The Touch

Posted on March 23, 2012 by patricia.werner

A book I once read, called “Simple Church,” told the story of orphans in countries like Romania and Russia where the ratio of adults to children is dismal.  The authors wrote, “A decade ago journalists first entered these orphanages.  They were shocked at what they did not see or hear.  There was no laughter.  No tears.  Three-year-olds could not speak or cry.”  The issue?  The lack of touch, attention, and nurture.

We live in a society that is heading further down that path, not in orphanages, but in every day life.  The deeper we crawl into our safe, little living room cocoons; the more that we surround ourselves with virtual pals like the Internet, Facebook, Netflix, and Instant Messaging (all good things, mind you…); the crazier that life becomes and has us living out of minivans, ordering every meal through a little speaker—the more we distance ourselves from human touch.  We still think we’re in touch because we’re so busy and we’re always on the cellphone, but there is less and less touch all the time.

I’m reminded of one of my favorite accounts from the gospels.  A leprous man came to Jesus for healing.  Leprosy deadens nerve endings so that its victims don’t feel cuts or slivers in their extremities.  This inevitably causes infections which lead to the loss of extremities, a disgusting smell, and horrible disfigurement.  Needless to say, people in Jesus’ day generally avoided lepers by hundreds of feet, if possible.  This man probably hadn’t been touched in years.

And yet Mark tells us that Jesus reached out and touched the leper (Mark 1:41).  He was miraculously healed shortly after that, but I bet what he cherished most was the hand on his shoulder.

Through that account, Jesus reminds us that He is God who touches our lives with compassion, hope, forgiveness and the eternal embrace of heaven.  Still more, He has placed us here to touch the lives of one another with kindness, encouragement, laughter, and joy.

Who could use a pat on the back?  Who could use an arm around their shoulder?  Who could use a hand to hold them up?  Reach over to encourage them this week!

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Finish What You Started

Posted on March 16, 2012 by patricia.werner

In 1796, Gilbert Stuart, America’s leading portrait artist at the time, began a portrait of George Washington.  It has served as the model for President Washington’s picture on the dollar bill.  It is incredibly famous and now resides in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.  But it has never been finished!

Do you have any unfinished projects around the house?  I certainly do.

Sometimes, in the midst of our struggles, when one thing is going wrong after another, we wonder if God’s going to finish what He’s started.  When He brought us to Jesus, He said, “I am your Father now.  I have forgiven you, I have adopted you, and I am going to take care of you now and forever.  And I promise that I will work out all things for your good.”  Well, God?  Are you going to finish what you started?

That’s why I love Philippians 1:6.  It says, “…he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”  God does not leave His work undone.  Jesus’ good work for you began in eternity with choosing you for His family.  It continued when He lived a perfect life on this earth, suffered in our place, and completed our redemption with the words, “It is finished!”  Since that time, He rules over everything with His almighty, resurrection power, meticulously managing every detail of the Universe to make sure that everything works out for our good and the glory of God!

When things go wrong, when life gets tough, it’s not that Jesus can’t finish what He started; it’s that He isn’t finished with what He started in you.  He’s still painting a beautiful portrait of His grace, still molding us into His image, still chiseling out the impurities.  He will finish what He started, and in the end we will marvel and what a grand artist He is!

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Waiting

Posted on March 9, 2012 by patricia.werner

Hospital waiting rooms tend to be some of the more uncomfortable places in the world.  If you’ve ever waited in one, you know what I mean.  It’s not the furniture; the furniture’s always really nice and plush.  It’s not the magazine selection:  they usually have everything from Newsweek to Southern Living.  It’s not the lighting.  Usually it’s warm and comforting.  It’s the atmosphere.  Everyone sitting in there is just waiting, waiting for the nurse or doctor to tell her that her mom’s okay or that her daughter made it.  Just waiting.  It’s uncomfortable; it’s nerve-wracking; it’s unbearable.

It’s life.  How many years in a lifetime do they say that people spend waiting in line?

In the first chapter of Acts, we see a ragtag group of frightened disciples waiting.  Jesus had just ascended into heaven and had promised that something big was going to happen, but what and when?  Jesus had come back from death, but now He was gone, and his enemies were still pretty bloodthirsty.  Jesus had told His followers to take His message to the ends of the earth, but where would they even begin?  Waiting.

