Day 9 - John 9

SCRIPTURE ~ John 9

KEY VERSES ~ John 9:1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 3"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. 4As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.

OBSERVATION ~ I feel that God is opening my eyes to more and more of scripture and to write it all down, somehow just does not do this justice. Maybe it is where I am in my life, maybe it is a newer and growing hunger for Jesus, I'm not sure, but I feel, no, I know God is calling me to move beyond, way beyond where I am right now. For me, for any of us, that can be a scary thought, and it is, because God calls us to do what can only be accomplished when He is leading the charge. On our own, our accomplishments will always pale in comparison.

We are a grace deprived people. I mean that! And the one's who deprive us of the grace is ourselves and those whom we allow to influence us. This passage is a classic example of how we still think today. We assume that when bad things happen to us it must be because we did something bad. That was certainly the case back in Jesus day where affluence was always considered to be a blessing from God and poverty the denial of blessing from God.

Even though I know God’s goodness is a grace that is given undeserved, I still find myself thinking that if I screw up God will get me and if I will just be really good, He will bless me. (And the hard part about this is the partial truth within this – that if we live life God’s way, Jesus promises it will result in an “abundant life” {although God defines what abundance means}).

The disciples assume since this guy was blind it must be the result of his sin or sin in his family. They ask Jesus about this and he says, “No, this is not the result of sin.” Jesus doesn’t explain why the blindness, but he goes on to explain that God will take this bad situation and turn it into something good. He will redeem it. God will re-purpose it. And He does - Jesus heals the blind man and gives him his sight! And story of the blind man’s healing is told all over town and has now been told for 2000 years. Literally billions of people throughout history have been inspired by this story to trust Jesus.

Of course, the Pharisees were the exception. It was better for the man to remain blind for one more day than to upset the Pharisees. Ever get the feeling that the most religious people were the biggest stumbling block? Even the ex-blind man's parents were afraid of losing Temple membership if they spoke out too much, so they turned it back over to their son to speak for Himself. Ultimately, he becomes a believer and worshiper of the true Christ, Jesus! This leads to the application . . .

APPLICATION ~ Did you catch verse 4, As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. The question for us is the same as it always will be, 'how are we demonstrating our love of Jesus by serving Him and making a difference in the world?'

When we stand before Jesus will have empty fruit baskets, or will they be filled with fruit, and more fruit, and even more fruit? That is the call of Christ . . . it's my belief we are to be faithful to what Jesus calls us to be and do . . . and when we are . . . we become more fruitful than ever.

Today, I am leaving the church not long after noon and finishing my work day in the community, typing, dreaming, planning and faithful fulfilling the call of Jesus. I am looking forward to that.

On another day, I'll share some thoughts about what I sense we (the universal church) are to do in order to further the kingdom, yet, we don't do it.

PRAYER ~ Lord, You are awesome, You are faithful, You overflow with an abundance of love and grace; even when we are totally unlovable, sinful, wretched . . . and thank you, my precious Jesus for loving me so very, very much that You came into the world to give me hope and a reason to live. Help me to fulfill that dream You have for me, let me not fail You by falling short of the mark. Amen

Day 8 ~ John 8

SCRIPTURE ~ John 8

KEY VERSES ~ John 8:10-11 ~ 10Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" 11"No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

OBSERVATION ~ Remember the Feast of Tabernacles is concluding and there is a large crowd. Jesus is being tested. Of course, the age old question is ‘what happened to the man caught in adultery.’ Being a male dominated society, he would be given greater liberties to walk away unscathed. She was guilty until proven innocent. It is interesting even in our society that when you commit a sexual crime, you are always guilty until proven innocent.


Nobody denied her guilt, she didn’t, she was caught, literally caught. But Jesus looked at her and as long as nobody was without sin, she was free to go, but with the reminder to sin no more. Yet, remember who was the sinless One on the spot, Jesus, and He had all authority to condemn her. He does the same for you and I, he does not condemn, but offers grace, love and peace to our souls which are wearied and troubled (see Matthew 11:28-29)

I am not going into the next passage, it is worthy of a sermon or two. In John 8:58-59 we read ~ 58"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" 59At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

Oh, you can’t imagine the anger the Jews had at Jesus on this one. He was guilty of the highest crimes at this moment, and He knew it. Think about what He just said, consider what the phrase "I am" means and who said it, then you’ll catch why the anger.


APPLICATION / PRAYER ~ I’m doing these as one, I think they flow together . . .

Simply put, Lord, help me not to be a Pharisee, a condemner of anyone who is different, anyone who is a sinner, anyone. At the same time, help me to lay my sinfulness before Your throne, and find your renewal and grace once again and once again. May I accept Your offer of love, and may I be a dispenser of You love, grace, peace and hope. I know I need it, I need to experience You and the gifts You not only offer me, but hand out to me everyday. Thank you, Jesus for Your acceptance of me, a sinner, yet a sinner redeemed and loved by You. Through Christ my Lord, Amen.

Final Vacation Reflections

Some final thoughts, some random, some with more spiritual significance ~

• Most of the way home it was raining, and our back window was never wet. It was always in our face. On the other hand, the vehicles driving south, had most of the rain on their rear window. Ever have it on your rear window only.
• It started raining moments after we got in the car. I simply said, "okay God, can you hold off for at least 2 hours, God." Strangely, the rain held off for most of 2 hours. I wish I had those powers on a daily basis for more important things.
• Of greater spiritual significance is what occurred to me on the way home. Ready . . . here it comes ~ we had a blow out thanks to the ladder on the way down. In the end the state trooper recommended we change our other tire as well. He stated we would do a lot of hydroplaning in the rain and it would not be safe. Well, it rained for 7 solid hours on the way home. Maybe God took that ladder as an opportunity to save the Deutsch family from some real misery. It was strange that we were the only vehicle to have damage from this ladder which looked like a mangled piece of junk in the end. Sometimes, disaster is an opportunity in disguise.

Tonight will be an early to bed night, I'll hit it with a THUD!

Tomorrow or the next day I will send a blog from another pastor. His name is Clayton King, from South Carolina. I came across his blog and really appreciated something he wrote about a former pastor, now deceased. This may help some to understand a little more about me.

VACATION REFLECTIONS

Final thoughts about our time away.

• Ladders and highways do not mix.
• Did I say ladders and highways do not mix? Okay, I'll say it again, they really, really don't go together. I feel much better now.
• I have a difficult time understanding people who speak softly with a southern drawl.
• Driving 500 miles south does not mean warm weather. After the first day it was in the 40's all week.
• The weather did not stop us from playing football.
• We ate Ham for Thanksgiving and I slowed down on my coffee drinking.
• We watched football, just as the Pilgrims intended.
• Joshua has turned into the major football fan. Can't pull him away from the TV.
• Connected a little more with my sister in Chicago while in Alabama.
  
• I want to work on that relationship. She's my only sister left. Don't want to have any regrets.
• Zachary could eat 24 hours a day, 8 days a week. The kid is always hungry.
• I enjoy watching Debbie smile and laugh with family. She is beautiful.
• Ate too much chili, enjoyed time with Debbie's cousins we had not seen in 3 years.
• Had a blast at the Huntsville Rocket and Space Center -
  
• Don't ever go on a g-force machine 30 minutes after you have eaten.
• Amazingly I held it in, but . . . well never mind, you don't need the details.
• Joshua loved it, but I wanted to yell STOP!
• Went on a trip to Mars, and a Mars roller coaster. That was Zachary's favorite.
• The boys went rock climbing and visited the gift shop.
• They now have dog tags and jets.
• Looking at the rockets, their engines was amazing. Debbie and I had been there before. There are so many possible things that could go wrong, so many people involved in putting them together.
• Realized Zachary will probably never be able to be in the army or fireman or an astronaut due to his diabetes. Not trying to be filled with sorrow, but that is probably a reality.

• It was great to see Debbie's dad, important for Debbie and the boys to also reconnect in person with him. The boys seemed very comfortable with him and in the house, had not seen him for 2 years.
• Did not do anything spectacular, we did not have to.
• We decided on the way back this summer we are taking a family vacation somewhere. Any suggestions?
• We usually take our vacations to visit family. Going off by ourselves is unusual.
• I plan to lose a few pounds and get in better shape. I need it.
  
• I spent some time reflecting about church/ministry/my role, etc. more to come on that one later.

That is it for now. I know there is more, but my brain is tired of having to think.

Michael

Day 7 ~ John 7

SCRIPTURE ~ John 7

KEY VERSES ~ John 7:10 However, after his brothers had left for the Feast, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. 11Now at the Feast the Jews were watching for him and asking, "Where is that man?" 12Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, "He is a good man." Others replied, "No, he deceives the people." 13But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the Jews.

