Can I Come Out of My Room Now?

This past week in his sermon, Pastor Matt mentioned that actions come from one’s nature and what we do arises from who we are.  As an only child, I was a precocious little girl with an attitude.  I was often sent to my room by my mom to “think about what I’d done or said.”  I spent hours in my room as a child “reflecting” on what I’d done!  Did it help?  Did I change?  Was my behavior in some way altered as a result of my punishment?  The answer would be absolutely NO.  If anything, I just got better at the game! 

The game included being sent to my room.  Then I’d open my door after a few minutes and say, “I’m sorry – can I come out now?”  Then I’d even add a line or two – “I’ll never do that again, Mommy, if you let me out?  I promise!!!” 

My mom would finally relent and “set me free” from my bedroom jail cell and then the game would resume on another day.  I’d do something bad, go to my room, repent, beg and get set free!  That’s how the game worked!  And I was a real “pro” at playing that game too! 

My nature, even as a small child or even today as an adult, was and is sinful!  I couldn’t help myself then and I can’t help myself now.  I am a sinner by nature!  While God hates our sin, He still has compassion towards us and He generously offers us mercy!

Throughout the Old Testament, God had problems with His children and their actions too.  The old covenants show that on their own, God’s children were HOPELESS to keep them.  However, God’s New Covenant shows us that through faith in Christ, there is HOPE!  God didn’t leave His children hopelessly broken forever.  He had compassion and wanted to bring full restoration.  So God sent Jesus to fulfill God’s Covenant and bring the only true restoration possible.  The New Covenant is based on God’s promise and not on our performance!  Whew! 

On those days when we find ourselves wondering if we matter to God, remember that God’s promises are forever.  And that there is nothing we can or will do to ever separate us from the love of God.  Here’s a song by Lee Ann Womack that reminds us that God is with us always. 

Pax,

Pastor Carol 

The Great Covenant Maker!

Last weekend, Pastor Matt mentioned that we, like Adam and Eve, can’t ever go back.  We can’t have a “re-do.”  Something went profoundly wrong in Eden – sin.  In our world, just like Eden, things go profoundly wrong as well.  Sin seems to be compounding in our society.  In fact, some days I think the world is just spinning out of control.  Maybe you might feel that way too?  Marriages are failing at an alarming rate.  Families are struggling.  Kids are struggling.  Brokenness and pain abound, and it seems to be growing.

When you watch the news or watch some cable shows, it appears that perhaps God has indeed “left the building!”  Yet, despite our culture and society, God is in our midst.  In fact, God longs for the day when all of our suffering and broken relationships are healed and restored.  God is a renewal seeker!

“I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”  (Matthew 19:28)

Put simply, a covenant is an act of grace on God’s part for reconciling people to Himself.  Because God is a “covenant maker,” we may not be able to go back in time and have a “re-do,” but because of God’s covenant nature with us, we are given grace and can be reconciled to Him.  What a gift we have been given!  As Pastor Matt reminded us this weekend, covenant is God’s solution to this broken, hurting world. 

Here’s a song from a group in Tel Aviv.  The musical is called The Covenant: The Story of My People.” It retells the story of God’s covenant with Israel. 

Pax,

Pastor Carol

Another Day, Another Dollar

How many balls do you have in the air?  For most of us, the answer is too many! 

We never “hand off” a ball to other people but, instead, we just keep “adding” more balls to our lives.  It’s no wonder many of us are burned out and stressed beyond reason.  Many of us are not working in our “sweet spot” – a place where our skills, God-given gifts and passions meet.  Pastor Steve suggested that if we were to marry our skills and God-given gifts together and spend our time in those areas, we would have more “margin” in our professional lives--not to mention, we would be far more productive and able to “move the ball” along. 

We were also given an assignment.  We were to write our ideal job description.  How did that go for you?  Did you learn anything about yourself and the passions and gifts God has given to you? 

I was in a corporate job a number of years ago that I didn’t really like too much.  I took the job because I needed a job.  In fact, I still remember the morning when I showed up at the office, slammed my car door and said out loud, “Well, another wasted day in my life!”  How many of you have ever felt that way about your job or vocation in life?  Be honest now! 

God didn’t create us to be frustrated, irritated and stressed out by our “jobs”--quite the opposite.  Martin Luther said this about our vocations in his sermon in the Castle Church at Weimer on October 25, 1522, and I think it is still appropriate for us today:

The prince should think: Christ has served me and made everything to follow him; therefore, I should also serve my neighbor, protect him and everything that belongs to him.  That is why God has given me this office, and I have it that I might serve him.  That would be a good prince and ruler.  When a prince sees his neighbor oppressed, he should think:  That concerns me!  I must protect and shield my neighbor.  The same is true for shoemaker, tailor, scribe or reader. If he is a Christian tailor, he will say: I make these clothes because God has bidden me do so, so that I can earn a living, so that I can help and serve my neighbor. When a Christian does not serve the other, God is not present; that is not Christian living.

In other words, through our different vocations, whether we are accountants, marketing managers, doctors, lawyers, manufacturing specialists, coaches, teachers or even pastors, we are set free in Christ to use these gifts to help our neighbors, our communities and our societies.  And through our callings, our jobs, we bring glory to God.  What would happen if we started to see our jobs as not just a way to earn a living, but as a use of our individual God-given “gifts” to serve others and to bring glory to God?  Perhaps we should all give that a try and see what happens! 

Here is a song from the 2009 musical “Storm." It's called “Work:  Another day, Another dollar” and focuses on the frustrations of young people with their jobs in the 21^st century.

  

Pax,

Pastor Carol

Freezer Food

As we continued to look at creating more financial margin in our lives this week, Pastor Steve challenged all of us to to develop a “lifestyle reduction plan.” I don’t know about you, but I’m having a hard enough time losing weight, so to think about putting my whole lifestyle on a reduction plan seems to be an insurmountable task!

However, over this past week, I started to see some simple ways that I could create more margin in my finances that would be fairly easy to put in place. Besides reexamining my budget and debts this week, I also decided to take stock of what I already have in my house. I went through my house, room by room and closet by closet. I’ve got a lot of stuff! I even went through my fridge and freezer! So, this week I decided to implement my new “Freezer Food Adventure” margin plan.

I took an inventory of all that I have in my freezer and in my pantry. There is enough food to feed me for at least a month or more! It was amazing to me – I found seven pounds of salmon and halibut from friends in Alaska, not to mention about 40 chicken breasts, along with a number of unidentifiable frozen objects. (They were a little scary!)

Just looking at those “frozen blobs” of stuff encased in ice, caused me to have flashbacks to my childhood when my parents would buy canned vegetables from “Banks” in Minneapolis that didn’t have their labels on them. You never knew what kind of vegetable you were going to have the “pleasure” of eating for dinner some nights. Banks, in case some of you don’t remember that store, was a retailer that would salvage and sell overstocks and damaged items, but they also had discounted food items.

I would suspect that, just like me, many of you also have freezers and pantries that are brimming over, too. Yet we all continue to go to the grocery store a couple times a week and buy more food because “there isn’t anything to eat at home.” While food is only one area on our budgets to examine as we do a lifestyle reduction plan, I would challenge all of us to look at those “little” ways that we can create a bit more financial margin in our lives. Little cuts can add up over time. We are called to be good stewards of all that we have been given.

Below is a video clip entitled “The God Pie” that points out how many of us look at our finances each month.


Pax,
Pastor Carol