Rick Anderson's Blog, page 3

Where’s My Car??

I stepped out of the Wesley Foundation at Stephen F. Austin State University and headed to my car in the parking lot.  I had arrived just twenty minutes before for a meeting but due to the director having a protracted conference call, our meeting would need to be rescheduled.

As I continued into the parking lot, I began to search for my little car.  I didn’t see it!  I kept walking.  Surely I was overlooking it somehow.  I walked to the far side of the lot where I had left my car.  “Okay, look closely,” I thought to myself.  I spun around and thought, “Did I park somewhere else and forgot that I didn’t actually park here? No, I parked right here and walked down the sidewalk into the building from here.  The car was parked right here!  Okay, where’s my car?!”

“Did someone steal my car?” I couldn’t help thinking.  Then I wondered if my wife, Kim, might have come by to get it for some reason.  Then it hit me like a ton of bricks….”I’ve been towed!!!!”

I walked back into the building and asked the secretary if that was a possibility.  Sure enough, one of the students overheard and said that he had seen it being loaded up by the tow truck.  I was immediately drawn to the passage in the Bible that speaks about how we should handle our worldly possessions. 

Jesus tells us in Luke 12:33-34; “Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

I hope that I hold onto the material things of this world very loosely and that I can part with any of it without getting upset or freaking out over the thought of it being taken away from me.  I hope that I can use what God has given me to bless the lives of others who are less fortunate.  May all the resources that we have be available to help others and to reach others for Christ.  You never know. .. It might just get hauled off by a guy in a tow truck!

Where’s All My Greens?

 

I love greens!  Any kind of greens…mustard greens, turnip greens, collard greens…you name it!  I got the bright idea to plant some turnip and mustard greens in my little raised garden in the back yard, so I went to the feed store and bought a couple of bags of seed.

Having never attempted to grow greens before, I strewed the seeds on my little four by eight garden and raked them under.  Within a week or so, they were sprouting forth.  It looked like a bonanza of greens!

I decided to let them alone and keep growing, so I’d have greens coming out my ears!  After a few weeks of watching my greens grow, they only grew so much and then they stopped growing.  They weren’t even big enough to harvest for cooking because they were still too small to eat.  It occurred to me that maybe I had gone a little overboard and tried to grow too many greens in my little garden which overwhelmed my little growing space. 

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I think I do the same thing in my personal life.  I try to shoehorn way too much work, activities and stuff into my already crammed schedule.  Sometimes I even wake up in the middle of the night and remember something that I forgot to do during the day.

Often, all of my scurrying and business doesn’t seem to bear much fruit for the Lord or for anyone else.  I’ve just tried to do way too much with far too little and, most importantly, often without the Lord’s guidance and direction.

The Lord speaks to all of us who are too busy in Psalm 46:10-11; “Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.  The LORD of Heaven’s Armies is here among us; the God of Israel is our fortress.”

So don’t forget to spend some time alone with God and His Word everyday so that your life will be filled with His power, hope, truth, love, mercy and grace.  Then your life will bear fruit for Christ.

Dusty Guitar

Dusty Guitar

Over in the corner of my bedroom stands the guitar that I got for Christmas last year.  As I inspect it, it’s obvious that it has fallen into disuse and has become covered with dust. 

I had good intentions for a while and tried to learn a few chords during the first weeks and months of the year.  Alas, it finally got pushed to the proverbial back burner of importance and I have to confess that it has been months since I did more than just glance at it on occasion. 

If I’m honest, I could probably say the same thing about giving thanks to the Lord for all of the blessings that He has given to me.  Sure, I have good intentions and I even say “thank you” on occasion, but have I really fully acknowledged my thanks to the Lord?  Have I done more than just glance at being thankful or have I truly let the sound of thankfulness fill my heart with chords of joy and thanksgiving?

The writer of Psalm 136 must have been filled with thanksgiving in his heart as he began the poem:  “Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.  Oh, give thanks to the God of gods! For His mercy endures forever.  Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords! For His mercy endures forever!”  At the end of the twenty-six verses of his psalm, he finishes with “Oh, give thanks to the God of heaven! For His mercy endures forever.”

May each of our hearts be so filled with thanksgiving that we are like the psalmist whose soul overflowed with joy and praise to the Lord.  May we each lift our voices in adoration to the One who has blessed us so richly and may the chords of joy fill our hearts with the sweet sound of praise to the Lord of Heaven.

Now, I believe I’ll try to strum a few chords on that guitar.  Who knows?  Maybe I’ll learn to play it yet!

Brokenness

The other night Kim asked me to make some rice, so I dug around in the cabinet for the rice cooker and began to drag it out for use.  That’s when I heard the crashing sound of glass that brought all activity in the house to a standstill.

