Slopping hogs!

Earlier this week I was helping my boy with his 4-H pigs - giving shots, building a new pen, moving the feeder, putting in a new waterer, etc. Remembering my childhood days of raising pigs I was reminded of one thing - a pig is still a pig. Pigs still stink, still love mud, still love to go the wrong way, still love to chew the water hose, still love to cause your blood pressure to rise. Why mess with them anyways? A good question, huh? Reminds me of Matthew 7:6 that says, .."do not throw your pearls to the pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces". In other words, why waste time giving the good stuff to the pigs when they could care a less about the good stuff?

It can feel that way in the church sometimes. We all need the good stuff - to hear and respond to the good news of Jesus Christ in our lives. Yet, so many people could care a less. Many don't want to hear from God's Holy word, much less want to respond to it. Some refuse to listen to what God wants for their lives, in fact intentionally do those things that God deems as sinful. And then they wonder why their lives are a mess, why their marriage is in shambles, why their kids disobey, why shame and guilt consume them.

The reality is that a pig is always going to be a pig. That's just the way it is. The good news for us is that we don't have to remain unholy and unclean before God. We don't have to stomp the things of God under our feet. We have a choice - trample the pearls or accept the riches we can have by virtue of a right relationship with Jesus Christ. The end result will be telling. A pig just becomes bacon or a slice of ham. A cleaned up man or woman ends up living eternity with the risen Lord. ---------------- I never liked pigs that much anyway!

CONFESSION AND GRACE - ALL AT ONCE!

Okay, here's the deal. It's been kind of crazy lately - busy at the church, people having problems, hospitalizations, serious accidents, VBS, speaking here and there for a variety of things, etc. I was glad for a night at home on Monday until the phone rang with one of our church members heading to Garden for possible emergency surgery. So I jumped in the shower, got dressed and headed for the hospital at 9:45 p.m. Thankfully the surgery did not take place ( at least not as of today). Anyway, here's the confession. I was ready to get back home. I was leaving about 11:15 p.m. or so and was in a hurry to get back. Yep, I passed a guy going too fast. At least that's what the patrolman said. He was right. He clocked me at 78mph going around a guy. (Actually I was going 79). Nothing I could do but fess up. So I waited in the car while he checked out my license etc. trying to figure out in my mind how much this was going to cost me. After all, I did break the law and there are consequences. About 10 minutes later here came the officer with a yellow piece of paper in his hand. All I could think was - "My wife's gonna love me for this". He handed it to me and too my surprise it was just a warning. No ticket. No appearing in court. No fine. Wow! How often does that happen? What an example of grace and mercy! I deserved a ticket, I was guilty, yet I didn't get what I deserved. I like that and I told the officer so. Needless to say, I was very appreciative (as was my wife).
Ironically we just finished a study on grace in one of our classes. But far greater is God's grace that that of the patrolman's. Now if we'd just respond to it..........................................

On a lighter note..

Since I noticed that the more serious blogs have little or no response I thought I'd give you a break this week by sharing a little story told to me by a friend. It seems there was this couple who belonged to the local Catholic church yet did not attend too often. One day the priest ran into the couple who had now been married several years and he asked them how they were doing. They responded with the normal "fine". He then asked them about their family, how many kids they had, etc. They replied that they had not been able to have children but were still hoping to be parents in the near future. The priest said that he would pray for them and even light a candle for them the next time he was in Rome. Many years later the priest saw the wife and again he asked about children. This time the wife said she had given birth to three sets of twins and and had two others as well. "Great" said the priest, "But where's your husband?" to which she replied, "Oh, he's in Rome blowing out the candles".

"This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine" - P.R.

WHERE THERE IS NO VISION.........

I'm taking the next couple of days away from the office to pray, study, and vision for the upcoming conference year here at the church. I feel like I am running in circles and need to get focused. I'd invite you to join me in this endeavor (even if it's just an hour)to discern God's will for us as a church as well as individuals. If God impresses some thoughts, ideas, or specific direction, please contact me. I will be sharing what God lays upon my heart with you as time goes on.

Serving together,

P.R.

