Christ-follower, Husband, Dad, Pastor

relationship

February 3, 2014

We Need Each Other

I need you and you need me. That isn’t hard to type, but it is often hard to live out. Why do I struggle sometimes to admit that I really need people?

I need my wife and Patti needs me. We are interdependent upon one another. Without a flow of love and mutual ministry between us, there would be a tremendous hole in our emotions. God gave me His gift of marriage because I need it and Patti needs it. Patti and I need each other.

As the pastor of a local congregation, I need the people that make up Valley Fellowship. I’m not all by myself. I am not self-sufficient; I can’t do “church” on my own. Even the pastoral and preaching ministry I have received from the Lord couldn’t happen without believers standing with me, helping, praying, giving, loving. God put you and He put me into a body of which we are a part. I am not every member of the body. You are not every member of the body. WE need each other.

Why? In this article we are going to evaluate this battle and try to understand where it is going. learningworksca.org generic sales viagra Following the complete guidelines while taking Kamagra dose, one can get the relief from ED canada viagra cialis in the first day. Meanwhile, a large number of macrophage accumulations in abdominal cavity can be caused due to endometriosis prices for cialis right here disease. Another advantage of buying Kamagra oral jelly online from an online store to save a lot of money into developing, researching and testing the new canada viagra cheap loved that drug had a side effect that they did not expect. My experience with the amazing people who make up Valley Fellowship Church, make it easy for me to understand Paul’s joy when he wrote, “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now” (Philippians 1:3-5 NIV). I don’t stand alone. Patti and I don’t just stand together. For more than twenty-five years, we have been partnered with the greatest church family on earth. I have benefited from the sacrificial investments of so many people. Thank you! I need you and we need each other.

We cannot do ministry or life alone. God’s work isn’t finished. I am asking God to deepen my appreciation for the partnership I share with my brothers and sisters in Christ. I am also praying that God will give you a deep understanding of what our partnership together is doing in the Tennessee Valley and in you. Thank you, Lord! My heart is filled with joy! I am made for connection and so are you.We need each other.

Hey, partner, are you ready to enjoy the journey together?

September 26, 2013

Wavy hair is great – just don’t let mine wave goodbye

Every time I visit the barber, the mirror-multitude spotlights the balding spot on my head that I would rather forget. Years ago, the stylists would encourage, “It’s not noticeable. It isn’t any larger than the last time you got your haircut.” Yeah, sure. Your mirrors make it easy for me to see the bright reflection of overhead lights from the top of my head.

As I shave in the morning, I don’t usually think about the spot because I don’t see the spot. But, the spot sure does show up when I see pictures of the back of my head. Please, pardon me today as I grieve the missing hair.

My greatest problem is not production, but distribution. My body still produces lots of hair. After all, I have plenty of hair springing out from my neck, back, ears, etc. Hair implants might get hair distributed to the used-to-be-small-patch on my head, but I am not interested in pain. I require less styling gel, but more sunscreen lotion. I am forced to wear a hat at the beach (wow, uncovered skins burns quickly!). I don’t mind having wavy hair; I just don’t want my hair waving goodbye.

I never had a spot in my twenties. According to missionary-evangelist E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973), baldness is the first of four signs of advanced age (bifocals, bridges, and bulges are the other three). Am I really getting older?

I try to console myself – I am a lover. After all, a man who is balding in the front is a thinker; a man balding in the back is a lover; a guy balding in the front and back thinks he is a lover. I do love Patti. Patti will love me either way. But, I wouldn’t mind God miraculously empowering my follicles with some fresh growth.

A balding head is better than none at all, but bald jokes abound.

  • You must be getting taller cause your head is starting to stick through your hair.
  • Once you go bald, you never grow back.
  • You aren’t getting balder – just more aerodynamic.

In the third season of Seinfeld (“The Fix Up”), Elaine describes George to a potential blind date, but her description fails miserably at the end, “He’s kind of – just kind of – losing his hair.”

“He’s bald?” the girl probes.

“No, no, no! He’s not bald . . . He’s balding.” Elaine responds.

“So he will . . . be bald?”

Her voice sliding despondently, Elaine answers, “Yee-ah.”

Yeah, I know. Feel free to fire some more jokes my way! I’ll try not to go all Old Testament on you, reminding you of 2 Kings 2:23-24. Know the story? After mocking baldheaded Elisha, forty-two young people get mauled by two bears. Just saying . . .