OBSERVATION ~ Jesus is urged to make Himself known, boldly known to the Jews, yet that is what He was already doing. It's amazing to be an active bystander and watch the events unfold. Jesus is at one of the major feasts for the Jews. The Feast of Tabernacles was a major event in the life of the Jews. It was a time of celebration, and during times of celebration they always started and ended in the Temple. Hence, they are now there.

My key observation for John 7:10 is my look at Jesus' passion and purpose in life. He cannot stay away, even though His life and ministry are on the line, His calling according to the Father leads Him back to the Temple and He cannot listen to what is being taught, so He, the Master teacher, who has no formal education gets up and teaches like an expert. Reread this chapter and note how many times His authority and background is questioned.

Until ultimately in 7:46, we read, ""No one ever spoke the way this man does," the guards declared." The words of Jesus were challenging and if followed, leads you down a difficult road, but a road filled with a greater sense of God's presence.

APPLICATION ~ I talk a great deal about passion and purpose; and I really believe in passion and purpose, but life has a way of moving us away from what we are really called to do and be. Part of my day, today, is to take time and reprioritize, so that I can live more of my life according to my God given passion and purpose. It would be cool to have people look at me and think/feel his (Michael's) words are amazing . . . yet, what would be the best epitaph is someone saying he was really led by God . . .

PRAYER ~ With that in mind Lord, help me to do Your will, to follow You at all cost. Help me to set You as my number 1 priority/relationship/purpose in life. As I move closer to You, let those times be cherished, even sacred, so that I do not compromise myself, my position, or anything so that I am drawn closer to You. This does not mean I fill up my life with busyness, but with what is sacred. Amen.

HOME SWEET HOME

We made it home around 9 pm. It rained from Nashville to Alexandria. A long, long drive about 480 miles and 9 hours. Amazing to watch how people drive so crazy when there are slippery roads. Anyway, it was a good trip, good to see Lester and other family at a Friday chili fest. Today was Joshua's birthday (not the best way to spend the day), with most of the day being spent in the van - which rides somewhat different than prior to our incident. We drove past our accident site and recalled the moment . . . then forgot about it . . . for now.

Two posts tomorrow with John 7 and 8.

And more with thoughts about what God is calling me to do the rest of the year.

Day 6 - John 6

SCRIPTURE ~ John 6
KEY VERSE ~ John 6:15 ~ Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

KEY VERSE #2 ~ John 6:60 ~ On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" 61Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you? 63The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.

OBSERVATION ~ WOW!!! There is just so much in this chapter; and there are so many verses that strike me. Jesus was such a Master with His words, actions and ways of talking to all people. It didn't matter if you were a disciple (one of the 12) if you were part of His inner 3 (Peter, James and John); if you were part of the 120, or a casual follower. His words always had meaning and intent. Sometimes I think we wonder if He ever just hung out.

Do you think Jesus told jokes with the disciples, laughed with them, just told stories about life and the silliness in the ways we approach life?

APPLICATION ~ I'm jumping to the application to quickly focus on a few verses. First is John 6:15.

It is usually when we are struggling and things are not going well that we need to find time by ourselves with God. Our spiritual reflexes are to wait until something is going wrong before we find time alone with God. Not Jesus. The crowds are increasing to an all-time high and they want to see Jesus do miracles and listen to His teachings. Things are so out of hand that it looks like they might make Him their king whether He wants to be or not and what does Jesus do? He withdraws to a quiet place all by himself to spend time with the Father. This is a great reminder. The time when we need God the most is not just in our desperation, but also in our success. In some ways it is during our times of great success that we are most vulnerable. We tend to think we have done this on our own and that if we just continue to do what we have done more and more success will come our way. Success is a kind of drug that keeps us from feeling the spiritual pangs in our life. I need to withdraw from it all to be with God everyday. Success or failure I need to hear from God everyday! How about you?

Finally, the disciples proclaim the message of Jesus is hard. He has just told them about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Words that seem contradictory to what the Jews are supposed to eat according to dietary laws. This was tough stuff and Jesus was cutting to the chase, He wanted to separate those who would follow Him and those who were too weak and wanted the road most traveled. Jesus' question in verse 61 still apply today . . . do His words offend us? In many respects, I feel they should. WHY? His words are always hard, they offend our normal ways of thinking. Do we really want to forgive? Do we really want to love those who offend us? Do we really want to go the extra mile? Do we really want to give and give and give? It is difficult, yet we gain our strength when we draw closer to Jesus. He is the only way for us to survive in this world.

PRAYER ~ Father, after being on vacation and asking myself some questions, I need to withdraw to be closer to You. To seek Your will, Your plan, Your dreams and vision for me, my family, FBC. Help me to make the time to slow down, to seek you and to experience You. And Lord, I know Your message, the actions You call me to take are never easy, so give me the patience, the wisdom, the courage to do what You call me to do. Amen.

Day 5 – John 5

back in the parking lot to send this last email for the night. I will try to send one tomorrow but may miss a day since we will be at the Huntsville space center most of the day

SCRIPTURE ~ John 5

KEY VERSES ~ 18 For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. 19 Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

OBSERVATIONS ~ This is one of those chapters which is very, very different from other Gospel chapters. We hear of an early miracle, then the chapter turns to a very spiritual, somewhat mystical nature. The healing has an appealing verse in number 6, when Jesus asked, “Do you want to get well?” A question all of us need to answer. When we want to lose weight, quit smoking, drinking, doing something which is harmful, do we really want to be made well? Will we make the sacrifice necessary or continue as is, cursing our own lack of willpower and more importantly, God’s potential power in our lives?

Secondly, verses 18-19 remind me of the reason why Christ died. He was not what the Jews wanted. He was a nonconformist, a radical who changed the world. He broke the rules which people hold onto which work to hinder, rather than free. Think about healing someone, is it better to heal someone than let them wallow in pain? Just one day sooner of healing is worth it, but not to the Pharisees? And Jesus does whatever the Father does, because of verse 19. Jesus can do nothing by Himself, He can only do whatever He sees the Father doing.

APPLICATION ~ I ask myself two questions - - 1. What is it I need healing from? How can my life change for the better if I would only (and maybe even dramatically) allow God to take over?

2. How much am I willing to give of myself, even when others look at me as a nonconformist, radical, rule breaker for Jesus? What does that mean for me and the church? How far do I push the radical message of Jesus? Most Christians don’t really catch how radical Jesus was. He was an extremist, and He made most people He had contact with feel uncomfortable, especially the elite.

PRAYER ~ God, open my eyes to be able to see the world the way you see the world. Help me to learn Your world and see where you are at work and how I can be part of that. Help me to look for it today in both the big and the small. Forgive me for those times when I live like it is up to me to change the world. It is You, O Lord, who will change the world. May I be a part of bringing change and transformation to the world. Bring into my every second consciousness that you are "always at work . . . even to this very day." Amen

Blogging Issues

Hey all - we are somewhere in Lawrence County, at Debbie's cousins for chili and lots of great desserts. Lawrence County is the home of Jesse Owens. Today we played two rounds of football in the cold. It is only 34 degrees here. Played cut throat Uno, I helped Zachary win, he can tell you more about that.

Visited with family. Debbie's cousin Porter's band has opened for Sugarland and was asked to play at the governor of Alabama's inaugeration.

Cannot get my flash drive to work in their computer so will try to stop at my site to blog again.

Until later, blessings,

Michael

Day 4 - John 4

SCRIPTURE - John 4

KEY VERSE: John 4:34 - "'My food,' said Jesus, 'is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish his work.'"

OBSERVATION ~ Jesus and the disciples end up in Samaria. Remember, Jews viewed Samaritans as lower class Jews. The Samaritans held onto some beliefs about God that were contradictory to the Jews in the southern kingdom of Judea. The Samaritans and Judeans were enemies since the time of the end of Solomon’s reign, around 900 BC.

Jesus in His wisdom engages the Samaritan woman in a conversation. She is drawing water at the well in the middle of the day, when most women would not do this. It is hottest at this time and she is most likely ostracized by the other women because of her promiscuous lifestyle.

APPLICATION ~ Sometimes I have days where I almost literally run from appointment to appointment and from meeting to meeting non-stop. What happens is I start early in the morning and the morning turns into afternoon and the afternoon turns into evening and before you know it you haven't hardly paused even to eat. Jesus had been on a roll like that. The disciples are appropriately concerned that He hasn't had anything to eat and they encourage him saying, "you need to get something to eat or you won't be able to keep on going."

Jesus says in so many words, "hey guys, I have a source of energy that sustains me, and you don't know anything about it." The disciples are confused. Then he tells them, "My food, is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish his work." Jesus was explaining that what really motivates Him and keeps Him going is doing what the Father wants; that is how He gets fed, by feeding others.

