A Beautiful Mouth

“Your teeth are as white as sheep, recently shorn and freshly washed. Your smile is flawless, each tooth matched with its twin.” Song of Songs 4:2 (NLT)It seems rotten and missing teeth have never been considered beautiful, even 3000 years ago beautiful white teeth were highly valued; a bride did not want to have any missing teeth. Of course our culture has taken it to a whole new level, far beyond diligently brushing, flossing, and rinsing with mouthwash. Multitudes of kids and many adults suffer through braces, retainers, expanders, rubber bands, globs of wax, and various other contraptions and procedures. It is not enough to have healthy teeth, they also have to be perfectly straight and perfectly white. So what comes out of a tube of tooth paste does far more than clean, it also dispenses fluoride, breath freshener, whitening agents, peroxide, and even sparklers. However, beautiful teeth and a great smile do not make for a beautiful mouth.I was lucky; my teeth were fairly straight except for a small overbite. This got me a retainer I had to use for some years to expand my upper jaw, which it did beautifully. Then my wisdom teeth started to come in and shift things around until I had them pulled. My older brother had bigger issues but he hardly ever wore his contraptions (he thought they interfered in the girlfriend department) so the orthodontist kicked him out of the program and his teeth never did get straightened out. However, he did end up with a beautiful mouth.So how did my older brother, how can you and I end up with a beautiful mouth?

1. Know God’s definition of a beautiful mouth: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” Ephesians 4:29 (ESV).                                                                      “Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone” Colossians 4:6 (NLT).
2. Deal with and clean up what operates your mouth – you heart: “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks” Luke 6:45 (NIV).
3. Daily brush, floss, and use mouthwash on anything that corrodes: “But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth” Colossians 3:8 (ESV).
4. Talk to who you need to talk to instead of everybody else: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother” Matthew 18:15 (ESV).                                                             “Argue your case with your neighbor himself, and do not reveal another’s secret, lest he who hears you bring shame upon you, and your ill repute have no end” Proverbs 25:9-10 (ESV).
5.  Don’t participate in gossip with neither your ears nor your mouth: “The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man's inmost parts. Like a coating of glaze over earthenware are fervent lips with an evil heart. A malicious man disguises himself with his lips, but in his heart he harbors deceit. Though his speech is charming, do not believe him, for seven abominations fill his heart” Proverbs 26:22-25 (NIV).                       “A gossip goes around telling secrets, so don’t associate with a gossip, with a person who talks too much” Proverbs 20:19.
6. Speak truth, it is the best breath freshener and teeth whitener: “Do not let kindness and truth leave you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart” Proverbs 3:3 (NASB).                                                                                                           “Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body” Ephesians 4:24-25 (NLT)

So do you have a beautiful mouth? Is what comes out of it refreshing? Can others trust what you say? If someone were to point out beautiful mouths would yours be among them? If God’s the groom and you are the bride, how would he describe your mouth?To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans   

Grow Up

Our dogs have it made, at the productivity level of around 0%, they still get full benefits, tenure, unlimited time off, plus free food, free rent, free just about everything, all for occasionally looking cute, doing something dogish we can laugh about, going for an occasional walk, and welcoming/harassing the UPS man or whoever happens to drive up. They even get a free burial at the end of their days. I have to hand it to them though, they do know how not to mess up a good thing.What’s cute and acceptable among dogs does not, and should not translate to people. We are meant to grow up, to contribute, to take on responsibilities, to be productive. Being a baby when you are baby is very cute, but being a baby at 15, 25, 35, 45 is anything but cute. A toddler is supposed to be a toddler and it is okay for them to do toddlerish things and have a productivity level of around 0%, but it is ridiculous for an adult. You expect for kids to do the kind of things where you say, “What in the world were you thinking?” to which they will reply, “I don’t know,” and it will be true because they were absolutely not thinking (and many times you have to keep yourself from busting up laughing). This, however, does not fly for an adult, not thinking is inexcusable, as is being stupid and doing stupid things. For a young teenager to continually test the limits and to come up with half-baked excuses is halfway normal, but if he or she doesn’t grow out of it, it is anything but normal, but growing up is, becoming responsible is. There is a time to be baby, to be a toddler, to be a kid, to be a teenager, but then there is a time to be grown up, to be mature.I admit, being grown up is not all it is cracked up to be, it entails a whole lot of hard work, it has just about 0% of room to live a dog’s life or any other kind of life. But if you have kids they will appreciate it, so will your coworkers, your bosses, your neighbors, your parents, your friends, and your community.God’s word, the Bible, never encourages immaturity, irresponsibility, and laziness, no matter how it tries to excuse itself or how cute and funny it tries to present itself. Even to the church, the family of God, which has a responsibility to love and care for the needy, God through the Apostle wrote, “Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: ‘Those unwilling to work will not get to eat.’ Yet we hear that some of you are living idle lives, refusing to work and meddling in other people’s business. We command such people and urge them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and work to earn their own living. As for the rest of you, dear brothers and sisters, never get tired of doing good”2 Thessalonians 3:10-13 (NLT). To the Ephesians church he wrote, “God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love” Ephesians 4:15-16 (MSG).Can you be mature, responsible, productive, and be young at heart, not lose your sense of humor, not act old and grumpy, be full of love, and be a source of delight to others? The answer is, absolutely, just imitate God.To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans    

