by John Henry Theisen
Senior Pastor, Midway Church, Aubrey/Pilot Point

Broken roads can create a great deal of confusion, doubt, and outright fear.  They can also lead to incredible blessings.  The Bible tells us about two travelers on a road following the death of Jesus Christ (Luke 24). A third man joined them and carried on a conversation during the journey.  They discussed the events of the past few days and how they were puzzled and confused about the man they thought would be “the one”, the hoped-for Messiah.  He had died, and although there were reports of his tomb being empty, everything seemed so unclear.   Their broken hearts led to a temporary “blindness” and they were unable to perceive that the third traveler was none other than the resurrected Christ.

“Bless the Broken Road” is the title of a Grammy Award-winning song that has been recorded by several American Country and Christian music artists – most notably, Rascal Flatts.  The lyrics tell a story of pain and confusion culminating in a blessing unseen during the turmoil of the moment.

Every long lost dream
led me to where you are
Others who broke my heart
they were like Northern stars
Pointing me on my way
into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you
(It’s all part of a grander plan that is coming true)

We may be blinded, numb, and confused on our own broken road.  Perhaps the loss of a relationship, job, health, finances, or some other trial has brought us to a crossroads.  Our limited insight makes it difficult for us to understand why God would allow us to go through such an experience.  This is all part of a grander plan.  Some of God’s greatest blessings are unanswered prayers. Eventually, Jesus revealed His identity to the confused travelers over a meal.   He had been with them all along.  When He broke bread and blessed it, their eyes were opened and they realized that even in the darkest moments of life, God was in control. As a matter of fact, He was providing the salvation they longed for. When King David of Israel was on a broken road, he wrote:

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;  He rescues those whose spirits are crushed (Psalm 34:18 NLT).

Broken and blessed is not what we would choose, but it is often what God uses to make Himself known to us in a greater way. Even when we cannot see His hand, we can trust His heart that a greater plan is underway.  We don’t have to be afraid to continue down our broken road because God will meet us there.

by Rev. Dr. Christy Thomas, Pastor, First UMC in Krum
www.thekrumchurch.com

We who live in the United States, a relatively young country, and especially we who live in Texas, a relatively young state, have somewhat of a unique perspective on the New Year that may not be shared with parts of the world with longer histories.

Besides being a fairly young area, we also do not have much continuity with the past where building structures are concerned. For example, most older buildings are torn down when they become inconvenient or dated, rather than preserved.

In addition, reality TV with the multiple extreme make-over themes also perpetuate the suggestion of discontinuity with the past.  We can watch a messy family home turned into a place of neatness and order in just a few hours, or a body loss weight and become toned in just a few weeks, or a structure razed to the ground and re-built in seven days.

While those shows are fun to watch, I often wonder about the aftermath.  What happens later to the world’s messiest family when their mess has been sorted out or to someone who has quickly and with powerful and externally enforced discipline loses a lot of weight?  I’m betting past habits quickly re-appear.

Why?  Because changing the outward circumstances, while often helpful, hardly ever produces lasting internal change.  That kind of change takes a great deal of soul work and the practice of certain disciplines.

The way we were before informs the way we are now.  They cannot be disconnected, no matter how much we try to do so.

Yet often people live from the idea that they can disconnect from their pasts when they make New Years Resolutions.  We pretend our prior lives can disappear or that we can ignore the poor decisions we may have made or that we did not eat or drink all the things we should not have eaten or drunk.  Indeed we can pretend, but it won’t work.  We are those things, those successes and mistakes, those experiences, that food and drink.  All of this has been integrated into our souls and bodies.

So if we can’t escape our pasts, what other options do we have?  How about transforming our pasts?  One way of transformation is the act of thoughtful, honest, intentional forgiveness.  The Bible says that God’s mercies are new every morning. New mercies, sent our way each time we need them.

Mercy, often known as forgiveness, forms the centerpiece of much spiritual thinking.  It is through the receiving of mercies, and then offering them to others, that we take our pasts, however rocky they may have been, and transform them into more merciful and more gracious presents.

In my own experience, the most difficult person to offer mercy to is myself.  But that very act of taking our histories and bathing them in the light of fresh mercies brings joyful hope and freedom.  Let us let 2010 be the year of the merciful, both for you and for others.  Here, and only here, is true freedom.

by Jim Mann, Ph.D.