YEARLY GET-TOGETHER

Tuesday morning I leave for Salina for the rest of the week for Annual Conference - our yearly gathering of clergy and laity to cuss and discuss the ministry for the upcoming year. I always enjoy seeing some of my buddies I havn't seen for some time. I don't foresee any major issues to cause a disruption amongst us however that remains to be seen.
I am the president of the renewal group for Kansas and am in charge of our banquet on Thursday evening at Grand Avenue UMC. My good friend Steve Rankin will be speaking. Hope some of you out there can be there.
Barring anything crazy we will be appointed to our 6th year at Leoti. Looking forward to another year. It promises to be exciting, I'm sure.
On Friday at noon I have to book it for Denver for a wedding rehearsal of a college classmate of Todd's so I will meet M.L. at I-70 somewhere and head for denver. The wedding will be Saturday night after which we will head back for Leoti in the wee hours of the morning so i can preach. ( Craig, be on standby). (As if he'll read this).
Anyways, a busy week ahead. Never a dull moment. Later - P.R.

Graduation time!

I just went to my wife's nephew's graduation last Saturday and will attend our local high school graduation this Saturday followed by the 8th grader's graduation on Monday. Definitely a busy time of the year. Unfortunately for many, graduation becomes an end, instead a means to an end. It's as if "I've arrived". Well, maybe there is an arrival, but only for that particular moment. For 8th graders, it's on to high school. For high schoolers, it's on to college or the work place. The bottom line is that graduation is merely passing on from one stage of experience to another. Yes, it's good to celebrate the moment, but if you only stay there, you've not really learned a thing.
The same holds true in our Christian walk. Many think that accepting Christ as Savior is the end all, be all. In reality, it's only the beginning of a maturing process as it pertains to a relationship with God. Should you stop growing in the faith, you might want to ask whether it is really faith at all. It would be like asking a child to stay at the age of 1 year for the rest of his life. After all, he's been born, he's passed from the sitting and crawling stage to that of standing and walking. But he's still only 1 year old. He still has a long way to go.
We as Christians still have a long way to go. We're to continue to move forward in our faith, to move from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity. Let's not stop with accepting Jesus as our Savior. Let's graduate to making Him be our Lord as well.

duh vinchee coat

Have you noticed all the hub bub concerning the upcoming Da Vinci Code movie? Man, you'd think the world was going to end or something. Now I must confess, anytime you mess with Jesus in a book, be it fiction or non-fiction, you better not be the cause of someone to stumble. Jesus was clear about that in The Book. I'm always leery of the effects that a book like Ken Brown's (the author) can have on people, especially those who are ignorant regarding Christianity.

But that aside, what's with all the Christians who are scared to death of the book or books like it? I listened to Dobson a little last week and all he did was whine and complain and I ask myself, " Does he realize who the victor is in all of this?" Jesus has already won the victory and that is eternal truth. But listening to Dobson and other Christian leaders, you'd think we'd have the lost and must high tail it to the hills. Come on! Jesus does not have to be defended. The Bible does not have to be defended. Truth stands on its own and wins every time. That's not to say that we are not to be able to defend what we believe or be able to articulate it. But for crying out loud, The Da Vinci Code will be here today and gone tomorrow. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He is eternal God and His Word stands forever. You can take that to the bank.

I've read Brown's book. It's view of Jesus is purely heresy but I'm not scared of the book. However, I do fear God and and know that one day we must all stand before Him and give an account, especially as it relates to how we responded to his son Jesus. Responding to Dan Brown is one thing. Responding to the God of the universe is quite another.

WHAT SMILE?

By the way, have you noticed the faces of the men who went on the Walk to Emmaus this past weekend? No, they're not up to something, but God sure is. How I wish you all could have been with me to watch what God did in these guys lives this past weekend. It was and is indescribable.
So if you get a chance, ask Mike, Shad, Randy, Todd, or Lee how their weekend went. Don't be in a hurry because they have a lot to say.
Look out ladies, you're next.

Stay tuned!

SO, WHAT'S YOUR PICK?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I was just wondering. It seemed to me that while I was in Hawaii these churches looked like they were needing a pastor for their flock. I realize it would be difficult to live in a 70 -80 degree climate on a daily basis but someone has to do it. And my wife seems to be open to the idea of sun and warmth, rain , green plants, tropical fruit, and the such. So, if you can just help me decide which place to check out, I'll take it from here.














ALOHA!!!

I'M STILL ALIVE!!

JUST to let you know that I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I've been busier than a one arm paper hanger and have not had time to get to this here blog thing. However, I do have plenty of material so stay tuned. Holy week is next week followed by the Walk to Emmaus for the men and then the women so updates might be rather sporadic for a moment or two.

