Pastor Steve

I saw this link on another blog (in The Diner). Steve is the one in black & white. Wow! He's a very talented photographer! I think he'll be a great pastor, too!

Steve Hixon -- Hixon Photo

I'm excited!

(No, I'm not having mood swings. Well, maybe I am, but this post is not at all related to the last one.)

We have a new pastor! Or, rather, we will. The candidate who was unanimously presented by the search committee and unanimously approved by our elders has decided to take our officer of position of teaching pastor!

We are so blessed to have a wonderful staff of gifted pastors who have kept the ministry flowing smoothly. I'll miss hearing from them as frequently, but I'm glad they will be getting a well-deserved break.

We are also blessed with excellent elders who have put in many extra hours to keep CBC on track.

It's been a rough road, but I know God is using this time to shape and grow our church. To Him be the Glory!

Angst

I am struggling with doing something that someone in authority requested that I do.

I don't mean a direct command. More a firm suggestion given because they think it would be good for me. When I decided to take on this request, I wasn't fully aware of what all it would entail. (Thus the first photo. I couldn't decide which sign best reflected how I felt, so I used all three.)

My problem is that because of differing philosophical points of view, fulfilling the request is frustrating, irritating and unsettling. It reminds me of being in a geology class in college. I had to learn all the different eras that happened billions and billions of years ago even though I didn't really believe the earth was billions and billions of years old.

Where does one draw the line between being true to self and submitting to authority? What is requested doesn't lead me into sin (except for my own bad attitude). It will win favor with the authority figure -- and possibly future authority figures -- but winning favor should not be my motivation for complying with a request.

This particular request will entail many, many hours of effort over a long period of time. A heavy investment for something your heart is not in. And a long time to harbor a bad attitude. Don't worry. I'll either convince myself to have a good attitude or decide not to fulfill the request.

Maybe I should have been in the military so that I would have been forced to learn obedience without question. Or maybe I should learn from Nike and "Just do it!" Or maybe I should take a stand and challenge the validity of the request.

Please pray for wisdom for me. I don't want to be a rebellious troublemaker. But I don't want to compromise who I am and what I believe. As the Serenity Prayer says, I need "wisdom to know the difference" whether this is something I should accept or change.

In the basket

This Sunday our speaker was a visiting missionary named Danny. He talked about how Paul went from being a persecutor of the church to the apostle to the Gentiles. Even though his conversion was instantaneous, with a flash of blinding light and a voice from heaven, the beginning of his ministry took some time. Even thought he had been trained under the high priest, Gamaliel, and was a Pharisee, Paul still had a lot to learn.

First, he went to stay with Ananias and the disciples in Damascus for several days. He taught in the synagogues, explaining that Jesus was the Messiah. The Jews conspired to kill him and kept watch on the city gates. The disciples had to lower him in a basket from a hole in the wall at night in order for him to escape.

Our speaker pointed out that this may not have been the nicest basket. Who knows what it could held before -- fish, produce that went bad, rubbish -- you get the picture. But even in the nicest basket, it is humiliating to have to be secreted out of the city to run for your life.

On leaving Damascus, Paul spent a period of time in Arabia, possibly up to three years. He then went to Jerusalem. Even after being away for a time, the believers were afraid of him because he had persecuted the church so zealously, and Barnabas had to come to his defense. After a while, the Jews in Jerusalem sought to kill him, so the believers sent him to his home town of Tarsus, where he stayed until Barnabas went to find him and took him to Antioch to teach the Greek believers. Overall, it was about eleven years from the time of Paul's conversion until his first missionary journey.

Danny pointed out that personal growth and preparation for serving God takes time. It may involve uncomfortable situations and humiliating experiences. Danny called these experiences our "basket". They are necessary to prepare us to be a servant ready for God's use. Baskets can be a multitude of situations -- financial difficulties, emotional strains, job-related problems, health difficulties, family stresses.

I'm sure Paul felt the same way I do. I don't like being in a basket! It's dark and smelly! It sticks and pokes and cramps me! I want to rush ahead and serve God with the passion He's given me. But God knows I need time in the basket to be ready for Him to use.

What's your basket?

Listen to this song. It's a simple, mellow song. A little repetitious, but what a message!

http://www.globalworshipnow.com/newsletters/dynamic/214100832_MoreMoreMP.mp3

It sounds a lot like what we've been hearing at CBC a lot lately. And it echoes one of my favorite passages. Paul was a little repetitious, too!

...I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death...
-- Philippians 3:8-10

"O, I wanna know You
deeper than before

O, I wanna know You
more and more!"

© 2004 Integrity's Praise! Music
Michael Neale

Inconvenienced?

