Parable of chasing the wolf

There was a shepherd who had a large flock and a big problem. A wolf had been taking his sheep one sheep at a time. The shepherd done all he could do to rid himself of this problem but nothing worked. Each week he saw more and more sheep taken from his flock and each week he felt more and more helpless. 

Until one day the shepherd had enough and struck out on his own to deal with this wolf once and for all. He tracked this wolf for miles and every now and then he would get close enough to get a shot off  but he would never hit its mark. 

He stayed the night in the woods, and the wolf circled his camp time and time again but the shepherd was unable to get a clear shot. Morning came and he sought to continue to track down this wolf. 

As he was tracking the wolf, a great blizzard had started to come in and the shepherd realized he needed to turn back to make sure his sheep would be safe. 

 As he headed back the wolf began to emerge from time to time and the shepherd would chase him and try to shoot him. Yet time and time again he would miss his target and waste valuable time.

As he headed closer to his home he saw an unusual sight. Dead sheep, slaughtered and torn apart started appearing here and there as he approached his home. As he drew closer he could see several wolves tearing into his flock. He tried to shoot at the wolves but sadly he no longer had any ammo. He yelled trying to scare the wolves away, but instead he drew attention to himself and became the focus of there attack. 

The shepherd died that day along with the flock, because he went out chasing the wolf, while the wolf pack took advantage of his defenseless sheep.

    

I wrote this parable from a piece of advice I was given by my good friend and pastor brother Nathan Wilkerson. He told me many years ago, "Don't get so focused on fighting off the wolves that you forget to feed your sheep". At the time that he had given me this advice I was dealing with problems in my church that was causing me to lose focus and become more and more frustrated. It was advice that I needed and it helped me to take a breath and begin to at least look at what the spiritual needs were around me that I could help with.

 It did not fix the situation and I eventually left the church but before I left I was able to see two young people, Cory and Audrey, come to know Christ, baptize them and officiate there marriage and set them on the path to serving God. They are to this day serving God in a church and are raising a beautiful family together. They are for me a very bright spot of my ministry there in that church that I look upon with fondness still to this day. 

It seems sometimes in life we tend to focus on one problem to the neglect of other important issues in our lives. For instance we think we need more money, so we focus on trying to make for money, but in so doing we neglect our relationships with our spouse and our children.  We get so upset with the injustices and the issues going on in our country, much of which we can't fix anyways. Yet ignore the issues going in our community and even in our homes that we can fix. 

This truth  has helped me time and time again in ministry and is probably one of the best pastoral advice I had ever been given. I thank the Lord for bro. Nathan's help and wisdom that I needed at that time. Furthermore I hope others can use this advice in there life as well and be blessed by it as I have been. So remember don't go around fighting off the wolves in your life that you forget to feed your sheep! 

Ruined but Renovated

When I moved to Ashmore IL a little under 10 years ago to answer the call to pastor Ashmore Baptist church a lot of things have changed. For instance Sarah Bush Lincoln Hospital in Charleston IL has expanded and grow exponentially. I have seen businesses come and go. Pastors of other churches have come and gone. But one thing that has not changed was the eyesore across the street from the church.

What is interesting is at one time this house was a very nice house in Ashmore. You can tell that this house at one time was beautifully constructed and well made. It was a house that at one time sheltered families, where children would run and play in the yard. It was a home where memories were made, and families were raised.

However over time, as it changed from owner to owner. The house slowly became neglected. Needed repairs were not made and the small problems started to grow into bigger problems. So a once beautifully made house that housed families, and rasied children and made memories. Became abandoned, neglected, and dilapidated. 

For years this house (the one in the picture below) has been abandoned, neglected and by and large left to rot.  Many have said that it would be better to just tear it down to the ground. It switched owners a couple of times and each one, never doing anything that would improve the house's situation. No one could see any value in it, and so no one put any money into it. By all standard's this house was a mess and not even worth fixing. In fact many who would look at this house would surmise, and rightfully so, that it would cost more to fix than it would to tear it down and start over.

However, for the past year or so. I have noticed something a bit strange. I started to see some activity across the street. Activity I had not expected and for that matter no one else expected either. I started noticing that someone new had taken possession of the house and started working on it. I noticed that there was work being done. Difficult pain staking work. Yes someone was over there tuckpointing the entire house. 

Maybe you might call it being nosy, or just being curious, or a little of both. I decided to have a talk with this guy who was doing all of this work. After all it was intriguing to me that someone would go through so much effort to tuckpoint the entire house. especially since there were perhaps other things that might have been more important to fix, like the roof.

