Crossroads Celebration Church

What are the signs that it’s spring?  Someone told me this week that they had some early variety flower breaking the ground.  Today we spring forward with our clocks – to arrive tomorrow morning with the sun rising an hour later, but also the sun setting an hour later.  I am still waiting for my first sighting of a robin.  I think they were afraid of the snow we’ve had.  And then we have had major snow melt this week and with that flooding.  The temperatures are rising and the forecaster was hedging on announcing a day hitting 60 degrees in the five day forecast.  Of course as soon as Valentines was over, the Easter candy and baskets were up on shelves in the stores.

But for me the real sign of spring is the real Easter story! No, not bunnies laying chocolate eggs in your back yard.  Jesus rising from the dead to a resurrection life.  We typically see spring as a sign of new life, the trees budding and animals bearing their offspring.  But we have the hope and promise of new life in Christ Jesus.  I know it’s early to be sharing an Easter message, but part of the message is the hurt and the waiting and the death of Jesus’ crucifixion.  It is like seeing the barren trees and brown lawns of winter that help us appreciate spring.  It is Jesus’ suffering the pains of this world, our world, that help us appreciate the new life Jesus offers in the resurrection.  So watch the signs with me during this season of waiting.  Watch as things turn and change.

Tomorrow I will share a sermon on one of the sayings of Jesus on the cross.  It will help us understand how Jesus took on our sin and abandonment [separation from God] and how he is revealing himself to us his mission as Messiah or Savior.  If you are not with us in worship tomorrow, March 14, wait and listen to the podcast on Crossroads Celebration website.  We need to understand the events of the cross to appreciate the  power of what happens out of the tomb.

We have to endure winter to appreciate spring!

It started on Thursday.  I sang a funny short birthday song to a young lady waiting for the bus.  It made her day.  Then in the Ethics class I teach at college half of the class didn’t show up.  They started spring break early.  So the half class that did show up got an extra five points for being there.  We then had a great discussion on capital punishment [sounds odd doesn't it?].  And then since we had one of the best discussions of the semester, I let them go early.  They liked it and so did I.  After class I called my son to see what he was doing and we went and bowled four games [not our best scoring, but we had fun].

You know it wasn’t really anything big, but by the end of the day, I knew that it was a great day.  It isn’t always about what was accomplished that is the success.  There was however great relationship building on that day.

Today is Saturday morning and that great day on Thursday spilled over into Friday and it is looking like today will be just as great.  Our family celebrated last night the progress of our son’s new business.  My daughter is going to show me how to use a different brand camera than I am used to.  Who knows what the rest of the day will bring.

Ecclesiastes talks about our work and our days as a gift from God – so eat, drink and be merry.  I like that idea.

Are you having a great day?   Stop and think about it for a moment…what has gone well?  what accomplishments [even minor ones] have you made?  what conversations have you had?  are you singing birthday songs to people you hardly know?  AND if today wasn’t so great, there is always tomorrow.  It is a clean slate to begin again.

I do have a little philosophy that I want to pass on from the comics this week.  Mutts was doing a series with the cat or dog dressed up as the all knowing Sphinx.  The question was posed,  if you attempt to fail, but succeed, what have you done?

Life is good!  and God is Greater!  May today be a great day with you and God!

Yesterday I was at Rochester Minnesota for some friends in the Mayo clinic learning about their options for cancer treatment.  It meant that I was away from my regular post.

In the mornings I  am a crossing guard at NW 13th and Irvinedale.  During the harsh winter months I haven’t really had elementary kids cross my corner to go to school, but I get out of the car and visit with the Junior High students and one High School student who wait for the bus.  I don’t have to stand and wait with them, but I do just to get acquainted with them.  I know most of them by name and have been learning a little bit about them.

Well since I was gone yesterday, I heard about it today.  My substitute just sat in their car, I was told.  ”So you are not annoyed by my presence?” I asked them.  ”No” they like having me visit with them.  I ask about their weekends and what game they watched and how their local high school teams are doing.  I hear about their shopping expeditions and if they get grounded for things.

I felt special this morning.  They missed me.  And after I told them about my friend Emma [age 18] who is struggling with cancer, they said they would pray for her.  It was unsolicited.  It gives you hope for our future generations.

Now if they would just lighten up on the bus driver!

This word strikes me hard.  I used it a few weeks ago to begin our ascent to Easter.

