Even though God is not confined by space and time, we here on earth are bound by its limitations.  The start of the New Year is probably not that big of a deal to God.  For various reasons, however, we as humans are infatuated by the end of a year and the beginning of a new one.  

For many of us, it gives us a chance to put something behind us.  For some, its a time to make resolutions for the new year.  While thinking of how I want to start my 2012, my mind goes to Colossians 1:9-14.

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.  And we pray this in order that you may life a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in ever way:  bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all peer according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.  For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

I look at this and wonder about a lot of things, namely:

1.  What would our lives look like if in the past we had taken time to pray this prayer for ourselves and each other?

2.  What could our 2012 look like if we do the same?

When was the last time you prayed for God to fill you with the knowledge of His will?  Not just a tiny bit, but filled!  Wouldn’t you love to be filled with the practical knowledge of God’s will?  Wouldn’t you love to understand even more what God has in store for you in your life?  Instead of guessing, why not pray that his will be revealed in your life?

In verse 10, Paul prays that the Colossians will also bear fruit in every good work.  Not just one good work, but in every good work, so God will be glorified!  Are  you being fruitful?  Are you willing to pray for God to help you bear more fruit for Him in 2012?

He also prays they will grow in their knowledge of God.  Think of the impact you can have on your life and others if you pray to grow in the knowledge of God, and pray the same for others!  How will you daily increase in your knowledge of God this year?

Finally, Paul prays they will be strengthened with all power so we can have endurance and patience.  There is a power to experience, a glorious wondrous power to experience, if allow God to do so.  Remember, Philippians 4:13?  I can do ALL things through Christ.

He also prays for their patience.  Were you lacking in patience in 2011?  Maybe its time to step up and pray for more of it.  I know I need it.  Patience is so hard to have, that maybe it would serve us well to pray for more of it!

God, will you bless us in 2012?  May you help us to desire to be filled with your will.  May we be filled with your wisdom and spiritual understanding.  In 2012, may we walk in a way that is worthy of wearing your name.  

May we bear good fruit this year.

May we grow in our knowledge of you.

Will you please give us the endurance we need to make it through this year?  We know there will be constant attacks from the evil one.

Will you give us patience with each other, with the world, with everyone we come in contact with?

Bless us in these ways, so we can share in your inheritance!

-Christian Friends
-Good health
-Grandchildren
-Health to be able to help others
-My well being
-Church and Christian friendships
-Children who live nearby and who are faithful Christians
-Mothers and Fathers who taught them how important the Bible is and how to live a Christian life
-Conquering cancer…twice
-Life’s hard knocks that taught me lessons and made me stronger
-American military for protecting me for so many decades through WWI and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Desert Storm and more.
-God’s sustaining power throughout the problems of life.
-For children who decided to take me in and take care of me, and for God helping me realize that I needed -someone to be responsible for me in my older years.
-And of course my personal favorite was this one: I’m thankful for my handicap placard

Psalm 100 starts out by saying “Shout for joy to the Lord,” and I believe this starts with thankfulness.

I envision this being a shout of joy to the Lord that comes from the very depths of your being.


Maybe He has given you the direction to go. Maybe He has provided a blessing, and you realize that it has come from God. So from the depths of your being you proclaim your praise.

Back in 1989, a movie by the name of “Dead Poets Society” was released. It took place on the campus of Welton Academy Prep School, whose ethos is defined by the headmaster as “tradition, honor, discipline and excellence.”

The teaching methods of a new English teacher, John Keating (played by Robin Williams) are unorthodox by the standards of Welton Academy. He tells the students to call him “O Captain! My Captain” in reference to a poem by Walt Whitman.

In one part of the movie, Keating has asked his students to write a poem. One student named Todd who is very timid and does not fully appreciate the radical nature of Mr. Keating, does not write a poem. The students are reading their poems outloud.

Keating approaches Todd’s desk. and says “Mr. Anderson, I see you sitting there in agony. Come on, Todd, step up. Let’s put you out of your misery.

Todd says: I, I didn’t do it, I didn’t write a poem.

