In Everything Give Thanks - Being Better Than My Google Nest

“Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Jesus Christ” 1 Thessalonians 5:18

As I was finishing a phone call, telling my youngest daughter, “I love you the most,” the Google Nest box on our kitchen counter informed me, “Thanks, that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever told me.” Needless to say, I was flabbergasted. I used to have to be careful about what I said around my children, but now I have worry about what Hey-Google hears. On the other hand, even that soulless piece of electronics can recognize good coming from my mouth and express gratefulness for it.

Did you notice? Gratefulness, a thankful attitude, and thanking God is God’s will for you and me. He wants you and me, commands us, to be constant thanksgivers. He wants us to be good at noticing and responding to life with joy, prayer, and gratefulness, “Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NLT2).

I don’t know who programmed the Google Box on our counter, or who keeps updating it, but I do know that the Holy Spirit is trying to reprogram every believer into a genuinely joyful, prayerful, and thankful individual; into someone who is really good at recognizing every blessing and connecting the dots of God’s marvelous workings woven throughout our lives and circumstances.

People often ask me to pray for them in regard to figuring out God’s will for their lives, well here is some very clear instruction as to being in and living out God’s will. I am confident you and I will have a much easier time discerning God’s will if we obey God regarding continual joyfulness, prayer, and thanksgiving.

Why in the world would we not want to be grateful? Why pull up short when it comes to giving thanks to God? Thankful people, those who continually give God thanks process life differently. I can tell this, it is a lot more pleasant, a lot more fun to be around grateful folks than a bunch of entitled, whining, complaining, joy-sucking, downer, ingrates (not that you would know anything about that). Heck, I am positive you and I can be better thanksgivers than a Google Nest.

“In everything.” That’s the hard part because it is easy enough to give God thanks in some things, like when your wife just had a baby and they are both well. But “in everything” includes well – everything, like the low points, the bitter moments, the perplexing situations, the seasons of pain, the unfair and unjust, the gut-wrenching, the darkness of grief, the cries of “WHY!?” the inexplicable, and evil. Why would God tell us to be thankful there? Maybe because that is where and when we need gratefulness the most? Maybe because that is where thankfulness keeps us from becoming twisted, from becoming “overcome by evil?” Maybe because that’s when we need to see and process our world and circumstances with different eyes and a different attitude more than ever? Maybe because that is where character and godliness are forged? Maybe because it helps us, though might we feel like our light is flickering, to shine the brightest in the darkest? Maybe because we get to depend on the goodness and faithfulness of God and be amazed and awed by Him over and over again?

I confess, I don’t fully understand this command to give God thanks in everything, to be a grateful soul no matter what, but do know from experience that I am much better off obeying it, and I thank God for teaching me that.

To God be all glory and thanks.

Love you, Pastor Hans

Put It All On - Spiritual Protection Gear

A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.  For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.  Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Ephesians 6:10-13 (NLT2)

The ubiquitous protection item of our day is the facemask, followed closely by hand-sanitizer. These two are merely the latest protection gear to go mainstream in my sixty years of living.

Our family of seven used to squeeze into the VW Square-Back wagon, with at least one riding in the way back, and seat belts were nowhere to be found, not to mention child-safety seats. When they finally installed seatbelts no one wore them, there were much bigger concerns, like all that ruckus in the back seat. Now I wear my seatbelt religiously, they do save lives.

Playing soccer, shin-guards were for sissies, until I actually tried them, and my shins broke out in the Hallelujah Chorus.

I use earmuffs or earplugs when operating loud equipment because I have seen too many deaf old men who didn’t.

Remember the big fuzz over motorcycle helmets being mandated and how many, in response, started sporting ridiculously tiny and worthless helmets, completely defeating the purpose.

I wear a bicycle helmet, put on long pants, work shoes, and goggles when weed whacking. I don’t mind the airbags in my car, the roll-over bar on my tractor, the fuses in the electrical panel, the GFI plugs in the bathroom, and protection software in my computer.

I am sure bulletproof vest, as uncomfortable as they might be, are a vast improvement over meeting a bullet with just a shirt on.

I think you get the point, protecting ourselves against things that can harm and hurt us is a wise thing to do, even it means some discomfort and takes some serious getting used to.

The apostle Paul, at the end of his letter to the Ephesians (6:10-18) tells them to put on full spiritual protection gear, “the full armor of God,” he calls it. “You need to do everything you can to protect yourself from the onslaught of evil and the evil one,” he tells them and us, “ You don’t want to have your feet knocked out from under you in the struggles of life and the real war going on between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world. And, don’t just put on some of the gear you need, strap on every piece of equipment the heavenly quarter-master and safety-expert, God Himself, hands you, no matter how uncomfortable it might feel and how long it will take for you to get used to it.”  

Before the end of today, would you read Ephesians 6:10-18, and then spent enough time to think over every part of God’s armor mentioned. Are you passing or failing inspection? How and why? What are you leaving most unprotected? What does putting on God’s armor mean practically, how do you do it? When are you going to fully gear up?

To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans

(For more on this go to LDPBaptistchurch.com and listen to the 09/13/20 sermon)

The Church Mouse Is Dead - The Little Things

The church mouse has died, and not of natural causes. S/he was not the first church mouse, another drowned a long time ago in the baptistry. That one must have been a Methodist or from some other sprinkling background because, clearly, it did not know anything about baptismal safety. This latest church mouse on the other hand was a dirty rotten scoundrel/ness, a wily thief, an unrepentant sinner, an arrogant trespasser, who would not even stop at my bag of pretzels.

Imagine the audacity, taking pretzels from a German preacher, that’s like peeing in holy water, a mortal sin for sure. But that is not all, this mouse taunted the pastor and the head deacon in broad daylight, no shame, no respect, no adhering to proper church mouse conduct. After deacon Richard left, I turned Kammerjaeger (German for exterminator, literally chamber-hunter). I sealed the bottom of my office door, the only escape route, got out my Maasai stick and went after this unholy intruder. I found its hideout and blocked it off as well, and then we went round and round in my 8’x10’ office. S/he obviously knew my office well, was familiar with every hideout, used computer and telephone wires like Tarzan using vines in the jungle. The only thing that kept me from throwing in the towel was my pretzel indignation.

Finally, that demon of a mouse made a mistake, it ran between two stacks of books I had made into a v-shaped funnel on my office floor. When it reached the dead-end I closed the gap and trapped it between the pages of solid theology, and the Maasai stick sent it to its eternal demise. I do have one regret though, in honor and recognition of this epic pastor’s office struggle I should have had its head mounted. That mouse got me to thinking about little things we are wise to watch out for, deal with, and kill if necessary.

• Catch all the foxes, those little foxes, before they ruin the vineyard of love, for the grapevines are blossoming! Song of Songs 2:15 (NLT2). Lovers, husbands and wives, need to watch out for the little things that ruin love, passion, exclusiveness. It is not just big things that can destroy a marriage, but also little things allowed to run wild.

