Holy Skeet!

Saturday started off kinda slow but a slow start on Saturday is OK once in a while.  We watched Anika play in a basketball tournament.  Some coaches take this way too seriously!  It is as if the kids who play have a direct reflection on them as a person.  They have no separation.  So when the ref calls something that they see wrong, loud demonstrative ranting ensues.  The girls are in 4th and 5th grade!  There is a slim chance they will get a full-ride scholarship or play in the NBA!  No one gets a million dollars for winning or shot for losing!  Dude, chill out!  So, basketball was a little boring. ;)

Then, I got to go skeet shooting with my friend Mike.  This was to be my day to show off what I know about guns and how to use them.  In most respects, it was not a successful outing.  This sport is more complicated than I previously figured. I thought that everyone brings their guns to the open field and shoots the clay pigeons.  Just like on Wii sports!  Reality is that there are specific places to shoot from and load your gun.  There are different ways to angle and move your body to adjust to the arc of the discs.  There is skill in leading the clay pigeons just enough so they break and reflexes needed to consistently catch up to the flight.  My head was spinning just trying to keep up with it all!

Unbeknownst to me, the gun club that I visited is world famous!  There are skeet shooting world champions who are members!  Roger shot over 100 straight last week!  That means he didn't miss a bird for over 4 rounds!  There are people who shoot hundreds of shots each week!  These are serious shooters!  And then there is me, the guest shooter for the day, who only got 7 of 25.  It was quite fun and I may go again some other time.  Trouble is that there is no place to practice your shot except to just shoot!

I kept thinking of how often I miss the target of what God requires and expects of me.   Even if I practice all the time, I will not live up to that standard.  Saturday I was really trying hard but there was no way I was going to get a perfect score. What a sad life to be required to be perfect knowing that sooner or later you will miss the target.  How do people live without Jesus?  "But God demonstrated his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  Now I can deal with that perfect score!

The Hunting Pastor

I am sure the drawing was rigged somehow!  How else could I get such a prize?

We had our annual Wild Game Dinner this past Saturday.  What a great event!  The best attended yet!  There were so many people at church that I had never seen before!  This is the 3rd time that this event has occurred and I hear that it keeps getting better each year.  The organizers do a great job!  The focus of the evening is clear each time: celebrate our God!  He has made us stewards and managers of his creation and we celebrate him with others who share a common interest, hunting.  (And a few of us who are not hunters, yet.)

If you love food, this is definitely the event for you.  It is clear that the cooks made each dish with love.  I have heard of the detailed recipes that were used.  Wow, they took their role very seriously!  We had bear roast, rabbit stew, pheasant gumbo, venison steaks, perch appetizers, and more than that.  And each dish was incredible!  It was like Christmas dinner!  

After we were stuffed to near bursting, we heard a talk by the CEO of Scent-Lok.  If you know anything about hunting you know this product and how well it works.  I of course had no clue until a few months ago.  It was great to hear his story of how God has changed and shaped his life.  I think that this meant a lot to those who know the brand.  A CEO within the industry is a follower of Jesus and is proud of it!

The next part of the evening was a blur for me.  Each person gets a ticket that is used for the drawings.  The event organizers have so many contacts within the hunting industry that they can get many different promotional products and donations for the event.  There was hats, deer stands, hunting videos, and even urination pouches.  I will let you Google that last item.  Everyone walked away with some kind of gift, maybe two.  The night progressed well and the gifts were slowly given away.  People seem genuinely grateful for their gifts.

Then, the next item in the drawing is one of the big prizes donated for the night, a muzzleloader rifle worth around $250.  I have a vague idea of this style of weapon but would not be able to tell you the details of how to operate it.  My brother, niece, and I are joking that we are going to win it.  We are eagerly holding our tickets and laughing with mock expectancy.  The crowd is silent as we anticipate the number to be called.  They call my number!  Seriously!  I wait for someone to say "Just Kidding" but no one does.  Really, there may be only 2% of the people present that could not shoot this weapon better than me.  They must think it odd that the new pastor who is pretty green and ignorant in the ways of hunting gets a brand new rifle.  But no matter, I now am the proud owner of a rifle.

It is my lesson of grace all over again.  Receiving something of great value that is unexpected and undeserved always brings me back to the grace of God.  Priceless, unexpected, and undeserved yet lavishly given out of love and at a significant cost.  I am sure that I will underestimate the value of this rifle just as I underestimate God's grace.  My hope is that I learn to appreciate both and find great joy in having both.

It was a wonderful weekend!  And I haven't even talked about Sunday yet!

Harried and Scattered

Just looking at my desk makes me think that I should not be typing my blog entry.  But this momentary pause in my morning will hopefully provide me some focus for the remainder of the day.  At least that is the hope!

Today starts the very full weekend where many friends and relatives will be at our house.  Nerves will fray and I am counting on at least one episode of flared tempers.  It is just not a good event with family if passions don't get heated up like that!  In-laws come in tonight, friends come in Friday night, my sister and brother's families as well as my parents come in Saturday.  And those are only the ones we know about!