Mr Keating responds by saying: Mr. Anderson thinks that everything inside of him is worthless and embarrassing. Isn’t that right, Todd? Isn’t that your worst fear? Well, I think you’re wrong. I think you have something inside of you that is worth a great deal.

Keating walks up to the blackboard and begins to write.

“I sound my barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world.” W. W. Uncle Walt again. Now, for those of you who don’t know, a yawp is a loud cry or yell. Now, Todd, I would like you to give us a demonstration of a barbaric “yawp.” Come on. You can’t yawp sitting down. Let’s go. Come on. Up.

Todd reluctantly stands and follows Keating to the front.

Keating tells Todd: “You gotta get in “yawping” stance.”

Todd and Mr. Keating then go round and round. Mr Keating tries to get Todd to let out his barbaric Yawp, but Todd keeps mumbling, not getting into it. Mr. Keating starts to frustrate Todd, and finally Todd screams out YAWP!!

Mr. Keating looks at him and says “There it is. You see, you have a barbarian in you after all.

I think of this dialogue every time I read this verse – Shout for joy to the LORD! What the Lord has done for us deserves a Shout for Joy! And that is what the Psalmist is saying. “Suddenly you realize that God has been so good to you that you can’t keep it inside any more. From the depths of your being you shout your joy unto the Lord.” You let out your YAWP of praise.

So go ahead, shout for joy to the Lord!

I need to realize that my child is not 33 years old like me. She can’t comprehend all the things I ask her to do. She doesn’t quite understand the principle of cause and effect. She doesn’t quite see that what we tell her is for her own good, and not for our entertainment.

I’ve always been overprotective of things. I never wanted our family dog to wander too far away from my sight when I was a kid. When other parents are a little more carefree than I am, I seem to be the one making sure they don’t break their leg while trying to balance on an upside down chair while doing a one handed hand stand. While other parents may be able to look past these things, I seem to be the one who is worried all the time that my child will run under some elderly person at church and cause them to break a hip.

This morning, I realized I was robbing my child of joy. I went home for an early lunch of pb & j, and while I was eating she kept telling me “Daddy, watch me!” and she would jump as high as she could on the rug in our living room. After about 4 attempts at trying to jump over the rug, I told her to stop. She was shaking the whole house, and I could just see something falling over and breaking.

While Kristen and I were talking, I heard that familiar sound of those feet landing on the floor again…and I reacted quickly. I went to her and said “Daddy asked you to stop jumping in the house” and gave her the stern look that is supposed to work but never does. She looked at me and gave me a frown, and walked away. I took away her joy.

I think there’s a fine line between letting a child have fun and letting a child run wild. I’m always very aware at church service not to let her run too wild. But what’s wrong with her jumping in the house? Not a thing at all. Relax Lane, its just a little girl jumping with all her might. She’s having fun. Lighten up a little, and maybe she’ll see you for the fun guy you really are instead of the grumpy old troll who lives under the bridge. Jump as high as those little legs will let you!

And if you break something, let’s blame mom.

More importantly, God called us to a new church home at the Granny White Church of Christ, where I now serve as the preaching minister. Never in my life could I have imagined how welcoming and inviting this church family has been.

From even 2 days before we arrived, church members gathered at our home to unload all our belongings into the house. Most of these people had never met us, but had just met us via video. When we arrived in Nashville on the 13th of September, we knew immediately how loved we were. We were met with a giant sign on our front porch welcoming Josie specifically from all the kids in the church. I think that first night we had about 20 visitors that just stopped by to say hey.

Since that day, we’ve hit the ground running and haven’t stopped. Preaching full time has been an adjustment, but I think I’m handling it okay. We’ve had many events to go to, many people to get to know, visits to make, and unpacking to do.

I don’t know that I’ve had a free weekend since I arrived. The GW church is so very active and always seems to have some great event going on, from the youngest to the oldest.

It is an honor to serve at this blessed place. We miss our friends from Houston, and really wish we could have packed them up and brought them here with us. Please pray for them as they continue in their search to replace my position I held there.