Jesus is a great example of someone who is at a place of spiritual maturity. It was serving God and others that was his "food". That was how He got fed. Serving sustained Him.

My question for myself, and our question for ourselves is, how are we fed by God? It drives me crazy when people say, ‘I’m not getting fed in church.’ What do you mean you are not getting fed? What are you doing with the other 167 hours of the week to feed yourself from God? Think about what our role is . . . if we are spiritual babes, then you need me to feed you, via a bottle.
However, if you consider yourself a spiritual adult, then you should be eating meat (turkey). It means you are capable of cutting it and eating it.

The question I need to continually ask myself is how well am I being fed by God, because I am continually drawing closer to God.

PRAYER ~ Father God, I want to serve you, but I can only do that when I seek to be present with You in Your work. Help me to seek You, daily, to better understand how I need to be fed by You, and help me to be healthy in my personal, spiritual and emotional life. Thank you for how much meaning and purpose You have brought to my life. In a very real way the mission, Your mission, brings me sustenance. Amen.

DAY 2 in Hatton.

The phone rang at 1:57 a.m. WHY?! It was a cousin assuming Lester was still awake, their all night owls. Now I know where Debbie gets it, her mom is the same way. I have to admit, I didn’t sleep great. We had a thunderstorm last night. All through the night it rained and thundered.

The temperature has dropped from 60 to 40 degrees.

We have played more games, watched some Thanksgiving Day parades and now we are watching the Lions play the Packers. In a few minutes we will go outside and play catch with the football. Then it will be off to find a site in Moulton to check email and blog. We are now in front of a strip mall 11 miles from Debbie's dad's home.

Tonight we will eat Ham. Her dad does not like turkey, so it is ham. We’ll eat turkey back home. So . . . for now, have a great day and do all you can to serve and give thanks to Jesus.

Life in Hatton, Alabama

Frankly, I’m not sure there is much that happens in Hatton. Yesterday (Wednesday) I learned the reason Debbie’s dad has a Town Creek address, even though he lives 7 miles from Town Creek is the fact that Hatton does not have a post office. All mail is delivered to his mail box which is about 3 blocks from his home. If you need groceries, you either go to Town Creek; Moulton (which is 10 miles away {where this is being sent from}) or you go to the Dollar General store in Hatton, which is Hatton’s only grocery store.

Yesterday, we shopped and had lunch at Sonic, Joshua’s favorite place when we lived in Ashland. There were no Sonic’s in the Dearborn area. Other than shopping and eating dinner at 8:45 Alec time, we hung out, played games of Checkers and Jenga. The boys were tired, they should be, they only slept from 2 a.m. to 8 a.m., and went to sleep at 10 pm. I followed at 11:15. So much for day 1.

RV - the movie

Ever see the movie RV? Robin Williams is trying to email his report and is going all over to do this. That is how I feel. I am sitting in the rain, in the van, of course, in a parking lot where I found an unsecured wireless connection.

I drove in Moulton, Al with my computer on hoping to hit the right spot. I have a marginal connection. So, I'll try this place tomorrow, it's about 10 miles from where Debbie's dad lives. They are shopping for food for Thursday.

Have a great Thanksgiving.

Michael

Town Creek

We have arrived! 11/20/07
Arrived about 2 hours later than expected. We had a hiccup on the road, somewhere around Cave City, Kentucky. But that will be in the blog right below this one. Debbie’s dad lives pretty far out in the country, and we usually have a difficult time finding his home, but we had no problems finding it. In fact, we were not able to find an exact location via google maps or mapquest. But I did hunt it down and found his property via the satellite on google. The boys enjoyed that.

We finally went to sleep around 2 a.m., the boys included, they fell asleep for awhile, but once they were up, they were ready to play!

LADDERS, PAINTERS AND STATE POLICE

So . . . what do these have in common? Can you say the Deutsch family, or to be more exact, the Deutsch family van. Okay, here’s the story ~ ~

We left Munfordsville, Kentucky after a pit stop. I relinquished control to Debbie for this part of the driving. We just past Dinosaur World in Cave City and looked back to see a big T-Rex. When Debbie looked back at the road there was something in our lane that was big. We smacked into it at 70+ mph. The van began to shake and to Debbie’s credit, she stayed in control, slowed the van down and pulled over to the right shoulder. Directly in front of us on the shoulder was a pick up truck with a long ladder sticking out and a guy running on the shoulder. I knew the folks in the van were the ones who lost whatever in the road. The van shook as if something happened to the front axle.

I jumped out of the van a second before we stopped, and nicely spoke to this man. Really, I did speak nicely, even though I was furious at these guys. There were 3 guys in the pick up who were painters and were on their way back home after a day at work. Somehow, one of their ladders flew out of the back of their pick up, landing in the highway. They said a truck hit the ladder and then it was our turn. We hit it and the end result was a front left tire that was literally ripped apart.

We have road side service and called for a tow truck, got Joshua and Zachary out of the van and over to the side of the road. To their credit these guys knew they were responsible and were going to pay for whatever the cost was for the damage to our van. One guy even ran out onto the highway and grabbed the crushed ladder from the road to prevent other cars from damage.
A police roadside emergency truck came by and then a state trooper came by. Then a tow truck came by, and we all went back to Cave City, they looked at our van, and determined it was only our tire that needed changing, so we had a new tire put on, they paid for it, then at the state police officers suggestion, we changed our other front tire, since it was becoming bald and there was a nail in it.

Being on the side of the road was harrowing. One truck cut off another truck to the point that he virtually stopped right next to us. Other vehicles and trucks were flying by, it was scary. The state trooper told us that a good friend of his, another state trooper, had been killed in that area last year when a truck hit him.

After that, we went to Subway, had snacks and hit the road again. It was a 2 hour experience in fear and gratitude. There are more side stories to all of this, but that is the more important part. We were blessed in the fact that nobody was hurt and the only thing we think that was hurt was one tire. We all rode in the emergency vehicle to the gas station which had 8 kittens walking around the outside of the station. The boys were great throughout everything. They listened and were well behaved, which took away from the additional stress of the moment.

There is no wireless connection in Town Creek, Alabama, so I will be trying to find somewhere in town each day. It’s about a 9 mile drive so we’ll see what they have around here.

John 3

Day # 3 - John 3
SCRIPTURE - John 3
Key verses - John 3:2 He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him."
3 In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. "
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

OBSERVATION ~ I love the way Jesus works conversations towards the spiritual. This is why verses 2-3 are key for me. Nicodemus comes to Jesus with a statement, it was a leading question, and in the process Nicodemus says nothing about God’s kingdom, yet that is where Jesus goes with his statement. . . the kingdom of God and being born again. Nicodemus has his head spinning with what Jesus is telling him. Maybe he wanted to make some brownie points with Jesus, just like you would when you tell a respected teacher or lecturer something you appreciate about them, and then they engage you in a way you are totally ill-equipped for.

Finally, John 3:16-17 comes and I love verse 17. God’s plan is never to condemn the world, but that the world would find salvation through Jesus.

APPLICATION ~ I am reminded about arrogance with Nicodemus. He was a respected leader and possibly showed arrogance with his comment to Jesus. Yet, the learning point is what Jesus calls me to do as a follower and pastor . . . bring conversations to the underlying spiritual dynamic. That is where real life is found, in our spiritual world. The lack of a spiritual life is a spiritual life, just a non-existent one.

Finally, as I consider God’s condemnation toward unbelievers, I am reminded that God is love, and what must break God’s heart is those who reject Him. They are ultimately condemned, because they remain in darkness, while those who believe in Jesus, are in the light . . . which leads to another responsibility, showing our light into the world.

PRAYER ~ Lord, help me to humble myself before you and before others. Let me put off that old self on a daily basis, put on that new person, that new creation You want me to be. May I be a person who demonstrates Your light which is in my life to others, believers and unbelievers. Help me as a spiritual leader to lead more people to You, to know You and to find redemption and love in You. May I not waver or be bashful in proclaiming who You are what You seek to accomplish in our lives. Amen.

DAY # 2 - John 2

SCRIPTURE ~ John 2

OBSERVATIONS ~ Jesus respects and listens to His mother. A great lesson for all. He turns water into wine, its is the first of His miracles (read on for the reasons). He presses the issue with the Pharisees, but they don’t get it, in fact, ‘pharisees’ never do, do they? Jesus had a great understanding of Himself, and did not need anyone to validate His ministry or life.