Jesus hanging on the cross says, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”  Luke 23.34  And I suggested that Jesus words of forgiveness was an extension to the following.  Father, forgive Judas [his betrayal] for he really didn’t know the extent of what he was doing.   Father, forgive Peter for his denial.  Father, forgive Pilate for his part in the trial and even after his wife’s warning, washed his hands of the whole deal.  He didn’t know what he was doing.  And I include Jesus forgiveness of the religious leaders who brought him to trial.  The crowd who cried, “Crucify”.  The Roman soldiers who persecuted him and finally nailed him to the cross.

Here’s where the word extension really matters.  If Jesus is forgiving these, then why not include King Herod.  Who in Matthew’s [Christmas] birth account sought to have all boys age two and under murdered because Jesus was a threat to his kingship.  Father, forgive Herod, for he knew not the extent of his actions.  And we could go back in extension to Adam and Eve.  Father, forgive Adam and Eve for they didn’t know what they were doing eating from the forbidden tree.

And if the extension goes back in time.  Why not forward?  Does his extension of forgiveness also include you and I?  For our sins.  Are we not just as guilty of nailing him to the cross or crying out, “Crucify”?

And that is exactly what the savior does.   Extend his forgiveness to us.  To all of the world, from beginning to end of time.  And he extends his love.  Extends his grace and mercy.

This is my new favorite word, “extension”!

Salvation [God's plan to restore our broken relationship to Him] is extended through the extended [and nailed] arms and hands of Jesus dying on the cross for you and me.  Some say it’s a stretch, but I say it’s a reach.  What a glorious God we have to extend Himself to us.

Join us at Crossroads Celebration Church in Ankeny, Iowa as we celebrate the extension of God’s love for us through Jesus Christ this Easter!  Pray for those who have not felt the extension of that great love!

I’ve been making some new facebook friends and getting in touch with some friends from way back. 25 years back.

I’ve had two find me in facebook that were teenagers in the mid 1980′s. What a hoot catching up with them. I remember these people as confirmation students and in youth group in our church.

Eric and I have been doing some catching up. He is now married and a father. He is the drummer for Loretta Lynn – which is pretty impressive. I don’t mind flinging around, “It’s who you know”. Now I will be telling people I know Loretta’s drummer. But I tell you I was equally if not more impressed in this young man’s Christian faith. He grew up in a solid family, with mid-west values and I am supposing he never missed a Sunday in church. But he is now teaching Disciple bible study [which is a year long commitment and for the teacher you have to be on top of the lessons every week]; but he is doing this in the prison. That is a huge commitment. He is also teaching young people to play drums and guitar and that requires patience.

I tell you I have some pride having been this fine young man’s pastor once upon a time – but just simply having known him and his family. It is good to see such positive come out of one person’s life. Way to go Eric.

I could tell this kind of story in many young people I have known over the years and now see what they are doing and where they are heading. We are in good hands in the future and in the present.

Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity. 1 Timothy 4.12 A theme we used at camp a couple of years ago.

I just can’t wait to see what some of today’s Jr. High students will be doing in the next 10 to 25 years.

I’m blessed in our Crossroads church today. Of the twenty people that regularly worship. We have almost half of our congregation in the age bracket of 18 down to 3. And I see great potential in all of them. I know one of them has told me she wants to be a pediatrician and serve in a third world country. It’s just about enough to make any pastor burst his buttons.

For those of you who cannot join us at Crossroads on a Sunday morning – I truly appreciate the contacts we make on our churches facebook and twitter pages. God bless you!

I was inspired by the radio today. Since it is President’s Day, a good reminder to pray for our President. I know we often complain about what is done and not done by the President, but seriously who would want that job anyway. So whatever your politics might be. Whether you agree or disagree with the President and what he has done or not done – he deserves our prayer. Sometimes it also might simply be having God bless him to do the right thing for our countries citizens. Everyone needs God’s guidance.

So today I will pray for President Obama and his current leadership for the US and his influence on the worlds leaders. I will pray for his family – also another difficult job. I will pray for former Presidents who are still living and their work as ambassadors of our country. I will give thanks for all of our Presidents who have influenced the history of our great country. And I encourage you to do the same. Don’t you think this is a great way to recognize President’s day, besides just a day to have no school or have the day off. It also should be a reminder to keep the President in our prayers daily. While you are doing that don’t forget the governor and your local mayor.

I can’t imagine loosing a leg. But we spent 8 hours on the road this week to visit a 17 year old young lady who has been battling bone cancer in her leg since this summer and is not winning the battle with the cancer. So surgery is probably set for the end of this next week.

Please pray for Emma!

I can’t imagine spending three years in prison and loosing both of your parents while incarcerated. This man is out and quickly getting back on his feet with help of friends and family. Working full time within three weeks of release.

Please pray for Johnny! Mostly praise!