There are some great things going on at Granny White, and I want to personally invite you to come be a part! Hope to see you!

Oyster Creek
There’s a park here in Sugar Land called Oyster Creek Park. It has a fantastic running trail that weaves in and out of wooded areas along the creek for about 4 1/2 miles. I used to run over there all the time, but now I’ve gotten lazy and just run in our neighborhood. It had been a while since we’d been over to the park, so this morning Josie and I loaded up on the bicycle and rode over there to play on the playground and see the turtles. We played on the playground for a while and ate a snack, then got back on the bicycle to go a little further down the trail to the bridge where the turtles swim. I was shocked as we got close enough to see that the creek was COMPLETELY dried up. We haven’t had significantly measurable rain in the Houston area in over 250 days, so I don’t know why I didn’t expect this. It was really sad. There used to be hundreds of turtles swimming around in the water. We did see one turtle out in the middle of the trail, obviously looking for water. If I’d known somewhere to take him, I would have. The whole place smelled like death and there was a big group of vultures in the middle of the dried-up creek bed.
But at least it presented a “teaching moment” for Josie. I told her we needed to pray and ask God to send some rain so the turtles can swim again. She said “Okay, tonight when I go to bed and we say our prayer, I’ll ask God to send rain for the turtles.” So, then I got to teach her that we don’t have to pray just at mealtimes or at night before we go to bed. I told her that God can hear our prayers anywhere at anytime. So, we said a prayer right there while riding on a bicycle together. Then she asked me “Where is God?” and I was relieved when she accepted the answer, “God is everywhere! He’s all around us!”. Not sure if I’m ready for deep, theological questions yet!

Majority of the state of Texas is in a severe drought. The city of Houston is starting to regulate water usage. People can only water their lawns on certain days and at certain times. We’re encouraged to take 5 minute (or less) showers, which I’d be happy to do if they could increase the water pressure so I can rinse the soap off faster! Unfortunately, meteorologists don’t see an end in sight unless we get a tropical storm this direction. So, please pray that God will send some rain (even in the form of a tropical storm!) to Texas!

Last night when I said goodnight to Josie, she said “I’m sorry the creek is all dried up and the turtles don’t have anywhere to swim.” I told her to pray to God for rain so the turtles could swim again. She said with a smile – OKAY!

She woke up this morning, and at breakfast she busted out into a spontaneous prayer, and again, prayed for rain for the turtles.

Oh how faithful God is, because he sent some rain this way after a sweet and devoted faithful girl prayed to Him for rain. How great is our God indeed.

So imagine if you would, how hard it has been the past few days getting ready to sell the home.  Since we have a bit of a time crunch on our hands, we decided to pay a little extra money and stage the home.  This is a common tactic and works very well.  Our realtor says she has much better results when a client will stage their home.  She recommended a lady, we hired her, and she came on Saturday to “stage” our home.  When she walked in the door, she was full of life, and told us in the most cheerful way “After I’m done today, you’ll hate me, but your home will sell if you let me do my job”…and it began.  She started taking pictures off the wall, moving things around, telling us that our home didn’t look like a “model” home.  She said buyers want to see it as a model home, not as a home that’s lived in.  That’s a challenge, because until we move, we still have to live there!

Our home now looks similar, but different than it has the past few years.  Josie can’t have toys out, I had to move my La-Z-Boy Recliner to the hall, we have to have place settings out all the time on the table so it looks like we’re always ready to have dinner, all in all…things are just not who we really are, but I have to tell you, it looks good.  When the photographer came to take the photos, I couldn’t believe it was our house.

The problem is that is not how we live.  Its a burden to always have everything looking “phony but real”.  For someone looking to buy a home, they will walk in and think it looks wonderful.  For someone living there, we sit there and think “this looks silly…no one would live like this”, and that’s the point.  No one would live like that, but the way it has been staged is set up to feature the best parts of our home and draw your eyes to those features.

