Wisdom from Norman Nagel

It is only because God has come to be our Father that we can pray to Him.  Only because Christ has taken away our sins on Himself and wiped them out by His victorious death can we stand before God, forgiven, His children in Christ. Only as we are bound to Christ can we come before God as His children, for then God sees us in Christ, wearing the garment of Christ's righteousness.  This is the key to a living connection with God our Father.  All contact, all prayer with Him must be in Christ, in the name of Jesus, that is, with faith in Him.

From "Selected Sermons" page 139. 

Top Ten Discoveries Made Around the Church Office

10)       Pastor complains of one sleepless night after another when unable to get the VBS songs out of his head.

9)         Secretary is fed up having to hum the hymns to the pastor each week because “He can’t remember how they go.”

8)         Church custodian feels taken advantage of when told to wax the fellowship hall floors and the pastor’s car.

7)         Pastor discovers there is no place to hide from the head organist.

6)         Church staff refuses to call the pastor, “The Sermoninator.”

5)         The secretary tries to talk the pastor out of his latest outreach idea, “Reverse Offering Sunday” where visitors get to take money out of the offering plate.

4)         Office computers still function poorly even when upgraded to Windows ’98.

3)         Pastor blows a gasket when he reviews the Sunday bulletin and finds that the secretary has placed a “sad face” next to Confession, a “happy face” next to Absolution and a “sleeping face” next to the sermon.

2)         Church staff surprised to learn that the new copier is coin operated; color copies require a credit card.

1)          Pastor practices his “side hugs” on office staff.  Custodian threatens to “punch him out.” 

Today's Friday Funny

Master to dog: No more food! Your dog food bag says 1 cup.

Dog to Master: The Oreo box doesn't say 16 Oreos either so what are we going to do?

Master to dog: Ok, one more cup and that's it!

Dog to master: Oh, sorry.  I ate the rest of the Oreos. 

Forgiveness is the air we breathe

Pastor Frank Starr wrote a  series of devotional book entitled, "Light For The Way."  The books are over 30 years old and out of print.  But I've found them to be a good tool for daily Bible reading.

I have copies a number of Starr's comments over the years in my journals.  I especially appreciated this one on forgiveness:

The Lord's forgiveness and restoration is the air we breathe, and breathing this air inspires us to share forgiveness and restoration with those around us.

"Light For The Way," Book 1, page 72 

The Christian Way

The Christian way is different; harder and easier.  Christ says, "give me all.  I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you... no half-measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there. I want to have the whole tree down...Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked - the whole outfit.  I will give you a new self instead. I will give you Myself; my own will shall become yours."

CS Lewis from "The Joyful Christian" 

God is always there to help

Psalm 77 is a favorite of mine.  Verse 19 gives me so much comfort.  You should check it out.

Here is Martin Luther's take on this Psalm:

The 77th Psalm is a psalm of instruction.  The psalmist uses himself as an example of how to find comfort when affliction comes and the conscience is troubled, as if God is angry with it.  He says that he was so troubled that he could not have any sleep or even speak.  But this comfort follows: The psalmist can fight off the thoughts with which he futilely suffered, and he can grasp instead the thought of the mighty works of God in the histories of old.  Here we find that God's work was to help the miserable, the troubled, and the abandoned, and to throw down the self-secure, proud scoffers, for example,when He delivered the children of Israel from Egypt.  

For this reason His paths are called "hidden."  He is there to help when we think that we are totally abandoned.  We should learn this well.  God intends by this psalm to show us and teach us His manner of helping, namely that he never abandons us when things go ill.  Instead, we should wait upon His help at that time with the greatest confidence and not believe our thoughts.


From, "Reading the Psalms With Luther," page 181

You Might Be A Preacher If...

My daughter, Stephanie, gave me a nifty little book for my birthday one year.  It was titled, "You Might Be a Preacher If..."  Some of the insights were pretty funny.  To these I've added a few of my own.

You might be a preacher if...

People at the wedding reception can't wait for you to leave.

Your office is "prayer conditioned."

You would rather walk on a bed of hot coals than play "Bible Trivia Pursuit."

You've thought of serving Starbucks coffee during the coffee hour.

You've been asked what it's like to work just one day a week.

You know what a Narthex is.

You've answered a phone call at 2 am and your congregational member said, "I hope I'm not bothering you, Pastor."

You've been asked to offer a prayer for one of your members...when there are two minutes before the service.

When a person takes the communion wine and says, "That's mighty good!"

During the hymns you take a quick attendance count.

You argue with the ushers over the attendance count.

You've got a fabulous sermon on humility.

Reconnecting with old friends

One of the goals my dear sweet wife and I set for ourselves this summer was to reconnect with some old friends with whom we had lost touch.  These were people who came into our lives at just the right time - when we needed a friend, people who provided support and encouragement, people who truly enriched our lives.  We felt somewhat ashamed that we had lost contact with them so it was our aim to reconnect with those who were/are dear to us.

Randy and Ellen were members of the first congregation I served in Missouri.  Randy was our head elder; Ellen turned out to be our best ambassador.  Their service enriched our church.  Randy could be counted on to provide wise counsel.  Ellen was a winsome witness of the Lord's goodness and mercy.  The lived about a half-dozen houses away from ours so we saw lots of each other.  When I took a call to a church in South Carolina our contact was mostly through Facebook and Christmas cards.  But after awhile we just didn't reach out to each other.

But we got them to come and visit our summer home.  What a joyful reunion! We spent much time catching up, shared some of the good and not so good times our families had experienced, ate some good food and went to a tribute concert (the Dolly Parton character was spot on!).  When Randy and Ellen departed we vowed to stay in touch and promised to meet again next summer.

Then there was Bill and Raydine.  When I moved our family to Missouri for an opportunity for radio station ownership the first thing we did was seek out a church.  It was there we met Bill.  He was the president of the local bank.  He introduced us to Raydine and discovered that they had a son that was two days older than our son.  During the five years we were in close contact we spent numerous nights watching our boys play basketball.  We also went on a medical mission trip together.  The two of them were such a blessing to us.  But then we moved and they moved and we drifted apart.

Sherri discovered that Bill and Raydine were traveling to a family camp that would take them through our community.  We got them to visit and they spent the night with us.  Again, as we did with Randy and Ellen, we vowed to stay in touch.  So a week later when our doorbell rang Bill and Raydine were there.  Bill joked, "We liked it here so much we thought we stay a few more days!"  Actually, they brought us a gift and invited us to visit them in their home.  We just might do that.  But in the meantime we promised each other that we would stay in contact.

Then there was Callie.  We met her at a camp for at risk children.  She melted our hearts with her lovely smile and sweet personality.  When the camp ended we were able to stay in touch with her.  We took her to dinner (she never finished a single meal!) and movies she wanted to see.  She participated in theatre and dance at her school and we were overjoyed to see her excel.  Eventually she was reunited with her grandparents and our time spent with her became less and less until we lost contact with her.

But this summer we discovered that she lived only a couple of hours from where we are.  We met half-way for lunch and enjoyed learning what life was like for her.  We also met her three children - so cute! Again, we promised that we would meet again next summer and exchanged phone numbers so we could text or call.

A number of verses in Proverbs talk about the importance of friendship.  We recognize that one of the Lord's great gifts to us are the people He brings into our lives.  Friends who provide love, companionship, help, counsel  and fun.  Have you lost contact with someone with whom you shared a joyous relationship? We learned that its never too late  to reconnect with old friends.  You might consider doing the same.