A Time to Come Back: A Lenten Post

Lent is a glorious forty-day retreat.

A retreat is a time to stand back; to ask: "What have I been doing with my life? What has God been teaching me? Where have I succeeded in living life God's way? Where have I failed? What do I need to confess to God or to change?"

A Lenten retreat is a time to recognize our wanderings and to determine to heed God's call to come back:

"But now, now - it is the Lord who speaks - come back to me with all your heart... turn to the Lord your God again, for He is all tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness." Joel 2: 12,13

Like the young man in the story of the prodigal son, Lord Jesus, I make a calculated choice to come back to the Father:

"I will get up and go to my father and say, 'Father, I have sinned against God and against you. I am no longer fit to be called your son: treat me as one of your hired workers..."

Like the young man in this story, I marvel at Your response:

"He was still a long way from home when his father saw him; his heart was filled with pity, and he ran, threw his arm around his son, and kissed him... 'Hurry!' he said. 'Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet... Let us celebrate with a feast!'" Luke 15

You are tender, compassionate, gracious and slow to grow angry, O Lord. Thank you.


Morning Psalm:
Psalm 32, a Maskil of David

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. 

Selah 

I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. 

Selah 

Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him. You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance.

Selah

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you. Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

Teaching through Advent

Happy Boxing Day friends!

Traditionally, today has been known as the day where employers have given gifts to their employees, servants, etc... so, if you own your own business and have non-family employees, or if you're just crazy rich, be sure to give your employees something today!

Well, with that out of the way, I wanted to give you a quick update on the goings on as of late. Since March, I have been serving as the youth pastor at Dexter Baptist Church in Dexter, GA. This past November, the pastor and I discussed the possibility of me teaching through the season of Advent. The church itself had been lighting the Advent candles for a couple of years, but never had really discussed the ins and outs of the season itself.

So with that, I set out on December 1st to begin a 4 week study through the season of Advent. We spent each week discussing a characteristic of the season (What is Advent? Why observe Advent? The colors of Advent. The History of Advent) and then we had a short homily from the Scriptures for each week based on the particular candle that we lit. Then on Monday, December 23rd (since people were heading out to visit family for Christmas) we had our Christ Candle service and celebrated the Incarnation of God in the flesh, Jesus the Christ. I really enjoyed preparing these lessons, doing the research and study, and presenting them to the church. I know that doing so really enhanced my celebration of the Advent and now Christmas seasons. Here are a few pics of the Advent Wreath, sanctuary, and me teaching on the Fourth Sunday of Advent.





I pray you all had a wonderful Christmas and enjoy your season of Christmas!

Peace of Christ to all

~Nick

Return of the Married Man

I suppose it has been long enough now that I should probably post something, anything, simply to keep you, my readers, from forgetting about me all together. The thought of that seems a little vain, but I have recently started reading The Longing for Home by Frederick Buechner and (as is my habit when I begin reading a new author), I started pursuing the web to find out what book of his I should move on to next. This led me to a page of quotes, one of which best describes why I feel the need to blog more often (regardless if anyone really cares). He stated:  

"For as long as your remember me, I am never entirely lost. When I'm feeling most ghost-like, it's your remembering me that helps remind me that I actually exist. When I'm feeling sad, it's my consolation. When I'm feeling happy, it's part of why I feel that way.”

Now, I’m in no way saying that I NEED to blog, but I think it helps to remind you all that I do actually exist! ;)

Also, I have taken to reading little blurbs of “Today in Christian History” which I pass along to my youth from time to time via Facebook. One of today’s events comes from a few journal entries from Jim Elliot. As I read through the article, I was reminded how wonderful it is that we have the writings and journals from giants of the faith. Jim Elliot may not make the top ten list of giants of the faith (although I’m sure he would be on the list), but imagine what it would be like if we didn’t have the writings of the Fathers, or the Reformers, or the “Awakeners”. Imagine how much we would have wondered what led to the decisions at church councils if they were not written down. Imagine where we as believers would be if the Apostles had not felt compelled to write letters to the early church and to fellow believers.

My point is this, while my little blog may never amount to much more than the musings of a Christ lover, book lover, dog lover, pipe lover, science fiction lover with a strong desire to raise a family and a little garden (maybe some chickens), teach on the Scriptures, hike the AT, and possibly walk on the moon, I have felt convicted to journal more, to read more, to pray more. Hopefully my journaling will be a mixture of online and hand written, simply because I think handwritten journals are a treasure. It's also something that I’d love for my children and grandchildren to sit down and read long after I’ve gone to be with Christ.

That all being said, I’m back. Well, at least I plan on being back. I think to keep things simple I will try and update at least once a week, but I’m sure if I become more disciplined with there could be multiple updates a week. That’s the plan anyway, but I know that if I commit too much with everything else that Sharon and I have going on, the plans could go awry (the best laid plans of mice and men, right?). I have also started more of a website than what this is for reviewing books, authors, pipes and pipe tobacco. It’s pretty bare bones at the moment but you can check it out here: www.thepipeandthepage.weebly.com.

Grace and Peace,

Nick

Prayer Appointed for the Week (February 17 - 23)

The First Sunday of Lent

I saw this article posted earlier this week by a good friend and pastor of mine, Ross Guthrie, who is an elder at Christ Community Church in Jackson, TN. I think this article is worth a look if you are new to Lent and want a better understanding of the purpose of the season. Read the article here. Enjoy my friends!

Prayer for the Week:

"Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan; come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptation; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. "

Don't Panic!

Seriously, don't panic! You're not going crazy, this is a double wammy post. Yes, that's right! Two, count 'em two book reviews in one post!