Leave Something Good

“A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children” Proverbs 13:22a (NASB)We are going to leave something to our kids, it is not a matter of if but of what. Leaving them something good and worthwhile requires we recognize how important that is and the determination to do something about it, that in turn requires the determination to be good ourselves because we usually produce what we are, or as Jesus put it, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him” Matthew 12:35 (NIV). It is tough to hear it that bluntly, isn’t it? So what will your children inherit? Not just financially but culturally, ethically, intellectually, and spiritually? Are we passing an inheritance of blessing, of how to think, how to be, how to act, how to care, and how to worship?Good doesn’t just happen; you have to work on good. Ordinary, mediocre, messes just happen, but good takes concentrated and sustained effort. You have to want good, practice good; excellence and blessing rarely just happen. You only get an inheritance if someone didn’t spend it all, if someone was smart, if someone saved, if someone cared enough to pass something on. To a good man/woman that’s important, to good parents and grandparents that’s important.To be good, to do good, to pass good things on you have to know what is good, good has a definition. Good was good before we came along and good will still be good after we are gone. Good is not arbitrary, it is constant, it is eternal, it finds its roots in the reality and truth of God. We, the parents, the grandparents, our children, and grandchildren have the ability to alter the meaning of good (which far too often renders good no good) but ultimately we will be held accountable to God’s definition of good. Thus the wise man, the wise woman, wise parents will be careful to pass on a spiritual inheritance even more than a material inheritance. Our kids are not blessed if they are rich and godless, if they are wealthy and wicked, if they have the “good” life but are immoral, if they have opportunity but don’t perceive it as a means to care about others and to glorify God.A good and sizeable inheritance enables, it gives future generations a head start, that’s why good men and women work on leaving one to their children and grandchildren. This is why we should care about politics, the national debt, justice, hatred and bigotry regardless which flag it hides behind, violence, education, personal responsibility, wickedness, freedom, education, values, morality, and our responsibility before and accountability to God.“Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord” Ephesians 6:4 (NIV)."For what does it profit a man (woman, child, son, daughter, grandson, or granddaughter) to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?” Mark 8:36 (NASB). Let’s leave our children and grandchildren an awesome inheritance, one that God would applaud.To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans 

Life-time Warranty

The kitchen faucet was leaking. It shouldn’t do that after only 10 years, don’t you agree. After several short-lived attempts of fixing the problem I faintly recalled that said faucet had a life-time warranty. So I looked in the file drawer where we keep manuals and warranties and sure enough there it was, a life-time warranty with the original receipt, and that’s when the fun began.Actually fun is entirely the wrong word, more like run-around, frustration, “you’ve got to be kidding me.” The first live person, after navigating the automated menu which supposedly is to make things easier, informed me that there was no such thing as a life-time warranty. I read her what was printed on my life-time warranty, only to be accused of making it up. I figured this would be a good time to ask for someone with more authority and tact. This request got me thrown back into the automated menu which ultimately disconnected me.The next live customer service representative did take down my personal information but didn’t think that she could help me. She was, however, willing to connect me to someone who might be able to help. This put me on hold where I was forced to listen to some really bad music, until I got disconnected.The next customer service rep did confirm that my personal information was in the system and managed to connect me to said person with higher authority. The higher authority informed me that they did indeed did not have life-time warranties on my faucet, so I read from my printed warranty. He was unwilling to take my word and but would consider my claim if I would send in the original warranty and receipt. I informed him that I would not send in the originals because I wanted to hang on to my warranty for the future and that I would gladly fax him copies. He wouldn’t budge, so I thought that this would be a good time to ask to speak to someone with more authority than him. He didn’t like that idea, and I found myself on hold listening to more bad music. After a while he came back on to inform me that copies were okay but to not get my hopes up. I told him that my hopes were not anywhere near being up but that I thought life-time should mean just that. He thought that at 10 years I pretty much got my money’s worth. I obviously disagreed. A few weeks later I installed a new faucet.My garden hose reel broke, having learned from the past, I checked whether it had a warranty, it did, and life-time at that. I called the phone number, “no longer in service.” Took it to the store where I bought it and found out that the company went out of business and that my warranty was worthless. (To that store’s credit they did give me a new reel because they wanted me to know that they stood behind what they sold).I know of only one whose guarantees are hassle free and eternal (which is a significant upgrade from life-time). God’s word, God’s principles, and God’s promises are rock solid, they are as good and trustworthy today as they will be 100 or 10,000 years from now. And they cover things much more significant than faucets, roofs, power-trains, and such. They cover matters of the soul, of destiny, of salvation, of blessing, of conscience, of happiness, and of success.Warranties are great when things break but God’s word and promises hold guarantees that are not only good when things brake but keep things from braking in first place. But don’t take my word on it, read and rely on the Bible (God’s written word) for yourself “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ… Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall” 2 Peter 1:3-8, 10 (NIV).To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans  

Trusting God

I am sitting on the balcony of my brother’s third floor apartment on the Westside of Stuttgart. It’s early Sunday morning and few people are up and at it, which is not the case for the swallows circling over the courtyard busy catching breakfast. I am reminded of, “Look at the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they?” Matthew 6:26 (HCSB).Matthew 6:19-34 (Can I encourage you to get out a Bible and read that passage before you go on reading this pastor’s note) is about wealth, masters, worry, anxiety, and trust. Whom or what we trust has a big impact on our worries, our anxiety levels, our attitude toward and the handling of wealth, and who or what our master is. Jesus is saying, “You can trust God, the birds do, the lilies of the field do, so why not you?” Maybe you’re objecting because after all we’re not birds. None of those swallows checked on their investments last week, none of them had bills to pay on the first, they don’t have a boss, or job, or career to worry about, they’ve got it easy. Yes, all of that is true, but like you and me they do need to eat and drink every day, they have young ones to raise, and all kinds of things beyond their control affect the circumstances and wellbeing of their lives. Yes, they do not have human capacities, but they are like you and me creations of God, they like you and me have life, today, and if God wills tomorrow because God has granted it.We are more prone to trust in money, it can do so much, but it is never free of worry. Before you know it is your master, it will dictate your decisions, your attitudes, the very issues of your heart.We are prone to worry, to be anxious, so much is beyond our control and life is so precarious. Before you know it worry is your master, it will influence your decisions, your attitudes, your outlook, and the very condition of your heart and mind.Only God is completely trustworthy and completely able all of the time. It might seem strange to totally trust in someone you cannot see. But if you and I could see him he would be far too small to trust him with all we have and are. We yearn for God’s immanence but it is transcendence that displays his greatness, that invites us to trust in him and no other. He doesn’t just feed the few swallows in my field of vision, no, he feeds them all, all over the world, every day. He commands the universe and all that lies beyond space and time. It is He, Creator, God Almighty, omniscient, all-wise, holy, awesome, present everywhere, whom Jesus encourages us to trust. It is when we trust the Almighty instead of our wealth, when we rest in his control of things and not our capacity to figure it all out, when we “seek his kingdom and righteousness” (verse 33) that we experience the closeness, the nearness, the immanence of God along with peace, true riches, and life.All of this is not just fancy preacher talk, it is a promise of God, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need” Matthew 6:33 (NLT).Is it time look at the birds of the air? To take a look at whom or in what you trust? To examine why and what you worry about? To seek the master of the birds? To really rust God? To live according to his promises? – Jesus clearly thinks so.To God be all glory. Love you Pastor Hans   

