Do you ever get one of those messages?   Often an email or Facebook where you are invited to an event and the sender wants a response.  Any more all you have to do is click on the appropriate response – Yes I’ll be there, Thinking  about it, or Sorry can’t attend.  You don’t have to host the party, decorate for it or pay for it, but you do have to respond to the invitation.  If you say yes I’ll be there you need to show up.  God has sent us an invitation to us to accept his grace, love, redemption and forgiveness.  What is our response?
    In Matthew 22:1-14 Jesus tells of such a story.  The king invites folks to come to a banquet in honor of his son but most refuse.  Then the king opens his invitation to all and several came.  Jesus was talking about his reception from the Pharisees and religious people of his day.  The father sent him and invited Israel to receive their Messiah, but most of them refused the invitation.  God then opened his call to all to come and believe.  Those who refused the call missed out on the very thing they said they were looking for.  Others received what they could not imagine, what they had been told was out of their reach. 
   God is still calling people into a relationship with him through Jesus.  God still wants to give us all the blessings in Christ (read Ephesians 1:3-14).  But he is waiting for our response (Revelation 3:20).  Many claim to be looking for God in their lives and to desire his love and peace.  So if God wants to give it why aren’t they finding it?  One answer is they aren’t really looking for it. They aren’t responding to the invitation and they are like the Pharisees in Jesus day – missing out on what is right in front of them.
   So the question for each of us is, “Are you responding?”
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Don
 

   They say that golf is a game that can only be played never mastered.  Having played off and on (more off than on) for 50+ years I can attest to the truth of that statement.  Here lately I haven’t given much time or effort to it.  I went out yesterday and played a few holes and the lack of attention to my game was very evident.  Frankly I looked like someone just taking up the game, instead of someone who had spent much of his adult life pursuing and enjoying the game.  I was trying to remember old habits that I thought were engrained in my life, only to realize nothing lasts forever.   After a few holes some form of a swing reemerged and I did a little better.  I may try to get out more often this summer, and even spend some time practicing, that would help.  But again you can only play it, never master it.  Yet I play on.
   Our Christian walk is much the same.  We can work on it every day and never really say we have it mastered, however when I spend time away from the Lord it shows up and not in a good way.  Habits that have been developed over time such as prayer and Bible study can just as easily be forgotten.  You don’t realize the power of being in the Word every day until you aren’t.  God doesn’t speak as loudly or clearly when you wander away from the Word.  You sit down and open the Bible up and it is as if a fresh breeze just blew in your face on a hot dry day, a reminder that you’ve been gone too long.
   Summer is a time to get back into those habits (actually any time is a good time).  Let’s do the 5 challenge.  If you aren’t currently spending any time in prayer and Bible study start with five minutes of each, just ten minutes out of your day.  If you have a steady habit of Bible study and prayer add five minutes to each.  Those who exercise daily understand this.  That workout that really helped you in the beginning isn’t doing much for you now.  Why?  Because your body is use to it, it needs a little more challenge.  If you are reading over the same section of scriptures all the time explore a book you haven’t read.  I know our tendency is to stay with what we know, what we are comfortable with.  I love Paul’s letters, very practical, speaks to the church today, however the Old Testament still has much to say.  And your prayer life may also be in a rut.  Couples after several years of marriage tend to fall into repetitive conversations and get rather bored with each other.  In prayer get more specific in your requests; look for new words to praise and honor God.  Make yourself think about what you are praying.
   Make this summer not an escape from God but a refresher on getting closer to God; you’ll notice the difference come fall.

Don
 

    ​“What can I do for you today?”  That’s a pretty standard greeting when you walk into a shop, especially a quaint little mom and pop store.  What do you need, how can I help you, or may I be of service? We may have walked in with something specific on our mind or a shopping list or we may just want to browse for a bit to see what they have to offer.  People often come to God or the church in the same way.  They may have well thought out questions such as on the day of Pentecost, “What must I do to be saved?”  Other times folks aren’t sure, they know they’re looking for something but not sure what it is.  We need to be ready for all wanders.
    The question, “What can I do for you?” may seem like a strange greeting to someone who has just dropped in to visit but it may get them to thinking.  Have you ever done something which you thought was random only to discover there was a purpose after all?  Have you stopped to talk to someone, even a perfect stranger, not really knowing why and find that God had a plan for that conversation?  We need to make room for God to move in our lives.  We need to be willing to start conversations, not knowing where they may lead.  We need to take time, and what a precious commodity that is.  It is in these moments that God reveals so much, not just the needs of others, but to show us our own needs.
    I know that feels scary, to open that door, to invite someone to share their world with you.  It might be a world of hurt.  They might share needs that would cost us to help meet or they might even disagree with us and challenge our faith or position.  The great explorers of old never made a single discovery by staying in the harbor.  All those great adventures, all the new lands, all those things which made them famous came as a result of throwing off their moorings and heading out to sea.  Your next adventure may begin with a handshake or a simple question, “Can I help you?”
Don
 

