While doing homework with my son the other day we had to pick a book, read it, and complete a very simple book report.  After deciding on which book to read we started our way through its pages, I began to realize that the book that we had chosen was a bit longer than I thought.  It was somewhat longer than it really needed to be for the type of report he was doing.  We continued to make our way through, as I noticed it was not just my son’s attention span that was failing.  I had reached the point of, battling, staying with the story and not allowing my mind to go elsewhere.  He was beginning to wiggle, squirm, get the fidgets and so on.  You know the things that first grade boys do naturally. 

At this point he stopped. Then started to look ahead and count the number of pages he, well we, had left to read.  I told him he had done a great job and I would take over for the last few pages. I began to read as we made our way to the last two pages he said, “wait”!  He took the book back and placed it in front of him, he read the last two pages.  He closed the book turned to me with a very big smile and said, “see dad, if you just keep going you’ll eventually get to the end”.  I smiled back and said, “yep son your right, we just got to keep on going”. 

I thought to myself later that night, if we could just have that mind set about so many different things we all would be a lot better off!       

A young man named John received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of the bird’s mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity.  John tried and tried to change the bird’s attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to “clean up” the bird’s vocabulary.

 

Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. John shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even more rude. John, in desperation, threw up his hand, grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked, kicked and screamed.   Then suddenly there was total quiet.  Not a “PEEP”, was heard for over a minute.

Fearing that he’d hurt the parrot, John quickly opened the door to the freezer.  The parrot calmly stepped out onto John’s outstretched arms and said “I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions.  I’m sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior.  I am truly sorry.”

John, stunned at the change in attitude.  Just as he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behavior, the bird continued, “May I ask, what the turkey did?”

 HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

 

 

 

I somewhat remember going to the car wash as a kid.  My mother has told me that, like most kids, I did not like it.  Ok, ok, I was scared of it.  And, just like myself, I am sure many other kids grew up being scared of the car wash.  Let’s face it, despite what you were told as a child or what you have told your own children to comfort them as you passed through a car wash, we can all admit that it can be a little overwhelming and scary.

 

I was taking my truck through the car wash a few days ago, due to the fact that it had been a while since it had been cleaned. My little princess was with me for the day and we were out running errands.  As we pulled into the line of the “wash car” as she puts it, she said, “Dad, I do not like the wash car.” 

 

I was in the process of paying with the interactive video screen, and I could see that her tears were in the process of welling up in her eyes.  Despite my efforts to come up with a good distraction to keep her mind from what was about to happen, the sweet, gentle tears started to flow down her face. 

 

Just as we were about to enter into the spooky tunnel, my little princess said, “I think I might be ok if I could come sit with my daddy.”  I told her to undo her seat belt and climb up into my lap.  She took my arms and put them around her and in we went.  I told her to pretend that is was like big pieces of red and black spaghetti.  I encouraged her as I began to try to grab and eat it because it was almost lunch time and I was hungry.  Then came the water spraying to rinse off the soap, she decided this was just a big shower for cars and trucks, but almost too loud.  At this point, the “big air” began to dry us off.  I thought, “Oh well, here we go, because it was really loud.  As the air started to hit the truck, she said. “It is a big hair dryer, like when mommy dries mine.”

 

As we made our way out she said, “Dad, I am glad you let me sit up here with you. I know I am safe when I am with you.”

In order for you to understand why I gave a lady working at D&D a bouncy ball, you need to go read this. It’s ok. I’ll wait.

 

Ok, welcome back and now that we are all on the same page, let me just tell you that I have never laughed so hard in my life when the following happened. 

 

I had stopped by Dunkin’ Donuts and, as I normally do, I placed my order for a medium cup of coffee with double cream. The lady behind the counter was not smiling and did not look very happy.  I asked her if she was having a rough day and she simply said no, that it had been a long day and that she really needed something to make her smile.  Naturally, I took the opportunity to pull the bouncy ball from my pocket that was waiting there for its turn to bring joy into someone’s life. I opened up my hand to show her the bouncy ball and proceeded to share my brief story about the joy that this ½ inch ball could bring and how God wants our joy to be full in Him.  I told her that Jesus loved her and handed her the bouncy ball. 