The Author of Liberty

Why are the nations so angry? Why do they waste their time with futile plans?The kings of the earth prepare for battle; the rulers plot together against the LORD and against his anointed one. “Let us break their chains,” they cry, “and free ourselves from slavery to God.” But the one who rules in heaven laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. Psalm 2:1-4 (NLT)Independence, freedom from tyranny, liberty, free to do as you please, free to believe what you want to believe, free to be who you want to be, free to go where you want to go, and do what you want to do. The anarchist wants no laws, the atheist wants no gods, the capitalist wants no restraints, the communist wants no inequalities, the fundamentalist wants conformity, the activist wants change, the _____ wants _____. No shortage of wants, and the more people want what I want the greater the chance that I will get what I want to get at someone else’s expense. Freedom and independence is wrought with conflict.Everyone who loves independence, liberty, and freedom should be in awe of God. He alone knows true independence, complete liberty, and uncorrupted freedom. We can learn more about liberty from him than from anyone else, and yet by and large and throughout human history he has been thought of as the greatest obstacle to true freedom, “Let us break the chains of God and his anointed, Jesus Christ.” Or God is highjacked for some religious tyranny, for someone’s particular definition of freedom, to bring about what someone wants. Neither is interested in learning from God.Don’t bring God into school or to the university, he’ll adversely affect academic freedom. Don’t bring God into politics he’ll infringe on all kinds of liberties. Don’t bring God into art and literature he will stifle artistic expression. Don’t mix God with business that will mess with the bottom line. Don’t bring God into discussion of morality that will introduce limitations and absolutes. Don’t let God into your free time, night life, and high life, he will hurt the fun. Don’t include God in your plans you might have to change them. Keep God out of your conscience he’ll make you feel guilt. What we need most is God off our backs, out of our minds; we are better freed from God. Right?Striving for freedom from God, declaring independence from God, denying the existence of God does not bring us into the promised land of ultimate freedom, it accomplishes the exact opposite, it propels us into the wastelands of human depravity. The notion of liberating yourself from God is both the greatest form of self-deception and the ultimate expression of hubris. Real liberty is not about the escape from reality but the opportunity to live better in reality. Real liberty is not about freedom from responsibility and accountability but the awareness that our lives count. Real independence is not about indulgence but about service to my neighbor, my country, the world, and above all God. You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law (of God) is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself" Galatians 5:13-14 (NIV, parenthesis mine).If we are to get independence, liberty, and freedom right we cannot define it and pursue it in a way God laughs at. No, we must do so in a way that acknowledges him as the author, protector, authority, perfect example of independence, liberty, and freedom.To God be all glory, Pastor Hans     

The Cardboard Box

I don’t know how the small cardboard box ended up at the youth yard sale raising money for camp, but it did. Cristy brought it to the office; it was leaking ashes, someone’s ashes. No urn, no burial, not even a deliberate sprinkling of the ashes at some meaningful or beautiful spot. They just got picked up in the standard box, were stashed somewhere, and finally where scooped up with a bunch of other no longer wanted stuff and taken to the yard sale at the church. No takers though, some stranger’s ashes are not what people are looking for.What a contrast it was to Lodgie’s memorial service held in our church’s sanctuary while the yard sale wrapped up in the parking lot. People came from far and wide, wept, gave glowing eulogies, played beautiful music, sang their hearts out, gave praise and glory to God for her life, her influence, her contribution, and her love. Brought together by her death they lingered long afterwards to reminisce, to remember, to comfort each other. There was no obscurity here, no carelessness, to Lodgie’s family and to us our church family that would have been unthinkable, she was too precious, too valuable, too much of a blessing.I knew Lodgie. I have nothing but speculation about the individual in the cardboard box. However, I think the chances of your remains ending up in a dusty, uncared for, standard box at a yard sale are greatly diminished if you live a life that pleases and honors God. We reap what we sow, “Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith” Galatians 6:7-10 (NLT).Death, our mortality, should cause us to think, should cause us to make better, wiser, and eternally significant choices, “A good reputation is more valuable than costly perfume. And the day you die is better than the day you are born. Better to spend your time at funerals than at parties. After all, everyone dies— so the living should take this to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for sadness has a refining influence on us. A wise person thinks a lot about death, while a fool thinks only about having a good time” Ecclesiastes 7:1-4 (NLT). I don’t think the family of the person in the cardboard box heeded the advice Solomon, it might have been because of what s/he did or did not sow, but we really don’t know. What we do know is that you and I have limited time to do good, to love, to bless, to please and honor God, and then we face the reality of Hebrews 9:27-28, “Just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ died once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him” (NLT). Where and how we end up depends on our choices, whose wisdom we follow, and whose power we trust. Lodgie left no doubt, the person whose ashes were in the cardboard box at the youth yard sale, who knows. I know where and how I want to end up, that’s why I trust and follow Jesus Christ.To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans  

Dad - Don't - Do

For as long as have had the awesome, God-given, privilege of being a Dad I have wondered about the best things a Dad can do for his kids. My motivation was that I did not want to screw up, hurt, or negatively impact the lives of the children entrusted to Susie and me, instead I wanted to be a source of blessing, a contributor to my children’s success, a source of joy, and an example of wisdom, integrity, faith, and godliness. Thus I have observed, picked the brains of Dad’s I admired, read books, contemplated, attended seminars, and studied the God’s word (the Bible). Here are a few things I have learned:Don’t

• Be stupid. Stupid is never funny, kid’s pay a high price for parental stupidity.
• Be absent. You can never be a good Dad if you don’t show up.
• Be drunk, high, or addicted, unless you want to curse your children.
• Be violent or abusive. A strong and good man does not hurt or abuse his children.
• Be a jerk, you’ll make your children angry.
• Think that giving your kids stuff will make anything.
• Live your dreams through your kids.
• Chase the American dream, have a kingdom of God dreams instead.
• Break your word or lie. Let your children be able to trust what you say.
• Sin, sin is always corrosive and destructive. And if you sin do don’t cover it up but quick to repent.