I stop and think about how this works in our lives.  I try my hardest not to hide anything about who I am.  I am not perfect by any means, and if I tried to make people think I was perfect, that would take a lot more effort than its worthy.  How tiring would it be to always have to pretend to be someone you’re really not?  Its so much easier just to live your life truthfully to everyone, so they can always know who they get when they see you.  Don’t be one way in front of your church family, and a different way in front of your work family.  Eventually, the two sides may meet, and one of them is going to see your “fake” side.  Wouldn’t it just be easier to be true to yourself and to them all the time?

I don’t want people to see me and think, “I wonder if he’s being genuine, or if he’s just being that way to make me think he’s a Christian”.  True Christianity can’t be taken off.  It can’t be hidden, and it can’t be taken away.  Its who you are.  Its not a model home to show off, and once the people looking are gone you get back to living your normal life.  Its a 24/7 life that God has called us to live.  So which are you living?  A life of Model Christianity or True Christianity?

Today at the West University Church of Christ, I announced my resignation as their Associate and Worship Minister.

Saying goodbye to those you love is one of the hardest things to do, and I find that to be doubly true as I face the task of saying goodbye to the wonderful members at West U. After nearly three fruitful years of ministry at West U, I have been called to be the Preaching Minister of a congregation in Tennessee starting at the end of September.

This was not an easy decision to make. Being the Associate and Worship Minister at West U is more than a job – it is a place of spiritual community and growth, as well as a place where I have grown as a Christian, a Father, a Husband, and as a minister.

2 months ago, this was not even on our radar.  We were moving forward with our work here, recuperating from our VBS and getting ready for the next big thing.  I am accepting this job because there is no doubt in my mind this is what God is calling us to do.

Since I started preaching at the age of 14, I always dreamed of what it would be like to be able to do that full time.  After having served as a youth minister, campus minister, family minister, worship minister, associate minister and life group minister, God has finally seen fit to place me in a role where I will be able to do just that.  I owe the preparedness I have for this job to the West U congregation, Calvin for letting me speak, and the elders for giving me so many opportunities and seeing the potential in me.

For the next step in my journey, God has seen fit to provide me a congregation to work for in Nashville, TN, which is only 20 miles from where I grew up and where most of my family lives still today.  I will be serving as the full time Preaching Minister for the Granny White Church of Christ, located right next to Lipscomb University.  

While living here in Houston, our closest family member has been nearly 800 miles and a 13 hour drive away, you have stepped up and become that family to us.  The West U congregation has been a family to Kristen, Josie and I.  Josie learned to crawl while we were interviewing for this job.  They have cried with us when we lost loved ones.  They have prayed for us while we were separated during mission trips.  They have helped us in more ways than they will ever know.

We will love and miss you, and you will always have a special place in our hearts.

For those of you at the Granny White congregation, we look forward to our work together.  We look forward to joining you soon.

Before the sermon, I showed this little video clip -

If you’re like me, I struggle with my prayer life.  When do I need to pray?  How long do I pray?  What do I say when I pray (in the verses right before the Disciple’s Prayer, Jesus says “The Father already knows exactly what you need before you ask Him!!”.

There are 6 petitions made in this prayer.

1.  Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed be Your Name:  We need to treat God with highest honors, and set Him apart as Holy.  We must show adoration for God.

The word used for Father is the word “Abba”, which was the everyday language used by Jesus.  It was the word used by Jewish children when they spoke to their fathers, but it was also the same word adults used when addressing their fathers.  In a sense, it means “daddy”, but in another way it conveys authority, warmth, and intimacy of a loving father’s care.  We are invited to share in the intimacy that God the Father had with God the Son, and that’s really cool.

This also addresses where God is located, in Heaven.  That’s what sets him apart from your earthly Father.  He has sovereign rule over all things.  It also reminds us that He is holy, sanctified, and set apart.  We need to begin our prayers acknowledging who He is and what He is.

2.  The second petition is “Your Kingdom Come”.  Christians are called to pray and work for the continual advance of God’s kingdom.  It refers to the reign of Christ in the hearts and lives of not only believers, but in his body, which is the church.  We must increasingly reflect his love, obey his laws, honor him, do good and proclaim good news.