Waiting.  What does God have in mind for your life?  When will he take away this affliction?  When will he give you new direction?  What does God have in mind for this tiny family of believers we call Christ the Rock?  When will He help you overcome the guilt once and for good?  When will He take your senile grandma home?  Waiting.

Notice what the ragtag bunch was doing during the wait:  “They all joined together constantly in prayer” (Acts 1:14)  Prayer is what jumps out at us right away.  They prayed.  Prayer is good, prayers for patience, prayers for deliverance, prayers for another way.  But notice something else that often slips right by us who are waiting:  “they all joined together constantly…”

The only thing that is comfortable about a waiting room is the people.  Family and friends with their hands together and arms around one another, drying each other’s tears, praying for God’s peace.

We’re all waiting for something.  God gives us the marvelous blessing of being able to wait together, hand in hand, in prayer and the Word and Sacrament, around pizza and cool-aid.  That’s in large part of what it means to BE the Church.

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My Strength

Posted on March 2, 2012 by patricia.werner

In the news a few years ago:  “Police investigating a complaint about a van disrupting morning traffic Monday in the German city of Goettingen were surprised to discover a 5 year-old boy behind the wheel.

“He was seemingly intent on experiencing the daily traffic chaos and simply jumped behind the wheel of his dad’s Mercedes Vito and went off to explore,” police spokesman said.

During his short journey, the toddler stalled the van several times in the middle of the road and a passer-by alerted police. The boy and the vehicle were returned to his father unharmed.”

Sometimes—most of the time—when I honestly take to heart what God calls me to as a husband and father, a member of Christ’s Body and this community, I feel a little like that kid in the car:  I don’t have a clue what I’m doing, but I’m still in the middle of the road and need to get going because there are people all around me; they’re depending upon me to represent God well to them.  That’s where it gets a little overwhelming.  Know the feeling?

That’s why I love passages like Ps 18:28-35:

28 You, O LORD, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.

29 With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall.

30 As for God, his way is perfect;  the word of the LORD is flawless.

He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.

31 For who is God besides the LORD?

And who is the Rock except our God?

32 It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.

33 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights.

34 He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze .

35 You give me your shield of victory,  and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great.

NIV

In my weakness and helplessness, that’s where God truly shines.  My strength, my knowledge, my wisdom are all in him.

That’s why we seek to set aside time for conversation with Him in His Word and prayer.  We need him, and he is more than happy to oblige.

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Imprinting

Posted on February 24, 2012 by patricia.werner

Maybe you’ve read the story “Are You My Mother?” to your kids.  It’s about a baby bird who hatches while his mother is out looking for worms.  He falls out of his nest and begins  looking for his mother.  He walks up to dogs, cows, even vehicles, asking, “are you my mother?”

That book is based upon the biological concept of imprinting.  Imprinting is “the tendency of young animals to follow the first moving thing they see. In the wild, this is usually the mother, but in captivity, where the mother may not be the first thing they see, they might follow a human being or any moving object.”  Apparently, a mother goose hovers around her little goslings as they are breaking out of their shell so that she might be the first thing they see, and they will imprint on her.

The mission of the Church is all about imprinting—on Jesus.  The goal of our entire ministry together is to help people imprint on Jesus.  We don’t want them imprinting on friends, family, pastors, musical styles, possessions, reputations—you name it.  We want them imprinting on Jesus.  Why?  Because all of these other things will come and go; they are bound to disappoint us and let us down in some seasons of life, but Jesus will always come through for us even if it means clawing his way out of His grave or raising our dusty bones up someday.

That’s why, if you listen carefully, you will notice that all of our music, all of my messages, all of our service elements, and all of our ministry is about Jesus.  If you don’t walk away with Jesus on a Sunday morning or in a ministry of CTR, we haven’t done our job.

I love you guys with all my heart!  I look forward to working with you for years.  But it is my prayer that long after I am gone or if I become incapacitated, long after the music fades, and the leaders have all retired–that you, your children, and all your descendants would have Jesus!  To HIM be the glory for ever and ever!

Source: Durrell, G. and L. Durrell. ‘A Practical Guide for the Amateur Naturalist‘. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1989.

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He Made the Stars

Posted on February 17, 2012 by patricia.werner

On the fourth day of Creation, we are told that God made the Sun, Moon, and stars.  Genesis 1:14-17 says, “And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights — the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.”

