One Pastor's Perspective

There are several things in this life on which you can rely. They will come no matter what. Of course, death and taxes make that list. Let me add another: Discouragement.

If God’s people are doing what He wants them to do, the devil will ALWAYS be there to whisper little statements of discouragement to attempt to misdirect them. That is one of the things he does. One of his bread and butter moves. And men & women fall for it all of the time.

He will tell you that you cannot possibly do it. He will make the situation seem bleak, hopeless, and dark, and then tell you there is not enough light. He will make it terribly cold and tell you that it cannot possibly be heated. He will make the hill jagged, rough, and tall, and tell you it cannot be climbed. And when we look into ourselves and agree, he smiles.

We forget what Peter forgot as he walked on water to Jesus. We take our eyes off Jesus and look around at the wind and the waves and think “We cannot possibly be doing this.” And the devil smiles as we sink.

The mistake Peter made, and the mistake we make, is when we TAKE OUR EYES OFF JESUS. When we forget that sometimes the devil tells the truth: Sometimes we CANNOT make it . . . on our own. And Jesus stands by knowing that if we just trust Him, He will shed light on dark times; He will warm the coldest places; He will show us how to climb the most rugged terrain. NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH HIM.

God often calls us to tasks that we cannot possibly do on our own, and He NEVER calls us to a task that He is not ready to help us complete!! He IS awesome! And THAT is the ULTIMATE THING you can count on!

Today, I called my pal Tommy Truluck (after his hernia surgery) and told him I would buy his biggest property (Tommy is in commercial real estate) IF he could do 100 pushups right now.

Yeah, that was mean.

YOU MIGHT BE A PASTOR IF…

~ You hesitate to tell people what you do for a living.
~ You’ve ever dreamed you were preaching only to awaken and discover you were.
~ You’ve ever wondered why people couldn’t die at more appropriate times.
~ You find yourself counting people at a sporting event.
~ You’re leading the church into the 21st century, but you don’t know what you’re preaching on Sunday.
~ A church picnic is no picnic.
~ You jiggle all the commode handles at the church before you leave.
~ You’ve ever spoken for free and were worth every penny of it.
~ People sleep while you’re talking.
~ Instead of getting “ticked off,” you get “grieved in your spirit.”
~ You’ve ever been tempted to take an offering at a family reunion.
~ You read sermons to your kids at night instead of bedtime stories.
~ You’d rather talk to people with every head bowed and every eye closed.
~ You’ve ever wanted to “lay hands” around a deacon’s neck.
~ You often feel like you’re herding cats rather than shepherding sheep.
~ Your greatest joys (and biggest heartaches) have been in the church.

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The operative part of that phrase is WITH GOD. God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and He is everywhere. There is NOTHING that is beyond his scope or reach or ability. He really is all of that and more.

One of the mistakes we make is we expect Him to be more of a genie-in-a-bottle than OUR LORD. He expect Him to grant our wishes and be at our beckoning. HE IS GOD!!! We are us. THINK ABOUT IT!

How insulting is it to Him for us to ONLY approach Him when something needs fixed or when we need a miracle! And, yet, that is what we do over and over again. I really believe it breaks His heart.

Nothing is impossible with God. Nothing is impossible FOR God. And, it is a miracle that He loves us so much He sent His Son to die on a cross for us. Man, we don’t deserve His love.

http://www.sermonspice.com/videos/19889/discipleship-linebacker

Living in New Orleans for three years taught me a little about oil companies and their politics. For example, when we were in the Big Easy both Chevron and Shell had corporate offices and many industry workers living in the city. Therefore, gas prices were always HIGHER and oil industry folks always told me it was to imply the industry was not doing well to its employees (but they ALL knew better).

I know that gas prices are set on speculation, not what they paid for the gas in the tanks at the station but what it will cost to REPLACE that gas. I don’t like it, but I understand that theory. Okay, so explain THIS: According to one of the business reporters on Fox News, the average price of a gallon of gas has decreased since July by ~25 cents. Okay, we should be thankful. HOWEVER, the average WHOLESALE price of a gallon has decreased by ~95 cents. So that theory about what it cost to replace the gas is BULL.