Do

• Get involved in your children’s lives, you they will be the richer for it.
• Show your love in as many ways as you can. There is safety in love.
• Affirm your kids in who they are, help them to be all that God has made them to be.
• Laugh, have a great sense of humor. If your kids make fun of us in front of us they’re not afraid of us. This will also help in not making mountains out of mole hills.
• Have a plan, a clear picture of what you want your kids to be like. Great parents don’t leave things up to chance.
• Have standards when it comes to conduct, character, courage, commitment, chores, community, charity, quality (working hard and doing things right), compromise, and compassion. Make sure you model them or it will be a tough sell.
• Love their Mom, openly, constantly, and beautifully. It sets a tone. It exposes your kids to something rare and precious, it will also undermine their efforts to divide and conquer.
• Earn and require respect. Respecting Mom, siblings, other people (even those who you don’t like or disagree with) is not an option.
• Make room for expressing anger, but never let anger be expressed in sinful ways. This means you have to be really good at it yourself.
• Apologize when you messed up. Eat crow when you need to. Model how to take responsibility and not make excuses.
• Encourage your kids to dream, to try things, to not be afraid of failure.
• Use your mouth to bless your kids, to sow good things into their hearts and minds, to cheer, to encourage, to be kind, to build up, to be straight forward, to set a beautiful tone in your home and your relationship with them.
• Love all the things God loves: Jesus Christ, people, the church, the Bible, generosity, justice, compassion, creation, doing good, sinners being found, worship, praise, blessing others.
• Pray yourself, as a family, with their Mom, with others. Pray constantly, pray bold, pray with your mind and heart engaged. Ask for big and important things regarding your children and family. Pray beyond everything to merely be smooth and effortless in your children’s lives.
• Strive to be consistent in your conduct, discipline, and behavior.
• Shoot for being the godliest Dad you could possibly be, for your kid’s to be able to call you a man of God.

 Ancient King David is near the end of his life. He is busy organizing everything so his son Solomon is set up for success, and then David prays, “Give my son Solomon the wholehearted desire to obey all your commands, laws, and decrees, and to do everything necessary to build this Temple, for which I have made these preparations” 1 Chronicles 29:19 (NLT).To God be all glory. Happy Fathers’ Day, Pastor Hans 

What a Wonderful Change

“What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought, since Jesus came into my heart,” is what Rufus H. McDaniel penned. He restated what is true of everyone who opens his heart to Jesus Christ and follows him. “Later, as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him. Later, Levi held a banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor. Many of Levi’s fellow tax collectors and other guests also ate with them. But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus’ disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with such scum?” Jesus answered them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent” Luke 5:27-32 (NLT).Levi had traded one form emptiness for another, he had left the morally bankrupt form of Judaism that he grew up in for the morally, though vastly more lucrative, empty world of tax collecting. And he couldn’t point fingers, although he probably did, it does deceive and ease the conscience when you can indict someone else’s corruption, failure, and sin. I it also leaves empty.He had his own booth, he wasn’t sitting in someone else’s booth. He was in charge here, we like to be in charge. But how much was he really in charge of? More than some, and not much in the big scheme of things. We are good at forgetting how little we are in charge of.Wonder what Levi was listening to there in his own tax booth? Conservative talk? Probably not. Liberal talk? Maybe. Religious stations? Nah. Jewish country music? Roman rock? Classical from the time of David? Whatever he listened to it wasn’t along the lines Rufus H. McDaniel penned.He wanted change, he needed change. Chucking God was not the answer, great money wasn’t either, godlessness and the love of money don’t just leave you empty, they suck you into the darkness of evil. It wasn’t just that others were dishonest, he was too. It wasn’t just others who were self-righteous he was too.Then Jesus, the one who is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), walked by his tax booth. Levi had heard about what he did earlier that that, healing a paralytic, forgiving his sins. Now he was standing at the counter of his tax office, looking him straight into the eye and invited him to follow him.How long did it take for Levi to make up his mind? Not long. How long is it going to take you reading this p-note to make your mind? Levi got out his keys, put the money in the safe, locked the front door and followed Christ. He was changed right there, in that moment of making up his mind that and stepping out in faith to follow Christ he was changed, though not finished. I wonder if he would have agreed with Rufus H. McDaniel’s words? Undoubtedly.He couldn’t wait to introduce all of his tax collecting buddies and the people he cared about to Christ. So he invited them and Jesus to his house, they needed him as much as he did? That’s what happens when Jesus changes you; it’s too good to keep to yourself. You can hoard money, you won’t hoard Christ once he looked you in the eye and you took him up on his invitation to follow him, when he has forgiven your sins, when he reconciles you with God, and when he imparts to you new and eternal life. Levi had not been physically ill, but he was spiritually dead, like all of us, and “a wonderful change in his life had been wrought when Jesus cam into his heart!”I hope this true of you as well.To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans  

Love Your Enemies

"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Matthew 5:43-45 (NIV)Who do you consider the enemy? Who are your enemies? Who do you treat like, talk about, and emotionally react to like they are the enemy, your enemy? Is it the terrorists, the jihadists, Muslims in general, illegal immigrants, gays, LBGTQs (Lesbians, Gays, Transgender, Queer), the politically conservative, the politically liberals, the religious, the atheist and humanists, the theologically conservatives, the theologically liberal, the rich, the poor, those that hurt you, cheated you, abused you, mistreated you?Can’t we hate them, dehumanize them, ridicule them, belittle them, seek their demise and destruction? Can’t we just join the choir that loves singing imprecatory psalms like: "Let death take my enemies by surprise; let them go down alive to the grave"(Psalm 55:15). "O God, break the teeth in their mouths"(Psalm 58:6)."May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous" (Psalm 69:28)."May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow"(Psalm 109:9). "How blessed will be the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks" (Psalm 137:9). Can’t we at least not care to what happens to our enemies?Whomever we regard as our enemy, whomever we talk about, treat, and emotionally react to like they are an enemy, there is a Christlike standard that applies. If our attitudes, words, and action do not reflect love, mercy, doing good, and prayers that seek more than vengeance and demise, then we are still far from Christlikeness.You have to figure it out, that “love your enemy” mandate, it is not easy, it puts responsibilities on us that we don’t really want. It just might make us struggle more than our enemy. Hatred does not care about restraint but love does. Hatred does not care about its object, love does.So how lax are our attitudes, how lose are our lips, how missing are our actions, how empty are our prayers, and how cold are our hearts when it comes to our enemies or those who talk about, treat like, and emotionally respond to like our enemies? Are we sticking with the “You have heard that it was said,” with what’s the norm, with what is accepted and practiced the world over, or are we fully embracing the teaching of Christ and dare to walk in his footsteps?"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” Luke 6:27-36 (NIV).To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans     