What I had found out was rather interesting. This man was not the owner of the house after all, in fact he was contracted out by a man who lived in another city. In fact this owner of the house, actually owned several other old, abandoned and well worn houses. I asked this man if he knew what the owner had in mind with this house? To which he replied that there was talk about renting out, or making it into a bed and breakfast, but he really didn’t know for sure. 

Now that was intriguing to say the least. Here is a house that no one saw any value in, it was for many nothing more than a big old eyesore in town. No one saw any value or worth in it and thought it would be best to just tear it down and start over. However one man saw something more, and began paying money out of his own pocket to restore this old dilapidated house.

Well for several weeks I saw this man working and i then saw some work being done on the roof. A large dumpster was placed in the front of the house, scaffolding was set up, piles of shingles were placed on the porch.  I thought to myself "This guy means business, it won't be long before this house is up and running.

But just like that the work stopped and this empty dormant house stayed the same for several months. No more work, no more labor, grass started growing tall around the house and then it would be chopped down. It would seem that the owner had forgotten it, or maybe he ran out of money. The scaffolding was still up, and the dumpster still stayed on the property. However there was no work being done, no improvements were being made.

This is the way it was for months, that is until several weeks ago I had noticed that once again there was some work being done. They started working on the roof, taking off the shingles, replacing some wood that had rotted underneath, and placing the shingles on.

As I thought about this house and the new owner and his willingness to restore this house. I thought that this is a perfect illustration of what Jesus does for us as well.

We are like this house. At one point we see that you and I were designed by God and we were perfectly made, in a perfectly made world. However sin entered in do to our disobedience and time and time again sin had warn away at us. Little by little our iniquity has chipped our exterior and has erroded our interior. 

Owners have come along from time to time offering us hope for our restoration.

Some of our owners has came in the form of positive thinking, religion, and self imporvment. These owners have been nothing more than slick car sales men, washing our exteror but never really caring to fix us from the inside. There concern has been to simply sell a version of us that would be appealing to others looking at us from the outside. The problem is when you finally let someone in on the inside, they see the real you. They begin to see all the weak spots of your life, the leaky roof that has not yet been fixed, the poor unsettled foundation you are on. 

Other owners have come in the form of addictions, hobbies and other interests. These owners are not really concerned about fixing you on the inside or the outside. There concern is simply mask the situation all together. They plant flowers, they will keep the lawn manicured and try to as best as they can to hide the real problem, through the means of distractions and illusions.

However there is one who desires to be your owner who intention is not to hide your issues, and is not to whitewash your exterior. Instead this owner wants to clean you from the inside out. That is what Jesus wants to do in your life! His desire is to cleans you of your sin that has ravaged your body, distorted your mind, and has separated you from His presence and your purpose. He wants to fix your weak foundation, to be a firm foundation.

What is intersting is that being a christian is alot like this house. At times it seems that God is working, and you can see him at work. The old shingles are being scrapped off and the new roof is being placed on. You can feel God working on you, and the cool thing is, other people are seeing it too. Sometimes even the entire community is aware that something is happpening in your life, that God is moving in a big way.

However then it seems that the work as stopped. It seems that all the progress you have made has been for nothing. It would appear that this new owner, Jesus has stopped working and has forgotten you. Perhaps you have backslidden and regressed back into your old sinful ways. Others looking are shaking l there heads and wag there hypocritical finger and say I knew it wouldn't last. 

However nothing could be further from the truth, because once again God begins working on you again. 

Just like the case of this house across the street from the church. Even when I could not see the work being done did not mean that the owner was idle. The evidence of this is that we see the work is starting again. 

So it is with you and I as belivers. When God takes owner ship, when we place our lives in the nail scard hands of Jesus Christ we can be assured that He is indeed working in us and through us. Even if others can't see it, even if we ourselves can see it, God is still working.

Now I do not know if the owner of this house will continue this renivation. I hope that he does. However I also know that things sometimes happen that is out of our control. It maybe that he may no longer have the money, or the means to continue this renovation.

