More than A Meal

     I have been preaching the last several weeks on Moving Beyond the Walls.  The idea of this series of sermons is to help our church family be more than a church that gathers, but to be the church that scatters.  We are trying to make a significant difference in the communities where God has placed us and I am not talking about the geographical location of our facilities. 

    We are looking for ways to interact with our communities in big ways and small ways.  We want to interact with planned events and unplanned events.  But mainly we want to see the body of Christ impacting lives on a normal basis.  We want service to others to be a part of our DNA.  Recently one of our members and a new Christian was touched by the plight of someone in her community.  I thought I would let her share it in her words.  It is entitled "More than A meal." 

It was Friday evening, August 3rd.  I had just picked up the kids from helping my mom at her garage sale.  I hadn’t been to the grocery store for a while so I really didn’t have anything to make for dinner.  I decided to pick up some Popeye’s chicken.  Daniel & Jadyn rode with me and we were just a couple blocks away from the house when we noticed a man at the side of the road holding a sign.  Jadyn asked what the sign said but as I drove past all I could read was “homeless”.  We kept driving & that man was all I could think about.   I wondered what was on the rest of his sign.  Did he want work, or money, or food?  I knew I had no cash on me to give to him.  I kept thinking that I should get him a meal.  

We got to Popeye’s and ordered our food.  As we waited I told Daniel that I was thinking about buying the man some food.  He agreed.  I remember saying to him “What if he isn’t there?” and Daniel said “But what if he is!”  I knew he was right.   I was scared & I didn’t know what I was going to say to the man but I knew I should try.  And if he wasn’t there when we got there, then it just wasn’t meant to be.  So, I ordered the man a meal.  I figured that he could use it even if food wasn’t what he was asking for on his sign.  We got our food & headed to the car.  

The drive to the place where we saw the man wasn’t far.  He was still there with his bike, backpack and sign.  The sign that I could now see read “HOMELESS.  Need money.  Please help!” I pulled into a parking lot near where the man was standing.  I told the kids to stay in the car and wait for me.  Daniel asked me what I was going to say & I told him I had no idea.  I picked up the meal & headed in the man’s direction.  His back was to me & he hadn’t noticed that I was approaching.  I called out “Sir!” and continued walking toward him.  He turned around and put his sign down.  The first thing I noticed about him was his amazing blue eyes.  They were so peaceful and gentle and such a beautiful shade of blue.  He wore a teal t-shirt which made his eyes stand out even more.  I told him that I passed him as I was on my way to get dinner for my family and that I couldn’t read all of his sign but thought he could maybe use a meal.  He reached out for my hand.  I set his dinner down and gave him a hug.  He said “God bless you” and I said “God bless you too!”  My eyes swelled with tears as I turned and headed for the car. 

That opportunity couldn’t have happened at a better time.  I had a “bad” couple of weeks – lots of little things were getting me down.  I had just come off of one of the most stressful work weeks I’ve ever had which included our National Sales Meeting and several customer events.  I had forgotten to make an appointment for Jake’s school physical and I got the dates wrong for schedule pickup at the high school.  I had to rearrange my work schedule so that I could get both of those taken care of.  I was financially stressed - I just had to buy four tires for the car; I had to pay to have a tree removed before I got fined by the city; school fees needed to be paid; and on top of that, our microwave broke.  I was frustrated and stressed. 

And then I saw the man at the side of the road.  I was very quickly reminded how blessed I am to have a home and a warm meal whenever I want it.   All of those things that I was stressing about didn’t matter. Giving that man a meal was such an amazing and humbling experience! It was more than a meal - it was just the reality check I needed!          

   Do you need a reality check today?  Why not serve someone and tell them that God loves them.  Have a great day as you reach out to someone with the love of Jesus.  Then I hope  you will share your story as well.     

Go with the Flow

Highway driving can be an adventure especially in Illinois where everything is under construction, but nothing is being constructed.  I recently took a rode trip with my 19 year old son Jameson and we traveled through several states on our way to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  I discovered that drivers are pretty much the same no matter where they are or what state they are from.

As we made our way down the various highways, we tried to pay close attention to the traffic laws.  I assume that traffic signs are put up on the road as a law and not as a suggestion.  But anyway we were constantly having to change speeds as the speed limits were always changing especially in the construction zones.

We would be traveling 70 and then all of a sudden a sign would tell us to prepare to slow to 55 as we were entering a construction zone.  I would start the gradual process of slowing from 70 to 55 only to have motorists zoom by me on their way to wherever they were going.  Some would drive on my tailgate and others would swerve by me and give me evil looks and some would give gestures and I am not talking about waving.