I was sitting outside enjoying a beautiful spring evening and contemplating different things.  One idea that was weighing on my mind was the purpose that we have as the church, not just our individual congregation, but the church universal.  At the same time I was looking at one of the large pecan trees in the backyard and noticing that it was beginning to bud out.  From this musing the thought slowly developed of how the tree had something to teach me about the church.  The mighty trunk of the tree, as strong and thick as it was, could never stand on its own.  It has to be rooted dip into the ground, held in place by the root system.  The church may seem strong, it has been around for a long long time, but it doesn’t stand on its own.  There are the roots of our faith and heritage deep in the soil of God’s provision through his Word, his Spirit and most of all his Son.  We must be rooted in him to grow.
The branches coming off the trunk are the different individual churches that reach out into the world and while there are many of us we are united in our faith in Christ.  Coming off of the individual branches were the numerous small branches from which the buds were coming out.  Those buds, which would become leaves and pecans, needed connection with the tree for their nourishment, their life.  They couldn’t make it on their own.  As Christians we draw from the church our strength and nourishment to live the life of Christ.  So the church is here to empower us and give us life through Jesus.
But then I realized that just as the leaf relied on the branch for life, the branch needed the leaf just as much.  A tree without leaves would wither and die just as much as a leaf without a tree.  A church without folks is a pretty lonely place.  Just as the church gives life to the individuals there, the people of the church give life back to the church.  As a church we have a responsibility to feed and nurture the Christian, but each Christian has a responsibility to give back to the life of the church.  It won’t work any other way.  Without this mutual relationship we both die for the truth is the church is its people.
So if you wonder what your purpose is it is to be the church, to be Christ, for as much as you need the church, the church also needs you.
Don
 

Where’s your heart?  That probably sounds like a silly question.  It’s right where it’s always been, in my chest.   We talk of giving our heart to someone, or having a heart, but it’s still right there pumping away and it hasn’t moved an inch.  “Well that’s different,” we say.  In that case we are speaking metaphorically, it’s our love that we are giving or our feelings that are hurting.  The ancient Greeks spoke of splagchna when they talked of such things.  The King James Bible translates this word as “bowels” as in tender bowels of mercy.  I think they were getting closer to the truth.  When we hurt over someone or pine for someone we feel it in the pit of our stomach, in our splagchna.
Ultimately such feelings come from our mind, having the attitude or an emotion of love and compassion.  Paul asked the Philippian church if there was any tenderness from being united with Christ (Philippians 2:1, and actually he says a lot more well worth reading.)  As Christians we need to feel what God feels.  We need to love what God loves and to feel anger over what angers God.  To have a heart for God like King David did requires for us to actually have the mind of Christ.  When we see things from God’s perspective, we understand how he sees the world and how he sees us, we will then begin to feel as God feels.
If our heart is set on our own thoughts, worries and ideas we will not have the heart of God.  If the source of knowledge that feeds our heart is only from the world around us, we will not have the heart of God.  If our heart is shaped by the media, culture or traditions that we are raised with we will not have the heart of God.  We must let him renew our minds, we must let him give us new eyes to see with and yes we need a new heart, God’s.
Don
 

We all have a story to tell. Some are more exciting than others, some seem to always go wrong while others seem to continually land on their proverbial feet.  One question we have to answer is “Who is the author of our story?”  Most of the time we would consider that we are the author. We are writing our story through the decisions we make.  Yet there are also times when we realize someone else may be behind it all.  Our name may be on the cover but another’s hand is pushing the pen.
Abraham certainly made a lot of decisions about his life.  He left Ur of the Chaldeans, traveled to Haran and then to Canaan, the Promised land.  Yet he left Ur because his father said so.  His father Terah had a mind to move to Canaan but once he got to Haran he seemed content to stop.  We know one of Abraham’s brothers died in Ur before they left.  Was his father too sad about the loss of his son to stay there?  Was his father more of a businessman looking for new opportunities?  We don’t know but we do know that each of those choices brought Abraham closer to the plan that God had for him.  In the case of leaving Haran we know that God directly said to Abraham he was to go to a place that God would show him.
The question of who is writing our life can begin to seem confusing and a little scary when we think that we really don’t have the control that we thought we had.  That is exactly where faith comes in.  Paul reminds us in Romans that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.  Abraham made the choices he did or was led by God to make the choices.  In the end it was all the same because Abraham wasn’t living simply for himself but for God.
I’m reminded of what Paul said to the Philippians, “. . . being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.”  Phil. 1:6   Ultimately our story is God’s story and even the simplest of lives have meaning and value when lived for him.  Have faith and keep moving.
 