 

At that moment something happened that had never happened before, at least in front of me, and especially in an establishment like the one I was standing in.  

 

Before I go any further let me add few other details to the scene. There was another lady, who was a customer, standing beside me and she wasn’t smiling and she was visibly impatient as she waited on her order that she had placed with another employee. Let’s just say I probably needed another ball for her as well because she wasn’t in the best of moods.

 

Once I had handed the bouncy ball over to the D&D employee she took a moment to inspect it, she smiled and said thank you. This is where the humor / horror began. 

 

She bounced it. 

 

She was suddenly so overtaken with the joy and exhilaration (ok exhilaration may be a bit of a stretch) of being the recipient of this multi-colored, sphere of energy, that she released it with a substantial amount of force to the floor.  As it traveled downward to the floor it managed to make contact with the uneven grouted edge of the tiled, and began returning at a much higher rate of speed than it had traveled down. 

 

Now, I know it doesn’t sound too bad at this point, but here is where things got started to get out of control and I knew I was going to have to hold back from laughing uncontrollably.  Remember the lady standing beside me that was waiting impatiently for her order? Well, the ball was headed straight for her face, and at that very second everything went into slow motion.  

 

The D&D lady shot out over the counter like a bullet and nabbed the multi-colored sphere of energy just before it could hit the impatient lady who was waiting on her coffee and donuts. The D&D lady said, “I am so sorry, but wasn’t that awesome. I caught it before it hit you!” 

 

I was doing my very best to hold in the laughter that was desperately trying to escape. I turned, and with a school boy grin on my face that said, “I haven’t done anything wrong,” I said, “Wow, that was close. I am glad it didn’t hit you.”

 

Then, the impatient lady who had been waiting on her order, picked up her coffee and donuts and turned to exit the store. Before she left, she turned, winked and smiled at me and said, “Have a wonderful day.”

 

So what did I do?  I did just as she suggested. I took my coffee went and sat down, took a sip, read my book and had a wonderful day.  I hope, also, that the impatient lady who had to wait on her coffee and donuts and almost got smacked in the face by a brightly colored bouncy ball was able to sit back later have a chuckle over the whole deal and have a wonderful day. 

 

Because you know life is way too short to be upset about almost being taken out by a multicolored sphere of rubber bouncy ball energy.

As challenges come to us in ours lives, where do you turn?  Where is your hope?  Where do you place your burdens?  Do you have anywhere to put them down, or do they become small pockets of hopelessness that get tucked away and weigh you down? 

I have done a good bit of hiking over several years.  I must say, my first couple trips were not very easy. The problem was in my packing process. I was trying to carry way too may things that I didn’t need to carry; things I really didn’t need at all.  Often it was just in my stubbornness that I would be weighted down, simply because I wanted to seem stronger or wanted others to see what I carried.  Ridiculously, on two trips I was by myself. I mean whom was I trying to impress, the squirrels?   Truth be told I was young and ignorant to the fact I could have had a much more pleasant trip if I had not been overwhelmed with the burden of all the extra unneeded weight I was trying to carry. 

This is life.  Most of the time the burdens we carry we do not even need. We just pack them away and carry them through life.  Sadly, most of the time, it is after we have become overwhelmed we realize this. Then we question, why am I carrying this?  We become so used to carrying the burden, we are not sure how NOT to carry it with us. The burdens we take along become a part of who we are, our identity.  The more burdens we carry the more ineffective we become.  Fortunately, there is hope.  We must simply trust in Him.  He knows how to make (our backpack) our life lighter.  When we trust Him, we put our hope in Him to help us lighten our load.

Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, on those who hope for His lovingkindness, to deliver their soul from death, And to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. For our heart rejoices in Him, because we trust in His holy name. Let Thy lovingkindness, O LORD, be upon us, According as we have hoped in Thee. Psalm 33:18-22 NAS

The number 13 has always been the number that has been my favorite.  Don’t really know why, but if I was ever trying to get a number for a jersey for sports, well anything 13 was the number.  To be truthful once I found out what most people thought about the number 13, it being unlucky, that just made me want it even more.  That’s just how I’m made. 

