Kids CrusadeThis Weekend

Making A Moment

My wife and I celebrated our twentieth wedding anniversary a couple of months ago. Twenty years is a milestone, it means we've spent almost half of our lives together, and at this point, more time with each other than anyone else! I was thinking about the magical moments in our marriage, what was a moment in our relationship that stood out more than any other, our wedding day was wonderful, the births of our two daughter phenomenal, the first Christmas exceptional, and the list goes on. My favorite memory is an afternoon sitting in the sun room at Wendy's on Route 4 in Fairfield, OH. We shared a Frosty, held hands and looked into one another's eyes...I knew this one was it, I was going to marry this woman. Not many words passed between us that day, but there was a connection deep inside that continues to this day...But that day we made a moment!

Our pastor was teaching this past Sunday from Acts 20:35 where Paul quotes the words of Jesus that it is more blessed to give than it is to receive. He spoke of the importance of sowing of ourselves into the lives of others, of ministering to the needs of those around us, and making others feel important...remember the old telephone commercial...Reach Out And Touch Someone!

Today you can make a memory, you can impact someone's life in a distinct manner. It may be as simple as buying a gallon of milk, listening to another's story, reading a child book, send a gift card to a friend befriend someone you normally wouldn't hang out with...reach out of yourself!

What you'll find is that while you were meeting someone else's need something inside of you has been enlarged, ministered to, and fulfilled...Make A Memory This Week...I Dare You!

Just Thinking Out Loud!

Pastor Neil

While I Was Waiting

I have a wedding today, in fact, in eleven minutes I will conduct the nuptials of a young couple from our church. So I'm sitting in my office, marriage ceremony ready, marriage license on my desk, and I'm waiting from the bride and the groom to arrive.

There's something about waiting, especially in a "I want it now!" society, our impatience overtakes our common sense, our common sense often gives way to imagination, and imagination leads us into realities that usually don't exist. Have you ever noticed that waiting requires patience and self discipline? The old saying that good things happen to those who wait may be biblically founded, after all, the Prophet Isaiah said that if we wait on the Lord He will renew our strength, and the Psalmist said that after he had patiently waited for the Lord, that the Lord had heard and answered his prayer. Patience isn't necessarily one of my greatest virtues, but as I age I'm finding out that all of my hurrying and scurrying usually doesn't cause things to work out the way I thought they should, in fact, it usually creates more difficulties.

I am a hurry up and get it done kind of guy, but that kind of thinking often causes me to miss the minute details, things that could prove to be both enjoyable and valuable, if I take the time to wait. In five minutes now, a beautiful bride will walk down the aisle to greet a handsome husband, there's nothing like that first glance between two people in love. Or perhaps it's the gleam in a new parents eye as they view that newly born baby they've waited 9 months and however many years for. And then there's that person that has trusted God for many years, holding on to His promise, standing on His Word, faithfully serving and seeking, walking out the revelation, when everything and everyone around him says God isn't going to move, that He's forgotten him, and that maybe, He didn't really speak in the first place, and then the fullness of time comes, God's promise is released into your life...What a moment!

I often think of the prophets who prophesied the coming of Christ into the world, Isaiah prophesied the arrival of Christ 740 years prior to His arrival, he died not seeing it fulfilled, but He came. As our world continues to move forward, often rocking and reeling, spinning violently with little sense of direction, may I remind you to wait patiently for the return of the Lord, regardless if He comes in our life time or in our grand children's, He has come to us through Jesus Christ, He comes to us through His Word and by the power of the Holy Spirit, and He will come to us personally just when we need Him the most, in His time...Just Keep Waiting!

Just Thinking Out Loud!

Pastor Neil