 ​   As I write this Jacqueline and I are getting ready to head back to Omaha.  The doctors have determined that her brother is declining in spite of the life support and it was time to make a decision.  We know that Joel would not want to be kept alive with no hope of improvement.

    It has been a long month for him and the whole family.  I know we could not have made it through this time without the love, prayers and support of all of you.  You are family to us and mean so much.  So one more time we call upon your love and prayers to pull us through.  Thank you for always being there.
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Don
 

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The news from Indonesia has been heartbreaking with the number of people who died.  First as an earthquake hit their area and then in the aftermath of the tsunami.  It’s like a one-two punch from nature when something bad is followed by something worse.  Life can be full of one-two punches, someone gets sick and then their house burns down.  In those moments we really get what it was like to be Job, to have your crops burn, your livestock stolen and then news that your children died.  And right at first you aren’t allowed to turn to the last page and see how it all works out.  These are the times when our faith is really tested.   It is also the time when God can shine through the brightest.  I may have the best and brightest searchlight ever but on a bright sunny day it’s of minimal use.  In the darkest of nights is when it shines its best and when I need it the most.
You probably haven’t been hit by an earthquake followed by a tsunami, even though you may have been hit by a hurricane followed by days of torrential rain, but maybe lately several days have ganged up on you.  We need to remember the words of Isaiah 41:13, “For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, ‘Do not fear; I will help you.”  In this section of Isaiah the Lord is reassuring his people he is there for them, they don’t need to fear.  He will take them by the right hand and lead them.  It should be noted Isaiah wrote at a time when God and Judah (the southern Kingdom) were not on good terms and much of what Isaiah has to say is a warning.  Yet even in these times God was also telling his people how much he loved them and longed for them.  He was still there for them.
Too often when we are going through difficult times we see God as mad at us, mad and punishing.  In reality even in these times God is loving and merciful, just when we need that the most.  So when you feel like life is giving you a good thrashing, look around to see that searchlight from God.  It’s there; you just have to look for it.
 

 ​I am firmly of the opinion that the character of the person I marry should reflect my relationship in Christ.  In II Corinthians 6:14 Paul says that we are not to be yoked together with an unbeliever.  Now there are many ways that we yoke our life together with someone, it could be business partners or best friends, but who we marry is certainly at the top of the list that Paul is talking about.  So why would God tell you to marry someone who obviously fits into the “don’t be yoked together” category?  I guess we just have to ask the prophet Hosea for that is what God did ask of him.
When God began to speak to Hosea the first thing he told him was to go take an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness.  God also tells him why.  Many of the prophets not only spoke God’s message to the people, they lived it out.  For further lessons on this read the prophet Ezekiel.  God loved and cared for Israel as a father and husband.  When the children of Israel came to occupy the Promised Land, God fought many of the battles for them.  Remember Jericho, all they had to do was to march around the city and then blow the trumpets and the walls came tumbling down.  Over the years what had been Israel’s response?  Time and time again they turned and worshipped other gods, ignoring the covenant and the promises. 
The life and marriage of Hosea and Gomer was an object lesson to Israel.  God is telling them of his hurt and rejection.  But just as he sends Hosea to buy Gomer back from the slave market, so God is telling his people that he longs to have them back and will forgive them if they will turn to him.
It may seem strange to us the way God sent his message to Israel and what the cost of that message was for Hosea, but God is speaking all the time to us.  Certainly we have His Word, the Bible to turn to but he also speaks to us through the experiences we have and the experiences of others.  God is willing to use any means necessary to get our attention.  Some folks have found God at the end of a divorce, others through bankruptcy.  Some find him at the end of their rope or the bottom of a bottle, but make no mistake, God is talking, God is reaching, God is loving us all the time, and we need to listen.
 
Don
 

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