Keep on keepin on in Jesus. - P.R.

What's going on?

(Hawaii continued) So, uh, M.L. is twirling her belt impatiently waiting for the hostess to say it's dinner time. Meanwhile Randy is day dreaming, thinking about that nice lobster that is boiling in the water. Kevin, Bev, and I are just laughing at the looks of the aforementioned. Maybe it was just the ship being tossed around on the waves. Who really knows?

WHALE OF A GOOD TIME!

Ah yes, a breached whale jumping out of the warm Pacific waters. Not to mention the baby at its momma's side. Pretty cool, huh? This was the second day of our trip to Hawaii and off the coast of Maui on a whale watching tour. And yes, the proof is in the picture. We saw whales. And lots of other cool stuff which I'll probably be showing you in the next few weeks. Actually, I just missed the third "daddy" whale jumping when I took this picture so needless to say, it was quite a show.
We had a blast while we were on the Islands, even when it rained. Who cares? We were in Hawaii!! And the best part - I didn't even get sea sick. That is great news - for me, for M.L., for everyone involved. In the two hours we were on the boat looking for whales we probably saw 10 -12 whales which is a good outing. From December to April they make their way to these waters from Alaska to mate and then return to Alaska. Lot of miles, huh? Anyway, it was a pretty amazing sight. Stay tuned for more pictures and comments. Aloha!!

BIG BAND AND THE BLUES

I hope some of you had a chance to got to the Count Basie Orchestra concert last Monday night. It was awesome. Those guys could play. And Melba could definitely sing. Everyone who was there thoroughly enjoyed it, even the kids who are not exposed to that kind of music very often. I think I enjoyed the drummer most of all, Mr. Butch Miles. Wow, was he good. And what about his facial expressions? You could tell he loved doing what he was doing.
As great as the concert was, I was disappointed in the crowd. I thought the auditorium would have been close to full but only about a third of the seats were filled. That's too bad. How often does a big time group like that come through western Kansas? And it's too bad for the high school band students who were hoping to make some money for their program. More than likely they lost money.
Many people said the ticket prices were too high ($20). But you can be sure if it would have been a sporting event, twenty bucks would have meant nothing. Others mentioned that "we're not that cultured". That may be true, but it never hurts to do something a little different, especially when it involves supporting the kids in band. I imagine that a few went with hesitation but I guarantee that they left not regretting a moment of the two hours of great entertainment. It really was that good.
I JUST want to encourage the community to do a little better job of supporting these type of events that come into town from time to time. If we choose not to do so, we really will be singing the blues.

IS IT "JUST" ME?

I was in Garden this morn with my family (or part of it) to do some hospital visitation and other things. Of course we had to do the Walmart thing and then decided to go and grab a bite to eat before heading home. So we went into an unnamed restauraunt (hint -across from Walmart) where we waited a few minutes before we were seated. So a girl who looked like she was having the worst day of her life seated us and told us our server would be with us shortly. Well here comes our server so I asked her how she was doing today. She said, "I'm sick, at at least I'm getting sick". Well, that really made me want to eat good in the neighborhood. I let it go and we ordered our food. Meanwhile I opened up the cloth napkin with the silverware enclosed only to be greeted with some kind of green stuff falling out of it. The knife had some sort of "residue" on it so I'm thinking "not cool". It happened that the manager was walking by so I mentioned to him that I thought I might need some new silverware as what I had seemed "rather dirty". Well at least he apologized. Okay, we wait a little while and our food comes. All except my son's french fries that were to go with his chicken fajita wrap. She said the fries were still being made so she'd bring them out to him shortly. (Don't you normally bring the whole meal at once?) Well, shortly came and went and with about 2 bites left of the fajita she came and asked if everything was alright. I said, "Everything except for the fact that the my boy was still waiting on his fries." She kind of responded in her valley girl voice and said she'd "like, go and see what was taking "Bobby" so long on the fries." Finally the fries arrived with the explanation that "it was just so hard to get the cook's attention". HELLO! Whose attention are we trying to get here? Is it just me or is good service slowly going the way of the dinasoar? And then we're expected to give 15% for a tip? Here's a tip. Work a little harder. See ya!

A REASON TO CELEBRATE!

I just returned from Nashville and am excited to be a part of a movement that is encouraging and equipping local churches to focus on ministry centered on the mighty act of God's intervention in human history - Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, and Pentecost. As a part of the World Methodist Council on Evangelism, it is awesome to introduce "Cornerstone Celebration" with the purpose of seeing the Church empowered by the Holy Spirit to grow in faith and discipleship and be equipped to share faith that others may know and experience Jesus as the cornerstone of their faith and life. It's primary aim (as mentioned in the brochure) is to enable persons to experience the living Christ and to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others by word, deed, and sign.

As many of you know, the church across the nation is in need of renewal and often we attempt to encourage that with special services. Last March was an example of that as Rob Schmutz came and shared with us. It was a great time, but in reality our preparation was not as it should have been and the follow up was lacking. The Cornerstone Celebration is birthed out of the the need to not only know and experience Christ for the first time or for a weekend, but for the whole of our lives.

I had the privilege of being trained to be a "herald" for these celebrations, wherever in the country they may be held. But why not have one here in Leoti? After all, we're the celebration station, right? Pray about it. Talk to me about it. And check out the website at www.WorldMethodist.org for more information. I'm ready to get after it. What do you think?

Pickin and grinnin

I'm headin to Nashville on Monday. yeap, just my guitar on my back and harmonica in my pocket - searchin for fame and fortune. All I need is 3 chords and a big ole smile.
WAIT! I MUST BE DREAMIN!
Actually, I am going to Nashville but for a different reason. I've been invited to a training by the World Methodist Council on Evangelism to be a "herald" for a new program based on "Jesus Christ, the Cornerstone". I'll spend three days there and am excited to see what is being offered. Should be a blast. And who knows, maybe my buddies the Oak Ridge Boys will need a rythym guitar man for a song or two. Elvira..............boom powpow boom powpow boom powpow mowmow............ (Somebody help me!)

The Omission Commission

So many people get worked up over the way other people act or what other people say. Did you hear what so and so did? Why are they doing that? Can you believe it? Yes, there are plenty of folks doing things they shouldn't do but what about those things WE should be doing but aren't?
It's what we might call the sin of omission - those things we should be doing but aren't.

We were talking Friday morning about people's response to "How are you"? Most people say "fine" when you can tell by looking at them that they're not fine. But how many of us actually pursue what is or isn't going on in that person's life? Why don't we? Surely we care - or do we? Maybe we'd rather not get involved. Or how about those we actually know are suffering, dealing with sorrow, having relationship problems, maybe financial problems. Are we not sinning by not responding to the needs of our brothers and sisters - especially if they are part of the body of Christ? And what about our own spiritual lives? People are sure to point out the sins of others but if Scripture commands us to meditate upon the word daily, (which includes reading it and studying it), to pray often, to worship together regularly, etc. and we choose not to because "I'm just not a reader" or "I just can't find the time" are we not sinning by disobeying God? Hmmmmmmmmmm.
Be careful of the sins of omission for they are are no different in God's eyes than those which are committed.

LOVING THY NEIGHBOR?

While in Vegas we came across this man holding this sign in front of the Bellagio hotel and casino. I overheard a woman speaking to a man walking beside her "He's really showing the love of God". Sadly, most people think this is what Christianity is all about. Unfortunately, this man chose a method of "evangelism" that would turn people away from Christ instead of drawing them to Him. The question that comes to mind - "Is this the best we can do when it comes to sharing the gospel?"

IN MEMORY

To a great nephew! You'll be greatly missed.

Life at it's best!

So, how has the year 2006 started out for you? Are you pumped up and ready to go or do you feel like covering your head and sleeping the next 365 days away? (Note above picture of one of my wife's boys.) I've mentioned it before but life is about choices. You can choose to enter the year with your glass half full or you can live as if it is half empty. It's up to you.

As for me, I choose to live it filled up and overflowing. Not that every day is going to be just great or that trouble won't enter the picture. But I choose to not let circumstances and situations dictate the way I approach life. I choose to follow the one who is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I choose to set my feet on the solid rock that is Jesus Christ. As the song says, "all other ground is sinking sand."

So what do you choose? Do you choose joy? Do you choose living life to it's fullest? (which is what Jesus promises all who follow him). Do you choose to allow him to give you victory over the stuff that life throws at you? Or will you decide to cover your head, close your eyes, and sleep the new year away? I think you know what you really want to do. So as the Nike commercial advises - "Just Do It".

"I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy.............................."