Before Jesus’ crucifixion he gave his disciples a warning.  “You will all fall away,” Jesus told them…Peter declared, “Even if all fall away, I will not.”  “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “today—yes, tonight—before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times.”  Immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him… And he broke down and wept (Mark 14: 27-31, 72).”

Have you ever heard the Sermon of the Rooster?  No?  It’s the most powerful sermon ever…er…spoken.

The Sermon of the Rooster is God’s wake-up call in a person’s life.  In Peter’s case, it was a literal rooster, but for us, the Sermon of the Rooster is metaphorical.

Peter heard that sermon and it changed his life.  You may have heard the sermon, too.  I know I have heard it after striving and vowing in my own strength, then failing…after piously telling others how to act, then failing…after judging others, then failing.  It’s not a fun sermon to hear.

A friend told me a story over lunch the other day.  There is a guy in a pit, treading water.  Sometimes this guy feels strong and decides he can keep his head above water forever.  At other moments, he is worn out and begins to sink.  Sometimes folks look over the edge of the pit and throw him some food.  He’s fed, but he’s still in a pit.  At other times people throw him money.  He’s got money in his pocket…but still in a pit.

Eventually someone jumps into the pit with him and shows him that there’s a solid rock bottom to the pit, just under his feet.  If he could muster the bravery to stop treading water long enough, he could stand and climb out.

That’s what happened to Peter here: he hit rock bottom.  At the final refrain of the Sermon of the Rooster, I think he was finally broken.  It was at this point he finally realized what was really in him and that he needed the power of God to transform him.  He stopped treading water, hit the bottom, and let God begin to lead him out of his performance pit.

None of us want to hear the Sermon of the Rooster, but it’s one that God, by his grace, lets us hear.  Why?  Because we desperately need to hear the message of that sermon.  Hopefully, in your case, you won’t wait until you’re at rock bottom before you take the message to heart.  After we respond to the altar call, we’re a little less confident in ourselves, we boast a little less, we’re a little more humble, and a little more broken.  Then we start to understand and appreciate God’s grace.  And that’s right where we need to be for God to take our lives and change them for the better.  See you in church.

Jim Mann, Ph.D. pastors New Life Church at 1350 Milam Road East in Sanger, Texas.

Service begins at 10:00 a.m. Visit newlifedenton.org for more information.

With many school environments back in full swing, I thought we might provide some encouragement and inspiration for everyone involved in the education of our children.

Jeff Foxworthy: “How do you know you are a teacher?”

• You want to slap the next person who says “Must be nice to work 8-3 and have summers off.”
• You believe in aerial spraying of Ritalin.
• You understand instantaneously why a child behaves a certain way after meeting his or her parents.

Crista McAuliffe, the teacher astronaut who perished in the Challenger Space Shuttle explosion in 1986 summed up her profession in these words: “I touch the future – I teach.”

What an awesome privilege we have in shaping the future through the impact we have on students.

King Solomon said that a farmer does not withhold seed because of what he cannot control, but does what he can and trusts God for the rest (Ecclesiastes 11:1-6). We do not want to focus on the obstacles before us and miss the opportunity to sow seeds. Keep casting your bread upon the water, you are making a difference.

Martina McBride would say: “Teach them anyway.”

Moses made it clear that providing a spiritual foundation for our children is the responsibility of parents (Deuteronomy 6). As parents we are to model and teach in every-day life the spiritual values we desire to see in our children.

A brief excerpt from the poem To Be Educated, by Carolyn Caines demonstrates the importance of a how education and faith are related:

If I can explain the law of gravity and Einstein’s theory of relativity, but have never been instructed in the unchangeable laws of the One Who orders the universe, I have not been educated.

However, if one day I see the world as God sees it and come to know Him, Whom to know is life eternal, and glorify Him by fulfilling His purpose for me, then I have been educated.

Jesus Christ taught that the “one who is fully taught will be like his teacher.” (Luke 6:40) In addition to the formal, academic instruction students need, we do not want to forget what author John Ortberg calls the hidden curriculum. Whether you are in public, private, or home education, you are doing more than filling minds – you are forming lives to be like you. As a local church shepherd, I would not want to do what I do without divine assistance. For all of you involved in education, we petition God for the grace, strength, and wisdom you need. God bless you.

It was a typical early spring London afternoon, damp, low overhanging clouds, rain showers growing more frequent. I was in London playing “Granny” to two grandsons, three and one and a half. Two cousins, aged seven and five, joined us. By now the baby had awakened from his nap. A long, unplanned afternoon loomed with restless children. Adult action was necessary.