APPLICATION ~ KEY VERSE ~ John 2:11 - "This is the first of miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in Him." John tells us that Jesus turning the water into wine was the very first of miraculous signs that Jesus would do. And he also tells us the purpose of miracles. The purpose of this miracle was not just to make sure that they had enough wine at the party so everyone had a good time and the bride felt good about her big day. (Although I do think Jesus was concerned with little things like the success of a friends party.) The bigger purpose of this miracle and all miracles are two-fold: bring glory to God and increase the faith of people. Whenever I pray for God to do something miraculous like a healing or some kind of intervention or reconciliation I always promise Him a couple things. First I promise God that we will give Him all the glory for that miracle. And secondly, I promise that we will tell the story of that miracle over and over so that peoples faith will be built up.

Lastly, I realize the need we all have for validation. We often want our kingdom on earth, not God’s kingdom on earth.

PRAYER: Father, there are some people in my life that need a miracle in their life right now. I know you care about the little things like their health and their relationships; but I know that from an eternal perspective your glory and increasing people’s faith is what ultimately matters. Yet, I know that there are so many times that what happens in life just does not make sense and maybe never will make sense . . . so give me an extra measure of peace and wisdom to minister and lead these people and myself to serve You without qualifications. I ask that you do the miraculous in their lives and once again we promise to give you all the glory and we promise to tell the stories over and over so that people know that you are God.

Day #1 - John 1

Day #1 - John 1

For the next 21 days I am going to attempt to journal my thoughts, observations, and take-aways from the book of John. I look forward to your comments and thoughts as we journey together.

SCRIPTURE ~ John 1

OBSERVATION ~ John reflects on Jesus as being the Creator, as well as the Redeemer. We forget that Jesus was an active and had a lead in creation. There is the call of John the Baptist and his recognition that Jesus is the One, not him. A reminder that it is all about God, not about us. Finally, when Jesus calls, how do I respond?

APPLICATION ~ 2 KEY VERSES ~ John 1:3 - "Through Him (Jesus) all things were made; without Him nothing has been made." And 10"He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him."

As I read through this chapter the first verse that really grabbed me was verse three where John continues to describe Jesus. He is talking about creation and how He along with the Father and the Spirit created "all things"...and..."without Him nothing has been made". That is not just a statement about the past, that is also a statement about the present and the future. If we want to make anything good it will be through Jesus. Here is how this applies specifically to my life:

• I want to make a family that loves God and loves one another. "...without Him nothing has been made."
  
• I want to make a marriage where the focus is on loving each other and not getting what I want.
  ". . . without Him nothing has been made."
  
• I want to give direction and vision to a team of great leaders at FBC who believe in the power of the resurrected Christ. "...without Him nothing has been made."
  
• I would like to have a great vacation and be patient with my family during our time away. "...without Him nothing has been made."

Secondly, another reminder in verse ten that Jesus was a Creator in this world, that He was in the world, but the world did not recognize Him. It makes me wonder how many times in a week and month and year, do I not recognize Jesus. How many times do I not step up and serve Him the way He wants me to . . . maybe because of my hardheartedness, my selfishness, my ignorance, or you can pick the adjective.

PRAYER ~ Father, you know the dreams and desires that I have for my life and for my family. You also know the dreams and desires I have for this FBC. I know this will only happen through you. I believe these ambitions are consistent with what you want; so I ask for them. But I also know that they are only possible through you; so help me to surrender them to You.

Sunday Reflections

It's amazing how fast a week flies by. It started with lots of sickness and worry and ends quietly for the boys. Although Zachary still complains of occasional stomach aches. He was up the last two nights needing to go to the bathroom, so we really need to monitor him.

Some thoughts about today!!

• I enjoyed the energy when the praise team was singing. For some reason we seem to be louder or sing with more energy.
• The kids did a good job singing. I need to move to the front row so I can better watch them.
• Dedications are always cool! Miriam's moving about just added to the unpredictability of children. It was also cool to look into the eyes of Brian and Rebecca; I could tell this was meaningful.
• Also fun to hold a baby which is not mine, does not scream or spit up. Lydia was grabbing at my microphone, she's a cutey.
• Thanks to Andy Chastain for bringing me a new microphone when mine died.
• The video "Letters from War" always leads me to tears. What a powerful video!
• I have learned to enjoy preaching about money and giving. It's fun to do, maybe because I like to make us uncomfortable on occasion. Money really does grab our hearts and often leads us away from where we really need to be in our relationship with Christ. Talking about money can be a 'sticky wicket' (that was for Damon).
• Attended the community Thanksgiving service. Pastor Mark from the Nazarene church preached, I said a prayer for the community. He spoke about the need for unity within the community. His message gave me the feeling like there are a great deal of splintered groups and animosity in Alexandria. I'll have to check this out.
• I also learned that a good friend's grandson suddenly died in his sleep. Tristan was only 2. I went to the visitation and spent a few minutes with Woody (he is the current interim pastor in Summitville FBC). A good friend I've known for 3 years. The only words Woody could say was that this is the most difficult moment of his life. Life does not make sense, does it? Remember Woody and Glenda and Tristan's parents in your time of prayer. The funeral is at 11 am tomorrow.
• Because of this, I gave Joshua and Zachary an extra hug and cookie and tickles tonight.
• Tomorrow (Monday) I start on 21 days of John. Debbie reminded me that it may be hard to find a wi-fi connection in the hills of Alabama. We will be in Town Creek, Moulton and Hatton, Alabama. About 1 hour away from Decatur. I'll do my best to get a wi-fi connection everyday, if possible.

For now, blessings to all!!

21 Days of John

Remember we start reading through the book of John on Monday, November 19. Get others to sign up for the blog to read my thoughts, and I would enjoy reading your reflections as well. We can learn from one another.

Sick Call - Part 4

Okay, this is getting old. Joshua is fine, Zachary is on the door step of recovery. His stomach hurt tonight and we gave him medicine for that. Now . . . Debbie is throwing up. Gee, guess who's next? No way. This guy does not throw up!!

Keep us in prayer. I can't even have my birthday cake! It's sitting in the refrigerator with candles, but nobody to eat it. Are you crying for me yet?

How to Make Comments

I was asked how does one make a comment. Good question. Here is the answer.

Click on the title of that days blog, for example, you would click on

HOW TO MAKE COMMENTS

this will direct you to the blog website at http://michaeldeutsch.blogspot.com
scroll toward the bottom of the page and you will see comments, click on that and comment away.

Hope that helps.

Sick call part 3

What a birthday!! We ended up at the ER again. Zachary was dehydrated and had a great deal of stomach pain. His doctor wanted him checked to make certain it was not his appendix. He had to drink about a 1/2 gallon of bad tasting orange dye. He was a trooper and after initial complaints, just drank it without a word. They did a ct scan of his abdomen, which checked out fine. He also survived the IV needle without flinching, this one was not as smooth as the first, since the nurse could not initially find his vein .

By the end of the night they gave him morphine, which did not put him to sleep, but made his perk up and feel no pain, which was nice to see the Zachary of old.

So, both boys are sleeping, and hopefully Zachary will feel well enough tomorrow to go to school on Thursday. Joshua went back today and felt tired, but good about being back.

Hope this is the end of our saga!! It is the Deutsch custom to go out for dinner at the birthday persons choice. So, we will have a make up date at a restaurant of my choice, not to be Chucky Cheese. To show the kindness of some friends, one friend sent a birthday card which included the health benefits of celery How disgusting!!! to even insinuate there are redeeming purposes for God's creation of celery.

Don't want to leave you on a down note, but my mother in law sent a card with a great looking piece of chocolate cake on the cover, now that is celebrating the right way!!!

Prayer

Just a simple request to keep me in prayer over the next few days. I have lots to do and have some important decisions to make.

Thanks!

Sick call - part 2

I need to start out by saying I inadvertently left Joshua out of yesterdays email about the boys being sick and going to the hospital. I was more concerned with Zachary because of the diabetes and stomach pains, but Joshua was sick and was seen by the ER doctor at Community.

Both were feeling better today, although they were pretty slow moving. Joshua did not eat much, Zachary had a little more. Joshua wants to go to school tomorrow, so we will see what the morning brings. I think Zachary will stay home one more day.

Debbie had a 100 temperature and my cold is back, my shoulder hurts, I don't want to say, but I think it was from trying to start my leaf blower from Saturday. It died on me and just would not start back up no matter how hard I pulled the cord, it's the aging process.

Continue to remember us in prayer.

Michael

GREAT JOB

I need to get the video, but I heard great great great comments about Damon's preaching from this morning. Way to go dude!! Proud of you.

Bible Reading

Since I did not have the chance in church to talk about the Bible reading starting on Tuesday through the book of John, I wil hold off on starting until Monday, November 19. That way I can announce it next week at church.

