing is you don't always know whether you are dealing with someone who feels like the father in the story or like the little boy. What if yours is the only kind face someone sees today? Take care to notice what others may be going through, be kind and brighten your world with a big ole' smile. God bless you all.

What would you do with a million dollars?

Yes, I baited you.
My pastor and seminary instructor in Texas use to take every opportunity to teach me something, so when we would go to work on the church (which was often since we were building it as funds came in) he would go to work on my education. He once told me a story, a quote of a quote of a quote, I think. A man was going on, in front of his pastor, about what he would do for his church if he unexpectedly came into a million dollars. The pastor told him that God was concerned with what he was going to do with the three dollars that he had, rather than the million dollars that he didn't have.
I remember at times when my offerings were pretty small, that I would pray that God would multiply them and use them. Obviously, I thought if the offerings were small, they couldn't be used for much; so, I thought they needed the added request of multiplication. The thought makes me smile now, here I am asking God to do with my offerings what Jesus did with the loaves and fish. Sometimes when our offerings are small, or smaller than we would like; God uses those times to look at the condition of our hearts, and so that we can look at the condition of our hearts. The fact is any offering, no matter how small can honor God. It is a heart that cheerfully gives that is pleasing to God, so give with a happy heart no matter what size your offering is.

Complete

This thought struck me while listening to my pastor preach Sunday; the thought of how completely Jesus stood in as our substitute. He was the perfect sacrifice, because He wasn't lacking in any way. So, no matter how vile the sinner; Christ was able to go and pay the price for their sins. More to the point, no matter how vile I am; Christ was able to pay for my every sin on the cross, completely. It just reminds me that He is the Author and Finisher of our faith.
In all of this, I find that this is the kind of work that we need to do for our Lord: complete. What ever you do in service to God, give it everything that you have; because that is exactly what Jesus did on our behalf. Paul told Timothy that the time of his earthly departure was at hand, and that he was bing poured out as a drink offering; and he then tells him that he has fought a good fight, finished his course and that he had kept the faith. (That's a good three point sermon: 1. Fight a good fight 2. Finish your course 3. Keep the faith.) What Paul is telling him is that his life has been poured out in service to God, and that he didn't miss a thing. Jim Elliot said this, "Live to the hilt, every moment that you know is in the will of God." Live completely, in every sense of the word, in service to God.

Good to be back

The rule of thumb is when you fall off a horse, and I have, you dust yourself off and get back on. Well, I'm getting back on track. I made it to Wednesday night service, with no problems. It was such a blessing to be back. I have a hard time putting into words the things that I miss, when I miss church, not that I make a habit of it. It is being in fellowship with God and His people; it restores what the world takes out of me.
People who say that they can worship God just as well sitting at home are just flat out lying. Not only does Scripture refute this, what they actually mean is that they know the way they are living is wrong, and they don't want the conviction they feel the minute they walk through the door of a church. I've seen people like this from time to time when preaching. They cry from the minute I say, "Open your Bibles to..." all the way through to the invitation. For all of their tears, I haven't seen any of them make any kind of commitment to God. It may be ugly to say so, but sometimes the truth is ugly.
Not sure, how I got off on that tangent, but I'll stand by it. Though I hope you will also take this with you: It is good to be in church, being in fellowship with God and His people.

I woke up on the wrong day

Amidst all of the things that are continually on my mind, occasionally a detail or two gets lost; like what day it actually is. It's hard to perpetuate a brilliant persona, when you lose track of details that are clearly displayed on your phone (which you look at ten times a day.) Anyways, it happened. While the rest of the world moved on to Saturday, I decided to repeat Friday; so when "Saturday" roled around I thought I would sleep in.
I spent all week preparing a Sunday School lesson (since I teach the adult class.) I was ready to go, with one big exception. I never thought that I would need to make a New Year's resolution to remember what day it was. Needless to say, it is completely embarrassing to miss a class that you teach, and morning worship to boot. So, if you're keeping score, my new year is off to a bumpy start. Pray for me, I definitely need it.

Adaptability

Last night I went to the grocery store. I wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I needed to get jelly, but while I was at the store, I forgot that I finished off the bread at breakfast. So, when I got home I had peanut butter and jelly; and no bread. It was about twelve degrees last night, so going back out wasn't an option. I had to figure out what I was going to do, because I had my heart set on a pb&j. I remembered that I saw a recipe in a cookbook for crackers. It was simple and only had four ingredients: flour, butter, salt and water. So, I mixed them up, rolled them out and baked them; and twenty minutes later, I was enjoying peanut butter and jelly on homemade crackers. And they were better than any store bought cracker I have ever had. You see, when enough things don't turn out the way you think they will: you learn to adapt. On top of that, had I remember the bread, I wouldn't have had the best crackers I ever had. God is good.

P. S.
I bet you thought I wouldn't include the recipe. Enjoy!

1 cup of flour
2 tablespoons of butter (use the real thing.)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 cup of water

Mix the butter into the flour and salt, and then slowly add the water until it doesn't stick to anything. Roll it out as thin as you can, about an 1/8 inch. Place on a lightly floured cookie sheet, pre-cut them with a pizza cutter (you could also dock them with a fork) and bake at 400 for about 15 minutes.

Upside down

Do you ever feel like things are upside down? Sometimes, I feel that way. The fact is things just aren't the way things are supposed to be. That's why Alexander Hamilton said, "You deal with things the way they are, and not the way that they are supposed to be." Well, sometimes the going gets a little harder than we think it should be. Take heart, it is not always going to be this way. Psalm 57:1 says:
Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me!
For my soul trusts in You;
And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge,
Until these calamities have passed by.
The best thing to do when the storms start to howl is to find a safe place to wait out the storm. What better place than in the shadow of His wings? Take refuge in God, and rely on His strength. Deal with the world the way it is, and know that eventually the sun will shine again. God bless you and keep you.

Not the way I expected . . .

Today was a good day. I've known that I was going to preach this morning for about two weeks. I wrote a sermon, made sure I had plenty of gas and made sure that I had time to get everything ready for this morning. Well, you all know about my on going love affair with "Bessy" (my truck.) This morning I left and made it about a third of the way to church, and then Bessy overheated. I pulled over and waited and waited and waited for it to cool off. Missed Sunday School entirely, and for a while thought that I would be missing church. In spite of all of my preparations, once again, things didn't turn out the way I thought they would. But, my pastor called just after Sunday School, and I was picked up for church and was able to preach my sermon. Not the way I expected, but things worked out just fine. God is good and remain ever grateful.

How do I get there from here?

I once heard Sidney Poitier (amazingly I spelled it right) in a radio interview. The interviewer asked him about possibly returning to one or more of the projects from his younger days. I don't know why it stuck with me, but he very quickly said, "Young lady, I have no wish to go back over ground that I have already covered." I have found that as I get older, I agree with him. You see, all the trials and tribulations of my life so far; have made me the person that I am today. Things that I thought I would never live through, it turns out, has prepared me for what I face today or will face tomorrow. I've made decisions that haven't always made sense to the people around me, but I'm okay with that. I'm walking my road, not theirs. So, what am I getting at?

I want to pastor a church, and I am saying this so that you can pray for me. I have spent time at seminary learning how to interpret the Bible, and although it has been a number of years since then, God has continued the work in me that started long before then. There are somethings, that you just can not learn in a classroom. So, there it is, if you are wondering what Bryan is going to be when he grows up: it's not going to be a butcher, a baker or even a candlestick maker. I am a preacher. As to what kind of work I will be called to and when . . . if God is willing, He knows exactly how I will get there from here.