We headed to a nearby recreation center and “queued” for tickets for the next Kid’s House of Fun hour. We entered a child’s paradise, a giant bounce/play house: three stories tall, with at least a 900 sq. ft footprint. For about 20 minutes, all, even the baby, enjoyed the paradise of exploring and falling and jumping and climbing and hiding.

And then . . . two larger groups entered, most of the children between 6 and 11. These exuberant children, also restive from a school holiday spent inside, did what comes naturally. They ran through the tunnels and down the slides, bumping one another, knocking each other over, running faster, faster, faster. I felt like I was watching a movie in fast forward as they raced by my watchful eyes in hyper-speed, screaming louder with each pass, heedless who they trampled in the rush to get . . . nowhere. It was just a large maze, and all eventually ended at the same place, exactly where they started.

The rush to get nowhere–how typical of so much of human activity. Rush, rush, rush, hurry here, make that deadline there, don’t be late because something bad will happen, quicker, faster, speedier–GET THERE NOW BECAUSE IT HAS TO BE DONE THIS MINUTE OR . . .!!!!

Or what? What if it doesn’t get done? Well, frankly, sometimes it is pretty darn serious if it doesn’t get done. Some parts of life must be met head on with speed and expertise. But our frantic pace insists if something can be done faster, then it should be done faster. Our lives mirror the House of Fun maze. Racing through it faster only means getting back to where we began, and when we get there, we are tired, sweaty, and unsatisfied.

Stop. Just stop. Breathe deeply. Feel your heartbeat. Find silence and listen to it. Hear the wind in the trees; see if you can catch bird notes and crickets. Skip an activity, turn off the computer, the TV or DVD player, the iPod, your mobile phone. Do nothing. Even without your help, the earth will still rotate and the tides will come in and out. Life will go on. Stop. Listen not only for your heartbeat but for the heartbeat of God. Look for the redeeming love that holds the entire universe together, including the space where you sit this very moment. You are held, pondered, crooned over by the love of the Divine One.

Just stop for a while each day. Leave the frantic circular maze. The world will not end. And yours might begin again in freshness and renewed awareness of God.

The Rev. Dr. Christy Thomas, Pastor, First UMC, Krum
www.thekrumchurch.com, 214-418-9541, www.krumchurch.blogspot.com

Several years ago there was a movie out called The Perfect Storm. It was about some fisherman caught at sea during an extratropical nor’easter which ultimately evolved into an unusual hurricane off the Atlantic coast. As several different weather patterns collided, the storm it caused created waves up to 100 feet high. From a meteorologist’s perspective (not a fisherman’s perspective), it was “the perfect storm.”

Have you ever found yourself in the midst of a perfect storm? Have you ever seen issues from all directions collide at once…with you in the middle?!

I read an article by another pastor recently who believed our nation is in a perfect storm. Just like in the movie, where all the varying weather conditions led to a convergence of one great maelstrom, so it is spiritually in our nation.

What issues are converging to create the perfect storm in America?
• Religion – our nation is becoming increasingly secularized, but not without a struggle (often referred to as the “cultural war”).
• Politics – are more polarized than ever.
• War – this is a dangerous world.
• Economics – no need for explanation here…
• Geophysical issues – our planet is revolting against our stewardship of it.

We could debate for hours whether it is God who caused this storm or if it has been caused by our greed and allowed by God. But ultimately we get to the point that the storm is here (or at least is quickly approaching).

So what do we need to know to survive this perfect storm that is advancing on our nation? Let me suggest three important things:

1. God always shows Himself powerful in the midst of adversity and difficulty. Whether we’re talking about his saving the nation of Israel through the Red Sea or raising his own Son from the grave, God always comes through in a pinch.

2. Since storms neither affect nor scare God, storms are HIS opportunity to show Himself powerful.

3. Since both of these are true, storms are OUR opportunity to trust Him and let Him move in our lives.

If our nation is in the perfect storm, there are things we can do to batten down the hatches. There are political, economic, and ecological responses. But ultimately, we must turn to the Lord for help. This is what God says:
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14, NIV)

If, like me, you see the storm coming, get in a local, life-giving church near you. I’ll see you there…hopefully before the rain starts!

New Life Church services are Sundays at 8:30 am (Robson Ranch campus) and 10:00 am (Denton campus), www.newlifedenton.org