I thought to myself, "I thought we were supposed to slow down after all that is what the sign said."  But no one seemed to care what the sign said even if it was in a construction zone.  I guess everyone was in a hurry to get where they were going.  I found myself saying outloud to no one in particular "I hope you get a ticket."  Of course everyone knows that will never happen because the police officer is waiting on me to speed up so that he can give me the ticket.

So here I was trying to be obedient, while getting mocked, criticized and even threatened by all those around me.  What was I to do?  I did exactly what every one else did.  I sped up thinking that there was no way they could give me a ticket when everyone else was doing the same thing.

Do you think that driving imitates life?  How many times do you see someone doing something that you know is wrong, the Bible says it is wrong, your conscience says it is wrong, and even  your Momma says it is wrong, but yet you find yourself doing it anyway?  Why do we do it?  We don't want to be criticized. We do not want to be mocked or laughed at.  And we certainly do not want to be threatened.  So we go with the flow. 

Am I alone or are there others that go with the flow as well.  I mean after all if everyone else is doing it it can't be wrong can it?

Weeds in Your life

     As many of you know, Illinois is suffering through an intense drought.  We have had very little rain in the past two months.  The Fox River is at the lowest it has been for 30 years.  Farmers, who may not even believe in God are asking churches to pray for rain.  If rain does not come they may lose their entire crop.  This could be devastating during this current economic climate.

     You would think that if there was very little rain that weeds would not grow.  But that is far from the truth, in fact the only that seems to grow in this environment is the weeds.  I had to mow my yard today because of the weeds.  The little rain showers we had the past couple of days did little to the dry parched grass, but the weeds soaked it up.

     As I thought about the weeds and how they are able to survive and thrive when nothing else can reminded of sin in a person's life.  Stay with me on this for a second.  The grass is like our Christian life.  It needs to be constantly watered and cared for to grow.  We need to study God's Word, fellowship with other believers and be involved in ministry on a constant basis or we will dry up and the our Christian life will be hidden.  No wonder the Bible says that we need to be like a tree planted by the waters, because without the water we will dry up.

     Weeds on the other hand are like sin in our life.  They do not need any thing to help them grow.  All you have to do is cease growing as a Christian and the sin will become more and more prevalent in your life.  I know this is true in my own life.  Sometimes I get so busy in doing work for the Lord, I forget to spend time with the Lord.  I need to daily nourish my spirit so that I can grow and thrive in a weed infested life.  I have a lot of weeds and the less time I spend with God the more the weeds begin to show.

     I don't like weeds in my yard, but I might not get rid of them now because they at least they serve as a reminder to me of the weeds in my own life.  How about you?  Are the weeds shining through because of a drought in your life?  Why not feed your soul.  Study God's Word and worship Him and be revived.  Remember that Jesus said he is the vine, we are the branches and if we don't stay connected to him we cannot do anything.  Get connected and stay fresh!!

      Let me share with you what I believe God has in store for this body of believers.  I believe that God wants this church to grow bigger, better and broader.  Let me flesh this idea out in real terms.  First, he wants us to grow bigger, and yes by growing bigger I mean increasing in number. With our present location we can have an auditorium that seats 400 in a service.  We cannot have much more than that simply because of the parking space that is required.  So we have a lot of growing to do.  If you do not want to see this church grow bigger then perhaps you need to find another location in which to worship.  Because it is God’s will that His church grow bigger. 

     Not only does God want this church to grow bigger, but He wants it to grow better.  By better I mean that we become more spiritually mature in our attitude and in our actions.  It means we have to grow up as Christians.  We can no longer be content with the status quo, but we have to push ourselves to be all that we can be in Christ.  This will mean a deeper commitment to God and a deeper commitment to His church.  I have to be more intentional in teaching you and equipping you.  But the pastor cannot do it alone.  The Core team has to step up and provide Godly leadership.  Bible study teachers have to step up to the plate as well and provide instruction and guidance in God’s Word.  Each one of us has to take serious the call of God upon our lives and grow in our relationship with Him. 

     Finally, God wants this church to grow broader.  By broader I mean that God wants to expand our sphere of influence.  I believe God is positioning us to be a regional church.  What do I mean by that?  Just look at the makeup of this church.  This body of believers is comprised of individuals from Oswego, Yorkville, Plano, Sandwich, Montgomery, Newark, Aurora, and even Sugar Grove.  We already reach further than just this geographical location.  God wants to see this church begin to make a difference in the communities where he has placed us.  We will do this by serving others in Christ love.  But we will also do this by planting other churches.  The plan is that as we grow to 400 in attendance, that we will then ask 100 people to go and plant a church in a neighboring community.  This will accomplish two things: first it will put a self-sustaining church closer to the people and second, it will allow room for this body to grow as well.  And then once we reach 400 we will then again ask another 100 to go out and plant another church in another city.  By so doing we will be able to expand the sphere of influence of this body of believers, but more importantly the message of God’s love will spread faster.