Numbers are a very large part of all that goes on in this world, and the more I think about it, I really don’t know that there is a day that goes by that we don’t use them.  Even though the likelihood of any of my math teachers that I had over the years reading this is slim, thank you for all you did. 

A few days ago, numbers – or a number to be exact – was much more important than my wife or I ever thought.  We have been going though some, let’s just say trials, over the past few months in our family.  It has been a very difficult time that I can say I hope we never have to go through again.  As my wife went to take our son to go pick up his soccer uniform, she was asking the basic questions, “What color do you hope it is?”, “What name do you think your team will be this season?”, “What number do you want?”  He answered the last question, “7-8-9, I don’t know maybe 10” – at the time just a basic answer; little did we know much more was going on in his brain. 

After picking up his uniform, and reconnecting with his coach they get in the car and headed home.  After a few moments in the car, he takes everything from the bag to see the color of his jersey is orange.  At this point he becomes very excited and says, “It’s daddy’s favorite color.”  Then the moment, he sees the number, “I’m number one, I’m number one!”  He was so excited he had received THE NUMBER, the best number at that moment, the best number that he could get for the season.  The best number that he could have gotten for him, for my wife and for me.  For all of us, it was perfect. 

My wife responded to him with excitement & told him that was a little gift from God to him.  She told him he was number one – not only to us, but especially to God.  My son was and always will be number one to God. 

The Father is so good to us.  He will always give us just what we need when we need it.  How awesome of a friend He is to us.

 

 

What a sweet little song that I know many of us have had sung to us or, we ourselves have sung to a child.  Or, like me, have sung to my own children.  I was driving over to the other side of our church’s property today and passed by one of the numerous little bunnies on the property.  It was just sitting there as I went by – eating away and enjoying its day.  Or, truly, just surviving its day.  I don’t know if they can or even have the ability to think they are enjoying a day or any day.  That is a whole ‘nother entry.

 

Anyway, I went on with my own blissful enjoyment of the cool afternoon.  Then as I was returning back across the property, I looked to still see the sweet furry little bunny in the same spot.  In that moment I thought to myself, “Cool, he’s still there.”  Then, can we just say together SWOOOP!!! To my amazement, a very decent sized hawk nabbed FuFu and flew into the woods.  I hit the brakes quickly to see if the hawk would drop the bunny as he entered into the sanctuary of the woods.  Then, and I know what someone is going to think, “You’re sick.”  But, yes, I chuckled.  Why you ask?  Because is that not just how life is?  You just never know what life is going to bring.  We’re having those – everything’s going well moments, to bam! What just happened?  And sometimes we don’t even have any idea that it, whatever it is, is about to hit us.

 

That is why I thank God for the blessing of knowing Him.  I do not know how people make it without Him.  I know I can’t. 

Someone once asked Dr. Cho (pastor of the largest church in the world), “What is the key to your success?” He replied, “I pray and I obey.”

 

The outcome of obedience to God will always bring blessing!

 

Hear God through Psalms 84:11, “For the Lord God is a sun and a shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.”

 

Today is a day to celebrate the good things God is doing at Wildwood Baptist Church. We go from fasting to feasting; feasting on His goodness and mercy.

 

Allow me to share with you some of the things that we are already seeing as a result of the obedience of God’s people at Wildwood.

 

• A New Freedom In Worship!
• A Strengthened Faith!
• A Sweeter Fellowship!
• A Brighter Future!
• A More Intense Fire (“Burn Spirit Burn”)!

 

May our hunger for God continue to remind us of the words of Jesus, “Without me you can do nothing.”

 

May our feasting be matched by our obedience to our great God and King!

 

Pastor Rick

When Solomon had finished the dedication prayer for the temple, which he had built as an everlasting habitation unto the Lord (II Chronicles 6:1-40), something happened that no one could explain.  GOD SHOWED UP!  He wasn’t late, but showed up because of an invitation from the builder of the temple.