Sick Call

What a day!! Joshua and Zachary were up most of the night, along with mom and dad. They were taking turns throwing up; about 8 times in all. Eventually we needed to take Zachary to the hospital, he was very pale and becoming dehydrated. They gave him an IV which helped a lot and eventually we headed home.

I very much appreciated so many who told me to leave church and go with Debbie to the hospital. I needed to be with them . . . thank you!

It is 10 pm and they are still up, just laying in bed watching the Colts get hammered. Zachary has had stomach pains all night and day, they have only had a little to eat and drink and are both running 100 degree temperatures. So much for any plans to go out for ribs for my birthday (Tuesday). I think it will be a quiet birthday.

Anyway, keep the boys in your prayers, and Debbie and I. We are exhausted and I think a long night is ahead.

Giving and giving

I am so pumped up. I don't usually get this way when I am writing a sermon, but here it is 12:20 a.m. and I am just finishing it and can't wait for Sunday. Yes, it is about, gulp, giving. And I really believe God put this message into my heart, spirit and mind tonight. I had it pretty much done, but after bringing some food for tomorrows leaf raking, I sat down and just started typing and have not stopped. I rewrote lots and lots the majority of the sermon. I love it when that happens. Of course, I wish that happened on Monday morning, but that is God at work.

We will have games during the sermon, remember, "who wants to be a millionaire?" We will start with that, and add apple eating during the sermon as well.

One thing I have noticed about God working in my life lately is my imagination has kicked into overdrive. It is so much fun, and at the same time so much stuff is going through my heart and spirit and mind.

I have the music cranked good and loud. Music is a real medium I use to help me feel the Spirit at work within my spirit (notice the big and little s).

Hope to see you Saturday, and again Sunday!!

I Surrender

But do I? Read this from Andrew Murray from his book, Absolute Surrender,

• "And lest anyone should have the wrong impression as to what it is to be filled with the Spirit; just let me say that it does not mean a state of high excitement, or of absolute perfection, or a state in which there will be no growth. No. Being filled with the Spirit is simply this - having my whole nature yielded to His power. When the whole soul is yielded to the Holy Spirit, God Himself will fill it."

May that be the case for each of us. At the same time my best friend, Tim, pastor in Dubuque, Iowa wrote about a verse he just read from Jeremiah 10:21, which smacks us in our face, "For the shepherds are stupid, and do not inquire of the LORD; therefore they have not prospered, and all their flock is scattered."

• Talk about a sobering passage for a pastor to be reminded of. It's a great, great and awesome passage reminding Tim and me about our call to follow God, to inquire or PRAY, because the consequences are huge if we don't.

God's final message for the night, then I am going home, it's 12:35 a.m., is to surrender to Him, completely, totally, absolutely, entirely, perfectly, utterly 100%. That is the daily challenge for the rest of my life!!

One Wish

Today was a long day, but a good one. I made it despite feeling drained.

• I had a wonderful, really wonderful on-line mentoring session this evening. It was with Tom Bandy, one of my mentors, on-line. It was just he and I and one other person for one hour. It was priceless!!

I was thinking, if I had one wish for our church, what would it be?

I had lots of answers, to grow, to grow spiritually, to reach out more in the community, for every person to sing and to worship and to be passionate about God, for personal spiritual transformation, and . . . and . . .

For any or all of this to happen, we need to hear from God. In essence to be connected to God in such a way that we hear from Him and (no) that we learn to hear from Him everyday of our lives. If we did, and we followed God, think about, consider, muse, (you choose the word) what would happen to our church and to Alexandria and to Northern Madison County and . . . and . . .

If every person heard from God everyday this amazing church would become more than an amazing church. This church would become a force that would transform the face of the earth. Everyday God would give clear direction to everyone of us and everyone of us would move forward into life with a confidence that we are not just living out our days, but we are fulfilling the dream of God for this planet!

As a result, I want to challenge you, your the first to hear about this to a 21 day challenge and read through the book of John. We will start in one week. I want you to journal, I am not the best at it, but I try. I learned to journal better from Wayne Cordeiro, pastor of New Hope Church in Hawaii. I use the SOAP method, try it,

On day one, read John 1. On day 2, read John 2, and so on.

SOAP

S - Scripture (John 1)

O - Observation (what are you observing from this chapter on the Bible) Is there a main verse for you? Pick out 1 or 2 verses from that chapter that speaks to you and write it down and why it means something to you.

A - Application (How and what can you apply to your life? What is God saying to you?

P - Prayer. Write out a prayer.

That's it. On Tuesday, November 13, I am going to start this journey. I'm going to take the 21 day challenge from the book of John. Imagine how your everyday life might change if you were to seek to hear and learn from God on a daily basis.

Then share your observations, I will send out mine on a daily basis. Will you join me.

P.S. - this is a preparation for a major Bible reading undertaking for the church for next year. Get ready!!!

Sicky family

Hey - Debbie has been down for a couple of days with stomach problems a temperature and feeling achy all over, I now have a cold and Zachary is finally (I hope) getting over his. Joshua is immune to it all.

Pray for us!!

Catch the News!!

Jack Woods was elected the new mayor of Alexandria!!

Great work, Jack! I never heard about other races, but hoping for Kevin Gardner, as well to win as city council rep.

I was friends with the mayor of Dearborn, and now the mayor of Alexandria, talk about knowing all the right people. Gee, that and $2 may get me a cup of coffee. I suppose Jack will want to paint his office Green and Yellow.

Sunday Reflections

I have not blogged recently, too many late nights and too much tiredness at the end of the day.

This was a good weekend. Played football with Joshua and Zachary yesterday. Mostly Joshua and again today. Joshua enjoys running pass patterns and I play quarterback. It's always been a dream to play catch like we are. He's getting better and his arm has greatly improved. I made sure to tell him that tonight.

Speaking of which, some of the best moments come when I lay down for 15 minutes with each boy when it is sleep time. We laugh, we talk and I try to be an encouragement to them. It's fun to snuggle with them, since I know those days won't last forever, but hopefully they will remember them forever.

I was not sure how people would take the video and message and having bread for communion. I was hoping people would not see me as irreverent, but really trying to be more reverent and relevant. Amazing that nobody passed out or fainted from discussions about money and possessions. We'll do more next Sunday, hopefully going deeper, but no videos. Much thanks to Damon for helping with that. He filmed and edited. I owe you one!!

Tonight was fun talking about my childhood and Jewish upbringing, although I found myself ready to cry at a couple of points when I spoke of the Holocaust and my mom's reactions to it. It's amazing when emotions come upon us in such a powerful way, it really caught me off guard. I was torn with talking about my life and story and sharing about Judaism. Next week we'll end it, and I will talk more about heaven, hell, the afterlife, and other differences between Jews and Christians.

I'm looking forward to the week, especially to the Spiritual Gifts class, it's getting a little deeper and hopefully more challenging for people to look a little deeper at their lives and stories and giftedness.

Have a great week. Remember to vote on Tuesday.

Learning From My Boys

Joshua and Zachary did good today. They surpassed the tithe (giving 10%). A new friend gave each of them 5 - $1 bills. They were thrilled. As Joshua walked in the kitchen, he spotted the box for the World Mission Offering, and he excitedly said, "I can put $1 in the box." He was so excited to do this. How cool, he gave 20% without batting an eye.

A little while later, Zachary went over to his box and put $2 in the box (40% offering)! I was proud of them. There was no prompting from Debbie and I to do this.

Then after trick or treating, they separated the candy they wanted and what they didn't. Zachary quickly put most of his in the giveaway pile, even some of the candy he likes, he was giving it away. A total of 74 pieces of candy.

Joshua had a little harder time giving it away, yet in the end he had 63 pieces, including a number of Kit-Kats which are one of his favorites, which made me proud of him.

So the boys earned $2, or about $.03 per piece, which made them happy. Joshua wanted some of the money to be in coins, so he could put more in the World Mission Offering box.

We can always learn from our kids. A good lesson for dad.

Also, please pray for Zachary, he has developed a cold and now a fever (101). He has always been more prone to colds and fevers. Usually, we go through colds at least once per month with Zachary. On the plus side, he usually doesn't get knocked down for long.

Have a great November 1!!

Halloween Reflection

Well, Halloween is over! Zachary was asking when it was coming over a month ago, and it has come and is now gone. Now it will be Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then he'll wonder when his birthday is, then Easter, then the end of school . . .

Not to sound overly dramatic, but I wonder how much that resembles us. We look forward to those special days, but don't really prepare for them and fully embrace them. I know Halloween is not a big deal, but I'm just wondering about how well we prepare for days which are to be special.

Christmas is coming . . . why not start preparing now. NO!! No Christmas music, unless you must to get into your preparatory mode (or Trans Siberian Orchestra is good anytime of year). But how can we begin to embrace this great day of Christ's birth? What will you do to start that process. I'm not sure about me, I'm just typing as I'm thinking and feeling.