Recently, I was out in the country on a cloudless night.  I was amazed at how many stars I could see.  From my neighborhood at home, I can almost always make out the constellation Orion, but I had forgotten the countless stars that reside “inside” him.  There are literally trillions of them and more, spaced out over countless galaxies in an ever-expanding Universe.  When you really think about it, it is mind boggling.

That’s why I laugh every time I read about God’s creation of the Sun, Moon, and stars.  As numerous and amazing as they are, Genesis 1:16 simply says, “He also made the stars.”  It’s almost stated as an aside, as in:  “by the way, I also made the stars.”  It sounds so funny, like, “Honey I made spaghetti for dinner tonight, oh, and by the way, I found the cure for cancer.”  Or, “I sold a hat at work today; oh, and by the way, I also won the lottery.”  God didn’t just make our star; He made trillions of them, and they barely get mentioned.

I just think that’s extremely comforting for our troubles.  When you are overwhelmed and there seems like no way out, God says, “I can and will take care of you; oh, and by the way, I also made the stars.”  In other words, if God made trillions of stars with a mere Word from His mouth, a layoff, a sickness, an ache, or a relational problem won’t be any problem for Him to bring you through.

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Miss Universe Prayer

Posted on February 10, 2012 by patricia.werner

Here was a great article:  “A plucky Australian schoolboy who asked a former Miss Universe to his school dance, only to be rebuffed, has finally had his dream date over lunch.  Daniel Dibley, 17, needed a partner for the school dance in the Australian country town of Bathurst, west of Sydney, and he decided to aim high.  He wrote to Australia’s best-known beauty queen, Jennifer Hawkins, to ask her to the dance, and was stunned when the 2004 Miss Universe accepted.  But in a decision that would break a schoolboy’s heart, Hawkins later pulled out of the date because the overwhelming publicity had overshadowed plans for the end-of-year dance, which is for students in their final year of high school.  Instead, the Seven television network said Hawkins visited Dibley’s Bathurst High School on Tuesday for a private lunch date with Daniel…”

Can you just imagine all the other boys?  “How did you get Miss Universe to date you?”  His response:  “I just asked.”  Imagine them kicking themselves:  “Drat, why didn’t I think of that?”

It reminds me of what James once wrote in the Bible, “You do not have because you do not ask God.”  I think many of us just underestimate what prayer can do.  We relegate it for the really tough situations, when we’re in a jam so tight that the only thing left to do is pray. And even if we ask God for something we often hold out a thimble instead of a barrel for God to fill, thinking of what He won’t do instead of what He will.  We don’t “aim high” like the boy in the story, which is especially unfortunate because Jesus isn’t Miss Universe but the God of the Universe who loves us forever and can do much more than treat us for lunch.

I’m not talking about asking Jesus for a million dollars instead of our “daily bread.”  I’m talking about asking for peace, for growth, for maturity, for true joy and contentment, for better marriages and parental skills, for deliverance from temptation, for wisdom to make godly decisions, for courage to trust him with our lives and our finances and our futures.  We just don’t aim high enough.

Try God out; I think you will be surprised over time what he will do…

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New Message Series Coming Up Next Week

Posted on February 3, 2012 by patricia.werner

On Sunday, February 12, we are starting a new Message Series entitled, “The Superiority of Christ:  The Book of Colossians.”  As we come to see the superiority of Christ over every power, authority, idea, philosophy, and religion, it fills us with a humble confidence to serve Him with all that we are.  Please join us, and invite a guest!

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Infused This Tuesday

Posted on February 3, 2012 by patricia.werner

Calling all teens 13 to 18 years old.  This Tuesday is our next Infused Teen Meeting.  Mr. Scott will be starting a very helpful study on the book of James to help you with every day life.

Parents, as always, we will have our own study, separate from the kids.  We will continue to look at issues of parenting.

The meeting will take place 6:30 – 8:30 at the Johnsons’ House – 8615 Sea Ash Circle, Round Rock, TX 78681

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The Breakfast Club Fellowship Group

Posted on February 3, 2012 by patricia.werner

The Breakfast Club will be meeting on Thursday mornings, starting on February 2nd,  at 8:30 at the 620 Cafe and Bakery (910 Round Rock Avenue; http://www.620cafeandbakery.com/).

We’ll be studying and discussing the book of James, so read chapter 1 before you come. Bring a Bible and paper to record thoughts and prayer requests. Please contact Kristine Stewart (814-5747 or kristine@immutable.org) for more information!

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