This afternoon, I headed off on what I thought would be a relatively quick errand. At least as quick as any errand to Plano and back. I headed off merrily down I-35E toward Lewisville. However, before I got to the lake bridge, the traffic slowed to a crawl. I took the first exit, knowing a few back roads, and it still took me about an hour to clear Lewisville. All this time, I still had no idea what the holdup was.

As I drove toward my destination, I tuned in a radio station to see if I could find the source of the traffic snarl. As it turns out, there was an 18-wheeler that overturned and caught fire. For a while, it had traffic tied up in four directions -- the highway and the cross street.

On my way home, I took the "scenic route", which was several miles out of my way. As it turned out, my daughter came home shortly after I did. Having traveled that way, she said there was only a little "onlooker delay" on her side of the road.

After I got home, I realized my errand, which should have taken about an hour and a half, ended up taking over three hours. That put me behind in my work and made me a bit frustrated over the inconvenience to my day.

My hubby had to work late tonight. When he passed the location around 9:30 p.m., they were trying to upright the 18-wheeler and remove it from the road. He said it was in the center lane right at the overpass where the street went over the highway. I can see why it had traffic so snarled. I'm sure with a flaming truck underneath, they wouldn't want traffic on the overpass. Or the opposite side of the freeway. Or the service road.

As my little son listened in, he made a comment that put things in perspective: "I hope the driver got out alright."

The Dallas Morning News reported that the truck overturned trying to avoid hitting a Toyota carrying four adults and an infant. The truck driver managed to get out of the cab before it caught fire. The Lewisville Fire Chief said that none of the injuries were thought to be life-threatening.

And I thought I was inconvenienced!

Wondering

Wonder \Won"der\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Wondered; p. pr. & vb. n. Wondering.]
1. To be affected with surprise or admiration; to be struck with astonishment; to be amazed; to marvel.
2. To feel doubt and curiosity; to wait with uncertain expectation; to query in the mind; as, he wondered why they came.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Do you ever have one of those time periods where you start to wonder? Who am I? What does God want me to do? How? When? Where?

I've been doing a lot of wondering lately about several issues. I'll share a couple of them.

The most urgent issue has been to reevaluate our schooling options for "The Short One". After getting some counsel from a friend, doing further thinking, and discussing it with my hubby, we've agreed that we should stay on the track we are on for now, which is homeschooling. Admittedly, it's a challenge to keep him motivated and on task, especially since I'm working from home. But there are some specific issues that would make it difficult for him to switch into public or private school at this time. We have done more evaluating (and second guessing) with him than we ever did with the other two. But we're in a much different spot in life with him.

The biggest issue, which is still up in the air, is the whole missions thing. Are we cut out to be missionaries? Are we too old and set in our ways? What sort of position should we seek and how should that relate to our gifts? Where should we seek to serve? For a long while, we thought those questions were answered and the main question was when. Then our basket of expectations and assumptions was thrown into the air, leaving all the questions floating around our heads again.

On a personal level, I'm much more aggressive and impatient than my hubby. He takes lots of time to think, mull over, react, and evaluate than I do. That's why he is a good balance for my impetuosity. I have to watch myself to make sure I'm not pushing my passions onto Mark but rather following his lead. When do I nudge? When do I wait? (If I hadn't nudged, we may never have had children!)

I pray that God will give me wisdom. On a personal level, of how to act (or not act) and what he wants me to be. On a family level, what he wants US to be.

I need to remember the words of a wise pastor I know:

"God's more concerned about who you are than what you do."

Amen.

Our Personal Navigation System

I heard a story today about a woman who drove to Atlanta with only her GPS navigation system to guide her. She turned right when it told her to, or turned left, or exited, or merged. She managed to get to her destination one turn at a time, although she had no idea where in Atlanta she was other than the street address. But she never got lost. Even when she missed a turn, her handy device told her so that she could correct her path.

This woman got to thinking about how easy it was to follow one step at a time, trusting the device to guide her even though she didn't see the big picture. And then she realized how much that was like God's guidance. He sees the big picture but only instructs us one turn at a time. He knows that's all we can handle. And it forces us to trust him.

I don't want a navigation system! I want the whole map. I want to know exactly where I am and 15 different ways to get where I need to be if the primary route is blocked. But God knows that if I had the whole map, it would be so overwhelming that I couldn't take it. Like a street map of the entire globe! And even if I could handle it, I wouldn't be trusting Him to guide me, but I'd be trusting my OWN understanding!

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
Do not be wise in your own eyes;
Fear the LORD and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your body
And refreshment to your bones.
--Proverbs 3:1-8

Where's the next turn, God? My bones could really use some refreshment!