One Pastor's Perspective

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness … (I John 1:9)

There is a great power in confession. One we can only understand when we actively confess our sins. A great burden is lifted. A clean slate is given. Relationships are mended. God’s purpose is more clearly seen and our relationship with Him is made better and stronger.

As a pastor, I see this firsthand over and over again. And God never fails to amaze us when we just DO His word!!!

Remember those days when you were young, carefree, and had time and resources to pull elaborate pranks on people?? How far did YOU take them?

Some events at EBC have reminded me this week of some of the things I did as a kid. And I am ashamed. I guess I never saw how much things that we think are funny and harmless can hurt people, and eventually hurt the Kingdom of God.

We are dealing with some of that this week. An ongoing joke at Ebenezer among some of our youth and college kids has reached a point where it is no longer funny, where we are giving license to people to complain about THAT CHURCH and the Kingdom of God. And enough is enough.

We all too easily forget that we live in a global community, and our actions have some sort of impact on everyone around us. When we take things too far, when we damage property, when we disrupt an entire families night of sleep, when we steal, we have definitely deviated from God’s will and we are not building His kingdom.

But that is not all … When we live in our pride, when we forsake God’s will for what we want, we are in the same boat. In other words, YOU have the potential to make a positive impact on the Kingdom of God OR a NEGATIVE impact, just in HOW YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE.

EVERYDAY. Think about it …

Just when you think it is safe to go back into the water. The past seven days have been most difficult at the Wike house, and somewhat at Ebenezer. Several odd things have happened; Most, if they happened alone, wouldn’t be so bad. But put them all together and AUGHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Then, my airconditioner at the house stopped working. Fortunately I grew up doing HVAC work with my dad and have some of the tools and supplies needed to fix it. Hopefully that is now done, but time will tell.

I am now waiting to call the State Farm Total Loss claim center to see how bad today is gonna be. Since the first of the year we’ve put a lot of money into the Jetta to get it roadworthy for Clemson. I am not looking forward to this.

I hate rollercoasters … I think it is the loss of control that I hate about them.

Well, yesterday was a rollercoaster at Ebenezer. I could never blog about all that happened. Wouldn’t be appropriate, and I would NEVER remember all of it. Sometimes I think about starting a book that I wouldn’t be able to publish for a long, long time, about all of the things that happen. Yesterday was a rollercoaster day: The bottom would fall out, jerk me around, and when I think things were calming down, it would fall again.

This morning, I am tired. And I think I have whiplash!!! And I hope today is more of a ferris wheel day.

Last night I attended a church co-ed softball game. Went to watch Krissy play. After playing men’s softball for 12 seasons, I’ve not played the last two. Last night I remembered why.

There were some out there to have fun, trying hard, but not getting too caught up in the moment. And then there were a few that took this thing WAYYYY too seriously. Complaining about EVERY mistake everyone else made. Getting way too caught up in all of it. Jamie Foster told one guy “Don’t take this too seriously. This is church league softball.” The answer confirmed my illustration from Sunday of how we’ve all been trained in the art of war.

“I’m not out here to have fun. I’m out here to win.” Those words, recited by a young man in the dugout. And there were older adults, leaders, who echoed that thought.

People, this is CHURCH LEAGUE SOFTBALL. Not a one of you is being paid. Not a one of you is a professional softball player. Re-evaluate yourself. I told one at the end of the game that you can’t take this too seriously, and if you do, you will hate it very soon. I’ve seen that one played out over and over again.

That is why I stopped playing. That, plus the fact that I was a pitcher and I got tired of people firing rockets up the middle and the umpires telling me to get over it.

It is almost officially the MIDDLE of summer break. WHERE IS IT GOING?? I knew this one would go faster, because of what we have to do at the end … in about ONE month.

I guess summer break always goes away too fast. One of the things I am noticing is the older I get, the FASTER time seems to go by. As we get busy, as we get caught up in the stresses and struggles of life, time flies by faster and faster. It seems like only a few years ago when I graduated high school. And that was TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO. A QUARTER OF A CENTURY.

I guess I just hoped THIS summer would go by a little slower. No such luck.