• A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough Galatians 5:9 (NASB). Of course, you know that a tiny amount of yeast, given time, will spread through the entire dough. In this context, it speaks of bad teaching, false doctrine, in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 it speaks of sin and wickedness, and in Luke 12:1 of hypocrisy. You don’t want to introduce any of them into your life. You want to give neither opportunity nor time.

• Dead flies make a perfumer's oil stink, so a little foolishness is weightier than wisdom and honor Ecclesiastes 10:1 (NASB). How often do we give ourselves permission for a little foolishness? How often do we make excuses for a little foolishness? Follow the stink and deal with it.

• The words of a whisperer (gossip) are like dainty (tasty) morsels, And they go down into the innermost parts of the body Proverbs 18:8 (NASB, parenthesis mine). Whisperers/gossips need listeners, don’t be one of them because what they serve you up will affect you much more deeply than you think, and even worse, you will develop a taste for it.

• So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! James 3:5 (ESV). Our words, whether they come from our mouth, a pen, or a keyboard are another little/big thing to be careful with, to be in control of, to take seriously. You don’t have to have a flamethrower mouth to be destructive, little sparks will do. Of course, you can also have a healing, encouraging mouth, but only if it doesn’t spark.

 I am hoping that this week you will be a Kammerjaeger, being as diligent as Jesus in hunting down the little mice, foxes, flies, that don’t benefit your life, giving no opportunity or time for leaven and whisperers to permeate your mind, heart, decisions, and behavior, and not allowing that little tongue of yours to be destructive.
To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans    

Have You Had A Bristlecone Transformation?

Methuselah, 4851 years old, a Great Basin bristlecone pine is still going and growing somewhere in the White Mountains of Inyo County in eastern California. Walking through the bristlecone forest where it is hidden feels like encountering a family of Ents out of Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings.” You are in the presence of something ancient, their needles alone can last up to 40 years. One of these trees could be 1000 years old and be called a mere whippersnapper by the gnarled ancients of the grove.It’s the resin that helps preserve them.

On the short educational walk by the visitor center, the first stop is by a large dead trunk of a long-dead bristlecone. The instructional sign tells you that this tree was over 3200 years old when it died – in 1650. Yup, for over 450 years that tree trunk has been laying there and it is far from being decayed. Someone should make anti-aging skin cream out of this resin. Like all things in nature, there is a lot we can learn from these tenacious bristlecones God made to last for millennia in a most inhospitable environment.

We are unfamiliar with bristlecone permanence. In fact, most everything in our experience is marked by the exact opposite, impermanence. The bristlecones don’t waste things, they latch onto every drop of water they can get their roots on. We, on the other hand, are professional wasters: water, food, stuff, time, money, opportunities, relationships… Deep down, we long for permanence, we want love to last, and peace, and health, and good times, and prosperity, and freedom, and stability, and life. But our resin can’t compare to the bristlecone’s. Living in fleeting impermanence we try to squeeze as much out of our vapor-like lives before they dissipate, and all too often sacrifice the permanent things our hearts yearn for. The spiritual reality is that the wrong resin is pumping through our veins, sinfulness, depravity, an inherited penchant to rebel against God and his order.

The Bible (God’s written revelation) tells us about a time when people lived much, much longer. The oldest recorded individual of that time was Methuselah, he lived 969 years (Genesis 5:27). God cut the human lifespan down to 70 plus-ish years (Psalm 90:10). Why? Because 969 years is way too long to have the resin of sin be at work in a person, for human depravity to have an opportunity. We ought to thank God for putting a restrictor plate on our life expectancy because of our sinfulness; our own evil and evil people still flourish way too much in just 80 years. That’s also more than enough time for each one of us to come to grips with our sinfulness, our spiritual rebellion, and our need for God and Jesus Christ to give us eternal life, to have the resin of the Spirit of God transform us for permanence that will far outlast even the most ancient bristlecone.

Future generations will be able to tell if we were truly transformed from decaying sinners into eternal saints through our faith in Jesus Christ. How? By how quickly there will be no trace of our existence, no witness of our faith in their memories, no tangible impact on their hearts, minds, and lives, no blessing of things permanent left behind for generations far into the future.To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans

Helpless + Hopeless = Happy

A crazy man, out of his mind, demonically controlled, isolated, abandoned, and feared. A woman incurably sick, beyond the ability of medicine, robbed of dignity, normalcy, and wealth. A little girl, with great parents, loved, dead. These three fell into the pit that reeks of helpless and hopeless, an abyss so deep they cannot climb out of it. Their helplessness and hopelessness are not just their own, but their families, those who love and care for them are also engulfed in their powerlessness, pain, frustration, and grief. They, like us, know the equation: helpless + hopeless = hurt, horrific, horrible, harrowing, hellacious.

Mark, like the other Gospel writers, tells us about the reality and truth of Jesus Christ, “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God” Mark 1:1 (NIV). Right out of the gate, Mark informs you and me that Jesus is not ordinary, not one among many, more than a prophet, more than a holy man, but the very Son of God, divine, sovereign, Creator and Sustainer of all things – good news, the equation changer.

They were real people, that crazy man, that sick and desperate woman, that very dead girl, as real as the people in our lives, in our families, our community, our coworkers, classmates, and friends. They were stuck in the helpless/hopeless equation. People stayed away from them, didn’t touch them, were made uncomfortable by them and their story. “What a shame,” “What do you say?” I wonder, how long it took for people to no longer ask the crazy man’s family about him? How much time passed before folks no longer asked the woman how she was? When do we stop talking with the grieving about their loved ones?

You find all three, the man, the woman, and the girl in Mark, chapter five, helpless and hopeless – until – until – Jesus shows up, and, because of who He is, the Son of God, changes helpless + hopeless to happy. He does not shy away from the lunatic demoniac; He doesn’t mind the unclean, sick, and desperate woman touching Him; He doesn’t stop going to the girl’s house simply because she died. He does so because He wants everyone to know who He is: The Son of God, sovereign over all evil, all of life, all people, death, and all helplessness and hopelessness. He is the eternal Good News. Most of us have been to Mark chapter five, if not all, at least in part. I have. Evil, mental illness, chronic sickness, death. Without Jesus, they trap and condemn us to the grave of eternal helplessness and hopelessness.

You have to wonder about those three and their families, you just have to. What do you think the crazy man told others about Jesus after Jesus put him in his “right mind?” What did the woman tell others after she was healed? What did the girl, after she was restored to life, think and say about Jesus for the rest of her life? How did these three engage with helpless and hopeless people after their encounter with Jesus? 1 Corinthians 13:13 tells me, as a follower of Jesus, as Christian, to be a person of faith, hope, and love. I believe that means I should not shy away from the helpless and hopeless people and situations, but to show up with the faith, hope, and love I have found in Jesus, to live the Jesus equation.