A Finger in the Flab

 “Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives’ tales. Instead, train yourself to be godly. Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” 1 Timothy 4:7-8 (NLT)Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2 (NLT)There is a good chance you won’t like this pastor’s-note (p-note) very much, it sticks a finger into your flab. Most of us are much more familiar with abundant flab than with tight buttocks or abs. We know we should, we know we could, and we know we’d be better off if we would, but we don’t, and we won’t and the result is flab, weakness, illness, ungodliness.Flab does not surrender easily, it is relentless, it keeps coming back. So you have to work to get rid of it and you have to work to keep it away. To win against flab you got embrace ugly words: discipline, exercise, daily, good habits, commitment, pushing yourself, denying yourself. That’s why we look for alternatives, the two minute exercise routine that will offset even the biggest burger and fries, the exercise machine that will overcome gallons of soda, the pill that will make you skinny, fix the diabetes, and gets rid of wrinkles, the electronic gadget that will give you muscles while sitting in your easy chair. Collectively we spend millions trying to bypass the ugly words, we keep listening to the lies of the flab while getting flabbier still.Our guts, chins, thighs, and butts are not the only things that can get flabby. We can be mentally flabby, spiritually flabby. Dare we, in just one pastor’s note, to stick a finger in that flab too? Let’s. Same aversion to dirty words: discipline, exercise, good habits, commitment, pushing yourself, denying yourself. Same search for a magical and quick fix. Same result, more, abiding, limiting, useless, ungodly flab.I hate to say it, but a p-note a week will not make you spiritually strong. P-notes make for great for great flab-pokers, but if you want to get rid of the flab at some point you have to embrace discipline, daily exercise, good spiritual habits, lifelong commitment, pushing yourself, denying yourself. The amount of flab or lack thereof is in direct proportion to how much you embrace the words flab considers dirty, useless, obsolete, and threatening.Both fit body and a sharp mind are enabling, the same is true about godliness. In fact God makes it clear that the most important thing to exercise, to keep from being flabby is godliness. You can get your body-fat down to 2 % and be a mean self-centered person. You can be sharp as a tack mentally and be proud and arrogant. You can be fit and sharp and be utterly godless. But if we train ourselves in godliness we will deal will gluttony, we won’t stay ignorant, and we will deal with hubris. Godliness benefits the entire person but never to selfish ends.Before I remove my finger from the flab, let me ask you, “How flabby are you? How flabby is your body? How flabby is your mind? And above all how flabby are you when it comes to godliness, to Christlikeness? And when will that change?”To God be all glory, Pastor HansP.S. I am aware this p-note could easily be understood in our culture which is obsessed with youth and certain kind of ideal body image. The question is not who we are in comparison to others and certain cultural norms, but rather who we are in comparison to who God has made us and for what God has enabled us, namely to be men and women who worship him and Jesus Christ and who whose character and behavior is godly trough and through.,

Letting Go

Take a look at your hands and ask yourself, “How good am I of letting go.” Now pick up two things, one with your left hand and one with your right. Keep holding those two items as you go to the kitchen to make yourself a cup of tea or coffee. (Email me with the outcome of this exercise, dergermanshepherd@gmail.com).We hold onto things with more than just our hands, our minds and hearts know to grasp and not let go every bit as our hands, maybe even better. It doesn’t really matter what we use to hold on to something, as long as we hold on to one thing it limits us, or completely prevents us, from grasping or doing something else.My brother, who was a pain specialist, once told me that after a while our nerves will hold onto pain even if the source of the pain is removed. Have you ever had to pry your fingers off something you had hold onto for a long time? Letting go can be very hard, even painful, especially if we have held onto something for a very long time, if what we have held onto was very heavy, if what we have held onto is very important to us. I don’t want to hold onto things that will damage me, that will deform me, that will cause pain long after something is past, that will prevent me from laying hold of better things.“⌊My goal⌋ is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead. Not that I have already reached ⌊the goal⌋ or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus” Philippians 3:10-14 (HCSB).Real maturity and Christlikeness are impossible without knowing what to let go and what to hold onto. I hear the Apostle Paul saying, “I let go of everything that would prevent me grasping everything God, through Christ, has for me. So I have to learn to be good at letting go.”How good are you at letting go? What do need to let go? What “worries, wounds, wrongs, weaknesses, and wishes” (Eric Rees) do you need to let go?Before you finish this p-note can I encourage you to get a Bible, find Philippians and read both chapter 2 and 3 (or maybe all of it), then sit down, look at your hands again, and then have a conversation with God about what he would have let go of.To God be all glory, Pastor Hans 

Build Something Beautiful

“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock” Matthew 7:24 (NLT).My brothers and I put in some serious Lego playing time. We each had our own color, this way there was no confusion over whose Legos where whose. This required some serious negotiations when you ran out of pieces you needed. It’s the pits when a brother is in a strong negotiating position. It was even worse when negotiations broke down and war was declared, this meant all pieces previously acquired had to be returned, along with threats and curses, which meant having to disassemble whatever had been build, leaving us all sitting on the floor with piles of Lego rubble. My memories are filled with building awesome things together and Legos flying, returning them on the heels of failed negotiations was never accompanied by civility and kindness.When it comes to life I wish I had all the right pieces in all the right colors to build something beautiful that is not exposed to the claims, needs, or treachery of others. But even though life doesn’t hand us all the right pieces, we do build, each one of us, we are all building something. It was really irritating when one of my brothers build something and then let it just sit there for days, tying up pieces I needed. That’s how clandestine raiding started, or the challenge of taking pieces of something without disturbing the outside look of it so it would not be obvious. Life can be nasty.Legos don’t smell, but a lot of what life hands you stinks. Lego’s are designed to neatly interlock, life just hands you pieces, many of them broken, sharp, even awful. How are you supposed to build anything worthwhile with that? Legos don’t move on their own, the pieces of my life are constantly moving in ways I have no control over. Legos are expensive, so is life, in more than one way, it is astounding how much some things cost us.The Bible, God’s written word, doesn’t say a word about Legos, but it says all kinds of things about life and about building. It makes a difference what you build your life on, what you build with, how you acquire your materials, what you do with the broken and the stink, whose plans you follow, how you deal with the moving parts, and how you deal with the things that can bring it all down.The Corinthian church was a mess because they were acting like a bunch of Frei boys playing Legos. They had forgotten that they were supposed to build something beautiful, that in Christ and by the grace of God they were enabled to build something that glorifies God and blesses others. So the Apostle Paul gave them an earful, “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ. Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames” 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 (NLT).Have you made Christ your foundation? What are you building on it? Can what you build withstand the storms of life and the judgment of God? Does what you do with the pieces of your life glorify God and bless others?To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans  