Along with this, what about this Sunday. How will you prepare for worship, for communion, for greeting brothers and sisters in Christ? Someday I will talk about how Jews prepare for the Sabbath, it's a week of reflection and anticipation . . . We should be doing the same, reflecting, considering, musing; then anticipating, hoping, wondering, praising. Dance with the Lord. Do a dance, since a song, celebrate His love and presence in your life.

Sunday . . . Sunday

Sunday recap. . .


I felt it was a spirit filled worship. The music was good, from my vantage point, people were staying awake (always a good thing). Only down side was my water getting spilled, but thanks to Andy N. for bringing me a new glass. It's amazing how dry you get before you speak.

Tonight we touched on all sorts of areas regarding being devoted to Christ.

How devoted are we to Christ?

Committed to one another?

Dedicated to reaching those who don't know Jesus?

We talked and shared tonight. I like it when others are willing to share their thoughts and wisdom. We need to do more of that.

FAMILY NEWS

I had an almost wonderfully relaxing Sunday afternoon. It was almost because the Bears absolutely stunk and every time I started to dose, Zachary would ask a question and when the program he was watching "Man vs. Wild" ended, he saw my eyes closed and poked me.

Joshua, Zachary and I had fun playing army. We haven't done that in a long time. It was fun to do it again. Below is how Zachary was prepared for battle. Notice that Zachary is wearing his army camouflage clothes, along with his knight clothes. he's extra prepared.




We also played some good games of tackle football in the living room. Joshua and Zachary have to get by me and score a touchdown. I always enjoy that time with them, especially when nobody gets hurt.

Well, now it's on to Monday. Have a great week and look for someone to make a difference in the name of Jesus.

Sunday Morning

I'm excited about tomorrow mornings message. It's direct and to the point about our call.

I also compare the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders to the church. And guess who wins?

Hang on . . .

Michael

Time Away and spiritual gifts

Slept in a little this morning, then played football with Joshua and Zachary for about an hour.

I enjoy the sports, it's one of my passions. I also enjoyed the time at the spiritual gifts class last night. So cool to see 100 people talking and considering the giftedness.

If you have not completed your spiritual gifts, please do so. Just come to the class and absorb the excitement.

Also, any comments from anyone there about the music and video playing as you entered?

Business meeting notes

Hey all -

Thanks to the efforts of Cathy Goins, we are able to post the business meeting power point presentation I did.

I am attempting to make business meetings informative and help show the people in the church what I think we are doing well and areas where we need to do a little better. It's one way of giving more information and doing some large group training all at the same time.

Below is the link to the power point presentation I did. You can go to the fbc web site, which is
www.alexandriainfirstbaptist.org or

http://www.alexandriainfirstbaptist.org/node/574#attachments

Click on this link, then click on the business meeting link and open the file. Once you are in power point, press F5 to start the presentation. Use the down arrow to advance the slides.

Michael

Spiritual Gifts

Just a reminder that all spiritual gifts have been catalogued and can be picked up tomorrow night or on Sunday. Tomorrow (Wednesday) we will break into small groups to do a lot of talking about our gifts. It should be a blast to see everyone talking about spiritual matters.

Also remember dinner at 5:30, it's breakfast for dinner. Looking forward to that one.

Later . . .

Teacher Conferences!!

Those teacher conferences can be pretty intense. While we have met the teachers for Joshua and Zachary, you never know what surprise may be lurking when the door closes. So, here's the low down . . .

Zachary was first, with Ms. Townsend, 2nd grade. We had concerns about the grading system. We were used to progress reports in Ashland and Dearborn, but in Alexandria, they use letter grades. It's a little more intimidating for the parents, I think. We also had some questions about answers which were marked incorrect, which we didn't understand. We try to never question a teacher's competence, we just want to help our children to do their best.

We had a good meeting, no real issues in the end and Zachary ended up getting a report card which read
1 - B
1 - B+
1 - A-
5 - A

Not bad. We'll take it. He did a good job for his first 9 weeks at a new school. We learned he is a little talkative and tries to make his small group laugh, sounds like my child.

Next was on to the intermediate school and Joshua's conference with Mrs. Long, 4th grade. We went in with no real questions. Turns out Joshua was the ONLY, may I repeat, the ONLY 4th grader with all A's on his report card. WOW!! We are so proud of him for his accomplishments. Mrs. Long said for this being his 3rd school he is doing great.

Now to the real issue about parenting. I wanted to BRAG about my kids . . . do you?

I grew up in a home where my dad said, 'let others brag about you, I won't.' I don't agree with that philosophy. Of course, you don't want to brag about every little thing, just the biggies, and I believe you should let them hear you telling others about their accomplishments, it builds their self-esteem.

Anyway, thought I would brag to all of you about my boys. We were proud of them, not sure where the smarts come from, (you can guess on that one) but that is another day and another blog.

Have a great Wednesday!

Baptisms,Tux-oo-dos and More Reflections

• Today has been a busy day, reading, writing and talking. Not much time spent in Q2. That will be a life long struggle, but I am much more aware of the need. I won't get down on myself, just commit myself to time away with God.

• What I realize is for my health, my family's health and the health of the church I need to recharge and gain strength from God, so I can help charge the batteries for others.

• I am also trying to eat just a little better, more water and less coffee; more veggies and less desert.
  

• I heard a lot of good feedback about the sermon yesterday, plus the use of the Colts pictures to demonstrate everyone is valuable on the team. We are, we just need to believe that.

Well, time to go home, eat, and beat a few folks at ping pong tonight!!

Baptisms,Tux-oo-dos and More Reflections

Now onto the TUX-OO-DOS.

Sometimes your kids say the most amazing things. After church yesterday, Z-Dog wanted to wear his tuxoodo (that's what he calls his suit) to the party last night. We were not sure what he meant, but because we were going to the anniversary party for Jim and Linda Nelson, he wanted to be dressed up. As a kid I never wanted to wear a suit, Z-Dog likes to.

We really didn't want to correct him, it was just too cute. He's a 7 1/2 year old who is stuck between wanting to be a 10 year old and a 5 year old all at the same time.

Then again, I guess that might apply to all of us on some days. Just a cute story to share.

Baptisms,Tux-oo-dos and More Reflections

Yesterday was a wonderful day for the Deutsch family. It's an awesome experience to be able to be privileged to baptize your own child. I was really hoping to get in the water with Joshua. I really enjoy being next, right next to the person I am baptizing, especially when that person is your son. I was proud of Joshua and proud of what he wrote and that he did not swallow water. I wanted it to be a special time. It's amazing to witness your children as they grow up.

I have some different views of what should occur during baptism, but our baptismal does not allow for it (I'll write about that another time).

Joshua and I went out to dinner together last week, to Ponderosa (his choice). We talked about our relationship and how we can work with one another to bring out the best in each other. I told Joshua I want to have a covenant with him. I am not sure what it will look like, but there will be a physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual component to it. I am taking this from Mark 12, when Jesus calls us to love God with ALL our heart, soul, mind and body. I see those 4 dynamics in the covenant I will develop with Joshua. I would be interested to know if you have ever done this or some suggestions. I have some ideas, but I'd be curious about yours.

What's Your Quadrant?

I was looking through one of my books by Stephen Covey, First Things First. It's about how we prioritize in life. I am looking at doing a better job with my time management. I have found I am not doing the ministry that I really want to do and believe am called to do. To much other stuff gets in the way.

So . . . I took a look at his book, again.

Covey lists 4 quadrants in life. In essence, everything we do will fall into one of these 4 quadrants - -

Q1 - Urgent and Important
Q2 - Important but Not Urgent
Q3 - Urgent but not Important
Q4 - Not Urgent and Not Important

Under Q1 we deal with
+ Crises
+ Pressing Problems
+ Deadline driven projects
+Immediately productive activities

This all leads to increased stress and burn out, because we are putting out fires.

Under Q3 - we deal with
* Interruptions
* Some mail, some reports
* Many popular activities

In Q3 we do things we tend to like, but don't really get us anywhere, and we never feel we really accomplish anything because we put aside what we were supposed to be doing.

Under Q4 - we deal with
- Trivia, busywork
- junk mail
- time wasting activities
- "escape" activities

Suffice it to say we don't accomplish much that is worthwhile here.

In Q2 - we deal with
= preparation
= prevention
= developing mission
= planning
= relationship building
= true re-creation
= empowerment

These sound best and this is the best place to be. It is also the place where a visionary lives. Vision takes time and a visionary recognizes the need for these activities.