To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans          

Hardened Ground

This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.'  But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry. Zechariah 7:9-12 (NIV)

Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a pool, the hard rock into springs of water. Psalm 114:7-8 (NIV)

Digging in Don Pedro in the Summer is neither fun nor smart because the scorching heat makes the ground rock hard and punishes the digger. How do I know? Plenty of personal experience. Some holes and trenches I had to soak overnight to make progress a few inches at a time. Bill Haas, a retired heavy equipment operator had literally spent his entire working life digging. I imagine, with a D-8 bulldozer he didn’t spend much time watering the ground before moving it. Moving Bill, however, was quite another thing. He literally went and got a shotgun the first time I went to his home to introduce myself to him and invite him and his sweet wife to church. He told me to stick my religion bs where the sun doesn’t shine and to get my #@&%* behind off his porch permanently.

I wonder what God is up to currently, do you? On both the large scale and in me personally. What is he trying to dig up? What does He keep pouring water on to soften it up? What has hardened but needs to be dug up? What wrong attitudes, opinions, and ways of doing things have grown so hard that even a D-8 can’t move them. Bill’s wife called me as the ambulance was rushing him to the hospital, asking me to please pray for him, “Preacher, he’s had a bad stroke,’ she said before hanging up to follow the ambulance. Knowing that he wouldn’t have his shotgun, and because the hospital wasn’t his porch, I went there as well, to sit with and pray with his wife as the doctors did their best to save his life and minimize the damage.

Bill lived and recovered with only minor damage. Yes, he was shocked to see the preacher standing at the foot of his bed. He couldn’t talk then, but you could see it in his eyes. God had softened Bill’s hard ground, had used that stroke like a D-8 to move what seemed immovable, had laid bare what Bill had covered under thick layers of life-hardened dirt. He eventually called on Christ to forgive him, to save his sinful soul, to change his heart, to give him eternal life.  For the rest of his days, he was a different man.

So, what is God trying to change in you, in our country? What hardened things is He pouring “water” on to soften it up? What difficult things is He allowing into your life to move what needs to be moved, to change your attitude, opinions, ways of doing things, and how you deal with people and God.

To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans

Dad, Texas or Albuquerque?

My Dad lived his entire life in Germany, but as a father he spent too much time in Texas instead of Albuquerque. His record as a dad is at best a mixed one. He was smart, educated, successful, hard-working, good at providing, involved and respected in the community and in church, trying to give his sons opportunities in life, all the while abusing alcohol, beating the living daylights out of us, flying off the handle at a moment’s notice,  and doing a good job at what God warns dads against, “Fathers, do not exasperate (embitter, aggravate, provoke) your children, so that they will not (become discouraged) lose heart” Colossians 3:21 (NASB, parenthesis mine).

I didn’t share this about my Dad to make him look bad or to somehow get back at him, he died and was buried a long time ago. What I am wondering about today is my own Dad record because every dad has one. I can tell you this, if you are a father of a child, your Dad record has a huge impact. My father impacts me to this day, and it took me an awfully long time to deal with the crap of his Dad record. But I am responsible for my own Dad record, and the impact I am having on my kids’ lives.

A man once stopped by the church looking for help. He wanted to buy a bus ticket to somewhere in Texas. He said it was the next stop in his journey of finding himself. I asked him how finding himself was going. He told me he was having the time of his life. I asked him to tell me a bit more about his life. He didn’t really want to, but he finally told me he had a wife and three kids in Albuquerque. I offered to buy him a ticket to Albuquerque, so he could get back to be near his kids, get a job, and help provide for them. He didn’t like that at all, he needed more time to find himself. I told him he was full of it and he would have to find his own way to Texas. He stormed off telling me I wasn’t much of preacher, and he might be right.

I told you about this traveling man in case, like me,  you are father, because once you are one (whether or not you planned to be one makes no difference) you have God-given dad responsibility. If you put a child into this world, doing right by that girl or boy, in a way that will make God nod with approval, is one of your chief and life-long responsibilities. If you have a child, you will have a Dad record, the only question will be what kind – mixed, decent, so-so, awesome, godly, absent, uninvolved, abusive, cold, tender, the worst, the best … There are too many dads in Texas when they are needed in Albuquerque.

I have been privileged, blessed, to be a Dad for 37 years now. I am telling you so you know that they have been out of diapers for a long time, in fact, they are out of our house, which was the plan, and I am proud as can be of them. But I am not done being a Dad, I am still adding to my Dad resume (and Opa/Grandpa record, which is also part of the Dad resume). What kind of older and all-too-soon old Dad will I be? I really am concerned about that. I have seen too many Dads blow it in the tail-end of life, get off the godly trail, forsake being a blessing, quit being a spiritual example, and instead celebrate the selfish life, become hard and difficult to deal with, and move to Texas when they should be in Albuquerque adding to their Dad (Grandpa) resume.

I think Dads from Albuquerque lived and wrote the following: Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.  But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Psalm 1:1-6 (NIV)

LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman, who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the LORD, who keeps his oath even when it hurts, who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken. Psalm 15:1-5 (NIV)

A good Dad leaves an inheritance to his children’s children. Proverbs 13:22a

Dad, Grandpa, it is not too late to move back to Albuquerque. 

To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans

Extraordinary Kindness, part 2 - It's not theoretical, It needs no excuses

But—When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. Titus 3:4-5 (NLT2)

Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. Luke 6:35 (NLT2)

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:31-32 (ESV)

No one had to teach her, my incredibly sweet and cute granddaughter (my favorite) to whack her brothers, bite them, snatch their stuff, ruin their creations, and pay them back for any misdeeds of their own. She knew how to dish out unkindness and withhold good instinctively, as, by the way, you and I do as well. Having to be told to be kind, to do good means that that unkindness, not doing good comes all too natural for us.

My little ladybug of a granddaughter knows how to be kind and unkind though she doesn’t even know the words, she just knows the actions and reactions and most often dishes them out according to what serves her best and how she feels at the moment. She knows how to give both kind and unkind looks. She knows how to use her tiny vocabulary in kind in unkind ways, her hands and feet sure know how to do both, and she knows different impacts kindness and unkindness, doing good and withholding good have, which, by the way, you and I do as well.

It is amazing to me how immature and undisciplined grown adults, myself included, can be when it comes to being kind and doing good. It is even more amazing to me that Christians, who have crystal clear instruction, who know the will of God when it comes to being kind and doing good, act like two-year-olds. Your eyes, are they kind, look at people and things with kindness? Or, are they skilled at throwing daggers, burn with anger, look down on, and look away to ignore and hurt? If looks could kill.

Your ears, are they good at detecting when and where kindness is needed? Or, are they deaf to the frequencies of kindness, only open to what they want to hear, often rejoicing in the sounds of misery and pain of others. They had it coming.Your mouth, is it fluent in the language of kindness, the healing, peacemaking, encouraging, and blessing power of words? Or, is it a double-edged sword that continually honed by anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, frustration, evil, and the grind of our world? It’s just words, I didn’t mean anything by it.