Letting Go

Letting GoLying, cheating, dishonesty, deception, jealousy, malice, bitterness, revenge, anger, gossiping, evil, hate, greed, grief, ingratitude, entitlement, bad habits, stinginess, pessimism, lousy attitudes, laziness, immorality, godlessness, cynicism, gluttony, hedonism, bragging, arrogance, brutality, violence, unkindness, wasting, selfishness, carelessness, not caring, all forms of abuse, stealing, covetousness, ignorance, all sins, self-serving, hurtful speech, malingering, unforgiveness, drunkenness, addictions, disrespect, purposelessness, excuses, judgmentalism, destructive behaviors, betrayal, not taking responsibility, not being responsible, pride, ….You hold onto any of the above you will end up twisted, or torn, or fake, or disliked, or hated, or distrusted, or broken, or …. Think about it, how much hurt is wrapped up in the list you just read? How much pain, despair, and darkness? Why in the world do we hang on to things on that list? Why do we have such a difficult time letting go of what is so obviously wrong, to what is no good, to what does not contribute to make us or our world better?It is not for lack of trying, most of us have moments when we want to change for the better. Have you ever walked away after watching an inspiring movie, or after finishing an inspiring book, maybe even after hearing an inspiring sermon, and felt like you too could do something heroic, you too could rise above your hurts, your chains, your limitations. But then there comes the next morning and you awake to your daily grind, to your unchanged self, to the realization that this stuff is a whole lot easier in movies, books, and sermons than it is everyday life. How quickly euphoria, moments of tender conscience, flickers of hope fade. “I should,” “I want to,” does not easily translate into “I did.” Especially when it comes to addressing the things we should let go of and the root of why we have such a hard time letting go of what is sinful, destructive, and painful, and exchange it for what is godly, good, and blessing.Why has humanity throughout all of its history hung on to the list on top of this pastor’s note? Why do you and hang on to items on that list when it is anything but in our best interest? The answer is not merely physiological or psychological, it is above all spiritual, theological. Unfortunately in the minds of many the spiritual/theological has been reduced to the subjective, the experiential, and the sociological. This has the effect of spiritual/theological having no real significance in regard to truth, to what is real. Well, what is real is that humanity, including you and me, is sinful at its core, “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23) is the clear revelation and verdict of word of God. We do not necessarily like that, but we cannot escape the truth. Nor do we like the truth that we cannot escape our sinfulness, our depravity on our own, we are “by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3), meaning our very nature makes us objects of God’s judgment. The good news is that when the Apostle Paul writes to the Ephesian believers he does not write “you are” but rather “you were by nature children of wrath.”A sinner will hold on to all the wrong things. A sinner will be held onto by all the wrong things. We do not possess the righteousness and the power to change that, to let go of all we need to let go, for that we need the grace of God in Christ. If we are serious about letting go we have address the root so the grace of God can freely work in our lives, to save us from God’s wrath and to change us for God’s works. The grace of God is sufficient to both save and change a sinner, it is absolutely essential if we are serious about letting go.All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:3-10 (NIV)To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans

Don't waste it

“I testify that, on their own, according to their ability and beyond their ability” 2 Corinthians 8:3 (HCSB)Some time ago I read that in America 40% of all food ends up being wasted, and that is not counting all the food we eat but really shouldn’t.We are finding ourselves in the midst of a water crisis, our community could run out of water within a couple of months, so the watchword is, “Don’t waste the water!”We started consolidating our trips to town when gasoline went above $4.00 a gallon. We couldn’t afford to just waste gas.I don’t want to go on and on about waste, although I could add wasted time, wasted opportunities, and wasting our abilities.Paul thought the Macedonian believers were too poor to take part in the hunger relief project he was promoting. Obviously they didn’t think so, which is why he wrote to the Corinthian believers what you read at the top of this pastor’s note. The poor Macedonians implored, pleaded, begged (what irony) to let them participate, and then they stretched themselves “beyond their ability.” The Corinthians were the opposite, they had plenty of ability, but somehow they had to be motivated to not waste their ability and resources.You can’t waste what you don’t have, but each one of us has time, opportunities, resources, and abilities. All four of them are God-given, what we do with them says a lot about us, our priorities, our hearts. In Matthew 25 Jesus speaks about the judgment of God and in doing so tells what is known as the parable of the talents (talents were large sums of money). In the parable a wealthy master divides talents in unequal proportions to three of his servants, the criteria being “to each according to his ability.” After the talents are distributed the master leaves for a time, when he returns he expects each person to give an account. The first two doubled what had been entrusted to them; the third didn’t do anything with his. All three had time, opportunity, resources, and ability. The questions is whether or not we are using all four in way that pleases God, that advances his interests? Do we have the heart and vision to see how our resources and abilities can make a difference? Do we jump to it, or do we have to be prodded, or do we set aside any notion of accountability before God?We can get it right, we just can’t be wasters. The ultimate approval of how we went about life, what we did with our time, opportunities, resources, and abilities, will be when God says, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21, 23).To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans 