I find myself doing lots of stuff in Q3, not in Q2. That is the one area which is easily neglected. Of course, we can't spend all of our time in Q2 doing the important but not urgent. But that is where I am striving to move to.

I'm trying to re prioritize my work schedule so I can do what I believe God is calling me to do. part of that is a greater commitment to prayer and Bible study which I believe are Q2 items. In fact, I would say all spiritual disciplines are Q2 items, they don't' feel urgent, but they are definitely important.

So . . . what quadrant do you live in?

And where would you really like to live in?

Dinner time

Last reminder of the night - -

Let's get together at Chicago Pizza at 5:30 and have dinner together. Remember kids eat free on Wednesday nights.

Save your appetite for Joshua and Z-Dog (the new name Zachary wants to be called) love that Peanut butter and jelly pizza. Actually, it's not that bad!!

One good, actually great thing about pizza is the fact I have never seen a restaurant show celery as an ingredient for pizza. Thanks be to God for that one!

M.

comments . . . comments

Quick reminder - -

I do look at comments and try to respond to all of them. I am also trying to find a way to allow comments to appear instead of as a link.

So, if you have a comment, please feel free to post one, I check about everyday to see if there are comments.

A life of Comfort or Christ?

A life of Comfort or Christ?

Are they one and the same? Can a Christ follower be comfortable in life? Should they? That is the question I wrestle with as I read Hosea.

I really don’t believe God is in the business of making us comfortable, if anything, He is in the business of making us uncomfortable. Think about the prophets, the apostles, the early followers of Jesus, not to mention Jesus, Himself. Not one of them was ever made more comfortable by becoming a devoted, passionate follower of Jesus. In fact, we could easily say, life became more and more uncomfortable for each.

So . . . what is the one thing you know or think or believe God wants you to do? Now consider if God wants you to become uncomfortable, is that why you are refusing to follow God’s plan for your life?

There is a dangerous mindset among many Christians who believe God wants them to be happy and to live a very comfortable life. If that is true, then where does the CROSS fit into that thinking?

Remember we exist for HIS glory – not vice versa. When we attempt to live ins such a manner that we seek to bring glory and honor to God there will be times God calls for you and I to become very, very uncomfortable.
As I read through Hosea, this became very apparent to me. Hosea was a prophet who had what we might say a ‘good ministry going on,’ he was single and, from the outside looking in, seemed to have it all together. Then God showed up . . . and things became uncomfortable.

Take a look at Hosea 1:2-3. It reads,

2 When the LORD began to speak by Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea: " Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry And children of harlotry, For the land has committed great harlotry By departing from the LORD." 3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

Think about what God was asking Hosea to do! Think about the conversation. I believe the Bible leaves out some of the details, like this conversation taking place . . .

"Hosea, I think it is time that you get married!"


Hosea joyfully replied, "Now that’s what I’m talking about, I was wondering when You would give me some help here . . . and I’ve had my eye on this girl . . . "

"Hosea, uh, she’s not the one for you!"


"Really? Well, I guess that means you have someone else in mind. Who do you want me to marry?"

"A prostitute."

"A WHAT!!! God, seriously, come on . . . stop playing around."


"I’m not playing around Hosea. You are going to marry a prostitute."

"No way!! What will my family say?"

"Don’t worry about your family, you serve me."

"Okay . . . okay. At least tell me what her name is."

"Gomer."

"GOMER!!! God, seriously, it’s bad enough that I’m going to marry a prostitute–but GOMER? Have I sinned? What have I done to make You mad?? Go-o-o-o-o-lly, shazam God, that is a man’s name from the Andy Griffith show.


"I want to use you for my glory. . . and while I know this isn’t a decision that you would have came to on your own I want you to know that your willingness to be obedient and uncomfortable will result in thousands of lives being impacted for me."


End of conversation . . .


So . . . God asked Hosea to do something that was unthinkable, to put his reputation on the line. . . and through this a message was communicated that continues to impact lives today - - Hosea’s amazing obedience.


I ask myself, what is God asking me to do that I don’t want to do, but need to do, even though it will make me incredibly uncomfortable . . . but in the end, it will result in lives being changed and glory will come to God?


How about for you? What decisions is God asking you to make that may be uncomfortable, maybe a little, maybe a lot?


Do you need to end a relationship? Because God has something so much better, but it is not here yet.


Do you need to surrender possession and money to God. That’s never easy. We wrestle with this one because we want our own possessions and control and power, and we want to live a comfortable life in our comfortable homes. Yet, when we give away our possessions and many, cheerfully and joyfully, God may have far more in store for us than we can imagine.


Maybe God wants you to become active in a ministry, to give your time to Him. Don’t wait for the pastor (that’s me) to know what makes your world rock, what makes your heartbeat like crazy, what makes your eyes light up like fireworks . . . you get the point. Just tell me what you are passionate about.


Are you learning about your spiritual gifts? Praying? Reading the Bible? Fasting? Journaling? How will you know what God wants from you if you are not connected to Him. Remember John 15:5, if we are not connected to the vine we will bear no fruit, apart from God we can do nothing, connected to God we can change the world (The Deutsch paraphrase version).


I could go on and on, but you get the point. . .


So, . . . what is the one thing you believe God wants you to do which you are refusing because you know it will make you very uncomfortable?

On Being Installed

What a great day!! Worship was great, having friends from Dearborn making the journey to Alexandria was so moving for me. For Nina, my friend 13 days younger than me (she'll appreciate that one) to come while struggling with the impact of chemotherapy is so humbling to recognize the differences we can make in one anothers lives. On a side note, I performed Nina's moms funeral. It was the best send off ever. Nina is 100% Mexican and her mom's casket was brought into the sanctuary with 4 mariachi singers serenading the casket. Then they sang on the way out, so amazing. It was hard to speak after that.

Anyway! I must say I am so blessed to have this church in my life. As Dr. Mason said today, you need to allow me to be me; and I really sense that you are doing that. It may not always be easy to do, but there has been wonderful grace extended to me by FBC-Alexandria.

Tonight will be an early to bed night. It's a long week of meetings ahead, Deacons today, Trustees tomorrow, CE Tuesday, Business meeting Wednesday.

Pray for me, and if you have not had your family picture taken, please do so. I have about 90 families and want as many as possible.

Finally, remember Wednesday night we'll be eating pizza at Chicago Pizza around 5:30. Kids are free on Wednesday's between 5-8, so let's hang out and eat together. Like I can eat anything else after today's pitch-in. Amazing food!! My friends wanted a cookbook, they liked the food so much.

Have a great week, and keep Jesus in front of you and visible to the world!!

Michael

Long post on pastor bashing

This is long, maybe not fully applicable for us, but it is eye opening as it relates to pastors. And, I have lived through some of this, so it is real. So, I thought I would share with you.

This is from Eddie Hammett, from his upcoming book entitled Keeping People Over 60 While Reaching People Under 40. This is from chapter 1 --

The shifts occurring in our culture and in our churches seems to create, more often than not, a circumstance of pastor bashing. Blame is not spread around rather the focus is on the pastor/staff.

The Plight of the Pastor

"Pastor-bashing is my church’s focus" were the words from a sincere but deeply wounded coaching client. He was so hurt, angry, and tired that he needed a retreat, a compassionate listening ear, and encouragement in his coaching session. God did bless our coaching time, but his words and story continue to work in me.

His words have haunted me for days. I have had many faces and experiences rush to my mind that would likely fit into this "pastor-bashing" category. In a decade when most numbers associated with church—finances, membership, baptisms, new members, visitors, etc., are declining, pastor-bashing seems to be on the rise. While some pastors and staff and churches are having a fulfilling and fruitful relationship, many others are in the fierce tensions of pastor-bashing. Pastoring a church or serving on staff in a church of any size, in any setting, with any demographic is challenging at best these days. Most pastors and staff find themselves living in the pinch. They feel the pinch of finances, demographic challenges, philosophical and theological challenges, control issues in the church, community, and often the denomination or judicatory of which they are a part.

Permit me to share from my experiences of consulting with churches for over sixteen years, serving congregations for fifteen-plus years, coaching pastors and staff for five years, and serving in various church roles as a volunteer. I’ll explore these questions: How does pastor-bashing manifest itself? What does it mean? And what are some methods that might bring some resolution to pastor-bashing?

What Is Pastor-bashing?From my client’s perspective and my observations through the years, pastor-bashing can be characterized by at least these experiences:
• Accusations, and sometimes threats, that "the church is not growing because of you!"
• Spreading of rumors that question the pastor’s integrity, work habits, loyalty to church traditions or values, etc.
• Withholding of tithes, offerings, leadership, and participation because of personal disagreements between church members and pastor/staff.
• Accusations, uncalled-for personal references, or ridicule of pastor/staff’s family members and their participation or lack of participation in church activities.. Living in the fishbowl is a constant challenge for most pastors’ families.
• Isolation of the pastor/staff from friendships, loyalty, and the support of leadership.
• Tearing down of pastor/staff’s self-esteem, confidence, and sense of call or pastoral skills.