But this one thing I do know. God who has begun a renovating work on me is not done and will not stop till it is complete. If God has begun a renovated work on you, I assure you He is not done either. See God does not run out of supplies, He does not quite when the issues are to great. Paul said this "He who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

So if you will place your life in the hands of Jesus, allow Him to take ownership of your life. I can assure you, He will restore you. No it may not happen overnight, no it may not be easy. There will be ups and downs, there will be setbacks and times when you feel God is not at work in your life. Sin will continue to creep in from time to time, and the work may a times seem too much to handle. However if you will allow God to take ownership of your life, He will renivate your life and He will not stop till the renovation is complete! You may have been ruined, but with Gods help you can be renovated. We are all a work in progress!

My Meditations of God while Mowing

Anyone who knows me knows I hate, and I say again, hate mowing the grass! I have often said that when I get up to heaven I am sure my place will have astroturf in the front lawn. I know there are some who love the smell of fresh cut grass, who love the time outside and love making there lawn picture perfect. That is all fine and dandy, but I absolutely hate doing it and if I wasn't so cheap I would pay for someone else to do it.

 Now beside me lives an elderly couple who for years had someone do there lawn. He would come by at least once a week and mow the lawn and weedeat around the shrubs and trees. Well about a year or so ago he was unable to do it, so my neighbor across the street had told this elderly couple that he would mow there lawn for them this year. However, this past winter he had passed away. Now I did not know if they had hired anyone to mow there lawn yet or not.

 As Spring came I noticed that the grass was getting higher and higher and I assumed that since we were under lockdown it might be hard for them to find someone to mow there lawn. So as I started up my lawnmower I decided to just go ahead and mow there lawn for them. I figured that was something I could do that would help them out and would be a blessing in some way to them.

So off I went to mow the lawn and while I was working on their front lawn, they came out and asked me how much they owed me for the work that I was doing. I told her that it was free of charge, I just wanted to help them out and that it was no big deal. Yes while I hate mowing, mowing their lawn is not putting me out to much, besides sometimes being a blessing to others, does cost you something. So that really was my purpose, was to just bless them by doing something they needed, and doing it out of the goodness of my heart and out of service for God.

So each week I would go and mow their lawn and they were appreciated of it. Each week the wife would come out and say "I wish I could pay you" and I would tell here it is not necessary. Well one day she had made me and my family a loaf of cinnamon bread for us, it was absolutely great! Then a week or two later she came out and insisted to give me a 20 dollar bill. Each time I told her it was not necessary to do these things, because I just want to be a blessing to her. However I  gladly accepted her offers. I am always reminded of what I was told my wife's grandfather, would say "If someone offers you something you take it, because you might be cheating them of a blessing" 

However as I was mowing their lawn with the 20 dollars in my pocket and the thought of their desire to some how, some way pay me for the work I was doing. I started to think about God and Salvation.

I began to think about how God has blessed us time and time again. How God had sent his only begotten son to die in our place that we might be saved. I started to think about how good God is. I began to think about the many blessings in my 40 years hear on this earth. How God has blessed me with a wonderful family. How God had raised me up in a christian home, with parents who loved the Lord and knew the word of God. How God had placed godly people throughout my life who have helped me to be the man I am today. I thought about the two greatest churches God  had given me the opportunity to call my home church, 7th Ave. Baptist Church, a church I grew up in, and Ashmore Baptist Church where I pastor now.  I began to think about the many different men and women in my life who God had used in different times in my life to help me. As I began to recall all God's blessings toward me, my heart became filled. How great God has been to me and really to everyone if they will take the time to think about all the blessings of God.

The thing I realized is that a lot of those things I have been given, I never asked for. I never asked God to send me the parents I had. I never asked God to place the people in my life that he did. While I did ask for God to send me to a church he would want me to pastor, I did not ask specifically for Ashmore Baptist Church, and I had no choice in the matter of 7th Ave baptist church I was going there no matter what. Last but not least, before I was even born, before my father and mother were born, Jesus Christ died for me! I did not ask him to do that, but He did that so that I may be saved. He sacrificed His life that I maybe forgiven, before I was even born!

I think this maybe the reason why so much emphasis is placed in scripture about being doers of the word. Why we are told to serve others, to give generously, to be a blessing to others in what ever ways we can. Because by doing this we are reciprocating to others the blessings we have been given. This was the reason why I wanted to help my neighbors, not for aclame or some reward, but to simply be the hands and feet of Jesus. To be a blessing to them with no thought of a return.

However I had a 20 dollars bill in my pocket.  I wanted to be a blessing to them with no desire for a reward but they insisted to pay me.  At first I felt bad that they felt like they needed to do that. I thought maybe I was not being clear enough that this came at no cost. That this is really out of the goodness of my heart. As I turned around the tree, and as the grass clippings sputtered out of my riding lawn mower, I had an interesting epiphany.

