One Pastor's Perspective

This week begins spring break for Florence School District One. Drew is going to the beach with our youth. Krissy has possibly FOUR softball games this week, so she probably won’t make it. And, yet, there is an 80% chance of rain today, so tonight’s game is most likely a wash. Our kids settle in for an easy week and things slow down for parents as well.

But what about Easter. What about the old rugged cross and the empty tomb? Yes, we talked all about them yesterday. But what do they mean to us today?? EVERY DAY??

Truth is, Easter never leaves us. We should celebrate it EVERY day, and most definitely every SUNDAY.

Can you handle it?

Our Maundy Thursday worship is a tradition at Ebenezer that dates back for many years . . . I’ve been here for 14 and it dates WAYY before me. It is a service of shadows, a time to remind us of those last hours Jesus had with His disciples and leads us up to the crucifixion and death of Jesus. It is a solemn and reverent event. This year was particularly good, and I attribute much of that to the hard work of Ed Self.

And there is something that amazes me. Every year we have a Lord’s Supper that is unusual for us, and probably for most Southern Baptist churches. Our Lord’s Supper is a time when people come up to the communion table, as families, and receive the elements. We do have our little cups of grape juice, but in this service we use two round loaves of bread. I break the bread and everyone comes up and pinches a little piece off. It is something different for us, and very meaningful. It is a great time to be together and where it is a moment of silence, it is also a moment of community and closeness.

I am amazed and thrilled at how a silent worship time can feel so close. And I know the answer to it all is FAMILY. And I am thankful for my Ebenezer family.

PS – The BEST way to take the bread in that is to pinch a little from the INSIDE of the loaf. It is much easier than trying to tear some off of the crust, and I think it tastes better, too!!!!

In honor of my 700th post, I will share a joke from www.mikeysfunnies.com

Because, in true David Wike form, I would LOVE for you to laugh today!

One Sunday morning when my son, David, was about 5, we were attending a church in our community. It was common for the preacher to invite the children to the front of the church and have a small lesson before beginning the sermon. He would bring in an item they could find around the house and relate it to a teaching from the Bible.

This particular morning, the visual aid for his lesson was a smoke detector. He asked the children if anyone knew what it meant when an alarm sounded from the smoke detector.

My child immediately raised his hand and said, “It means Daddy’s cooking dinner. “

today’sTHOT============================
The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight because by then, your body and your fat are really good friends.

I am proud to be a parent of the WF Lady Knights softball team. Last night we lost. A really close one. And, honestly, two thoughts come to mind:

1. We are VERY PROUD of our girls and how they played their hearts out, and played well. It was a close game and they never gave up, even in the face of overwhelming adversity.

2. We are SHOCKED at the lack of integrity of some of the adults that work in high school sports. Coaches, umpires . . . You get the idea. I have NEVER been to a game in which the outcome was so controlled by a coach.

Since I must be careful, let me just say that I am EXTREMELY THANKFUL for Denise and Herb Carter. The integrity they have taught my daughter will go far in her life. I have known these two for many years, almost the entire 14 years I have been in Florence, and I am glad my daughter goes to WEST. And, I feel sorry for what girls in some of the other schools are learning, because I know it will impact their lives for years to come.

I deal with it every day as a pastor.

There was a little old lady who would come out every morning on the steps of her front porch, raise her arms to the sky and shout, “Praise the Lord!”

Well, one day an atheist moved into the house next door. Over time, he became irritated at the little old lady. So every morning he would step out onto his front porch and yell after her, “There is no Lord!”

Time passes with the two of them carrying on this way every day. Then one morning in the middle of winter, the little old lady stepped onto her front porch and shouted, “Praise the Lord! Lord, I have no food and I am starving. Please provide for me, oh Lord!”

The next morning, she stepped onto her porch and there were two huge bags of groceries sitting there. “Praise the Lord!” she cried out. “He has provided groceries for me!” The atheist jumped out of the hedges and shouted, “There is no Lord. I bought those groceries!”

The little old lady threw her arms into the air and shouted, “Praise the Lord! He has provided me with groceries and He made the devil pay for them!”

(That was today’s funny from www.mikeysfunnies.com)

I just had to …

Are YOU afraid of quicksand??

I have never seen real quicksand, but I have been caught in a quicksand of sorts. The best explanation I have ever seen of this is in a scene from the movie “The Replacements” starring Keanu Reeves and Gene Hackman (among others). In a team meeting, the football coach (Hackman) asks the team what they fear . . . After a couple of dumb answers, Reeves’ character says “quicksand.” He goes on to explain that quicksand is when one mistake leads to another, then another, and before you know it you are up to your neck in it. And have NO CONFIDENCE at all. Quicksand.

That is EXACTLY where the West Florence Lady Knights are right now. They played a GREAT GAME last night until one big mistake lead to another, and another, and they were in it before they knew it. And that has happened in almost EVERY LOSS this year.

How do you survive quicksand?? The more important question is how do you NOT survive?? You don’t survive when you panic and struggle . . . You DO survive when you swim in it. SWIM IN IT?? That is what Tarzan said, and if it is good enough for the King of the Jungle . . .

Seriously, in any sport you CANNOT allow one error to pull you down. If you do, you are in quicksand. You gotta play through it. You gotta ENCOURAGE your teammates and pick them up so they don’t get stuck. You gotta shake it off and keep rolling. Don’t get too worried about it. Make the next play.

In fact, softball and baseball is simple . . . Its all about doing the right thing on the NEXT PLAY.

We can get stuck in quicksand in life, too. It is amazing to me how much sports teach about REAL LIFE. And that is all I have to say about that . . .

Maybe I am too easily baffled by this, but I am amazed at the lack of faithfulness and loyalty among people today. Of course, I remember the days when a professional team drafted a player and that player stayed there for the rest of his career. I remember the days when a company hired someone out of college and they could count on a job, and being treated well, for the rest of their career.

THOSE DAYS ARE GONE!!! I still remember the day Dale Murphy left the Atlanta Braves and became a Phillie. A PHILLIE!!! That is just like leaving the Confederate army and becoming a YANKEE (for those Southerners out there). Murphy’s move was controversial . . . and about money.

NOW DAYS, that kind of move seems as pure as the milk Dale Murphy drank on tv commercials!! Corporations have no faithfulness and loyalty to their workers, and in turn, we are becoming a society just like that. We have no loyalty either. And it is filtering its way down.

It has already hit the church, and will continue to do so. And that is a sad day. Are we becoming a consumer exchange?? We are supposed to be a FAMILY. And, you don’t just walk out on family. And that is where it is all headed . . . As loyalties die out down the line, this mindset will eventually attack the family.

Hmmm . . . I wonder WHERE this mindset comes from???