Your hands, are they good at giving, helping, reaching out, tenderness, involvement? Do they have the callouses of doing good? Or, are they good at taking, hoarding, stiff-arming, finger-pointing, handling remote controls, the grime of selfishness and manipulation thick under your fingernails? No one told me. I‘ve been so busy, can’t you see.

Your feet, are they good at stopping at the intersections of life calling for kindness and goodness? Do they love to run into the direction of kindness and where doing good is needed? Or, do they balk at the one-way street of kindness, when there is no immediate payoff, when the cost is high, when kindness doesn’t fit your schedule or mood or sense of justice and fairness? It’s a two-way street, you know. Your wallet, does it have kindness in it, dream of it, and remind you to do good every time you take it out? Or, is it fluent in toddler, “MINE,” constantly dreaming of what to get next, of something fun, of having more than enough, or just plain more? One day. I’m barely making it as it is.

Would you read the scriptures at the beginning of the pastor’s note again? They both command and instruct us to be kind, to do good. They do not furnish any excuses for being unkind and not doing good. I need to remember that next time I am tempted to be unkind and try to excuse it. They tell us that God/Jesus did not determine his kindness, his goodness, his mercy, and his forgiveness by our worthiness, our gratefulness, our responses or reciprocity.

One more thing, as a follower of Jesus, a Christian, I have no excuse to be unkind. I have known how to be kind going way back to when I was just wee little and still cute, I know how to be kind because throughout my life I have been at the receiving end of kindness, and foremost, God has poured the full measure of his kindness and goodness into my life through Jesus Christ from the moment he saved, wicked, undeserving, ungrateful, stuck-on-self Hans.

Be extraordinarily kind.
Pastor Hans   

Waiting - Don't Waste It

I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD. Psalm 27:13-14 (NIV)

How good are you at waiting? Yes, you, and I can see you ducking. Our entire culture is not good at waiting, we don’t see it as a virtue but as a failure of someone or something, as something interrupting our happiness. It has to happen now, quickly, and hopefully, sooner than later. Have you noticed? The COVID-19 crisis did not care one bit about making us wait, putting our plans on hold, for who knows how long. By now we can’t wait for things to get back to some kind of normal. So again, how good are you at waiting? Since you are, for some reason, refusing to answer, take the following test. Mark all the ones you would have a hard time with:

• Waiting for 2000 years. Christians have now been waiting for almost 2000 years for Jesus to return and who knows how much longer it will be (2 Peter 3:3-10).

• Waiting for 400 years. God told Abraham that his descendants would have to wait for hundreds of years to be delivered from the tyranny of Egypt (Genesis 15:13).

• Waiting for 70 years. The rebellious remnant exiled to Babylon was told they had to wait for seventy years before any of them could return. (Jeremiah 29:10)

• Waiting for 7 weeks. After Jesus’ ascension, the disciples had to wait seven weeks for the promised Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49, Acts 1:8)

• Waiting for 1 week. Saul, because he saw his troops defecting, couldn’t wait for more than a week for the prophet Samuel to arrive (1 Samuel 13:8-11).

• Waiting for 1 day. Naomi told her daughter-in-law Ruth to relax, be patient, and wait a day for Boaz to take care of things.

• Waiting for 1 hour. The disciples were emotionally and physically tuckered out they couldn’t wait for an hour when Jesus asked them to sit and wait until He had prayed (Matthew 26:36-41)

Our chief problem with waiting is that we run out of time even if we beat the life-expectancy statistics. But we don’t just run out of time in general, we don’t get to be kids forever, opportunities pass, the chance to have children diminishes, the time to adequately store up for retirement vanishes, you can’t realize your dreams by waiting forever, ...God on the other hand never runs out of time, He is the Eternal One, the Inventor and Creator of time and space.

Have you ever considered what it must have been like for Jesus, the eternal Son of God, in his incarnation, to restrict himself to time, to waiting, to running out of time?Some of Satan’s major temptations thrown at Jesus were regarding waiting and time (Luke 4:1-8). “You’re hungry! So, why wait? Just turn these stones into bread?” “You’re supposed to be king of everything! Why waste time waiting for God’s long-winded plan filled with suffering? You can be king now; all you have to do is worship me.” When it comes to waiting Satan assumes at least four things:

1. We are not good at waiting. There is not a single baby who is good at waiting, “Feed me, change me, hold me, adore me – NOW!” Our needs scream out, our wants demand satisfaction, our dreams whisper to us, “You don’t have forever,” none of them encourage us to wait.

2. Our sinfulness hates waiting, self-denial, submission to God’s will and ways. “Waiting to have sex until you are married – get real!” “Staying out of debt and waiting to buy things until you can pay for things? – What about your credit score? Dummy!”

3. Waiting becomes more difficult the longer we have to wait. Have you experienced rising anxiety as you waited patiently in an airport check-in lane, realizing that at this pace you will miss your flight? Consciously or subconsciously we are aware of and afraid of missing out, that opportunities are not endless because life isn’t.

4. We make serious mistakes when we operate out of impatience, impulsiveness, and give in to FOMO (fear of missing out).

As busy as Satan might be in our waiting, God is even more so. He is the one who is in charge of time, so, if God has us waiting, we can safely assume that we we’re not wasting time or opportunity. God is not inactive when he has us waiting, He is actually growing us, developing us, shaping us – Jesus thought so.

To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans 
P.S. For more waiting click here to watch the 04/26/20 sermon - www.LDPBaptistChurch.com       

Learning God's Love - By the Way, Happy Valentines!

(Before you read this Pastor’s Note, find a Bible and read 1 John 4:7-21.) 

For as much as we love love, we sure struggle with it. Human history, every family, the majority of marriages, and almost all lovers testify to this fact. Love should be easier than our collective testimony certifies it to be. By the way, Happy Valentines!

Few things give clearer evidence to our fallenness, our depravity, our sinfulness than our struggles with love. It should be the easiest thing in the world, but somehow we manage it to louse it up, mess it up, twist it, pervert it, cheapen it, manipulate with it, so much so that we don’t trust love, at least not all the way. Too many are our bad experiences, our disappointments, our scars, our hurts. By the way, Happy Valentines!

“There is no fear in love,” right! At least not until the first time Dad or Mom loses their temper, breaks a promise, or until you discover your lover’s bad habits, his or her not so amazing side. Truth be told, by the time you turn my age, and usually, much earlier, we are much more prone to adjust our loving to our fears rather than adjusting our fears to our love. That’s because we get our hopes up, “maybe this time it will be different,” only to have them smacked down again. Of course, this reveals that at least in some small way we loved with some payoff in mind. By the way, Happy Valentines!