As I was pulling the rice cooker from the cabinet, I had accidentally dragged the Pyrex measuring cup out with it.  Needless to say, it had exploded when it hit the floor while shards and pieces of broken glass were scattered far and wide on the kitchen floor.

Kim and I set about the touchy task of cleaning up the foreboding catastrophe with a broom, dustpan and vacuum cleaner.

I have to admit that there have been times in my life when my heart looked a lot like that shattered measuring cup.  I was broken and there seemed to be no one who could clean up the mess of my pain and loss.

King David tells us in Psalm 51:15-17; Unseal my lips, O Lord, that my mouth may praise you.  You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering.  The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.

Unfortunately, it took devastating loss for me to humble myself before the Lord and truly repent.  I was too proud, self-sufficient and independent to fully come to the Lord, but He was patient.  I did come and I did find the help and comfort that I so desperately needed.  God healed me and knit me back together.  He cleaned up the mess of my broken life and put me on my feet again so that I could stand on faith in Him.  He proved to me that He wanted my heart and He would take good care of it.  All that I can do is to give Him praise for everything He has done. 

Showers of Blessing

Sitting on the side of the Discovery Green in the front of the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Kim and I chowed down on hot Korean food that was being served at the Korean Festival on Saturday.  We sampled cuisine from different restaurants, such as bulgogi, kimchi, rice, spicy chicken and other tasty foods.  All of this while artists performed to a Korean theme on the stage.

The longer we stayed, the more we kept looking at the sky which grew seemed to grow ominously dark.  Initially, the clouds were a welcome respite from the heat but the longer they gathered, the more threatening they appeared. 

Then as quick as a wink, it happened.  The bottom fell out!  Everyone scattered like a covey of quail being flushed!  Luckily, we had brought a small umbrella with us, but it would quickly prove insufficient as the rain came down fast and hard while driven by a strong wind.  We raced across the street to the protection of the Convention Center and sat under the porch. 

After sitting there for a while in wet clothes, it became obvious that the rain wasn’t about to let up anytime soon.  I told Kim that I would go and get the car which was about a half-mile away. 

I trudged through the streams of water while becoming soaked to the bone as my little umbrella only proved to keep my head dry.  I couldn’t help but think that this drenching rain reminded me of how God had blessed me.

Yes, I know it may sound goofy, but my heart smiled as I slogged along with soaked clothes and shoes toward the car which sat in the middle of a huge puddle of water that I had to wade in order to get inside.

The Lord says through Ezekiel in 34:26; I will bless my people and their homes around my holy hill. And in the proper season I will send the showers they need. There will be showers of blessing.

When I got to church the next morning, the choir sang the offertory special which shared these verses, There shall be showers of blessing, If we but trust and obey; There shall be seasons refreshing, If we let God have His way.

And all that I can say is “Amen!” and “Hallelujah!”

Romans 1:12; When we get together, I want to encourage...

 

Romans 1:12; When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours.

Stepping out of the brisk autumn morning into the warmth of the coffee shop, I headed straight for the counter to order a hot cup of java. As I marched in that direction, I noticed out of the corner of my eye, an old friend sitting by the window staring into the screen of his laptop. Since I had not ventured into the local coffee hangout in many weeks, I hadn’t seen my old buddy, Phil, in quite sometime.

I changed my course upon seeing him and walked up beside his table. Since he was a retired missionary and pastor, we quickly became lost in conversation. After forty-five minutes, I still hadn’t ordered that cup of coffee! I was enjoying the encouraging conversation as we talked about God’s activity both in the past and in the present. What a blessing!

God has certainly placed loving Christian people in our lives so that we can encourage one another in living out faith-filled lives that glorify God while being a blessing to others and ourselves. Although we may worship at different churches on Sunday morning, we are together the children of God that seek to serve Him as His ambassadors in this world that needs the love of God so desperately.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:14; “You are the light of the world-like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.” So don’t forget to encourage one another and let them be a source of encouragement to you. God has placed these folks in our lives so that we can be the church together, regardless of the house of worship that we attend.

Thousand Year View

What is bugging you today?  What does your world look like to you?  Do you feel blessed, or are you weighed down by the concerns of this world?  It’s easy for Christians to lose their kingdom perspective and begin to see everything from a strictly human point of view.

During a training session that I attended many years ago, the facilitator illustrated to us that it is easy for us to lose perspective on issues because we are too close to them and can’t effectively see what’s really going on.  She suggested that we try to pretend that we are in an airplane that is flying over at one thousand feet high.  From that height, we can still see everything but we also get a little distance between us and the weight of our current issues.

As a Christian, I’d like to put a little different spin on that approach.  We’ll call it the “Thousand-Year View”.  Imagine for a moment that a thousand years has gone by and you’ve been in heaven for a long time, praising God and basking in His glory.  All of a sudden, He calls you to come to Him.  You are so caught up in worship and praise that you don’t want to stop for a moment, but you do because the Lord has beckoned you.