In the middle of this there is my ordination.  The main reason or excuse for these people to travel to Michigan.  I guess there always needs to be a reason and this may be a good one.  I am looking forward to Sunday but is just a bit stressful getting all the details set before people come to town.  It is like Christmas in many ways and there are people in my family that would like to set up the "I hate planning for Christmas" group!

So, if I survive this weekend, I will let you know how things transpired.  It is almost noon.  I need a nap?

I Am Getting Married Again!

I am getting married, again!  


Now that has got to get your attention!  Actually, I will be ordained in the Christian Reformed Church and installed as the pastor of Celebration Community Church in Muskegon, MI on Feb 19.  Ten years ago I would have laughed at this.  Even today I chuckle a bit but it is more out of God's goodness to me and his funny way of directing my life.


But, in crafting this ordination service, I realized that an ordination service is in many ways like a marriage ceremony.  There are commitments and promises made between 2 parties with the direct and active involvement of our God.  Like a wedding, many of the words to be spoken at the ceremony seem long and drawn out.  It is necessary to give it some structure and direction.  The bigger picture is that the meaning behind the words and the substance of our hearts is proclaimed.


I know that there will be challenges in the future after this ordination but I need to remember that it is like a marriage.  I need to remain true to the commitments I make and to do everything I can to build this "marriage".  This is the crux of my promise on Feb. 19.  I want to be a man of character who honors his promises to others, lovingly cares for those who are in his care, and most of all finds favor with God.
I make the commitment and promise to Celebration Community Church in the sight of God and his people, that I will do all in my power to have and to hold from this day further, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, to love and to cherish from this day forth.  


I am getting married, again!

Torn

Sunday I preached about the John 8 story of the woman caught in adultery.  Jesus lovingly responds to the woman who had led a life of sin.   Jesus lovingly told her to stop her life of sin but still reached out with deep compassion.  Both sides of the same love, God's love.  Could I respond the same way?

There is this recent news story that hits a little close to home and tests me in this.  As reported, a man beats this little 10 month old baby girl so that she has several skull fractures.  The girl is presently recovering in the children's hospital in Grand Rapids.  There is no rhyme nor reason given for the beating.  I am not sure that I could accept any rational reason anyway.  I am angered by the incident and cry out for justice to be done!

Man accused of beating 10-month-old | WOOD TV8

However, what if I met this man face to face?  Would I be able to treat him with love, God's love?  Would I afford him the compassion that he reportedly did not give to the little baby?

My head screams that this is different!  When you mess with our children, you have crossed too far over the line!  There is a victim in this situation and a perpetrator of an evil act of brutality!  Mercy and compassion are not to be a part of the equation!  If the reports are accurate, this man will get what he deserves and I will not shed one tear for him.  People like this should be locked up, shot, or worse!  But is this the way I should respond?

Jesus said (Matthew 5:43-44), “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!" Are you kidding me? Jesus, this is insane! How does a person love those who do things that only an enemy would do?  Where would I draw enough strength to pray for a person like this and NOT hate them?  How could I "gasp" LOVE him?  Truly, this kind of strength and focus would come from God because everything in me would want justice, not love!

I hope that I never meet this man.  Not that I would do bodily harm to him.  That is not my point.  Honestly, I do not want to have to respond with love and compassion to this person who I think does not deserve it.  Even with Jesus' example and words, I do not think that I could give the same example.  But I must!  I must do all I can to remember all of my own wrongs that do the same thing to a holy and almighty God.  I do not deserve God's love and compassion yet it has been lavished on me!  I must!

I pray for wisdom and God's strength because I am torn to my core.  Who says love was easy?

Still Studying

Yesterday was my Classical Ordination Examination.  It was the nicest grilling that I have ever received!  For 2 hours I was in front of colleagues and fellow pastors from the surrounding CRC churches.  There was not any "gotcha" questions or people that wanted to make a statement.  The pastors were more concerned with the person God made me than how much theology I knew.  Most of the questions were pretty easy for me to answer because I have had to answer them several times before.  I tried to remain calm throughout the questioning and I really do not remember whether I was scared or not.  I think that sometimes I am not smart enough to know that I should be scared!

I understand the necessity for the Classical examination.  There is great benefit from making sure that a person is a good fit for the ministry.  There have been too many people who have fooled people their entire lives about their character or their motives.  It is a sad day when they blacken the eye of Christianity as the person derails their ministry with a variety of moral failures.

There is great benefit to know whether they are a good fit for the CRC too.  How many pastors have come to CRC churches and then decided that they did not agree with the doctrines or theology?  They end up causing much trouble and heartache and often take the church they pastor out of the CRC.  (Some are joking about why a person would want to be a CRC pastor in the first place.  Maybe I will write about that someother time.)

It is a serious thing to serve our God, whether full-time ordained or part-time volunteer.  It should not be taken lightly and I do not.  The road has been long for me to be a lead, ordained pastor.  It has not been a comfortable process but it has been good.  There have been many things that I have missed in life due to this journey while I have gained many things too.  


Apostle Paul encouraged Timothy in his second letter: "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth."  The old King James version says, "Study to show yourself..." Yesterday was not a grilling or a test or an exam. It was a showing of who God made me to be. It was a "check up" as to how have I been studying. I think we all need to have a check up once in a while to see how we are studying. I would think that we would all want to show that we are approved by God. Wouldn't we?