Few people have a problem with the truth that “God is love,” actually most of us love this truth. Of course, here too our depravity is revealed because we interpret it to mean, “I can do whatever I want and he will be okay with it because he loves me.” Do you hear the twistedness in this? The presumption? The depraved narcissism? No wonder we are so good at messing up love. By the way, Happy Valentines!

“There is no fear in love, perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). So why are multitudes of spouses dancing on eggshells around each other, afraid to …? Of all we could fear in this life nothing should fill us with greater fear than God. Think about it, he knows our every last little dirty secret and could embarrass us more than anyone. He knows every single transgression of ours and could haul us into his court anytime. He has infinite power and can not only inflict us with punishment for every misdeed or snuff out our life, but he can also cast our soul into eternal hell. By the way, Happy Valentines!

If we are going to get love right, if we are going to learn to love perfectly, if we are going to love without fear, we are not going to find it in our sentimental but depraved notions of love or our selective (mis)interpretations of love in scripture. We will have to learn it from Almighty God through his Son, Jesus Christ, who in all his fearsomeness loved us first and loved us completely through the suffering and sacrifice Jesus. It is only at the foot of the cross of Jesus that lovers, spouses, and each one of us can learn to love without fear, to love like God and Jesus. By the way, Happy Valentines!

To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans  

Commanded to Love - Moving from Optional to Optimal

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:7-8 (ESV)

It seems like it should be the last thing we should need to be reminded of, and even less that we should have to be commanded to love. But the reality is we do need to be reminded and commanded to love. God certainly thinks so and in his written word (the Bible) he reminds us to love:

• God

• Jesus Christ

• Our Neighbor

• Each Other

• Our spouses

• Our children

• The Alien

• The Poor

• Sinners

• Our Enemies

• And …

God does not suggest to us to love all of the above, he commands us to, which tells us he does not consider it optional. We like for love to be optional, for us to feel it, and when we don’t we give ourselves a free pass. God, however, wants us to think of love as optimal, regardless of how we feel, and he knows more about love than anyone of us.God’s commands expect radical commitment, total participation, full obedience. They don’t come with a lot of legal fine print, but they do come with an expectation of us living by them because we trust God, because we are sure that in his love, goodness, and holiness he will only command us what is best for us. When God commands us to love he is leading by example, he is not asking us to do anything he has not done so himself. He has practiced:

• Faithful love

• Persevering love

• Sacrificial love

• Forgiving love

• Patient love

• Humble love

• Risk-taking love

• Extreme love

• Honest love

• Tender love

• Promise- keeping love

• Giving-your-all love

• Selfless love

• Merciful love

• Unfathomable love

• And …

Too many of us have experienced the absence of love, the opposite of love, twistedness masquerading as love, conditional love. Too many of us practice manipulative love, fearful love, even sick love. So, not trusting others and ourselves we are cautious, mistrusting, fearful with love. This why we need to be both reminded and be commanded to love on an entirely different level than our experience and fears compel us to and cause us to settle for.

I wish I could tell you that I no longer need to be reminded to love like God wants me to, commands me to, and has shown me himself through Christ. I wish I could hang up a Ph.D. diploma earned from DUL.edu (Divine University of Love), but all too often I find myself still in the Grammar School of Love. I am not saying this as an excuse, but because I still need to and want to learn.

I know God is right in all his reminders and commands for me to live a life of love. God doesn’t just remind and command, he provides and enables as well, especially regarding his commands to love. He provides opportunities to love and grow in love. He gives ability and strength to love when we can’t fathom how to or have plum run out of love. He allows us to tap his endless reservoir of love. He blesses and uses every effort we make to keep his commandments to love. There is one thing God will not do when it comes to love, he won’t make us - we have to choose, decide to, pursue, and want to live a life of love.

To God be all Glory. Love you, Pastor Hans

P.S. A good place to start keeping God’s commands to love is with the people currently in your life, the people God brings across your path today. 

"I'm going fishing" - Don't do it

“I am going fishing,” Peter said, and the six with him said, “We’ll come too.” (John 21:1-22, I encourage you to read it yourself)

Physically we have the ability to move forward, backward, and sideways, but not up and down like a hummingbird. In life, however, we are familiar with forward, backward, sideways, and up and down. I don’t know if three years earlier Peter parked his fishing boat in a boathouse, left it in a slip at the pier, turned it upside down at the beach, or covered it with a tarp in his back yard or driveway.

The last few months and particularly the past weeks had been crazy for them, a confusing rollercoaster ride, an incredibly stressful, challenging, and difficult stretch of life, lacking clarity, familiarity, and stability. So, they went backward, back to the old and familiar, that which their families had done for generations. They turned the pages of their lives back to before they heard Jesus say, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Mark 1:17).

What did you walk away from when you heard Christ calling you to follow him? What life did you leave behind? What did you set aside, put under a tarp, park in the backyard of your life? But now you’re back to it after your life with Jesus ran into hardship, tragedy, stress, suffering, and overwhelming challenges, leaving you confused, disoriented, yearning for familiarity.It was a mirage, because we somehow clean up the old life in our minds. We forget how difficult it really was, how devoid of real and lasting meaning, how many nights you come from fishing with nothing, nothing but business worries, nothing but weariness, nothing but frustration.

“Did you catch anything?” Jesus yelled from the shore.
“No,” came the grumpy reply.

Somehow, they didn’t remember the grumpy of the old life either. “Try the other side,” Jesus sent back across the water. “What the *@#&^!” Somehow, they forgot how rough, even vile, the old life could make you.

“What the *@#&^! Where did all these fish come from?” Somehow, they forgot how glorious was when Jesus interrupted your old life, when he spoke to you, directed you, surprised you. “It’s the Lord,” one of them connected the dots.

“Do you love me?” “Do you love me?” “Do you love me?” Jesus asked gone-back-to-fishing Peter.“I do,” “I do,” “You know,” were Peter’s replies.“Feed my sheep,” “Tend my sheep,” “Feed my sheep,” Jesus let him know (sheep being people, believers, his followers). Peter might have remembered that Jesus’ first invitation to follow him included that he would make him a “fisher of men,” but not the old life, the old boat, who he once was with just a little Jesus in it. Not the kind of living that is filled with the old but doesn’t concern itself with Jesus, his kingdom, his sheep.

Jesus told Peter again, “Follow me,” because he had gone back to fishing. Peter was going backward instead of forward; he had revived the old regardless of how unsatisfying and spiritually impotent it was. He, like you and I, needed to come to grips with that loving Jesus and the old life are incompatible, that following Jesus and living the old life are mutually exclusive, that he had to sell out and sell the boat.