I could go on and on with so many I can’t imagine kind of stories. I guess I lead a pretty normal life so far. Thank God and knock on wood.

What amazes me about Emma and Johnny and many other “I can’t imagine” kind of stories is the amount of faith that these people are relying on. If it were not for the foundation of Jesus Christ as their source of strength, they would have given up long ago.

Also what amazes me, is the times I have tried to minister to them – they end up ministering to me and most likely more so.

God is not blind to our human condition. He sent his son that knew hurt and pain and suffering – he absorbed it in those he touched and healed. God through Jesus is our strength. Hold on to that. I know for these two and for many others the upcoming holidays will be an additional challenge to their new experiences in life. So hold on. Hold on to faith! Hold on to the Savior! Hold on to the One who created you with His own special design – who adores you and wants the best for you! Hold on to the One who will make the old pass away and the new and perfect come and be our new norm. That may also be hard to imagine. But I am trying to imagine it. Are you?

Since that day I saw the beautiful runway lights early in the morning, I have driven by several other early mornings and the lights have been dark. How I miss those lights. It’s like have the season of Christmas all lit up and bright and beautiful and then the season is over and it is dark.

I realize the airport must not be expecting airplanes some days and it probably saves on electrical bills to shut the lights off if it is not needed, but I do miss the lights. Across the interstate from the airport is three car dealerships with really ghastly bright lot lights. It’s like the mother ship has landed and hovering over Ankeny. Amazing how the sprinkle of runway lights is beautiful and the car lot lights are gaudy.

Any way this is what I noticed recently and I guess it ties in [for me at least] with the taking down Halloween decorations and seeing people decorate for Christmas in their yards. [I will resist till Thanksgiving is over] None-the-less in this darkened season preparing for Christmas and in a sometimes darkened world may we find the beauty of Christ, the light of the world, dispelling our darkness. Find the light and bask in it’s hope and promise.

I remember as a kid how fascinating it was to drive by an airport. All those magical lights spread out on a field. Some solid and some flashing. Of course the airport was an unusual place, since I had not stepped inside one till I was thirty years old to go on my first plane flight.

This morning I was driving back from an early morning walk in the downtown sky walk and driving past the Ankeny airport. It was all lit up and still very magical to me, even though I have flown several times now. That huge maze of blue lights some orange and some red and an occasional blinking light.

Here’s what I was thinking about those runway lights. For those of us on the ground and will little flight experience the lights look like a field of lights and depending on our angle on the ground usually don’t make a lot of sense. But to those up in the air and having the flight experience, they know which end to start their descent and where they will come to a stop. It makes perfect sense for those in the air looking down on the runway. It’s their guide.

How often do we as human beings look at our world and start to wondering what is going on? We can’t see the future or we don’t know our purpose. Our world can be that runway of lights on the ground and be confusing. But up there – God looking down. God knows our future and our purpose. God is not confused by our existence.

So like the pilate who looks for the lights to guide him/her safely to the ground – let God be the guiding light in your life. Trust that God has a different perspective of our life and knows what is best for us. Seek that light and trust!

I have been enlarging my territory in philosophy this semester and something I have just learned has made some connections for me.

Scholasticism is a technic of training that makes an effort to put philosophy and theology together. It later took on criticism from Humanism that brought a tighter technic of training on philosophy and education and left out theology. Have you ever heard of someone being called a “Dunce”? Duns Scotus was a Scholatic and was made fun of for his applications of philosphy and theology and thus the nickname, dunce.

Without going into great detail, the simple thought for me is that Scholasticism had a focus on God, while Humanism has a focus on man. An example of this is evolution focuses on man, while creationism focuses on God. We could apply this to many other thoughts or philosophies. But the crux is where do we put our focus.

No wonder so many people doubt the authority of the Bible, because those who doubt are placing their focus on man or themselves and not on God. If we put our focus on God we see the authority.

I see the large church in many of our now mainline denominations being very Humanistic. We see that for some it is okay for homosexual unions in marriage – focus on man and not on God. We see that for some there are various ways of salvation – again the focus on man and not on God.

Not that I would call a Humanist a dunce or any other nickname, but I would be cautious of where I was putting my focus on any kind of research. For me my focus is on God. John Wesley had a formula he called the quadralateral: Primary – Scripture, then tradition, reason and experience. Note the focus is on God and God’s Word, then on man’s thought and experiences.

I guess I am a scholastic who sees a correlation between philosophy and theology. But I would be in good company with Aquinas, Augustine, Anselm and Duns Scotus. Call me a dunce if you want to, but remember that God is on my side when you start your name calling.