      How will we determine if we are accomplishing the vision?  Instead of analyzing everything vertically, such as how many people are in attendance, we need to look at things horizontally.  In other words, how are we moving people through the process?  How do we move people from Worship to Bible Study and then to Ministry / Missions?  We will know we are accomplishing our vision when each category grows.

     I believe this vision is what God has for this body of believers.  Is it totally fleshed out?  No!  But I am excited about the vision God has for this body of believers.  I pray that you are excited and can embrace this concept.  I am convinced that when we are living under the influence of the Holy Spirit we will have a vision of great things.  God has Great Expectations for His church.

Ministry With Purpose

When our family was serving as missionaries in Guatemala we did a lot of ministry among the poor.  Many of these ministries might be what is called social ministry as we provided medical, dental, and eye clinics to the poor that we worked with. 

     In one of the first clinics that we shared with the people we met a young girl by the name of Aura.  Aura was 13 and she was being raised by her older sister because her parents were deceased.  Aura came to the clinic not feeling well and the doctor discovered that she was a diabetic.  In fact so bad was she that her blood sugar was around 660.  The doctor said that if we did not get her to a hospital where she could receive immediate treatment she would die that day.  My wife took charge of the situation.  She unloaded our truck, and Aura and her sister and Gabbie made their way to the local hospital. 

     As Gabbie tells the story the doctors refused to treat Aura because in their opinion she would just eventually die anyway because she would not be able to afford the medicine.  However, Gabbie was persistent and told them you treat her and we will get her the medicine.  The doctors kept her in the hospital because of the persistence of my wife.

     The doctors on our medical team were moved by Aura’s situation and left some medicine for us and eventually we were able to develop a partnership with one of the doctors to provide her medicine that we would give to her.  We loved Aura and wanted to help her with her diabetes.  We knew without our help her chance of survival was minimal.  We did everything we could to help her.

     As we shared this story with our missionary colleagues, a wise woman told us “that her sickness was not her problem.  The problem was that she did not know Jesus.”  She told us that eventually Aura would die, but we must prepare her for that day.  So our prayers and mission to Aura changed.  We began praying “Lord allow us to keep her alive long enough so that she can receive Jesus as Lord and Savior of her life.”  And the Lord answered our prayers as eventually I was able to baptize Aura as my sister in the faith.  We reached out to her and cared for her needs, but ultimately we met her greatest need which was to have Christ as her Savior.

     Ministry fails if it does not present the gospel.  I know this concept is hard to get our arms around, because we want to help people in need.  But we must remember that it does no good to feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, clothe the naked and care for the sick, if we do not share the good news of Jesus Christ to those we help.

     Many well meaning followers of Christ can be some involved in social ministry that they forget that the greatest need that people have is spiritual.  We have a responsibility to share with them the greatest gift we could ever give and that is life in Christ.  We use whatever means we can to share the gospel with those who need to hear.  Social ministry is one of the ways that God allows us to open doors to meet this most important need in a person's life.

     What do you think?  I would be interested to hear your comments.  Until then remember to love God, love people and serve others. 

Price of Gasoline

A recent article on the internet caught my attention. The article was entitled why we should love $5.00 gasoline. With prices here in my community topping out at $4.19 I was intrigued and read the article. I did not know if they were serious or if it was written tongue in cheek, but here are the reasons we should love $5.00 gasoline.


Fewer people will die on the road.  The less you drive, the more likely you will survive. Perhaps this might be good thing. Of course they might get angry because they are cooped up in the house as well, so who knows where their anger might take them.

Demand for high-mileage cars may grow.  The key word here is "may." The idea is that as gas prices continue to climb people will want to purchase a car that is not as dependent on gasoline. Of course this whole idea is based upon a person’s ability to purchase an overpriced hybrid to begin with.  The new Chevy Volt cost about $46,000!  Of course there is a corollary to this as well.  With so many of us driving hybrids, there will be less need for gas stations and we will see more people out of work as the oil companies start laying people off.

Shorter security lines.  Airlines fares are extremely fuel-price reactive. Soon, hardly anyone will be able to afford to fly anywhere they want and you will be able to walk through the airport check out without any delays.  This one actually made me laugh.

Less pollution.  Less driving means cleaner air. I think there might be a conspiracy going on here so that we can protect the earth from those of us who like to pollute by driving our gas guzzlers.