 

When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; the glory of the Lord filled the temple.  The priests could not enter the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord’s house.  When the children of Israel saw how the fire came down and the glory of the Lord was in the temple, they bowed their faces to the ground and worshiped and praised the Lord saying:  “For He is good, for His mercy endures forever.”  Then, the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the Lord.

 

Wow!  Now that is power in prayer.  What dynamic power, and it was all because the heart of one man was right and ready for God’s glory to be revealed.  He not only knew how to lead, but he knew how to pray.  Don’t you wish that we could pray that way and have the same kind of results?  Solomon had been obedient in doing what the Lord had asked of him.  Not only did Solomon build God’s house, he besought the Lord to enter His house through prayer, and things began to happen.  “Fire came down!”  When fire falls, look for the glory of God to show up.  The fire consumed the sacrifices of the people offered by the priests.  Would God be so pleased with our sacrifices that He would dare show His glory?

 

We rob God in so many ways, but we expect His blessings and glory to be revealed.  That is not going to happen until we get things right.

 

One thing really catches my attention in this passage.  When God shows up in all of His glory, there is room for no one but Holy God.  Does it matter how we show up if we expect God to show up? 

 

Have we been so flippant in addressing Holy God when trying to approach Him that He no longer opens His eyes to our needs or hears our prayers?  What attitude do we bring each Lord’s day to worship?  What sacrifices have we made or failed to make?  We just “walk right in, sit right down, and baby, let our hair hang down.”  However, one very important thing is missing. . .God!

 

When God showed up in Solomon’s day, no one could enter the temple.  The priest could not enter.  The people became so humble that they bowed their faces to the pavement worshiping and praising God.  Maybe it is time for us to put away our , oftentimes, casual attitude toward God and humble ourselves and get our foreheads a little warm!  God will mean business with us when we mean business with Him.  How we need to pray as though our very lives and His Church depends on it—and it does.

 

Spend some time reflecting upon your own prayer life.  How do you address God?  What do you ask Him for?  Be willing to ask Him to reveal any sin or anything that is keeping your prayers from being answered.  Reflect on whether or not the sacrifices you make are pleasing to God.  Reflect on your attitude toward worship and how you enter His presence each Sunday.

A couple of years ago I was able to obtain a much nicer telescope than what I had when I was younger.  I went out that same night and gazed up at the moon and the deep black sky.  I was able to see so much more of the moon than what I had remembered before.  It was so bright and beautiful that I found it difficult to see once I looked away from the eyepiece.  As I looked into the telescope to see what I could discover, I saw a very bright speck with a very odd shape.  Taking my scope and focusing it on the object I very quickly realized it was Jupiter with all its rich pastel colors and bright shining moons.  Jupiter’s radius is 44,423 miles; that is 318 times the Earth’s 7,926 miles.  That is just a little overwhelming to me.

 

Since then, I have seen other very spectacular nighttime objects.  On many occasions I simply turn the scope to what would seem a simple spot of darkness, only to find my eyes adjusting and beginning to see portions of light show up.  It is amazing what you can see as you focus in.

 

I realize that as I look into the vast expanse of our universe that I have but merely scratched the surface of our galaxy with my telescope.  It is in those moments that I begin to feel very overwhelmed by the greatness of just how small we really are.  And I realize just how tiny even this awesome planet that we live on is. 

 

In those times I feel very loved that the God, the Maker and Creator of everything that I can see, as well as all that I cannot, care so much about me that He is right there with me and desires to fellowship with me.  I feel very overwhelmed and, yet, comforted at the same time and ask Him how is it even possible to feel what I feel right now?  How Incredible is it that the One who put it all into place knows everything about us from before even time began to right now at this very moment? 

 

What is even more breathtaking is, despite what He knows, He still so desperately wants us to know Him and be a part of what He is doing.  Ask the Father today to search your heart and make clear to you what is hindering you from being in tune with what He so deeply desires you to join Him in doing.

 

Read Psalms 139:1-24.