My Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

A year or two ago I bought a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree for $5 as an after-Christmas clearance bargain. I thought about giving it away as a gag gift, but then I decided I could use it for something else. Every year a handful of dedicated ladies in our church (plus a couple of men to be wreath-lifters and tree-constructors) do an excellent job of decorating our sanctuary for Christmas. I added my "tree" to the decorations! 

Sure, it looks a little out of place, but it's supposed to. I told the church yesterday that I was keeping it out to remind us that one gift we can give to Christ (year round) is to take care of the poor.

It's amazing how often throughout scriptures, our Father tells us to take care of the poor. Jesus reminds us in Luke 14:12-14: Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

So remember the poor during Christmas (and through the year); it's a gift that our Savior will really like! Remember what that brilliant philosopher Linus Van Pelt said about this little tree in the original Charlie Brown's Christmas special: I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It's not bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love. The gang then takes decorations from Snoopy's doghouse and transfers it to the tree for an amazing transformation. All it really needed was love, just like you and me, and just like the poor.

The Bible gives us VERY little wiggle room with regards to our obligation to love those in need. One of my all time favorite passages that sums it up is 1 John 3:16-18: This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

Once again I owe a lot to one of my seminary professors, Dr. Rick Yount, who told our class over thirty years ago, "love is acting in the best interest of another PERIOD!" I've never forgotten that, and I never will. I hope you won't either! So if you want to give Jesus a Christmas present He'll really "love," then love others, especially those in need! 

My Wish for Your Advent Season...That Christ Will NEVER Be Just an Heirloom!

I'm going to try and be true to blogging more, and what better time than Advent. I spent some time this morning browsing the Kindle Store at Amazon for Henri Nouwen books. Here's part of the reason why....a quote from Nouwen's book, Making All Things New: "The beginning of the spiritual life is often difficult not only because the powers which cause us to worry are so strong but also because the presence of God's Spirit seems barely noticeable. If, however, we are willing to live a life of prayer and practice the disciplines of solitude and community, a new hunger will make itself known. This new hunger is the first sign of God's presence. When we remain attentive to this divine presence, we will be led always deeper into the kingdom. There, to our joyful surprise, we will discover that the power of our worries is weakening and all things are being made new."

My prayer is that the presence of God's Spirit this Advent season will NOT be "barely noticeable," but that you will experience Him more and more. One way is to commit yourself to meeting with Him daily meditating on His Word. As you experience Him, I assure you that the "power of your worries will weaken." I also pray for us all that we will hunger for more and more of God's presence as He leads each of us deeper into His amazing and wonderful Kingdom where ALL THINGS ARE BEING MADE NEW!

Jesus died to be more than just a memory or an heirloom. Here's a pretty old Christmas song by Amy Grant that drives home the truth that the most important "things" in our lives are NOT "things" at all!

How's Your Christmas FOCUS?

I am going to TRY to get back into blogging. I have appreciated the comments from two of my followers that they miss it. Sorry I've been gone so long....a bit of blog-burnout plus the busyness of the ministry have made it easy to let the blog slip. So here's my first Advent blog entry.

A couple of months ago I took two pictures of a rose in our church sanctuary. The rose was in celebration of a new baby. In the first shot, I had the camera on automatic so it did what any decent camera should do...it "averaged" the amount of light in the scene and made an electronic best guess. Though it is a high-tech camera, it is not equipped with a mind-reading sensor so it did not know what part of the picture was the most important. Its "averaging" approach washed out the rose.

I then made one simple adjustment. I set the camera to "spot" metering which means it only measures the light in the small area I point to, in this case, the rose. Basically I set it to "ignore" the rest of the room, and to only consider the light reflected from the rose. You can see the difference....

The lesson here is to learn how to use spot metering on your camera; it comes in very handle when photographing your kids in school plays, award ceremonies, graduations, or in any situation where there is a spot-lighted stage surrounded by lots of darkness.

The REAL lesson here is that Christmas is what you make it. You can focus your attention on everything, and end up "averaging" your time, commitments, and participation between the culture's idea of the holidays, and God's idea. In doing this, you may find your focus on Jesus lacking detail, like the washed out rose in my first picture. A better solution for Christ-followers is to focus on Him first, daily, and, yes, even on Dec. 25th. If you do that, an amazing thing happens....it makes the whole picture of Christmas more beautiful.

Can people tell by looking at the picture of your life, what you're truly focused on? I hope so. That's why we're here; to point people to the beauty of a Savior's love, born in a manger, slain on a cross, and risen to be our Lord. May you have a Christ-focused Christmas, and a Christ-focused life from here on out!

I'm Back! On 9/11 No Less!

I have been horrible about blogging...lots of busyness and excuses....but here it is September 11, 2012 on a Tuesday, like September 11, 2001. I was in a conference that morning and I didn't' find out until after lunch (we were at a rural church with no TV) while visiting some very seriously ill church members in a nursing home the scope of the tragedy. It was in the lobby watching the video of the towers' collapses when I realized how horrible this day was....I had never seen that many people die at one time. We all know how much it changed everything. Every year, however, I have tried to remind people that even in the shadow of such horrible hatred and devastation, some amazingly wonderful things were happening, too. Perhaps my favorite example is what happened in the little town (10,000 pop) of Gander, Newfoundland where 6,700 travelers from all over the world were loved by a bunch of Canadian strangers who were to become their hosts, their friends, and their inspiration. Here is one of many clips you'll find about Gander on YouTube:

These "regular" people are an example of how to apply Romans 12:21: "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." That is our basic choice...everyday! The thing about Gander is that their love was "seeded" among those 6,700 travelers who left to re-enter a world changed forever by a devastating act of evil. Those seeds, however, contain a force more powerful than evil, a force empowered by the One who created us in the first place...the force of love and compassion and kindness. So what kinds of seeds are you sowing in a post 9/11 world? I hope you're sowing the same kinds of seeds a little town in eastern Canada sowed eleven years ago on a day when evil was met with an even greater force....love!