I realized that some people pay to have there lawn mowed. They have a need and they seek someone to help them keep there lawn mowed and they pay them to do it. However with my next door neighbor, they gave me money, not to mow there lawn, but because I had mowed there lawn.

Now I know what your thinking, that is a very simple epiphany. The sun must have been really hot or I needed to take a break and get some rest. What can I say a simple mind has simple thoughts. However there is more to that thought than meets the eye.

You see there are some who see God's blessings on there life and seek to "pay" God for his service. They wish to somehow earn Gods grace and mercy. They desire to try to gain the blessings of God for there life by doing something to earn it. They may not do it with a 20 dollar bill necessarily, although some may try to do it by giving to a church or some charity. However they may do it by trying to do something good, to do some act of service or to live a life that they feel would be worthy of God's blessing. Furthermore there are people who try to earn salvation in the same way. They feel they must do something so they could deserve salvation.

The heart of all of this is pride. They can't allow God to simply bless them or save them. They feel they must have some control, some part in their blessings or salvation. Yet the bible is clear that it is not by works that you and I are saved, but rather grace that we are saved. Salvation is truly a gift of God, and not salvation only but every blessing in our lives are gifts of our Creator God. What could finite man give and Infinite God? What could you or I ever possess that God does not have. To think that your works, your gifts are so needed that it could some how "buy off" God to bless you or save you is both a audacious and ludicrous claim from a prideful mind.

However what my neighbor was doing was not trying to "pay me off" to do the lawn work. Rather that cinnamon bread, and that 20 dollar bill was a symbol of her appreciation for the work that I did. In much the same way, me mowing the lawn was a way to show my appreciation to God for all the blessings I had been given in my life.

It is this thought that I want to land on. In our life we need to recognize the blessings of God on our lives and they are many. Furthermore as we think about those various blessings from God, let us not seek to "pay God off" but rather let us seek to "Pay it forward". Let us serve one another, give generously, be the hands and feet of Jesus. Not to gain God's approval, or to acquire God's blessings, but rather to show our appreciation to God.

As I finish up the lawn and I drive my riding lawn mower into the garage. I am reminded of one other blessing, God had given me several years ago this lawn more by the grace of someone in our church. this blessing I was given, I am now able to bless my neighbors with now. That is the purpose of our blessings, we are blessed to bless others! I turn the key to the left and the engine shuts down. I turn off the lights in the garage and close the doors and wonder "What else can I do to show my appreciation to God today.

Joseph, Slavery and why it matters today!

 For those who know me know that I love the book of Genesis and the story of Joseph is one my favorites in that book of the bible. For several weeks now the story of Joseph has been on my mind. In particular the part of the story where we see Jacob and all of his sons come into Egypt. It is here we see the climax of everything that happened in Joseph's life. We see the fulfilments of Joseph's dreams that he dreamed as a boy. We see how those years changed Josephs brothers, and we see how Joseph is able to forgive his brothers. Its just a fantastic story. 

However these are not the reasons why this story has been on my mind lately. The reason why this story has been on my mind is because I think we can see in this story certain truths that pertain to some of the things we are going through right now.

So let me begin with a simple question. How did the Israelites become enslaved to Egypt? How did all of the Egyptians fall under the rule and reign of the Pharaoh? How did all that happen.

Now we see in Exodus 1:8-11 we read "Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. and he said to his people, "Behold the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and if war breaks out they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land." Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens."

So it would seem that this is when and how the Israelites were enslaved. Case closed right? Well not quite. While its true in Exodus we do see the that the king of Egypt placed taskmasters over them. The question is why did they not resist? Why didn't they just up and leave and go to a different part of the country, maybe back to Canaan? 

Well the answer is that they all were at the mercy of the King of Egypt. All of Egypt and all of Canaan were bought by the King of Egypt years before taskmasters were appointed over the Israelites. See the Israelites, that Canaanites and the Egyptians themselves were already bought by the king of Egypt. 

You can find this out for your self if you turn to the book of Genesis chapter 47 and read verses 13 through verse 27. 

But for the sake of time let me paraphrase these verses. If you are familiar with this story you will know that at this time there was a famine in the land. Joseph interpreted a dream of Pharaoh that God had given the king and the interpretation said that there would be 7 years of abundance and then there would be 7 years of famine in the land. So Pharaoh upon hearing this news put Joseph in charge of storing all the food for the next 7 years. 