To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans    

From 2019 into 2020, Caleb, Finishing and Starting, and a whole lot of rambling

We are in the last week of 2019 and are about to step through the front door of 2020, which means we are finishing and starting, again. Both, starting and finishing can be difficult, and how well you do both makes a difference, but you already knew that. Or maybe you didn’t want to be reminded because it makes you feel too guilty, which is just too bad because I’ve already started this pastor’s note and I am determined to finish it.2020 has my 60^th birthday and 40^th wedding anniversary on the calendar, considering that Social Security gives males an average life expectancy of 76.04 years, I am entering the last quarter of my life and the third period of my married life. Maybe I should move to Canada, it would net me an extra 4 statistical years and get me to 80. Regardless, because of my age, I need to consider finishing well issues, which means I might have to start some things in order to do so. You can’t finish well without starting the right things the right way.I cleaned up my office desk today. Among the things on my desk were notes of premarital work I’ve been doing with three young couples. Their 2020 calendar entails different dates than mine, but by getting married they finished the single life. For sure they are starting all kinds of new things, and what and how they start will have a huge impact on their lives by the time they hit my age. That’s the very reason we did premarital work in the first place.You don’t have to finish everything you start. Like a worthless book or bad movie, some things are a waste of time, and some things are just bad for you, you don’t have to finish your life smoking just because you started. Jesus, of course, left this life with the famous words, “It is finished!” (John 19:30), which meant he completed his life’s mission. On the other hand, he also left some things unfinished, for his disciples to finish, like his church and its work. So hopefully, even if I run out of time finishing them, I will not be shy starting things just because I am closer to the end.2020, like every year, has a beginning and it will have an end, and the end will be determined by what we start and our commitment to the things we do in the long in-between before the end. I am hoping you and I leave 2019 and enter 2020 with a “Caleb Attitude.” At 40 he was voted down by his countrymen, at 80 he could have been really grumpy and cynical, but instead, he itched to see what God could do now, he was ready for a whole new chapter of life (Joshua 14:6-15), he still wanted to slay giants. His testimony, his reputation was that he “followed God fully.” Even after a 40-year detour, after his whole sourpuss generation was buried before him, he couldn’t wait to finish what God had him involved in starting.Well, at some time, and I think we are there, you have to quit talking and get to the doing or else there is no starting and without starting there is no finishing well. 2020 is a great time to unleash your inner Caleb/Calebette.To God be all glory. Happy New Year, Pastor Hans    

Waiting - Advent

How much time of your life have you spent waiting? On the phone being on hold? In a car stuck in traffic? In a doctor’s office or hospital waiting room? In a checkout line? For a reply to an email, text, an application, or test? For someone to show up?How good are you at waiting? Are you the patient or impatient kind? Do you progress from irritated, to grumpy, to nasty rather quickly? Let’s face it, we live in a most impatient culture, time is money, waiting wastes the most precious resource of them all – life itself. We want it now, not later! We want things to be in stock or qualify for free same or next day delivery. Heck, we get irritated if the confirmation text or email takes longer than 30 seconds.Have you ever considered how much waiting God has woven into the fabric of life? How much waiting there is in the Bible? You have to wait nine months to see and hold your baby. Almost everything we eat didn’t grow overnight, needed time to grow and ripen. You can’t speed up the seasons, you have to wait for each one to arrive and take its turn. The earth turns and circles at its own steady pace, it will take 364 from Christmas to Christmas, from New year to New Year. The ancient Israelites yearned for deliverance and freedom for hundreds of years, the Jews were looking for the Messiah for over a thousand years before Jesus appeared. The martyred saints, who have been crying for justice under the altar of God for who knows how long (Revelation 6:9-11), were told to wait a little longer.From as far back as can remember an Advent Calendar (it counts down the 24 days before Christmas) is part of my Christmas memories. At first, it had just pictures in it, until someone had the bright idea to put a piece of chocolate behind each calendar window – needless to say, some days were raided prematurely, we couldn’t wait. But, Advent still takes 24 days, even though Christmas shopping has sped up, Black Friday shopping now starts early in the week and Cyber Monday will try to catch up.Waiting slows us down but it does not necessarily mean doing nothing, especially when you are walking through life with God. Since patience is a fruit of the indwelling Spirit of God (Galatians 5:22-23) whenever and for whatever God makes us wait is not without purpose. It is a great paradox that in a world were everything seems to speed up God slows us down, that in a culture that hates to wait, God refuses to speed things up, for people who want things now, God has not opened a convenience store nor offers same-day shipping to expedite answers to prayers.We are no longer waiting for the first appearance of the Christ (Messiah), we merely remember it, but we are waiting for the return of Christ, the consummation of the ages, the completion of salvation, the execution of complete justice. In that waiting impatience is a dangerous thing, it sidetracks us, gets us out ahead of God, has us running through life at a crazy pace like the rest of our world, with little time for prayer, for worship, for anticipation, reflection, and dependence. Our impatience wants to cram our lives full of what we want. In having us wait, God is trying to create room in our lives for what and how he wants it. We want life to take place at our pace, God is continually inviting us to slow down to his.How we wait tells a lot about whose agenda we are on, who and what we are most concerned about. How we respond to being slowed down says a lot about what is going on inside of us. What are you waiting on God for this Christmas season? Whose pace are you on during this Advent?Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:28-31 (ESV)To God be all glory, even when waiting. Love you, Pastor Hans     

Christ, and our thirstiness

Eight glasses of water? Four cups of coffee? A pot of tea? Several energy drinks? A two-liter bottle of Coke? A six-pack of beer? It doesn’t matter how much you drank yesterday, you will be thirsty again today.Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a few snacks. Cereal, sandwiches, wraps, burritos, burgers and fries, TV-dinners, salads, steak and potatoes, barbeque, gourmet creations? It doesn’t matter how much you ate yesterday, you will be hungry today.Yesterday’s peace-offerings, compromises, political arrangements, concessions, sacrifices, wise arrangements, handouts, freebies, none of them will satisfy for long. The cry for more, for change, for “my/our” way now, will return.It reveals our brokenness, this insatiability, this inability to sustain life, happiness, justice, and peace for any length of time. It reveals our sinfulness, our constant complaining and bickering even when things are going great and we have more than enough, our willingness to mistreat, rob, roll over, treat others unjustly in the pursuit of our needs, appetites, wants, and dreams, our short-lived gratitude or outright ungratefulness.We are always running out, constantly having to refill, never having enough, unable to lay hold of what is lasting. We can’t make anything last, much less make it eternal, beginning with satisfying our most basic needs and those of our neighbor.“Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified” Mark 15:15 (ESV). It worked for less day, then they were back asking for more (Matthew 27:62-65)Solomon in his pursuit of pleasure, status, and empire-building amassed for himself what might have been the largest harem in history (1 Kings 11:3) and yet, he advised his sons, “Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love” Proverbs 5:18-19 (ESV).Haman had a thriving career, wealth, influence, and power, but his anti-Semitism, his hatred left him continually dissatisfied,  “All this is worth nothing to me, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate” Esther 5:13 (ESV).Achan, rummaging through the rubble after the victory at Jericho, took what God had declared as belonging to him,  “when I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar, and 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then I coveted them and took them. And see, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent, with the silver underneath” Joshua 7:21 (ESV). It didn’t matter that he was on his way to receive his portion in the land God had promised them. His greed and covetousness, a bottomless pit, became a snare to him and his family.Jesus warned the rich, fat, happy, and-self-sufficient Christians of Laodicea, “You say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see” Revelation 3:17-18 (ESV). They were so deceived by their prosperity and self-sufficiency that they were blind and oblivious to any reality outside their own happiness, that none of it would last, their spiritual needs, and that they lived like they didn’t need God. Jesus said, “You're leaving a bad taste in my mouth, I am ready to spit you out!” – Ouch!The only one who can satisfy the thirsts of our souls both now and for eternity. Jesus told a Samaritan woman who had come to get water from the local well, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" John 4:13-14 (NIV). You and I are no different from her, from the crowd Pilate tried to appease, from Solomon and his sexual desires, or Haman and his hate, Achan and his covetousness and greed, or the spoiled and oblivious Laodiceans. Our greatest need is God, the life that is found only in Christ, the forgiveness poured out in Jesus death, the wholeness of our souls brought about by the water offered from Jesus’ hands.So, reach out your cup, let Christ fill it.To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans    

