So this year I am going to try to cut myself loose from that flywheel of disappointment by switching things up a little bit.  Instead of focusing so much on my abundantly obvious failings I am going to spend more time on examining the beauty of God and who I am in the Creator’s eyes.

First I know I am created in God’s image.  I know I was designed to reflect the glory of God to the world.  I am aware that I have fallen short of that in more ways that I could count or can remember.  I know the penalty for that is separation from God here and in eternity because a holy God cannot be intimate with a sinful being (for some it will come as a surprise there is more to the word intimate than sexual, there is a much fuller meaning here for us to understand and explore but a fallen mindset robs us of this beauty all too often).

I get all of that and frankly it paints a very bleak picture, one I don’t want to think about all that much.  However there is a wonderful blessing to those who are willing to face these realities full force.  This is not the end of the story.

The God who created us is also a patient, persevering God who would stop at nothing to have the relationship with us, like a good father or mother whose heart breaks when their children are far from them.

God had a plan that while we were and are in our broken, fallen condition Jesus would come to make a way for us to come home to the Father.  From this foundation we begin to see who we are and what our true value is in the eyes of the Creator.  A God who would go to such lengths to rebuild a relationship does so for a reason, to lift us beyond our fallen state and return us to what he created us to be.

“For I know the plans I have for you” says the Lord, “they are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

Jeremiah 29:11

My plans to do or not to do things to improve myself often fail, but God’s plan if I am willing to submit to it will not fail here or in eternity.  The stark reality is there is a lot in this fallen world which has a plan for our disaster, it is all around us and hard to miss.  God however, who is the ultimate authority, has a plan for good, a future and a hope, not a hope in what I can do, but in what God has already done, is doing and will do.  I need only relinquish my plans to his control and authority to know the benefit.

“Friends, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead.”

Philippians 3:13

So 2011 through your eyes may have been a good year or a bad one, or more than likely, both.  Let it go, watch the year in review stuff, spend some time alone remembering as you put away decorations and know you have as much ability to change the past as you would if you left your decorations up all year-long and tried to get the whole world to celebrate Christmas on the 25th of every month.  Can’t do it.

God has a lot ahead of you that is worth reaching for.  It is not to be found in your resolutions but in your resignations.  Freely resigning from the illusion of control over your life and returning that to its rightful place in the hands of the Creator God.  From there you will find a new year worth celebrating.  Still doubtful? I understand completely, but admit you have placed your faith in a lot of crazier things, why not give God the same opportunity you gave the “ab lounger”, the “snuggie”, the “miracle Amish electric heater”, the “eat only (insert here) diet” and the “four-hour work week”.  Now when you think about putting your trust in God does it feel so silly?

On New Year’s Eve we read Proverbs 3.  I would point you to this scripture passage as a great place to start your New Year.  May it be your best year ever.

Pastor Jim

The fact is they didn’t have to love me.  They very easily could have sent me packing not long after I got there.  Or the time I was arrested for illegally spotlighting deer with two guys from church.  Or when they found out I was moonlighting on my vacation working security for boxing matches in Atlantic City.  I was not like any southern Ohio preacher they had ever known and I was too ignorant to play that part if I had wanted to do so.  But for reasons God only knows they for the most part accepted me and tried to help me become the man God wanted me to be.  It was a beautiful three years that I will always cherish and the sweet spot was there because people prayed for me and loved me anyway.

That is a different love than I hear described often in society, on relationship shows, in counseling and just observing the ebb and flow of everyday life.

I love you… I need you… These words make up the heart of about half of the rock love ballads out there but is this a picture of true love? I don’t think it is.  If we only love people because we need them, because they can do something for us then instead of love aren’t we describing a selfish utilitarian attitude?

Contrast that with the fact that God IS love.  God does not love, God didn’t fall in love, it is who God is – God is love.  One step beyond that we come to realize that God loved us while we were sinners.  Sinners who have no cache, nothing to offer the eternal God, no chips to play, no favors to ask – destitute – God loves them. When we had nothing to offer.  When God had no need, nothing unfulfilled, no itch that needed scratched by humanity God loved us.

Why is this important? This is a window onto the essence of true love and how it contrasts with the way one might view love based on what we hear from others today.  Love is not based on what the object or the “loved” can do for the “lover”.  If the “loved” had nothing at all to offer, the true “lover” still loves them.  I have seen this demonstrated by people caring for people fighting addiction, battling terminal disease and through a myriad of other issues.  Conversely I have seen people walk away at the slightest sign of inconvenience.  C’est la vie? Not the way God planned it.

Be careful of those who tell you they love you because they need you.  Cautiously consider those who profess their undying love in the context of describing the things that you can do or some physical element of your being.  True love has nothing to do with that, it looks beyond score sheets, paychecks and mirrors to something that can only come from God, the realization that if I believed that this person had nothing to offer me (no matter how false that premise may be) I would still love them.  That is love.  God is love and gives us the capacity to love like that.