Why am I fretting? Why should I worry? Thankfully, the Lord is intimately aware of what I am going through. There are no secrets to Almighty God. His awesome omniscience tracks the tiniest details of my life. I should rest in faith, free from fear. Jesus encourages, “the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.” (Luke 12:7 NLT) That is how much my Heavenly Father cares for me!

I am valuable to God. He watches over me. Hair or not – doesn’t really matter. A balding spot on my head doesn’t change my relationship. It’s time for me to stop whining and go on with the good stuff He has planned for me.

If only we could get hold of the life-changing fact that there are no little things with God! Your seemingly small trouble is of eternal importance to Him this moment. He has some lovely lesson in it for you. A lesson, which if well learned now, will affect you eternally. If you and I refuse to learn it now, He still cares. The next time we “fall to the ground” He will still be there. (Eugenia Price, Share My Pleasant Stones. Christianity Today, Vol. 35, no. 4.)

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February 20, 2013

Vital Relationship of Female & Male

Last year, Patti and I celebrated 25 years of marriage. Thank You Jesus! Heavenly Father always gives me much better than I deserve. God knew I needed a partner in life and ministry. I wasn’t made to do life alone.

Enjoying vital relationships is a good thing! We were created to be relational beings. Both man and woman share relationship with God and each other in the garden. Look back into the first chapter of Genesis; notice the last word of verse 10, 12, 18, 21, and 25. What’s the word God uses of His creation? “Good”!

  • Land and Seas:  “God saw that it was good.” (1:10)
  • Vegetation, plants and trees:  “God saw that it was good.” (1:12)
  • Stars, sun and moon: “God saw that it was good.” (1:18)
  • Fish and birds: “God saw that it was good.” (1:21)
  • Animals and livestock: “God saw that it was good.” (1:25)

Genesis 1:31 underscores “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” (NIV) However, the Lord says, “It is not good  for the man to be alone.  I will make a helper suitable for him.” (Genesis 2:18 NIV) It is not good for any person to be alone.

Men and women who are kept in isolation suffer in many ways. We like reading stories about Robinson Crusoe’s lonely adventure and laugh in the theater as Tom Hanks talks to a volleyball, but in reality, human beings do not function well alone. We don’t want aloneness to happen to us. Man was not made to be completely alone! We are to enjoy vital relationships with God and with each other.

I am intrigued by what’s told in Genesis 3:8. Shortly after the Fall, “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” (NIV) It appears that from time to time the Lord would fellowship with them in the garden. Both hid – not just Adam, Eve hid, too – because both apparently recognized the sound the Lord made as He was walking. This wasn’t something new. They both had a personal relationship with God along with sharing intimate relationship with one another.

Look back at the phrase “a helper suitable for him” in Genesis 2:18. This verse has been the tool used (by some folks) to somehow substantiate that women are insubordinate or inferior to men. How­ever, the Hebrew phrase does not contain that connotation. Instead, the term emphasizes the adequacy of the woman. She is just what he needed! She is the answer to a problem. Relation­ship between male and female corrected the “not good.”

Almost every other time the Hebrew root of “helper” is uses in the Old Testament, it refers to God our help.  For example, the same Hebrew root spoke of Eve’s relationship to Adam is used of the Lord in:

  • His second son was named Eliezer, for Moses had said, “The God of my ancestors was my helper; he rescued me from the sword of Pharaoh.” (Exodus 18:4 NLT)
  • Blessed are you, Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord? He is your shield and helper and your glorious sword. Your enemies will cower before you, and you will tread on their heights.” (Deuteronomy 33:29 NIV)
  • We put our hope in the Lord. He is our help and our shield. (Psalms 33:20 NLT)
  • But as for me, I am poor and needy; please hurry to my aid, O God. You are my helper and my savior; O Lord, do not delay. (Psalms 70:5 NLT)
  • O Israel, trust the Lord! He is your helper and your shield. O priests, descendants of Aaron, trust the Lord! He is your helper and your shield. All you who fear the Lord, trust the Lord! He is your helper and your shield. (Psalms 115:9-11 NLT)
  • I look up to the mountains—does my help come from there? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth! (Psalms 121:1-2 NLT)

Saying, “The Lord is my helper” does not insinuate that the Lord is less! “This would suggest that the helper envisioned in Genesis 2:18 is not inferior in essence to the one helped. Rather, the helper is to be thought of as a co-worker or enabler.” (Millard Erickson, Christian Theology, 1998, p. 564) The man needed the woman, but the women needed the man, too.

One is not inferior; the other is not superior. Male and female need one another. We are created for relationship.

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