3.  The third petition is “Your Will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.  This probably refers to God’s revealed will, which involves conduct that is pleasing to him as revealed in Scripture.  Psalm 40:8 says “I desire todo your will, your law is within my heart”.  We must desire to act in accordance to his will by obeying his commands.

The first three petitions are giving us the priorities in prayer, so we are less likely to pray selfishly or frivolously.  The next three are more personal.

4.  The fourth petition is “Give us this day our daily bread”.  This first of the personal petitions reminds us of our needs, and that we get those needs from God.  By implication, this does not just refer to bread, but all our physical needs that we require.

5.  The fifth petition is “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”.  The word debt here is interchangeable with the word sin.  When we sin, we create an obligation to God that can never repay.

6.  The sixth petition is “Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil”.  Since God does not tempt us (James 1:13), this implies that we are to pray for relief from testing.  Trials and hardships will come to all believers.  James 1:2-4 tells us that believers should count it all joy when trials come for we will be strengthened by them.

We also must be aware there is a spiritual battle going on every day in our lives.  Satan does his best to win us over, and we must remember to ask God for protection from Satan.

Jesus ends with reminding us to forgive others as we have been forgiven.  We must always remember there is direct relationship between having been forgiven by God and the forgiveness that we extend others.

So, pray to God, remembering to acknowledge who and what He is, and then and only then take your requests before Him.  May we all do a better job in communicating with our God!

Its easy to love people who treat you well.  However, how do you love someone who doesn’t treat you well?  The kid in school who makes fun of you?  The boss who takes credit for your work, or blames you for things going wrong?  Those people are a bit harder to love.

Jesus tells the Pharisees in Matthew 5:43-48 they are to love their neighbor, but also love their enemy.  The King James goes on to say “bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.”  We know Jesus wants us to love our neighbor, that’s for sure.  He tells us over and over again.  However, the Jewish Rabbis taught that their “neighbor” only applied to fellow Jews.  This worked out well because the Jews pretty much hated everyone else.  The Romans actually accused and charged the Jews with hatred of the human race.

The problem is that the Old Testament, or no where in the Bible in fact, tells us to hate our enemies.  There are places in the Old Testament where God hates evil, and may not care for the evildoer, but he never commands his people to hate their enemies.  We are to shower them with unconditional kindness.

I heard a story about Wade Boggs, former third baseman for the Boston Red Sox.  He hated playing at  Yankee Stadium while playing for Boston, not because of the Yankees but because of one particular fan.  This fan would heckle him, yell out insults and profanities.  One day, Boggs had listened to this enough.  He walked over to the area where this guy was, looked at him, and asked “Are you the guy that is always yelling at me?”.  The fan responded “Yeah, what are you gonna do about it?”

Wade Boggs took a new baseball, signed it, and threw it up for the guy to have.  The guy never heckled Boggs again.  In fact, he became one of his biggest supporters.

That’s what we are urged to do with our enemies.  Find a way to show them love, especially the love of Christ in all we do.  God is going to bless everyone on this earth, whether they believe in him or not.  He sends the rain and the sun to bless even his enemies by common grace (vs 45).  We need to love people without discrimination like God loves us.  We also need to love our enemies because we need to show there is no greater love than Christian love.

On Sunday, July 10, 2011, my Granddaddy Widick passed from this earth.  I had the daunting task of being one who would officiate at his funeral.  Below are the words I shared with the crowd gathered.  These words were from the perspective of his 7 grandchildren, written in letter form to the greatest Granddaddy in the world.

Dear Granddaddy,

I hope that all of us have made you proud.  You worked so hard to get this family started.  We know that you loved us all so very much.

I have a few confessions to make.  First, one day when I was very little, I walked down into your basement and was playing around with some of your tools on your massive workbench.  I found an oil can.  I had never seen one like this.  It looked like the one Dorothy used on the tin man in the “Wizard of Oz”.  I grabbed it and pretended everything down stairs was the tin man, and gave it a good oiling.  Sorry about the mess, but at least nothing squeaked anymore.