Prayer: Lord, teach me to love others the way you love me.  Check my spirit today and show me where I think I am loving but in reality I am using others for my own purposes.  Please show me and give me the strength to change.  Thank you for putting examples in my life of unconditional, true love and please make me into that person in the lives of others so I can reflect your true love here on earth.  Amen.

The picture for those who are interested is of a bridge about 5 miles south of where I lived in Decatur Ohio.  Just downstream was the swimming hole and on a stormy night in March of 1997 I watched with some of the other Byrd Township volunteer firemen as this 100 year old covered bridge began to yield to flood waters lapping over its sides.

This includes the praise band and also for sound and video people.

If you feel led to play in the band, or learn how to run sound or video, we can use you.

Check out the calendar or email Bill Ashe for more information.

Music, games snacks and sharing times happen every week @ Crossroads.

Plenty of events every month that offer fun and opportunities to serve others!

It is a natural part of life to strive for that which we don’t have.  The first scene of humanity is all about wanting something you can’t have.  If you need more evidence listen to the lyrics of popular music… today, the 1980′s… the 1840′s!

In Matthew 14 Jesus points the disciples toward what they do have and how what they do have can meet the need.

This week as we prepare for worship on Sunday perhaps we should focus on the phrase from the Lord’s Prayer, “give us this day our daily bread…”  We believe God will give us what we need to meet the challenges and demands of the day, prayerfully we ask God to open our eyes to where and how those needs will be met in our lives.

The way a seminary professor would frame it would be, “If God is all-knowing, all-loving and all-powerful, why is there evil in the world?”  The short answer is if there were no evil in the world it would categorically eliminate seminaries and all seminary professors.  OK, cheap shot maybe but there would also be no you or I so we all are in over our heads in this conversation, together!

There are no easy answers to the great questions of the universe.  One of great hopes we have is that when our natural life is over we will learn the answers to the questions that are beyond us.  The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13 (yes, commonly known as the “Love Chapter”) Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.  Still while we are here one of the great joys is to explore and marvel at the mysteries of life.  So why is there evil in the world?

We are created in God’s image.  God created us with a certain level of autonomy, free will.  Having free will means we have the opportunity to choose what we think is best.  In a nutshell, we can be selfish beings.  The only being in the universe who has any standing to be selfish is the Godhead, the Creator.

Sin is selfishness.  Free will gives each man, woman and child the ability to choose for themselves, to do what they think is best.  When that happens people get hurt.  It began with eating forbidden fruit and then a man choosing to kill his brother.  It is manifest millions of ways, one thing that can be said about humanity is we have always been creative and unique in our selfishness.

When people are selfish it hurts.  The working definition of sin we use at Crossroads is “that which separates us from God, others and ourselves”.  There is a price to be paid for choosing other than God’s best and it is never borne exclusively by the person who makes the choice.  Today we remembered ten years ago when a group of people selfishly deciding to crash planes into buildings and murder thousands of innocent people because they felt the world did not pay them enough attention.  Think about other examples of selfishness, can you name one where only the actor is hurt by the selfish decision?

God had every right to turn his back on all of this.  I have to admit that sometimes three children are more than I can handle and I start to shut down.  Thankfully I have a wife and friends and family that come to my rescue.  As I read the history of Pharaohs, Kings, Queens, Generals, Hitler, genocides and the everyday insanity I would not have an argument with a God who just decided to start over with version 2.0 of this whole thing.

God chose to plunge himself into the middle of our selfishness to provide a path to safety.  Rather than turning their back the Trinity sent the Son to redeem us and provide a path to return to worship, a right relationship with the Father.  The Cross is the means of grace whereby we can access a right relationship with God.  The vertical standard reminds us that the second person of the Trinity humbled himself to be born of a woman, Immanuel.  The horizontal standard reminds us he spread his arms and died on a cross as penalty for our selfishness.  When we chose everything but God, God chose us above all things.

Every person will experience his or her own Ground Zero.  Ground Zero is a place where the unthinkable happens.  Sudden death, divorce, cancer, a sick child, homelessness, abandonment, abuse are Ground Zero events.  These unimaginable events blast through the bluest skies and the most beautiful days to spill caustic pain and bury the seemingly strongest person in an indescribable darkness.

At the bottom of every Ground Zero is the Cross.  Thought it might not be visible to most at first, the influence of Cross of Jesus goes to the deepest darkest places and is hope for all who turn toward it.  The penalty for selfishness (i.e. sin) is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.  The Cross is the path out of personal devestation and brokenness and to eternal life.

As we remember 9/11 and our own tragedies, this is the hope to which we cling.  We believe in a personal Creator God who loves us enough to give us free will and is powerful enough to redeem us from our own abuse of this defining gift of humanity.  God is all-powerful, all-knowing and all-loving and has conquered sin and death so we might live the life we were created to enjoy.