A Complaint Examination - When Spiritual Liberation Stalls

Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey. The people spoke against God and Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food." Numbers 21:4-5 (NASB)The new car smell was long gone and there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the car, it was in good shape, dependable, and most importantly - it was paid for. But he couldn’t count those blessings, all he could see was the miles on the odometer, the stains on the seats, the few scratches here and there, and all that it was missing compared to a new car. So finally he even convinced his wife with all his car negativity, surely a new car would bring relief and happiness. In fact it brought more stress, the payments and increased costs stretched the budget to the “constant worry” level. It didn’t take long for the negativity to return.“What were you thinking? Why did I ever go along with that? I loved the old car!” the wife accused.“Oh now it’s all my fault! I seem to remember you signing the papers too!” he snarled back, before storming out.The liberation of the ancient Israelites had slowed to an agonizing taxing crawl. They found themselves on another detour, this time a long march around the kingdom of Edom, which wouldn’t allow them to use the Kings Highway. It didn’t take long for their inclination towards pessimism to resurface. In their grumbling against and accusation of God and Moses they did what negative, complaining pessimist do – twist the facts.The facts were they had not died, they had not starved, nor had they run out of water. There was fresh food every morning and God had just supplied enough water from a rock for every person and all of their livestock. The truth was that they were on this detour because of their own dumb and faithless choices. They already would have been where God wanted them to be if they had trusted God more than their fears, if they had surrendered to God instead of their constant negativity, foolishness, and sinful ways.Lying to themselves was not enough. The clincher was their utter ungratefulness, “We loathe, despise, detest this miserable food.” What should have been a daily source of thanksgiving and praise was turned into a spoiled complaint and self-indictment. There was nothing wrong with the food, nor with God and Moses, their faithfulness, their goodness, and their patience was impeccable.Too many stall out with God, in following Jesus Christ. Not because there is anything wrong with God and Christ or because preachers are telling lies and mislead, but because somewhere along the journey of spiritual liberation in Christ there is a failure of faith followed by a twisting of the facts expressed in negativity and thanklessness. The Christian life, a life with God, is not just a quick moment of faith resulting in liberation from sin; it is also a lifelong devotion to faith on the journey. “So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. ‘For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay. And my righteous ones will live by faith. But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.’ But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved” Hebrews 10:35-39 (NLT). This is what the generation Moses led out of Egypt never learned. May you and I learn and be different.To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans    

Salad Bars, Smorgasbords, and Potlucks

Do you like salad bars? Smorgasbords? How about a good old-fashioned potluck? As a preacher I can do potlucks blindfolded, salad bars don’t get me too excited, and I don’t remember the last time I was at a smorgasbord, although I loved them when I was younger. You know the drill, get a plate, survey the offerings, and fill your plate with everything you love while bypassing the things you don’t like.Growing up my oldest brother loved it when my Mama asked him to dish everybody up. He knew exactly what each one of us didn’t like, so, accompanied with a stupid grin, he would heap our plates with the stuff we didn’t like while quoting the rule, “Was auf dah Tisch kommt wird gessa!” (What’s put on the table will be eaten).How do you approach God? Jesus Christ? Church? The Bible, God’s word? Are all three of them something you loved when you were younger but now you have developed a more discerning palate, a more selective taste when it comes to spiritual things? Do you get out your plate and fill it with all that you love while bypassing what’s not to your liking? Have you shifted to a different cuisine altogether?How do like God? Cuddly and warm? Spicy or just a tiny hint? Loving or just? As the main dish, or side dish, as a dip, or as “but hold the …?”Jesus Christ, do you consider him as a “got to have it,” or “I have to be in the mood,” or “yuck”?What about church? Only if you have to, when it gets scooped onto your plate whether you like or not, but preferably not? Are you the food critic every time you show up?“Oh the Bible, please only the sweet things in it?” “No, just the low calorie stuff, I hate that bloated feeling, some things take forever to digest.” “I have several food allergies, so I have to be very careful what I eat.”The truth is the living God cannot be dished out in portions to our liking, religion can be but God and Jesus Christ cannot. The truth is that my Mama was more like God than my oldest brother (sorry Michael). He delighted in making our lives miserable (he’s changed), she delighted in keeping us alive, in us being well fed, and seeing us grow. She didn’t just give us what we liked (although she often did), she gave us what we needed. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” Matthew 4:4 (ESV, emphasis mine). The truth is when you treat God, Jesus Christ, the church, and the Bible like a salad bar, smorgasbord, or potluck you end up with eclectic and empty spirituality, or with a flabby Christianity with plates full of what we like, yet far from what God and Christ would have us to be; or you become a mere critic of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ, and of his church, and of his word.Allow me to put something on your plate from the Bible, something not all that tasty, but something we need as we try to cope with barbarism, terrorism, evil, enemies, and hate, "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” Matthew 5:43-45 (NIV). “Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice” Proverbs 24:17 (NIV). “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” Romans 12:21 (NIV).To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans   

Don't Mix with Love

Some things don’t mix well, fire and gasoline , coffee and pickle juice, ants and a kitchen, war and peace, lies and a clear conscience, wisdom and foolishness, love and fear, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love” 1 John 4:18 (NIV). That’s why violence, abuse, uncontrolled anger, alcohol and drugs, cheating, lying, deceit, manipulation, selfishness, bitterness, and foolishness do not mix with romance, marriage, family, community, and a life with God.When you are constantly in fear of the other shoe dropping, when you are constantly walking on eggshells, when you are always ducking outwardly and inwardly, when you are in constant dread of embarrassment, when words no longer hold water, when it all can blow up any second, when things are constantly out of control, when you are way past the first time, when the not normal becomes normal, when trust is a foreign word, when deceit not surprising, when disappointment is expected, when addiction and abuse have moved in, then you will find imperfect, twisted, perverted, and sick love.Love is meant to beautiful, without fear, free of constant worry of it turning ugly. In the scripture quoted above the New King James Version uses the word “torment” instead of the “punishment.” Real love does not feel like torment, does not live in dread of torment, does not dish out torment. In fact where real love is growing, where real love is pursued fears are growing smaller and fewer, and torment is never a fit description.Our problem is that so many of us are all too familiar with the tormented, sick, twisted, manipulative, and hurtful ways masquerading as love. The sad thing is that we are prone to settle for and repeat that which we know. It is easy to be in and get caught up in this web of love gone wrong, sometimes of no fault of our own, sometimes because of our own decisions, often because of both.The good news is that God did not have the Apostles John and Paul (1 Corinthians 13:4-8) write about love in terms of mere definition or diagnosis. No, God had them write of what is possible, not just of what should or shouldn’t be, but of what can be. What may not be possible on our own is possible with God, “What is impossible for people is possible with God” Luke 18:27 (NLT). It is possible to walk with God and escape cycles and chains of the past. It is possible to walk with God and get out of darkness. It is possible to walk with God and learn from him how to love. It is possible to walk with God and grow in our capacity to love. It is possible!When it comes to loving perfectly I am far from what I want to be, but God has been helping me to grow, especially when it comes to love. I am committed to real love because I don’t like the alternatives, because it is and feels right, and because God “renews my life; He leads me along the right paths for His name’s sake” Psalm 23:3 (HCSB).This Valentines weekend, if nothing else, make a start, be broken and repent of your wrongs, especially in regard to love and those you should love. Address that which is broken and twisted, pour out the full measure of your fears, and then take the loving hand of God to learn love without fear.To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans   