Less congestion.  The road you will travel will have fewer vehicles to contend with. I am not sure how this one helps if the people are not able to afford to drive to work anymore.

High prices lead to lower prices. Here is the idea behind this concept. As prices escalate, the government will be forced to open up other areas for oil exploration, which will lead the oil companies to invest in reaching the harder to reach oil reserves. Eventually we will have so much oil on the market that it will drive down the price. Of course by then we will all be driving hybrids or using our horse drawn carriages and we will not need the suddenly lowered price of gasoline.

More exercise.  The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates that by 2020, three out of four Americans will be categorized as overweight or obese.  Great something else I have to look forward to.  Maybe I should drive to the gym and work out.  But I digress. With higher gas prices we will finally be forced to walk off some of that excess weight we gained because we kept going through the drive thru at McDonalds for a Carmel Frappe or through Starbucks for that White Mocha Chocolate. We might have to walk or ride our bike through the drive thru instead

End of wars.  According to National Defense Magazine, the cost of supplying our troops with gasoline is extremely high. Because of the higher prices we will eventually have to call all our troops home and we will no longer have to fund the three wars in which we are engaged. Of course those same troops will come home and not have a job or they will drive their cars, which will increase the traffic on our highways. Not to mention we will turn these countries over to militants who want to kill us. Since they will be the only ones able to purchase gasoline it will insure that they will fly more planes into our buildings. Okay, maybe I went a little overboard here.

Local businesses may profit.  If we can't afford to drive out to the Wal-Mart or The Home Depot, we may buy instead at the local supermarket or neighborhood hardware store. In addition, instead of buying produce from foreign countries we will be buying local produce. Of course that is assuming that the local farmers will be able to have produce since they will probably not be able to afford the gasoline that is needed to bring the produce to market.

It's all about democracy. If we let up on the gas pedal, we will starve those oil-rich dictators out of existence. That will show them!

I did not take much of this very serious as you can tell by my remarks. But it does cause me to wonder how $5.00 gasoline might affect the local church. Would attendance decrease because people want to conserve their gasoline? Would finances decrease because people no longer have the money needed to make charitable contributions? Would the church have to decrease its activities so that people could stay home and conserve gasoline? If money decreases in the church, would we have funds to help those in need of gasoline money?

One good thing I see about higher gas prices is that I could become more like Jesus: He walked everywhere?

What do people see?

     The other day I had an interesting visitor to my office.  I was sitting in my office working on a sermon for Sunday morning when a representative from another church dropped by to chat.  I did not know this individual or the church of which she was a representative.  She was from a nondenominational church closer in to Chicago and thought that they could offer assistance to our fellowship.  This church had been able to help many smaller churches to maintain a vibrant witness in their community.  They had been instrumental in helping 7 - 8 smaller churches by offering the pastor's teaching / preaching via webcast.

     The idea behind this ministry was to enable churches to keep their doors open even if they could not afford a pastor or their pastor was not a gifted communicator.  They offered their services free and they would even offer to let the church use their various materials for teaching children, youth and adults.  I appreciated the offer and especially thought the free idea was something missing in many larger churches today.  Too many of the larger churches charge for their services and I am not sure how Jesus would think about such things, but that is not the purpose of this post. 

     However, we did not need the services this church could offer and she left to look for another church that could be helped by their ministry.  However, the visit caused me to reflect upon the perception she had of Lynwood Baptist Church.  What caused her to believe that we needed help?  Lynwood is not what one would call a modern looking facility.  In many ways the facility is outdated when compared to modern facilities that people see every day.  What led this church to believe that Lynwood needed help? 

     I kick myself for not asking that question of my visitor, but perhaps she saw something that we might not see ourselves.  However, looks can be deceiving.  What one looks like from the outside might not reveal what is on the inside.  Lynwood is alive and well and God is moving in our midst.  People are coming to Christ and lives are being changed.  But those type of things cannot be determined by the outside appearances of a building.

     However, this visit made me look at things from another perspective.  What do people see when they look at my life?  Do they see someone alive and vibrant for the cause of Christ, or do they see someone that appears to be lifeless and void of any excitment?  You see I can read the Bible, I can memorize Scriptures, and I can even attend church services, but all of these things will not mean anything if I am not vividly living my Christian faith before a watching public.  People see what we do and what we say, not necessarily what we have in our heart.  What is inside should reveal itself by what we do, but you and I both know that is not always the case.

     Ask yourself the same question "what do people see when they look at me?"  Does your life reveal what is in your heart or does it reveal something else.  The Bible says that we will know who the true beleivers are by the fruit that they bear.  Fruit is seen on the outside, not the inside.  Think about  your life.  What do people see?