Without Love

I am working on a car, again, the a/c (air-conditioning) is out. The car is drivable but on 104 (40 Celsius) or hotter days, Susie might want to make it to work without having to take another shower.Our dishwasher rack is missing some prongs, but it is still washing dishes as well as it was when we bought it 25 years ago (Isn’t fun when God makes our things last?!).Walking around our property I continually find vulture feathers, and sometimes when those magnificent flying creatures zoom low over our heads you can see where some of those feathers are missing, obviously, this does not rob them of their ability to fly. Of course, it would be a lot different if a vulture lost all its feathers at once, it would ground them for sure. The dishwasher and Susie’s car would be worthless if their water pumps gave out, or some other vital part failed.It is no different with the Christian life, there are minor issues which might make things more uncomfortable, make things harder, or force you to make adjustments, and then there are major things that bring you to a screeching halt, keep you from soaring, and need immediate attention and repair. This is something the Corinthian Christians lost sight of; they were busy fixing the a/c when their engine had major problems. They argued and divided over minor things and forgot about the most important. As a result, they started looking and acting more and more ridiculous. Christians can employ the full Christian lingo and yet look like a vulture without feathers.The Apostle Paul told the Corinthians that if they got things right their Faith, Hope, and Love would be in top mechanical condition, be the main feathers of their plumage, would leave their dishes sparkling. And of these three, he said, Love was the most indispensable. Without it the individual believer and the Christian community/church is broken, without substance, going nowhere, accomplishing nothing.“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends (fails)” 1 Corinthians 13:1-8 (ESV, parenthesis NASB).So, now that you have read the scripture above, I want to challenge you to do a little exercise with me. Think through this passage with the heading:If I don’t have love (the kind God wants you to have and practice)How does that affect your life, the life of your church, and the lives of those around you? Here are the first four things I wrote down:

• Without out love, I sound wrong, verse 1.
• Without love, I think wrong (“I am nothing”), verse 2.
• Without love, I go wrong (“I gain nothing”), verse 3.
• Without love, I am not as patient as I can and should be, verse 4.

And Now you finish it up:

• Without love,  __________________________________________________
• Without love,  __________________________________________________
• Without love,  __________________________________________________
• Keep going! ….

Now ask yourself, “Who is at the brunt end of my lack of love?” This might be an individual, several people, or entire group or groups of people.Finally, what is the first right loving action you need to initiate towards him, her, and/or them? ______________________________________________________ (It might include having to apologize and ask for forgiveness.)Maybe you’re not feeling it. Maybe you think someone else needs to make the first move. If you are waiting on those two to change you might be waiting a long, too long of a time to become the loving person Christ wants you to be. Start fixing the most important things today.To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans    

35 Years of Pastoring at LDPBC

On the second Sunday of August 1984, the Lake Don Pedro Baptist Church, called me to be the interim pastor. Susie and I had no idea that this would become a 35-year love story of a pastor and his flock. We didn’t know that this would be only church our children would know growing up. We didn’t know how many people would come alongside us to encourage us, bless us, and love Jesus with us. We didn’t know much, period. But we did rejoice and were grateful. We still rejoice and are even more grateful. When this, our church (it makes a big difference whether you think of a church as this church or our church) called us I was deeply struggling with church and becoming a minister because over the span of a year and a half I witnessed firsthand church dysfunction and preacher misconduct in four different churches. In spite of being a Bible college graduate and a call to ministry, I wasn’t sure I wanted any more of church - until I read Romans 14:12 in my personal morning Bible study, “So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God” (NASB). It didn’t matter what everyone else did, how they behaved or misbehaved, I am responsible to God for how I follow him, even if everything and everyone around me goes crazy. It was a watershed moment for me, and a few weeks later I was leading the Lake Don Pedro Baptist Church.35 years is a lot of time to make mistakes and I have made my fair share of them. The bad thing is that church and pastor mistakes usually hurt people (Remember, the church is a fellowship, a spiritual family of people). If you read this pastor’s note and are one of those I have hurt, disappointed, or let down I ask for your forgiveness if I have not already done so. And, I thank God for all who confronted me, were gracious to me, had patience with me, and forgave me.I praise God for all who have served with me over these years, for those sharing the same love for Christ, his church, and his kingdom. Besides the goodness and faithfulness of God, you’ve helped make 35 years possible. Like the apostle Paul, I can say, “I thank God for every remembrance of you.”Our church officially called me to be the pastor but it also meant Susie was going to be the pastor’s wife and our children were going to be the pastor’s kids. All I can say that they, and especially Susie, have been awesome. They have shared the load and have made quiet sacrifices few know about. They have blessed me and our church.The real reason I became a preacher was that Susie, before we ever dated, told me in a letter that she was going to marry a preacher one day. So, I figured the only way I was going to have a chance with her was to become a preacher. Not really! But at my birth, the midwife/nurse who delivered my two older brothers as well handed me to my mom and said, “This one will be a preacher.” Really!Finally, to God be all glory. Thanks, your Pastor  