One of my favorite mysterious friends in Florence, SC, is the Flossip. She blogs about the HEART OF FLORENCE. Check it out at www.theflossip.com

This was posted by mikeysfunnies.com a couple of days ago … It appears to be a true story:

Yesterday I was buying 2 large bags of dog food at Wal-Mart. I was about to check out when a woman behind me asked if I had a dog. What did she think I had – an elephant?

Since I had little else to do, on impulse, I told her that no I didn’t have a dog, and that I was starting the Purina Diet again, although I probably shouldn’t because I ended up in the hospital last time. On the bright side though, I had lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of every hole in my body and IVs in both arms.

I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry and that the food is nutritionally complete so I was going to give it a try again. (I have to mention here that everyone in the line was enthralled with my story by now.)

Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care because the dog food had poisoned me. I told her no; I had stopped in the middle of the parking lot to scratch my fleas and a car hit me.

I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack, he was laughing so hard.

Wal-Mart won’t let me shop there anymore.

[forwarded by Amelia Lanning]

today’sTHOT============================

Studying economics may not give you the answers to serious economic problems, but at least you’ll learn to avoid being deceived by economists.

I was talking to a friend today, who also happens to attend Ebenezer. He told me an interesting story about something that happened to him last night at his house.

He answered an evening knock on his door last night to find two people. He said he knew what was coming next: “Hi, we are from X church (a local, non-denominational church in Florence) and we would like to visit with you.” He told them he and his wife are happy to attend and be members of Ebenezer. That was not a good answer. The woman asked if this was the home of _____ (his wife’s name) and he said yes, and they attend Ebenezer. The visitor asked “Are you satisfied with Ebenezer?” He was shocked. He said he felt like he was getting a spam call from ATT or Verizon. He answered yes, for the next shocking question: “Are you sure you are going to heaven?”

As a student of evangelism, I have no problem with the second question. The context, and how it was asked, seemed to be a reflection of WHERE he attended church. The first question was very much an impersonal marketing ploy, but it all got me thinking:

Are those folks over there trying to build the Kingdom of God, or THEIR OWN KINGDOM?? Wouldn’t a better question have been “Are you satisfied with your walk with Jesus Christ?” WHY AIM IT AT THE CHURCH??? Not a direct statement, but that was certainly a passive-aggressive way to say “Ebenezer is really not connected to Jesus and how could you be satisfied??”

Oh, the games churches play!! I will go on record as saying I don’t play those games. I don’t think I have ever asked someone where they go to church, and followed their answer up with a slam against their church or their pastor … Regardless of what I really thought. I’ve even had people visit me, tell me all of their church’s dirty laundry and why they feel they should leave, and tell them the best thing they can do is stay and try to help the church work through the problems. We at Ebenezer have our share of problems, and running from it is never a good idea. I write all of this and freely admit that I am not perfect. I make mistakes. I get angry (I almost AM right now). But I could never orchestrate such against another Christ-believing church, a sister church of mine, and stand before God one day with a clear conscience.

Because, the New Testament clearly tells us we are ONE BODY OF CHRIST. ANYONE WHO BELIEVES CHRIST IS THE ONLY WAY TO HEAVEN IS MY BROTHER OR SISTER. End of story. Regardless of where they go to church. Or Sunday School. Regardless of whether or not they believe Adam had a belly-button, or where they stand on the all-important fried chicken vs roast beef Sunday lunch debate, or anything ELSE equally important in the grand scheme of things.

There is ONE GOD. We worship Him at Ebenezer. I happen to know they worship Him at Calvary Baptist, Central United Methodist, First Presbyterian, Effingham Presbyterian, and the list could go on and on.

The ONLY WAY we can make a difference here is to make sure WE ARE BUILDING GOD’S KINGDOM as a church. As churches. Will you join me??

I MUST be the luckiest guy in the world!!! In the past three days, I have ONCE AGAIN won the Internet lottery, been contacted by multiple people: barristers in England, wealthy people from the Ivory Coast, soldiers in Iraq, ALL needing to bring some money to the states and they chose ME (I fell so honored) to help them, and in doing it I will get a fee of several MILLION pounds.

I have HIT THE BIG TIME!! Now, I just don’t know which one to choose …