First, if you haven't guessed by now, I just finished The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglass Adams. There's really not too much to say regarding the book other than it was fun, random, and completely ridiculous! The book itself make absolutely no sense, you have to be sure to read it with an open sense of humor and just enjoy it for what it is... a piece of science fiction. The adventure begins with Arthur Dent, and his alien friend Ford, hitching a ride on a space ship right after the Earth is destroyed to make way for an intergalactic highway. From there Arthur's adventures continue to get even more ridiculous as he is picked up by an Improbability Drive space ship by the President of the Galaxy. Then, taken to a planet building factory where he learns that mice are the most intelligent beings in the universe (dolphin's being the second), who actually ordered the Earth to be constructed to learn the Ultimate Question and purpose of life, only for it to be foiled five minutes before they were to have their answer when the Earth was blown up for a highway! See, I told you it was ridiculous! If you enjoy science fiction, or just a good laugh, I recommend this book as you will thoroughly enjoy it.

The second book, I actually read a couple of weeks ago and is called Last Hope - Book One: Onslaught by Drew Brown.Warning: Spoilers! (I hope you read that in the voice of Dr. River Song):

Ok, so this isn't always the case, but when you "buy" a free book, you get what you pay for. That being said, although this book was... interesting to say the least, it wasn't all that bad. The story itself is enough to keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next. However, it is fun (and slightly funny) to see how people stereotype others from other countries. We Americans have our opinions of our good friends across the pond and what they are like, but the stereotypes of the two Americans in this book are downright humorous. The main character, Budd, is a decent enough fellow except for his horrible ability to come up with crappy pet names for his love interest, Juliette, every time he addresses her. Every once in a while, sure, but every time? A bit overkill. The other American, a Californian, had a horrible knack of saying "dude" in every sentence. Having married a woman who grew up in Southern California, I can personally attest that not all Southern Californians say "dude" all the time. 

Now that is out of the way, the writing wasn't terrible. I've never written anything that has been published, so Mr. Brown, you have a one up on me here. As I said before, the story moves along quite well. The zombies are fun and terrifying... especially the ones who are dubbed "fast movers" who have the ability to run like crazed psychopaths trying to fulfill their blood lust. The other creepy thing was the zombie children that seemed to have the ability to still think on a somewhat cognitive level... but with a "Neo" type ability to anticipate and dodge bullets. I'm sure that this will be explained more in the second book, which I may pick up at some point. 

Over all, the book was okay. If you like zombies and a quick read, pick it up on Amazon for free for the kindle. 


So long, and thanks for all the fish!

Ash Wednesday Prayer

As a substitute for the Prayer for the Week I decided to wait until today to post the prayer for Ash Wednesday. Although the Lenten season is a time of fasting and reflection, it is also one of renewal. While it may be odd to say that one would love this season, Lent is one of the many reasons why I love the Calendar.   We spend so much of our time within the church focusing on how to be "better Christians." We pour through the letters of Paul and Epistles of Peter and John, and while these are great ways to continue our discipleship and obviously breathed out by the Holy Spirit, I think we miss sometimes that Jesus himself gave us a great example... fasting and praying. By observing the Lenten season we continue our journey with Christ through the wilderness, fasting and praying, remembering that from the dust we've come and to the dust we will return, and allowing our focus to once again be drawn to the Lord so that we might enter into worship. May the peace of our Lord Jesus be with you all.

"Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."

Grace and Peace to you. 

Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller

This was my first experience with Donald Miller. I know, it baffles the mind does it not? That I made it completely through college where Blue Like Jazz was passed around from student to student like a Hookah at a house party.

At any rate, the book itself was an easy-to-read attempt to break, not only the presentation of the Gospel into easy to understand terms, but also the way we (by we I mean the Church as a whole) perceive the Scriptures. (Have I bored you yet? I promise, the book itself is not as boring as I am making it out to be) While, for the most part, I can get behind what Miller is stating throughout the book, I do think taking the theological aspect out of our perception of Scripture is a dangerous road to walk down. In his defense, he does mention the necessity of theological study in his afterword, but nevertheless, he does seem to easily toss theology aside for a simplistic understanding of the Scriptures. Is this a bad thing? Not at all... for awhile. At some point, we can not ignore the deeper meanings and truths behind the Scriptures if we truly wish to move beyond the milk and toward the meat. Moses may not have known the deeper implications of the words the Spirit was directing him to write, but that does not mean they weren't there. (I only bring this up because Miller seems to dismiss certain truths that are being presented in the first 3 chapters of Genesis as us projecting these truths on the Scriptures and not seeing the relational aspect behind them).

Another thing that bothered me, (and I promise I'm not ranting against Miller, just pointing out parts that I think warrant further discussion) is the idea that we have broken down not only the Gospel, but spiritual life in general, into such formulaic rituals that we have long lost the meaning behind what the Scriptures are teaching. I will say that I agree that there are some that may become more dependent on their formulas or on their rituals and lose complete focus on Christ, but I do believe that these rituals can, for others, bring many into closer worship and communion with Christ. Not just through the taking of the Eucharist (or Lord's Supper), or baptism, but also through praying daily (whether that be praying the Hours or just pausing throughout the day to pray). Much like in marriage where we have certain "rituals" that we perform to bring our relationship closer (not just sex, but praying together, eating together, etc...) I feel that some things that believers do (mainly those I listed in the previous sentence) can and do bring us into deeper worship and relationship with the Lord. Or, at the very least, help us to focus our attention again on Christ.

All of that said, I have no problems recommending this book to someone, or for that matter even recommending it as a study for a group, but I do think some healthy discussion would benefit those that read it and I think it would benefit them well.