Sometimes physical threats even enter the picture. Believe it or not, I know directly of a church where three deacons visited the pastor and threatened him in the presence of his teenage son. They were "going to take him behind the barn and teach him a lesson." What do you think that teenage son learned about deacons and church that day? I had been working with this pastor and church to assess what would make them more effective in a rapidly growing community. The pastor was bringing in new members who were unlike the natives of the community, and that fueled the congregation’s anger. The pastor was growing the church and bringing in people, but these deacons did not like the people he was bringing in. The church leaders were afraid that the influx of new members would jeopardize their control, so they sabotaged the growth and bashed the pastor! Who would have ever thought it! Such illustrates living in the pinch of times. The pastor/staff is caught between at least two value systems, two worlds, two cultures, and two philosophies of church.

How could church leaders and congregations bash their pastor? What does this mean? Christians are supposed to be kind, courteous, forgiving, loving, self-controlled, patient, long-suffering, and the list of virtues from Galatians 5 continues. So how do we get into this tragic situation where no one really wins?

What Does Pastor-bashing Mean?
Seems to me that pastor-bashing has some patterns that are more often than not present and may suggest some meaning to this traumatic situation:
• Personal preferences create tensions. The pastor’s vision and preferences conflict with those in leadership or the pew.
• Spiritual warfare and immaturity emerge in people, families, and often the congregation at large.
• Past and future collide in ways that create tension. Often the congregation (sometimes the pastor) wants things to stay the way they are rather than face the demands and opportunities of the present and future.
• Control and leadership are challenged. So often the bashing is over control issues. Who will lead the church? Whose vision will drive the congregation’s decisions or programming?
• Incompetence and impatience collide. This can be seen on one or all sides involved. So often fear emerges before patience is cultivated, and stones begin to be thrown in efforts to protect "our way."
• Families take sides, and boundaries are set. Again, this can be on one or all sides of the issue. When such polarization occurs, the intensity increases, and the bashing becomes visible to a larger group, while in earlier phases bashing—and awareness of the bashing—is limited to a small number of leaders.
• Emotions escalate, and facts become blurred. So often emotions drive the dialogue and bashing and not the real facts. The emotions are often driven by perceptions, not necessarily the facts. People think such and such is true, or they "heard if from many people," but they never name the people.

Most pastors are living out a calling to "go into all the world" and a belief that Christ wants the world to know him and his love. The pastor believes that the church is on mission and is to grow in Spirit and in number. However, increasingly pastors and staff are finding that they are called by congregations who do not share this same value system. The members may mouth the words and loyalty to the Great Commission during the interview and negotiations. The reality becomes clear in time that their words mean: "only if the mission doesn’t inconvenience them, their church’s traditions, or the leadership base’s personal preferences." That is living in the pinch!"

Yup, it was long, yet, it is soooooooooo easy for a church to fall into destructive behaviors. My expectation for our church is that we always stay above the fray and the risk of not just pastor bashing, but of bashing one another. It's not biblical, it is sinful and destructive.

I'd be curious to know your thoughts.

Blessings,

Michael

Random Wednesday Night Thoughts

WOW! It's almost 12:30 and I am still full from tonight's supper. As always . . .great job ladies!!

• Sometimes, I wish you had my view of our group of folks. It was so great to see you 100 people entering into conversations about ways to become interdependent upon God. Consider what it not only does for my heart, but what God is thinking about as He watches over us, and He witnesses us making strides at becoming closer, intentionally closer to Him!!
• We have received about 60 completed Spiritual Gift forms. I can't wait to see the final results of how God is gifting us and preparing us for the future.
• Again, when I say how great this is, you just can't imagine what you are doing for my spirit. . . and the pressure I am putting on myself to lead us down God's path.
• I want to find more leaders and new leaders and equip you and empower you so that you may engage with the world and with one another.
• It's 12:48 a.m. and I am finally getting tired. But I'm listening to the Moody Blues, so that's good.
• I envision more amazing things happening at FBC in the coming months and years!!
• Debbie has been subbing at the Intermediate and elementary schools this week. By the way, this woman constantly amazes me with her kindness and mercy towards others. She feels bad for one of the Alexandria youth football teams. They have not won a game and today Joshua's team beat them 8-6. Joshua helped tackle one of their players in the end zone for a safety. That was the difference in the game. Debbie felt really bad for the kids, wanting Joshua to have a good game, but wanting the other team to win. The final game is on Saturday morning.

1. We have 3 couples coming to visit us over the weekend. It will be great to see these friends we were close with in Dearborn. All 3 couples were wonderfully supportive and instrumental in many successful ministries. One is the search committee chair who helped bring me to Dearborn. Jack and Tim can share notes. The names of the couples are Mike and Nancy McDonald; Jack and Kim Linton; and Dwight and Susan Smith.

Have a GREAT Thursday! Share your faith with someone. Praise God and celebrate His presence in your life!!

Michael

HOME SWEET HOME!

Hey all -

Just letting you know we are home, had a smooth closing on our old home, hung out with some good Dearborn friends. Joshua and Zachary had fun renewing friendships with their friends, and now we are home!

Blessings to all!

PS - think goal line

Michael

A picture is worth more than a 1,000 words

Zachary has had a couple of attitude issues lately. We are not sure if it has been the pump doing a strange work on him or what it is. At times his blood sugar has jumped way high, and at other times for no reason, it drops. The other day, we forgot to give him insulin after his lunch, and his blood sugar was perfectly normal. As he grows, it becomes a constant issue to troubleshoot his insulin rates and change them. Debbie is best at calibrating his pump. She's great. Oh, by the way October 1, was our 13 year anniversary of our first date!

Okay, tonight the boys were getting ready for bed, and Zachary got his last drink, but was slow to come upstairs. We called for him to come up, and he said another minute. So I waited and then he came up. He told me he had something on the railing for me, but I could not look at it, then I forgot about it. The note below is what he wrote on his dry erase board.

On the one hand I am proud of what he wrote and his recognition of how he has behaved, on the other hand, how long has he been internalizing what he has been doing and . . . Anyway, I just wanted to say I was proud of Zachary for what he did and wanted you to see it too.

A proud dad

Networking - The good, the bad and the ugly!!

Great night (the good) - - - long day!

After talking to some wise sages after Network, they reminded me that we have something from God going on at our church. When that happens, satan gets very, very angry. He will do all he can to defeat us and take our eyes off the prize we are working toward.

That is what happened today. Ernie and I , especially Ernie, spent lots of time trying to fix power point and John Harris came in and realized there was one button that had pushed off, when it should have been on.

Now, is that from satan (the bad)? No, but what about my reaction and frustration. Now, I have to be careful here. I didn't jump up and down and throw things and yell and scream and punch the walls. However, the level of frustration was great for Ernie and I and maybe, just maybe we allowed this problem to lead us to lose our focus on the kingdom issue and what was most important, and that was Christ.

The day ended up being more stressful than necessary, but that is what happens when we allow outside circumstances to invade (the ugly) our heart and spirit. My spiritual armor was not fully on, and I paid for it.

Next week, I will be ready for the attack.

I hope all at the spiritual gifts class enjoyed it and learned. It gets more intense in weeks 3-6. But the end result is so fantastic. I can't wait to see eyes lighting up and hearts bursting for the work God is doing in their lives. This is one of the great joys of life and ministry!!

I wish we could jump to the end, but we would miss out on the fun and food and fellowship.

Again, thanks to the ladies in the kitchen doing all the cooking for all of us. It was great!!!!!

The sounds of Silence

One of my favorite Simon and Garfunkel songs was "The sounds of silence." Remember how it starts out?

"Hello darkness my old friend,
I've come to talk to you again."

Listening to it now, from the concert in Central Park.

I really believe in the spiritual gift of silence. . . shh!! Yuck . . . silence?! Yes, read on.

You see, when we think of silence, we assume we must spend a few days at a retreat center and not say a word. While that may be true, it is not the only way to practice silence. Another way is to change the word silence to the word 'listen.'

Tonight after teaching the spiritual gifts class, Debbie and I were helping out in the kitchen, and admittedly, I was exhausted, I had the chance to converse, but more importantly listen to some wise ladies from the church. It's not always easy to keep quiet, because many of us want to share our stories, but oftentimes, we need to listen to other's stories. A great opportunity to learn and allow your heart to be touched by another saint. So, thank you God, for helping me keep my mouth closed and receive a blessing.

Ahh, the wonderful sounds of silence!