Great question.  The answer is I only measure mine.  God help me when other people try to tell me what I am feeling or what I need to feel while going through those trying times in life.

One of the things I love most about the Bible is that it speaks for itself.  (The Latin phrase is used in the law frequently – Res ipsa loquitur - the thing speaks for itself, OK no more law references!)  The Bible speaks to people in all situations but does not suppose one person knows exactly what another person needs to do to find or rebuild a relationship with the Father.

Of course the Bible is crystal clear in showing us that God wants to have a relationship with us and that we more than anything else need to have a relationship with the Father.  Furthermore there is one way to have a relationship with the Father and that is through the son, Jesus Christ.

But people come from different places.  A woman with an issue of blood came fighting stigma and a crowd, a wee little man climbed a tree to see him, fishermen left their nets, paralytics were carried to him and a roman soldier sought him in his most desperate hour of need.  All have fallen short and all need to come to Jesus.

Most often people come to Jesus or return through some of the most life shaking experiences – personal earthquakes as my friend so vividly described it.

You and I read about people in the depths of despair coming to Jesus.  Somehow we understand and relate to these people more than any of the other people the Bible introduces into our lives…  I keep coming back to August 26, 1988 when my world had crumbled and I turned to Jesus because, frankly at the time, I had nothing left to turn to.

This Sunday we will examine the account of how it happened that John the Baptist’s disciples came to seek out Jesus.  If you read about it (please do) in Matthew 14:1-12 you will find a group of people who through the sick depraved world and its effect on others had their world shook to its crumbling foundations.  We can learn from yet another example of people who know what it is to experience a personal earthquake and how they addressed their shaky situation.

Their earthquake is not your earthquake but as we have seen in the past week, we all learn through the experiences of those who weather disaster and stand a better chance for doing so.

Join us as we return to the Matthew narrative this Sunday morning at 9:15 a.m. – and if you are in the midst of a personal earthquake we have some good news to share with you when you get there.

It is amazing how quickly something can break us out of our routine.  If an earthquake can invade your world with such suddenness imagine what God can do if you will allow him to show you the best he has for you!

There are certain seminal moments in each person’s life.  One was ten years ago when I watched from a classroom in Circleville Ohio as the 9/11 tragedy unfolded.  Alan Jackson wrote a song about it called, “Where were you when the world stopped turning.”  If you get a chance to listen to it please do, it is a beautiful reflection about how the world can change for both better and worse in an instant.

The generation before mine will always remember where they were when JFK was shot.  For those before it was Pearl Harbor.

I can point to many moments but my true birthday is one that the world will never care much to remember even though it is the most earth shaking moment of my life.  August 26, 1988 I made my way to kneel at an altar at Delanco Camp.  I asked God to crucify Jim Schroeder and place Jesus on the throne of my life, that is what Frank Brown explained to me I needed to do in response to a message given by Rev. Jerry Beers (some in our church remember our friend Josiah, Jerry’s son).  A few of my friends were also changed that night but the news didn’t cover the event with even a mention.  Still my life was forever changed.

Remember that earthquakes good and bad come sometimes to all at once and sometimes to just one.  Just minutes before the earthquake today I was standing in the hall of the Camden County Justice Complex waiting to speak with a colleague.  As I waited outside her door I scanned a crowed of three or four dozen people waiting for court.  One lady stood leaning against the wall talking on the phone and weeping.  People passed by and no one noticed, her own personal earthquake.  A few minutes later she was not the only one crying or scared as hundreds of people poured down the stairs, this time everyone shared the experience.

In the account of Jesus we find him reaching through crowds (and people reaching through crowds for him) to touch someone whose life has been shaken to the core.  Know that Jesus is aware of your personal calamities and can do something about it.  We also know that we are called to be the hands and feet of Christ when we come across those who have been shaken by life interrupted.

Today was a present reminder of all of this.  All in all it was a gentle but effective reminder for me to allow God to search me and speak to me about my priorities and goals.

Pastor Jim

They wanted me to find one of the most elusive prizes on the face of the planet today.  Was it the secret to the global economic downturn? An antidote for the summer driving mess? Lowest gas prices in NJ? No, no, no.  They wanted me to find them front row seats to a Duran Duran concert when the boys bring their 80′s hits to Borgota in October.

Now I have a high regard for these two friends but I don’t think I will ever look at them the same again after they explained their desperate need to be front and center when the curtain raised for Simon Le Bon to rip into “Hungry Like The Wolf”.

The point is that everyone has things they treasure more than other people.  Some people insist on name brand toilet paper, others generic, fabric softener, soda, bottled water… the list goes on.  People are willing to pay more if they value something and we have a lot of ideas about what is valuable.

One person’s trash is another persons’_________________

On Sunday we will be discussing what Jesus said was a true treasure and consider if it holds the same value in our eyes.

See you in the morning… and if you have a connection for Duran Duran tickets I could really use the help!