You go to the Lord and He directs your attention to a big-screen TV which begins to play a video of your life.  As a matter of fact, it’s a video of exactly what you’re going through right now in your world!  He lovingly asks you if you believe that He was there with you during that time.  Your response is, “Of course, you were, Lord!”

He responds, “Won’t you trust me to be in control of your life both then and now?”  “Yes!  Of course, Lord!  I trust you completely!” you voice your reply.  “Then go back to that time and trust in me.”

We are told in the Gospel of Mark 8:33; Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

 

No Power

Fuel Shut-Off Valve

Stumbling through the dark house, I finally found the flashlight and made my way out to the garage.  I pulled the cord over my head that released the garage door from the chain drive and heaved the garage door upward.

The cool night air burst in around me as the moonlight flooded into the garage.  I stepped to the side of the garage and wrestled the portable generator out to the driveway where I prepared it for use.

After a few minutes of preparation, the generator was ready to go, so I yanked and yanked on the pull cord.  It finally lurched into action, but I noticed immediately that something was wrong.  The strong smell of gasoline filled the garage and alarmed me.  I flashed my light toward the generator and saw right away that the fuel shut-off valve was leaking gasoline steadily.

I knew right away that I had to turn off the machine due to the fuel problem.  We would have to go without electricity all night and hope that I would be able to get the generator fixed before we would have another power outage.

I followed the light of my flashlight back into the house and broke the bad news that we would be without any power for the rest of the evening.

We, too, face a power outage in our spiritual lives when we try to get along without regularly reading and studying God’s word.  Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

Don’t try to live your life without having access to the fuel that can deliver God’s power into your world.  God’s word will release His energy into your life to encourage you, build you up and hold you accountable as He directs your steps. 

 

 

Faith of a Turtle

Hebrews 12:1-2a; “And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.  We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.”

Driving into the neighborhood, I saw a large snapping turtle crossing the road right in front of my house.  I hurried to park my car and try to get him out of the road before he got run over by a car.

I hurried up to him and tried to pick him up by either side of his shell.  I assumed that he would retreat into his shell, but that is not what he did.  He kept on pawing and straining to go forward as I lifted him and carried him to the side of the road where I quickly set him down against the curb. 

He continued to walk as I directed him with my feet to a drain hole where he could drop into the small creek beside my house.  He never let up but kept on pawing onward as I directed him toward his destination where he plunged into the water with a splash.

As we make our way through this life, we are actually on a faith journey not unlike the journey of the turtle.  We get ourselves into situations at times and we need God to rescue us.  He is ever ready to help and watch over us to guide us along our way. 

We aren’t asked to run swiftly or with great agility but rather as the writer of Hebrews tells us, to run with patience and endurance.  The only way that we can run the race well is to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus for He is our hope and our guide. 

Remember that you are on a faith journey which constantly beckons us to go forward with perseverance as God guides us and builds up our faith in Him in the process.  The funny thing is that through the running of our own race, we impact others for the sake of Christ as they watch us trek out our faith journey. 

Be sure to keep your eyes on Jesus and to give Him the glory for everything as you run your race to the finish.   

 

The first rays of dawn began to illuminate the eastern h...

The first rays of dawn began to illuminate the eastern horizon as we strode up the hill in our neighborhood.  “Maybe we need to turn on our sprinklers, too!” I joked at Kim as we quickly walked past the home whose sprinkler system was obviously on an automatic timer.   “The ground is saturated!” she replied, seeing as how we just got several inches of rain over the weekend.  That’s why I’m positive that our neighbor forgot to turn off the automatic sprinkler. 

I couldn’t help but think of my own yard and the grass that had been turning brown due to lack of water before we got the deluge from above.  As we continued our walk up the hill, I glanced back at the yard we had just passed and saw that it was lush and green, although a bit waterlogged at the moment.

My mind wandered to a comparison of watering of the lawn to my personal devotional practices.  Have I let my devotion to the Lord and spending time in His Word become a sporadic practice or am I more disciplined about my time with God?  Does my spiritual life look like my yard at times or is it regularly watered with God’s Word and prayer time like the other yard that was healthy?

I know that it’s easy to let life get in the way of our time with God and His Word, but it is a much needed discipline that keeps us plugged into the true source of our prosperity, which is God.

Joshua tells the children of Israel in Joshua 1:8; “Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.”

I think that it’s better to water our lives with God’s Word and time in His presence even if we do feel full to overflowing at times.  That would be far better than to think that we’ve gotten enough nourishment to do us for the long haul and later find ourselves parched and withered from lack of the sustenance that we can only receive from God and His Word.  Maybe you’ll remember to keep the sprinklers turned on, too!