Who is making the money from this?? Gas distributors, according to this reporter. I am trying not to become one of these conspiracy theorists, but WE ARE GETTING RIPPED OFF!! They also commented that Ike did not do much damage at all, so things should return to normal soon. WILL PRICES RETURN to where they were??

Who do I need to get Mark Jones to call about this????

As I write in my blog this morning, I am wearing my EBC Disaster Relief tshirt. NOT because I am writing about it . . . It just so happens that is the shirt I will wear to the Y in a few minutes. But the shirt reminds me of three years ago when we went to Gulfport in the wake of Katrina. I referenced that trip in my sermon yesterday and commented that it was a horrible trip and a great one. Horrible, because of the devastation and hurt that we saw in the eyes of Gulf Coast residents as they watched all they knew to be security and “home” ripped away.

The great part of the trip was the relationship-building that happened between our crew. Tom Boan has been a friend of mine since we moved to Florence 13 years ago, but nothing will replace the time we spent in his van. It was fun.

Today, another hurricane has devastated and the destination is a little farther than Mississippi. BUT once again people are hurting. Will we be a one-disaster church, or are we up to the task?? If God calls, will YOU go?

I have NEVER in my lifetime seen things like I saw last night. I made a huge mistake yesterday when I rode by the WalMart gas station, saw gas for 3.41, and DID NOT STOP. And, I thought about it, but did not have time.

What I didn’t know was that just a few hours later, there would be a massive jump in price AND a mass panic in Florence. Hurricane Ike is bearing down on the Gulf and there is talk of a large refinery in Houston being hit . . . ergo, Florence is PANICKED. And there were fights at the pump.

After Krissy’s softball game, we rode over to WalMart again, hoping things had calmed down. They had not. In fact, cars were lined up all the way back to the store! And the cops were there! That one I wondered about, but did not stop to find out why. We continued to drive. EVERY GAS STATION WE SAW was OVERWHELMED with people. I was beginning to wonder IF I would get gas.

We were able to get in line at a station on Second Loop. Gas was still reasonably priced at that one. I pulled in behind a car, only to notice a young girl, trying to pull in the wrong way, kind of lined up behind the guy pumping in front of me. And she started yelling at me, although I never heard her and she never got out of her car. I noticed that I could pull into another line, so I did. Marvin Slaughter was pumping in a line beside me. He told me he hadn’t seen anything like this since 1973. As we talked, a Jeep pulled in to the first spot I was in. The girl started yelling, and then the GUY pumping gas started yelling at the guy in the Jeep and the guy in the Jeep was yelling back. I wondered how all of that would end up.

I did get my gas, but what I noticed was a great tension in the people. People were scared. I don’t know for a fact, but I bet the police were at WalMart to PREVENT this OR to STOP one that had already erupted.

Either way, it was nuts.

That is a good place to be for a church. There is so much going on at Ebenezer, I cannot keep track of it all. And that IS a good thing. Ebenezer is at the place in her growth that so many ministries are starting and rolling that it would be IMPOSSIBLE for one person to keep track. That is why we, as a church, MUST surround ourselves with good people we trust to conduct ministry. That is the CHURCH being the CHURCH.

The only difficulty in this is there are still people with that small-church mindset that think the pastor should know EVERYTHING, do EVERYTHING, and attend EVERYTHING. We have reached the point where that would be PHYSICALLY impossible, unless we all agree to clone me, and if nothing else we can ALL agree THAT would be a bad idea.

So, for now, GOD BLESS A CHURCH that has so much going on. Because, as far as I can tell, it is ALL stuff done in His name to build His kingdom.

I am proud of my friend and our sherriff, Kenney Boone. This is the way he rolls . . . Using Youtube to FIGHT DRUGS. KEEP IT UP, KENNEY!

And, if you are a parent, please watch this with your kids.