When the famine hit it hit hard, and people started coming from all over because the news was that Egypt had food. So everyone, everywhere started to buy up food from Joseph and the money was stored in Pharaoh's house. Eventually the people had no more money to buy food so they gave there livestock, which I am sure by this time was not in the best of conditions. So Joseph took the horses, flocks of sheep, the herds of cattle, and donkeys in exchange for a years supply of food (not a bad deal). 

Well at the end of that year the people had no money and no live stock to give for the food. What could they give to get the food they needed? How could they survive? Well we see what they did next they asked for the Pharaoh to buy them and there land. They willingly indentured themselves as servants of Pharaoh so they could get the food they needed to survive the famine. I want you to read verse 20-21 of chapter 47 "So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for all the Egyptians sold their fields, because the famine was severe on them. The land became Pharaoh's. As for the people, he made servants of them from one end of Egypt to the other. Then listen to what Joseph says in verse 23 "Behold I have this day bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Now here is seed for you and you shall sow the land. 

As I have thought about this story these past several weeks I am left with a couple of thoughts that I think pertain to our current situation both as a state, a nation, and as a world.

1. Fear can led us to sacrifice our freedoms for safety. - Was there something to fear in this famine, absolutely! I am not denying that the famine was not real or that it was made up. These guys were starving for sure. Am I saying what they did was wrong? No not necessarily. I am sure in this situation I would have done the same thing. Is COVID-19 year absolutely. Have we sacrificed certain freedoms for the sake of safety. Yes, no doubt about it we have. Was this the right thing to do? I will leave each of you to answer that for yourself. However I think it is clear that fear can lead us to sacrifice our freedoms for safety. We see it in Genesis and we see it with our current situation with COVID-19

2. What maybe ok for one authority, may not work out so well with the other. - In Genesis we see that it was all working out. The people were feed, and they worked under Pharaoh and gave Pharaoh a fifth of their harvest to Pharaoh and were allowed to keep four fifths for food and seed for themselves. This arrangement was not a bad one for the time. They lived through the famine, and now they have full time employment for Pharaoh. In fact they were happy to do this we see they said in verse 25 "You have saved our lives; may it please my lord, we will be servants to Pharaoh. Furthermore for Israel and his family specifically, this must of not been a bad deal. I am sure at the beginning they received preferential treatment. Joseph you see was second in command and as long as he was alive I am sure his family faired well. 

See the problem did not rear its ugly head until a king came up who did not know Joseph. The issue was not severe until a King came up who decided he would take his power one step further. 

I think we need to remember that some leaders who are given power may very well use that power responsibly and carefully. There are some leaders who understand that they too are under authority. However there are some leaders when they gain control of that same power, will seek to abuse it, and expand it for there own desires. During this COVID-19, in my opinion, we have seen several executive orders from the president on down to governors and mayors. Now you may you may agree with those orders, you may agree with some of them, you may agree with none of them. No matter where you land on that, know this. That the power wielded, even for the right reasons, may set a precedent for future leaders to abuse and expand for the wrong ones.

3. God is still in control - Make no mistake about it! God was incontrol when the Famine came in Egypt. God was in control when the people sold their freedom for food. Yes, God was even incontrol when a new king came and put taskmasters over the nation of Israel. The same is true today. God was incontrol when COVID-19 spread throughout this world. God is in control as our leaders make decisions, that limit our freedoms. Yes, make no mistake about it, that God is still incontrol that even if our freedoms become revoked, the constitution becomes shredded, and the bill of rights becomes a bill of suggestions. God is in control. 

Let me end with just this thought....and I am not making any kind of prediction here, but rather a interesting suggestion. 

Perhaps, just perhaps, what we see going on today is God's way of allowing all of our nations to come together in a "New World Order". Perhaps this virus is the catalyst God is allowing to spur fear in the minds of our  leaders to make decisions that will crumble all our economies and sacrifice all our freedoms. Allowing for a one economic system, and one governmental system to be introduced and implemented. Perhaps this virus is the catalyst God is allowing to spur fear among the people that they will willingly submit to being tracked by the government.

Finally, perhaps everything we are seeing happening around us, and everything we will see as the weeks, months and years go on, maybe leading us to the Lords coming. To that day when the church is raptured out of this sin soaked world. What a day that will be!

But no matter what happened,.....no matter what is going on.....no matter what will happen in the future. This ONE THING I KNOW!

GOD is in CONTROL!