Well, here I am again, in the office between the holidays on a snowy morning and it’s quiet! I know it’s a sign of aging and I still do enjoy some noisy fun, but quiet is great! This Lord’s Day we will be observing the Lord’s Supper. The theme of our service focuses on sin’s terrible stain and the supernatural cleansing that is ours through His blood…our stain will be made “as white as snow.” This fresh new snow is such a fitting background for finishing my preparations for this Sunday.

This morning there are a few significant prayer requests on my heart that I’m going to share with you.

*There are a number of men still out of work in our church family. It is easier to remember to pray when we first get the news that they lost their jobs. It is harder, but even more important to pray as the search remains long and discouraging. Please remember. Please pray.

*Please pray for Betty and Joe Coleman. Joe has been failing for such a long time. Betty is faced with those sobering medical treatment judgment calls about how much and how long. She needs our prayers right now.

*Continue to pray for the many who struggle with the ongoing treatment of different forms of cancer, like Jon Vervoort, Edie Haman, the Troths, Mike Alamo, and others.

*A NEW AND URGENT request is for Rob and Lee Clarke in China. Lee was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. They rushed her to Beijing and did urgent and serious surgery. The doctors believe they removed all of the mass. They will now need to remain in Beijing for a few months for follow up radiation and chemo. We need to pray and we need to step up and help them with the emergency and unexpected costs. As a church family you have always stepped up when people were in need and sacrificed to help. This Sunday’s charitable offering will be designated to help the Clarkes at this time. So please pray and plan to give generously.

*Finally, please continue to pray for me. Without Him, His wisdom, His strength, and His matchless grace I am nothing. I have nothing. With Him, well that’s a altogether different story! I really do need and treasure your prayers.

Your pastor,

Tim

Well, it’s the day before Christmas and I’m sitting in my office finishing my study for the week, doing correspondence, trying to keep up with my schedule for the next few weeks. Days like today, being in the office when it is quiet and almost no one is around, are rare! Nice, but rare.

The past week has been quite a roller coaster ride. As is my pattern, planning for the “blizzard of ’09′” the weekend of our big Christmas program included the normal obsessing about such gut wrenching questions as…How much is it really going to snow? Will we need to cancel the service? How should we adjust? Should we wait and see? Should we make a call quickly? Admittedly, most normal people would not be tortured by such questions, but many of us pastor types are. We know that if we don’t cancel or delay the service the storm will hammer us. If we do act quickly to keep our people off the roads, then it will suddenly stop snowing and become clear and warm. I know I shouldn’t worry about such things, but I do.

As usual, while my worry did serve one noble purpose, fostering fervent prayer, it proved unnecessary…the worry, not the prayer! We made the decision late Saturday morning to delay Sunday’s service by one hour and it promptly stopped snowing in my back yard…oh great. BUT, it did start up again and dumped a boatload of snow. It all worked out. We all dug out. We had a great service and Christmas program. People got safely in and back home. The greatest blessing of the day was a young man that I had the blessed opportunity to share Christ with, a bit over a week earlier, braved the snow and came to church. I had met him through our weekly bible study. We had a sweet time discussing the gospel. His heart was questioning, opening, and searching. Well, Sunday morning he trusted Christ! What a blessing, what an incomparable joy!

So, like many weeks, this week has already had its share of great joys and real heartaches. In all of these He is faithful and sufficient. In all of these He is “Emmanuel”, God with us!

Have a Great Christmas!

In Him,

P. Tim

Christ reminded His disciples, and in doing so reminds us, that the heart, spirit, and perspective of a child are indispensible in truly understanding God and His Word. Without the simplicity and trust of a young one’s heart (physical or spiritual children) we just will never really “get it”.

Matthew 18:1-3
^“At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” ² And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them ³ and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Right now I have the particular joy of seeing this Christmas season and its truth through the eyes of both literal “little ones”, that is our grand children and spiritual “young ones”, that is a number of new believers that God has wonderfully brought into my life. The joy and wonder in the eyes of both groups is wonderfully simple, pure, powerful, and precious, precious beyond words.

The disciples were all consumed with posturing, protecting their own interests, and providing for their own needs. How like each of us. How like me. Christ lovingly, but firmly called them to wake up. He calls you to wake up. He calls me to wake up to the simple, the pure, the powerful, and the precious. In case I get all caught up next week and don’t say it before Christmas…Merry Christmas. God bless you and your family.

In Him,

P. Tim

One of the personal realizations of the past few years is that no matter how old you get, no matter how many things your experience, you still face specific life situations that are new to you, things you’ve never done or had to do before. It can be a little disconcerting. This past week we had a grandson spend a few days in the hospital. This was a new experience. I’ve visited countless people in the hospital over the years. I visited our grandkids in the hospital when they were born or in the emergency room when childhood injuries occur, but visiting your grandchild in the hospital when he is really sick, well that was new and rather sobering. Obviously some of these new things or new challenges and experiences can be classified as blessings, others as burdens.

While we may never say it out loud. It does seem that at some point we’ve pretty much “seen it all”, but then…well a new challenge, a new twist on an old challenge, something we never actually had to deal with before. Having counseled for so many years, I do feel at times that I’ve “heard it all” and then surprisingly, something I’ve not ever heard exactly. Once again I am reminded of my weakness and perpetual need of His strength, of my ignorance and His wisdom and knowledge, of my deformity and His purity and beauty. I am reminded that I am not enough, never have been enough, and never will be enough in this life time, BUT HE is infinitely beyond enough.

2 Corinthians 12:9
^“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

In Him,

P. Tim

Well, it’s been two weeks since my dad’s passing. This is certainly new territory for me. This is also my favorite time of the year…hunting season. Please bear with me…there is a connection. Something I figured out some time ago was this…the source of my undeniable passion (at times obsession) for hunting clearly springs from my relationship with my dad. I was a small, frail, sickly kid, often in a variety of hospitals for a variety of reasons. It was obvious to me even as a child that my dad admired strength in men. I was full of weakness. This was difficult for him.

Then, I turned 11 and he bought me a brand new Sears and Roebuck single shot 22 ordered out of the catalog. Man, I loved that gun. At 12 he took me deer hunting for the first time. This had to be a stretch for him. It was a dream for me. It was time with my dad. It was “manly” and by God’s grace I apparently had a genetic “knack” for hunting deer. It was cold. There had been a freezing rain the night before. I was using a borrowed 300 Savage lever action rifle (for those who care.) It was late morning and I was on stand on a deer drive. A deer came out. My dad said shoot. I did. It died. He was thrilled. I was thrilled. I was hooked…for life.

I was hunting this past Monday and Tuesday with my family…a son, a son-in-law, a daughter, and a grandson (…my grandson shot a nice fat 4 pt. which was GREAT!) It’s impossible for me to hunt without thinking about my dad. Remembering the stories he told. Remembering the times we shared. It was a great gift from my dad. It was a great gift for me to pass on. It was a great gift from God. God is good.

In Him,

P. Tim