Hey! Can't You Guys Get Along?

I was visiting a church member a few days ago who has six hummingbird feeders under her carport. At the end of my visit, we chatted as I took some video of the "drama of survival" in slow motion. (Note: the resolution stinks because the camera (a point-and-shoot wonder, the Panasonic Lumix ZS20) takes 220 pics a second to catch the action. All this to say, DON'T view it in FULLSCREEN...just IMAGINE it in fullscreen. So, go ahead, and watch the drama. If you're in a hurry, move ahead to the four minute mark for the climactic battle! 

The point: these birds remind me of how senseless it is when Christians fight each other in ways that do not bring Christ glory. Those little, and I mean little birds are so territorial and aggressive, like, well.... like some of us. If their brains were bigger (they have to be tiny to fit in those little bird skulls), I wonder if they would get tired of all the fluttering, and diving, and squawking, and pecking that characterizes so much of their lives. One article describes them as more Tasmanian Devils than Tinker Bells.  They don't pause to thank their great feeder provider; resting in the fact that season after season, their needs are being met by some massive creature who looks menacing, but is not. Instead of living in gratitude, they are fighting and fussing to defend their natural, powerful state of THIS IS MINE! Hey, it's nature, right?

Sure it is, even with humans, but our human nature has an alternative to a lifetime of fighting and fussing and protecting one's territory. That alternative is to get serious about following Christ, and being transformed from the inside out BEFORE you go and attack someone else for invading your space. 

Paul writes in Romans 12:1,2: "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." 

Before you go pecking somebody's eye out because they are threatening your territory, maybe you should pause and ask Father if there is anything in your thinking patterns that needs renewing. Surely with a brain as big as yours, there are SOME thoughts that need to be replaced and renewed. So stop pecking and squawking and fighting; embrace the renewed life Christ seeks to give you every day!

Kids Teach Us About America!

I really, really like this Fourth of July video. I liked it so much I even bought it for use this past Sunday at church. Used it with my children's sermon. What a great, quick look at our history, and I really liked the ending. Enjoy and THANK GOD FOR AMERICA!

Anniversary of D-Day! The Invasion of Normandy - 1944

On this day, June 6 in 1944, Allied Forces (including over 73,000 American soldiers) invaded Europe at the beaches of Normandy.  June 6, 1944, 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end on June 6, the Allies gained a foot- hold in Normandy. The D-Day cost was high -more than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded -- but more than 100,000 Soldiers began the march across Europe to defeat Hitler.... from the official U.S. Army website (http://www.army.mil/d-day/). You can also go to this website for another video about D-Day! Don't ever forget: FREEDOM ISN'T FREE! So don't use it selfishly!

I have posted the following video before, but it's still so appropriate as we remember this day in our history!

We are VERY Tiny, but LOVED!

I took this photo on Tuesday, June 5, 2012. That green ball is the sun (it was taken through a piece of welding mask glass), and the little black dot is the planet Venus. It won't pass between the sun and the Earth again until 2117. That little dot is about the same size as our planet! Which reminded me of Psalm 8:3-5:  When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly being and crowned him with glory and honor.

We are really, really, REALLY tiny people living on a tiny speck in a vast, vast universe yet our Fathers cares about us! 

Looking for the Positive, the Beautiful, and Finding It!!

Life for the first three weeks of May has been filled with lots of meaningful events. Along the way, I've taken more photos than usual, and was amazed at how many "photo opps" I had. As I looked back over hundreds of pictures, I was grateful for how much "significance and beauty" my Father had allowed me to experience in three short weeks.

First, a few notes:

Except for the photos with me in them, I took all of these pictures between May 3rd and May 20th.

The major events include:

A couple of trips to the Edisto Rose Gardens in Orangeburg, SC, to test out my new Panasonic Lumix ZS20 Camera (hence the flowers and birds!).

The wedding of Matthew and Elizabeth Jones on Sullivan's Island. Matthew is the oldest son of Joel and Patty Jones...wonderful friends for over 35 years (Joel and I were at Clemson together)!

Baby dedication service at our church on Mother's Day with two families, the Huttos and the Brelands. I took group shots as part of the worship service. Hey, we're family aren't we!?

A trip to Wake Forest, NC, to visit Randy and Kittie Trail (again lifelong friends of over 30 years since seminary days), and to help out with things as Kittie had surgery while I was there. (It went well.)

I ended up with shots from my climb up on old fire tower (with permission from the owners!)! So this is just to remind folks that there is beauty all around us, if we'll take time to notice!

So here are just a few of the reasons I can say "Thank You Lord" over and over and over again!
Even in difficult days, we can find good if we look for it! If we can't see it, maybe that means it's our turn to do something good for others to take pictures of! Our Father wants us to focus on the good stuff. How do I know? Well, Philippians 4:8 for one: "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

So look around...take a picture...if you're not having a good day, then find a way to make it a good day!

Hungry, Hungry Heron...and I Got Him on Video!

A couple of weeks ago I was at the Edisto Rose Gardens in Orangeburg, SC, and was amazed at how calm, cool, collected, and calculated a blue heron was. As children threw bread in his vicinity, and turtles approached, he remained unmoved, focused on the water, or, should I say, on what was under the water. After I videoed him the first time, I return a week and a half later to find him in the same stance at the very same location with "similar" results.

I've been playing around with iMovie, so this is what I came up with...


So what's the object lesson here? The heron lived by focusing on that which would sustain his life, not being distracted by that which would not.