Raising Kids - Follow the Instructions

Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward.Psalm 127:3 (NASB)Fathers (parents), do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4 (NIV, parenthesis mine)No decent parent wants their child/ren to grow up and be a bum or brat, be lazy, dishonest, out of control, ungrateful, disrespectful, irresponsible, rotten, or foolish. Of course, if you leave character building up to chance or to your cute little offspring themselves you will exponentially increase their chances to be some or all of the above.I had them, this year’s VBS 5-6^th grade boys, set up a tent. They yanked it out of the box, opened the zippered bag and went to work, and like typical males didn’t bother to read the instructions, which, by the way, were sown to the zippered bag so there is no chance of losing them. Finally, one of them, Coty, realized it wasn’t going too well, so he sat down and read the instructions, and together with Swain’s leadership they actually managed to set the thing up. I was proud of them.Why are we so reluctant to read and follow instructions? And why do babies come without any instructions? And why do those “gifts of God” have such a difficult time following instructions while they’re still in diapers and then only get worse at it?God knows us all too well, that’s why his instructions to parents are clear: Don’t leave the raising of your kids to chance, to mere crisis management, current cultural trends, or somebody else. Don’t exasperate your kids with being absent, disengaged, inconsistent, and not having a plan. Instead, train and instruct them the way God wants you to train and instruct them. This, of course, requires that we as parents know God ourselves, are familiar with his ways, champion his values, live like he wants us to, love what he loves, and read and practice the manual, the instructions, the Bible.It is possible to raise very decent kids with great values and leave God out of the picture. But it is impossible to raise godly, God-fearing kids and leave God out of the picture. So, if you are lucky/blessed with having one or more of those gifts from God called children, make sure that above all you raise them with God and his Son Jesus Christ in the center of everything, training them and instructing them in all that is important to God, and be the best example of all of that they will ever see. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Proverbs 9:10 (NIV)To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor HansP.S. To that end anchor yourself and your family in a local church. I actually know a good one.            

The dangling, limp worm of self-pity

It was looking forward to going fishing between the spillway of Union Lake and the inlet of Utica Lake. Everything looked perfect, the weather could not have been better, the scenery spectacular, my company, Susie, the best. And then, overnight, my night crawlers had all died. Next, I lost my favorite spinner. This was followed by the tip of my pole breaking. Finally, the coup de gras to my fishing adventure was delivered by a big red ant biting me where no man should be bitten. It might be a long while before I’ll try fishing again.I hauled my severely humbled and dejected self back to where Susie was sitting on a rock. She was having a marvelous time taking pictures, and, because for some reason there was outstanding cell reception, she was sending them to her favorite people. In the background, I could hear all of the creatures of the forest snickering, and the osprey circling overhead was grinning from one end of its beak to the other. When I told Susie about my fishing disaster she, you guessed it, burst out laughing. She wasn’t about to join my pity-party. Good for her, I didn’t need pity, I needed perspective.You can go fishing with self-pity, put that limp worm into enough spots, repeat your saga to enough people, and sooner or later someone will bite, feel really sorry for you, allow you, even if it is utterly trivial, to wallow in your misfortune. But you won’t be helped by it, you’ll get stuck in a twisted reality, you’ll continue to circle around yourself and miss the chance to change, to grow, to see the glorious, to laugh.Self-pity has no grit, it speaks about ant bites like they’re shark bites. Jesus, encountering a man who had been lame for 38 years (certainly immeasurably more serious than sport fishing mishaps) asked him, “Do you wish to get well?” To which the lame man replied with a statement of self-pity and resignation (John 5:1-15). Jesus didn’t take the bait, instead, he told him, “Get up and walk.” The lame man had to make a decision, continue in his self-pity or trust what Jesus just told him. It is possible to drag around on the ground with two perfectly healthy legs.Jeremiah the prophet was feeling sorry for himself. God answered him not quite how we would expect, he completely ignored Jeremiah’s dangling worm of self-pity, “If racing against mere men makes you tired, how will you race against horses? If you stumble and fall on open ground, what will you do in the thickets near the Jordan? Even your brothers, members of your own family, have turned against you. They plot and raise complaints against you. Do not trust them, no matter how pleasantly they speak” Jeremiah 12:5-6 (NLT2). Can you feel God’s empathy? Sounds more like, “Suck it up, it’ll get worse.” Obviously, God didn’t think pity was Jeremiah’s need for the moment, but he did need perspective.Elijah the prophet went from an incredible victory and acts of faith to the depth of despair and wallowed in self-pity. “I am all alone,” he told himself and God twice. God’s response, “What are you doing here?” (2 Kings 19:1-18), “You are not alone, there are 7000 others faithful to me.” Never mind, that God and his angels were right there with him, providing, taking care of him.To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans   

Nevertheless, not my will, but yours - God's General Will

Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will. Mark 14:36 (HCSB)Jesus’ entire life was about doing God’s, his Father’s will. Christians, as followers of Jesus Christ we are obviously called to do the same, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you” John 20:21 (NLT2), Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did” 1 John 2:6 (NLT2).Every time we pray, and we should pray continually (1 Thessalonians 5:17), we are meant to concern ourselves with God’s honor, God’s will, and God’s kingdom before anything else, Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven ..." Matthew 6:9-10 (ESV). But how often are our prayers centered on our families, our health, our problems, our frustrations, and our needs?How can you and I grow into Jesus’ shoes when it comes to letting go of what we want, what we feel is best, from circling too much around ourselves? How do we get to the place where, although everything inside of us screams, “God get me out of this,” we pray, “Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will”?One absolutely necessary step is a commitment to the general will of God. There are things we know to be the will of God regardless of where we live, the positions we hold, the circumstances we find ourselves in, and the times we live in. Our best source for knowing the general will of God is the written word of God, the Bible.Through the Bible, we learn that it is God’s will for us to be loving, kind, merciful, generous, hospitable, peaceful, forgiving, hard-working, patient, honest, … The scriptures tell us to be men and women of prayer, to pursue godly wisdom, to be active and committed to the church (Christ’s body), to serve others, to do good, to be unselfish, to care about justice and the poor, to worship, to learn the things of God, to use our skills and abilities to serve God and our neighbors, to be careful with what comes out of our mouths, to be grateful, to be witnesses for Christ, and much much more. You and I can be certain that all of these are God’s will. I don’t have to ask God, “Do you want me to be kind to this person?” or, “Do I have to care about her?” What I might end up praying though is, “He is driving me crazy Father, and I don’t know how much more of his rudeness I can take. I need your help Lord in maintaining and showing kindness to him.”Let’s assume you have been praying for God to reveal to you his specific will in regard to a new job offer that would help you take care of your family better, and you got the job. The next Sunday you come to church thanking and praising God, testifying of his goodness, blown away how he worked it all out. Then on Monday you go to your new job and you immediately join in the gossip, you tell your first lie, you are rude and excuse it as setting boundaries, you spend an hour of company time doing various things on your smartphone, and finally you leave early. How long do you think it will take for your coworkers to believe that you are all about the honor of God, the will of God, and the kingdom of God? What are the chances that when things are really tough and you have a lot on the line you will cry out, “God, not what I will, but what you will”?If we are going to become good at doing God’s will then we have to be men and women who are committed to knowing and doing God’s general will. This is the starting point. This is what will strengthen us in the battle of wills. This is what will grow in us a delight for God's will. This will help us in discerning God’s specific will because the specific will of God will always entail doing the general will of God. Jesus practiced his Father’s general will for thirty years. He won innumerable small battles regarding Gods general will long before he fought and won his ultimate battle of wills in the Garden of Gethsemane. I believe we are both wise and will benefit from doing the same.To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans