JESUS CARES ABOUT YOU

I went shopping for a new Bible for my daughter the other day. I felt that she could use a new Bible, as the one she was using was one we had given her several years ago, and it was not as helpful as it could be because of its small size and limited study tools. But that isn't the point of this blog. In going to the Christian bookstore and looking at a bunch of different styles, sizes and translations, I was reminded of the importance that we have the Word of God alive in our daily lives. It caused me to examine my devotional life. Did I want my daughter to have a great devotional life? Yes! How was my devotional life? Not so great.

This weekend I am reexamining my schedule and asking myself where and how am I going to make the change that will increase the quality and quantity of my time spent in the Word.

I encourage you to do the same. 

Today's Blog is one of a serious nature. Sadly the Washington State Senate has passed a bill legalizing gay marriage. The bill also includes language that would open the door to legal action taken against churches that open their facilities to the public for weddings between a man and a women, clearly infringing on a church’s religious freedoms. Our state already has domestic laws that protect against discrimination of homosexual couples. 

This subject for many is complicated, but that is only if one looks at it from a modern humanistic point of view. The Word of God makes this very simple. "So God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it......." Genesis 1:27-28

"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." Matthew 19:5

Our disagreement is not license for us to be un-Christ like, but our values should call us to stand against this legislation. Remember we are not opposing people but legislation.

You can take action by contacting the Legislative Hot line at 1-800-562-6000 and register your lack of support for this severe over reach by our state leaders.

A helpful website as well is www.FPIW.org. It is the Family Policy Institute of Washington. You can send an email to your legislators through their site.

The weather this week has been given the name Snowpacalypse 2012. It is amazing how messed up and turned upside down life gets when storms hit and turn our normal lives upside down. It messes with our schedules, finances, work, patterns, relationships and so much more. Storms truly do test our daily lives and in the process create additional stressers.

However let me spin this another way. Storms can cause our regular boring old stressers to become small and almost a welcome sight when things return to "normal."

Storms can break you out of the "normal" ruts that we have accepted as a given in our lives.

Storms can cause us to be grateful for the things we take for granted (like power and heat).

Storms can be an opportunity and can afford us some surprises. Like yesterday when we were all snowed in and Annette's work was closed. I got the blessing of a home cooked breakfast on a Wednesday which apart from the storm never happens.

Ok, all that being said I prefer for all the snow and ice to go away and for things to return to "normal" But I think you get my point.

Well here we are in another year where the world is apparently supposed to end according to the ancient Mayan calendar. Did you know that there is an official 2012 end of the world website? (Please don't go find it.) I noticed that it offered other important predictions if you wanted to click on the link (I didn't), but my thought was what other predictions do I need if the world is ending? It also had some articles on how people can prepare for and survive it. Survive the end of the world!

This of course is nothing new as these kinds of predictions have been going on for generations. Does anyone still have some Y2K supplies in their garage? I will never forget how some Christians I was pastoring at the time were very upset with my evident lack of concern for the crash of 2000. I wasn't preaching on it or providing weeks of survival coaching from the pulpit. And then when nothing happened, it was amazing how some believers actually acted sincerely disappointed that the end of the world didn't happen.

I have discovered one very good thing about these repeated end of the world predictions. They are signs to me of what Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, "He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end." Is that not the prophetic truth about mankind? All these predictions are evidence that God has placed eternity into men's hearts and, no matter how we may try, we will not figure it out. He placed eternity there to point us to Him, but man still stubbornly tries to find a way around God.

I don't know what 2012 holds for us but I know God is holding us in His hands. 

So today is sermon work day and blog writing day. Sermon is coming along fine, but when I took a break from sermon preparation to write my blog, I got nowhere - completely blank, stuck, nothing. So after sitting for 30 minutes or so and coming up with nothing, I saw a young soldier walk in my Starbucks. As soon as I saw him the thought crossed my mind to purchase his drink. I hesitated for a moment then approached him just after he placed his order. I said, "Do you mind if I buy your drink today?" With a shy smile he said, "Thank you." I then asked where he was from originally and he said Arizona. We joked a bit about the change in weather for him and then I said, “Have a Merry Christmas” and then we parted ways. As soon as I walked away I became aware of something. My blog writers block was gone! I knew immediately what I was going to write about - the soldier from Arizona. Then another thing crossed my mind. It is amazing how the act of giving can get us unstuck in a lot of ways in our lives. The act of giving has the power to move us. When we are stuck in hurt, we can get unstuck by giving forgiveness. When we are stuck in loneliness, we can get unstuck by giving friendship. When we are stuck in despair, we can get unstuck by serving others less fortunate, etc., etc.

Giving has the power to move us out of ruts, fear, anger, apathy, selfishness, want, materialism, pride, ungratefulness - you get the picture.

Go crazy today and give something away and see if something doesn't break loose in your life.

I’m afraid my blog this time won’t sound really witty and I suppose it could even be judged as a bit sappy, but it is what came to my mind today. I was reviewing my shopping list for Christmas, as well as reviewing another list that both my wife and I have. Just this Tuesday my mentoring group was discussing how each of us handles shopping for Christmas gifts. Some like it and spread it out, some shop online only and get it done in one evening, and a few were perennial last-minute Christmas Eve shoppers. As we shop for Christmas gifts it can sometimes be a challenge to figure out what to get, figure out what we can afford, find the time to go get said gifts, and then fight the crowds when we get to wherever we are going.

Yes, shopping for Christmas can often be a challenge, but ultimately it can be easier to shop and give a gift than it is to give love (sappy portion begins here). Giving love requires a whole lot more from us than many of us feel we can afford to give away, because giving love means we ultimately have to give a commodity that can only come from our hearts. If Jesus is our example, then that means giving love includes self-sacrifice, acceptance, discomfort, no partiality, vulnerability, etc.

Think about it. To stand up and boldly declare that "Christmas should be about giving love not gifts!" sounds really good and could even get you a few amen’s and may deliver you from having to go shopping at the mall, but be careful, it’s easier to shop and give a gift than it is to give love Jesus-style.

Of course the ultimate Christmas gift is the gift that has been given in love. Well that's the goal anyway.

May God bless you this Christmas with the opportunity to give and receive a lot of gifts given in love.

Merry Christmas! 

We’re spending the month of November in church focusing on Thanks-Giving. I made the statement a few weeks ago, "It’s not the thanks that we have a problem with, it’s the giving that gets us." Recently I saw this quote by former General and Secretary of State Colin Powell, "Giving back involves a certain amount of giving up." I thought that was a powerful statement. The part of giving that is challenging is the release of control. When we give of our time, abilities, money, love, etc. we are giving up or turning over control. We are taking a risk every time we give of ourselves. Will it be accepted or rejected? Will it be enough? Will it be judged? Will it be used properly? Will we get anything in return? These are the questions that can make giving scary. We fall into a trap when we confuse control with being safe. Control of the gift we have to offer ultimately keeps us imprisoned
in the clutter of what we have to offer.

Giving up control is a huge challenge for us. It requires an attitude of risk. Let me put it this way -
if there isn't some level of risk involved, we are probably not giving up control, not stretching ourselves, and are holding back. “Safe” and “Giving” are words that we don't often use together.

So again, it’s not the thanks that we have a problem with, it’s the giving that gets us. 

Just had a conversation about the struggle and frustration and pain that occurs in our close personal relationships. It never ceases to amaze me how people, who genuinely love one another, can find ways to mess up and spoil what is generally and predominantly an awesome, loving relationship. Opportunities abound for people to introduce hurt and pain into their relationships. No one is immune.

The sad thing is that though we are not immune to hurt and have experienced hurt and will experience it in the future, whenever we are in the midst of current hurt we seem to all act like rookies and forget the positive, forget how we have made it through hurt before, forget the blessing the other person is, forget what we know to be true, and forget how much we enjoy about them. We allow ourselves to get stuck in fear, we get paralyzed on what to do, and we react out of hurt, not the belief we have in one another. We make statements and promises that we can’t back up or keep up. We choose to put up fences mistakenly believing that it will protect us from being hurt again. We eventually dissolve into a hole of negative self-talk that is intended to punish ourselves for our part in the pain.

I say instead of running away, run towards. Instead of shutting down, open up. Instead of meditating on pain, meditate on hope. Instead of canceling what you enjoy together, recommit to it. Instead of speaking the truth in pain, speak the truth in love. Instead of pushing away, fully embrace. I could go on and on. It isn’t easy, I know, because I have been through many of these places of pain before, and I will again.

To end, I quote words that are greater than mine, "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends." 1 Corinthians 13:7

I’ve been stumped on what to write for a blog recently, so I sent out a request for ideas from my 27 Twitter followers and I received some helpful hints. But from the younger of my followers I was told that I am putting too much thought into it, and that I’m supposed to just record random thoughts. First of all I can’t believe anyone would want to read my random thoughts, but then I began to think about how even random thoughts and events can become applicable to life.

So here are some random thoughts and events that have taken place lately that others have commented on, or thoughts that came to me personally.

I spilled my coffee at Starbucks: blog thought, "You have to mop up the mess before you can move on" or "Though we are a mess, God sends the mop-up team and gives you a free refill."

Pumpkins: blog thought, "You have to clean it out before you can shine out."

Our "Jesus cares about you" sign temporarily being out of power: blog thought, "A neon sign without power is just a shadow of itself."

Are any of those thoughts helping you? I don't know about you but they aren't working for me, but it does cause me to think this. As I read the New Testament and I see what Jesus said and did that would appear to seem random, they were in fact very purposed and eternal. For example:

·       A random encounter with a Samaritan women at a well

·       A random encounter with a short tax collector who was in a tree

·       A random action of a women who reaches out and touches Jesus’ garment

·       A random encounter of a fig tree that had leaves but no fruit

·       A random poor widow who gives little but it’s all she has

If we were to put Jesus in our random encounters and events throughout the day, it would be amazing how purposed and eternal our days would become.

PS - You can be one of my Twitter followers at rollie_simmons@twitter.com.

I just had the opportunity to catch up with my son outside our Sumner Starbucks. As we were talking I noticed across the street in the adjacent parking lot that some contractors were cutting up the concrete and made a remark about it. My son proceeds to tell me what they were doing and why. Apparently they had to replace the parking lot light pole because a gentleman ran his SUV into it. He had just dropped off his son at the school and started to depart but while the car was moving he bent over and tried to retrieve something from the floor of his vehicle and lost track of where his vehicle was heading and smashed into the light pole going about 20 mph.

Needless to say the gentleman suffered a severe gash to the head but worse was the embarrassment of crashing into a stationary object, the light pole. My understanding is he will be fine physically and the wound on his head will heal up but the bruised ego may last a bit longer.

And as I was think of the embarrassment of having to tell everyone that you crashed into a parking light pole I had this thought. How often in life have we gotten distracted by life itself and instead of allowing the light pole to guide us we crashed into them. I think God puts light poles along the way to guide us but sometime we choose to crash into them.

God intends to light our way but if need be he will also use those light poles to stop us.

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" Psalm 119:105