I also would always forget to turn the shop light off in your basement.  I was always fascinated by the pull string that had the doughnut shaped ring to it.  You could always see if the light was left on or not by looking down through the vent next to your chair in the den.

I know we all as grandchildren loved you very much.  We want to thank you.  Thank you for letting us play and hang out with you in your basement.  We were always fascinated by it.  I can vividly remember everything about the basement you were so proud of at the house on Darden.  Walking in to your little office, where you had your small sofa, a little 13 inch television set (which you got as a Christmas Present one year from your children), one of 4000 puzzles laid out that you were always working on, and your pipe.  OH, how you always smelled so special with that pipe smell.    I remember a small black and gold radio you had on a shelf behind the couch.  I remember finding reasons to go and wash my hands in your special little sink in the basement.  The water was always ice cold.

We were always impressed by the enormous collection of aluminum cans as we would go up the stairs.  We were also always fascinated by all the different and unique knick knacks you would keep in the unfinished ceiling of the basement.  I think each of us found something new everytime we looked.

There wasn’t a time we remember when we didn’t look at your birthmarks on your arm.  We’re sorry, but we were so impressed!  You also always had ink stains on your hands from working so hard to provide for us.  I know you had to be exhausted after you would get home from work, but whenever you came home when we would spend the night with you, you always took time for us.  We don’t recall you ever being too tired to get down on the floor with us and play.  Even in your last days, we saw you playing with our own children, loving them and holding them dearly, being so proud to be a great granddaddy.

You got us back though, for all the times we aggravated you.  Every time you saw one of us you would come up to us and do one of a few things:

You would grab our arm, and squeeze right between our muscle and our bone.  It wouldn’t hurt, but it didn’t feel good.  You also had the ability to grab that tender spot just above our knee when we would sit beside you, and squeeze just hard enough.  You also loved to count all of our ribs, and you would get us all as you tickled us.

However, all those things were just in fun.  We know you loved to pick on us.  But you also showed us your love in the simplest things.  You would always hand crank the best ice cream out on the deck.  From the wonderfully thick and sweet chocolate ice cream to perfect as could be peach ice cream, you knew just how many times to crank that ice cream.  As Jackson put it last night to me, I don’t think anyone else was strong enough to do it but you.

John 14:1-4 Jesus tells us not to let our hearts be troubled. If we believe in God; believe also in Jesus. His Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would he have told us that He was going there to prepare a place for us? And if he is going and preparing a place for us, he will come back and take us to be with Him that we also may be where He is.  We know the way to the place where He is going.

There’s one problem with this verse, granddady.  Some of our fondest memories of being with you were in the back yard, sitting on the cedar swing with you, walking around the yard looking at your plants and flowers, and most importantly – the annual Easter Egg hunt.  You would walk around and help each of your grandchildren find the eggs that were hidden a little tougher than they should have been.

We know you’ve moved on.  But the problem is you probably don’t care too much about the room Jesus prepared for you.  You probably care more about the backyard.  We know you’ve probably already started a garden at the home Jesus prepared for you. You’re probably even giving Jesus tips on how to make flowers and tomatoes grow a little fuller and a little riper.

Our memories of you will forever live in our hearts.  Yesterday, as we gathered as a family in this room before guests started to arrive to honor you, I was reminded of the great legacy that you have to your name.  I looked around and was reminded of God’s word to Abraham when he promised him that he would become a great nation – We are a great nation as a family devoted to God, all because of the care and kindness of this wonderful man.

Indeed, each of the grandkids heard you threaten with the phrase “You see that ‘mean’ in my eye?  I know I would try to find it, but would never succeed in seeing it.  None of us ever could.  Admit it granddaddy, there was no mean in your eye, only love.  But granddaddy, do you see that tear in my eye?  Its real, and its there because you’re gone.

May we all walk daily in the footsteps of Jesus as you did.  May we all be the examples to our own families as you always were to us.  May we find comfort in knowing you’re with a Savior who always walked with you.  May we continue to live out the legacy you began for this Widick family.  We know we will see you again one day, and can’t wait to see what kind of backyard you will have grown using that heavenly soil.