With Liberty and Justice for All

If you fail under pressure, your strength is too small. Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to die; save them as they stagger to their death. Don’t excuse yourself by saying, “Look, we didn’t know.” For God understands all hearts, and he sees you. He who guards your soul knows you knew. He will repay all people as their actions deserve. Proverbs 24:10-12 (NLT)70 years ago, on January 27, Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration and extermination camp was liberated. 1.1 million people were murdered there, not because they had been convicted of some crime deserving death but because they did not fit Nazi ideology, and most of them because they were Jews. In order to pull of mass murder on that scale the Nazi leadership had brainwash, intimidate , and silence most all of Germany. Think about it, how else do you slaughter millions of human beings without any large scale opposition? How do you keep it out of the media? How do you manage to keep an entire country from crying out against it? It really is an old play book, cooked up in hell a long time ago.You have to have great slogans, “ARBEIT MACHT FREI” (work liberates) hung at the entrance of concentration camps. A little hard work never has harmed anybody, has it? “For God and country.” “Allahu Akbar” (God is the greatest). “A woman’s right to choose.” What fool would challenge God and patriotism? Who can deny that God is the greatest? Who doesn’t endorse the freedom to choose? Great slogans ease the conscience; mollify the urge to think for yourself. You want people to love the slogans regardless of the truth.You have to intimidate, sow fear to point that people are glad that what happens to others does not happen to them. You have to exploit what every kid learns on the school playground – to be afraid of being laughed at, being ostracized, to be called names, to be bullied, of being hurt. Terror works, fear is powerful. You have to be willing to belittle, shout down, embarrass, defame, lie, betray, hurt, and kill in the name of the cause. Sowing fear can’t worry about being clean, getting dirty, embracing violence, a “few” dispensable lives.You have to be good at stripping real people of their humanity. You want people to think that Jews are categorically bad, the infidels are bad, an unwanted unplanned baby is bad, as are liberals, conservatives, environmentalists, homosexuals and all of the LBGTQ crowd, fundamentalists, Christians, Muslims, atheists they are all bad. And it is okay to dislike bad, to hate bad. Getting rid of bad is not that bad of a thing, in fact it might even be good. The less bad people there are the better; you have to be completely out of touch to disagree with that. Bad also doesn’t deserve the same rights as good, does it? Bad and bad people are really more of an issue to be dealt with, personalizing only complicates things. It is much easier to deal with an issue like the issue of slavery, the issue of the Jews, the issue of abortion, the issue of the Middle East Conflict, the issue of Aids, of Ebola, hunger, injustice. Issues are far easier to deal with, they don’t stare you in the eye, issues don’t have beating hearts.On January 22, 1973 the US Supreme Court legalized abortion, since then 55,000,000 (55 million!) human beings have lost their lives through abortion in the United States alone. They have fallen victim to pills, solutions, suction machines, dismemberment, and the like. Where is the outrage, the disgust, the shame? There has not been one, not a single aborted child that was less than 100% human. There has not been one aborted child guilty or even accused of a crime. The reason they have been so easily and mercilessly killed is that they have been stripped of their humanity (How conditioned have we become to zygote, embryo, fetus as meaning something less than human). They have been called “mistakes,” “inconveniences,” “bad timing,” “accidents,” everything but what they really are – persons, human beings, living images of God. They have been deemed dispensable, we are better off without them than with them. They have been stripped of the most basic human rights and legal protection under the smoke screen of a woman’s right to choose. They have been made into issue to debate rather than people to love.O that there would be “liberty and justice for all.”To God be all glory, Pastor Hans

Living for what matters in the end

I am neither at the beginning nor am I at the end, somewhere past the middle I suppose, I hope. Our little grandson is at the beginning, hopefully a long way from the end, but this past year I was reminded that we might be closer to end regardless of far we think we are from the end.We just ended another year and find ourselves at the beginning of a new one. I, like you, had no idea what last year would hold, that’s true again for this year. We do know it will bring us 365 days closer to end, if the end does not arrive sooner. This year might also bring us closer to grief, to loss, or our dreams coming true, to success we have labored for, to love, to betrayal, to challenges we did not imagine, to incredible opportunities, we just don’t know. We do know the days of this year will pass no matter what, what will matter again is how you and I will fill those days, how you and I will react to what those days will bring, to what life throws at us.As the Bible, God’s written revelation, tells us about the beginning of humanity it lists men who lived for an incredibly long time but it singles out two, they did more than just live, Enoch an Noah walked with God (Genesis 5:22, 6:9). Life is more about how we live it than for how long we live it. We don’t know much about Enoch except that he walked with God and then one day God just took him from this temporal into the eternal. We get some more detail about Noah, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time (generation); Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9 NASB, parenthesis mine). That’s how God characterized him long before he told him to build the ark. What is even more astounding is that the generation Noah lived in is described as wicked to point of every thought and imagination being evil (Genesis 6:5).So as you and I are walking into a new year I hope we don’t spend too much time worrying how close we are to the end, that we won’t just settle for mere living, but that we are determined to walk with God in this year regardless of what happens or what we might face. I hope we walk so closely with God that if he needs an ark to be build he can call on us, that in the midst of evil and wickedness he can use us for purposes of salvation. I hope we will live in the present for matters in the end.To God be all glory, love you Pastor Hans