One of the things most important to me is my collection of Bibles.  I have nearly fifty in my study alone.  As far as resource books for research, I have collected some forty translations  of the Scripture.  Among these are some very old copies of God’s Word.  They are treasures to me.  Just this week while cleaning up my garage, I found two boxes of books that had been misplaced for several years.  In one of these boxes were several Bibles that I knew were missing but had not been able to find.  It was like rediscovering some old friends.  With joy I gave them their place in my study.  Yesterday while destroying some old  files, I found a ticket stub from 1994.  I had surprised Joanne with a romantic evening.  I had taken her to dinner at a fine restaurant and then to a concert by one of the world’s most celebrated musicians.  Every other paper in that file box was shredded except that one old ticket stub.  A few months ago Joanne and I went north of Dayton to visit a youth camp.  There were no children from our church attending yet we had heard some old friends of ours were the guest speakers.  They didn’t know we were there.  After service we went forward and reintroduced ourselves.  There were a few tears and hugs and a lot of catching up.  Later we realized that it had been over twenty years since we had seen each other.  Mike and LaDona Blue, our newly found old friends, will be at our church this month for a Kids Krusade.  The Bibles that were found were misplaced among all the stuff that had been hastily shoved into the garage when we moved into our home some ten years ago.  The ticket stub, a reminder of such a wonderful evening, was just simply lost and forgotten until it popped up in a 2000 file box.  And for our friends, different directions in life and ministry is to blame for the years without contact.  I rejoice in finding all of them.  I rejoice for what they have meant to me and what they mean to me now and in the future.  I rejoice for those things once lost can be found.  Things get lost in the stuff of life.  They get lost through neglect.  They get lost because of the decisions and directions of our lives.  But with a little effort, they can be found again.  Remember the words of  Jesus, “I came to seek and to save that which was lost.”

I was preparing to go to work when I got the call that my Aunt Carol who had been in the hospital had taken a turn for the worse.  I immediately changed my schedule and Joanne and I made our way to be with her and my Uncle Biff.  I had been there maybe ten minutes, standing beside my uncle when she breathed her last breath.  The room was filled with family.  It was sad and yet a great tribute to how loved she was and how she loved.  I didn’t say much.  I just watched as they grieved, occasionally reaching over to pat a shoulder or touch a hand, a simple gesture to reassure someone that I was there and that I cared.  Sometimes it is the simple things that help the most.  Many of us, especially those of us in the ministry,  feel as though it is our job to fix everything.  There are those things that are not fixable.  These are the things of life that we must learn to deal with.  At times life throws situations at us that are earth shattering to us personally, yet common to the human experience.  These are things such as the loss of a loved one, broken relationships, disastrous accidents, physical decline as a result of aging.   These and many others are common and many are irreversible.  The ability to fix these things is divine, well beyond the human grasp.   Being so limited in these most difficult times is not a sign of us being powerless nor is it an excuse for uncompassionate behavior.  It is our chance to be as human as possible and identify with those who are suffering, for we have all been there.  And if you haven’t been there yet, should you live long enough, you will.  This is our opportunity to step in and lend a hand by offering reassurance, guidance and loving support.  What good are our experiences if we cannot learn from them and offer help to others through what we have learned?  Hard experiences that we refuse to learn and grow from remain in our minds only as a bad memory, useless and tormenting.  Most of us have a wealth of experiences.  If we can learn to use them as our own personal living library to draw from, we can improve upon our own existence and be of help to others.  I have heard it said that truly the best teacher is the experience of someone else if you can learn from it.  Without having to say, “I remember when”, I have this week had many opportunities to pull from the shelves of my own library and offer some help.

Safe House of Worship celebrated the fall with a free festival for children.  The number of children attending doubled from 2008.  Thanks to all Safe House workers for giving so freely of your time and efforts.  A special thank you to Bobby and Donna Estes for the donation of a baby quilt and a handmade lap quilt given away as adult prizes.  Thanks to Vicky and Kevin McCoy for directing this outreach.  So many of Safe House workers gave so freely and helped set up, work the games and tear down after the festival was over.  You are the best!  Hope you enjoy the slide show below of a few memories of this day.

Thanks to Miami Valley K9 Search Team for your participation in the Fall Festival at Safe House of Worship.  Kids and adults alike were amazed by the search and rescue team.  Amber Meade brought her bloodhound Daisy, Darlene brought Toby (a bloodhound) and Emma and Loren brought Sarge & Phoenix.  Examples of searching were given by each team.  The children were amazed and participated overwhelmingly at the end of the program.  Job well done K9 team.

In the last article I began the subject of maximizing our lives, which is living to the fullest of our potential and God’s intent for us.  It has to do with us maximizing our time, opportunities, potential and as a result, getting the most out of life.  In order to do this to any degree of success we must consider what molds our desires as well as our decision making and the influences in our lives.  I had mentioned before the dangers of letting our need take control of our desires.  Often in this pressured society that we live in, it is not a big step from need to desperation.  When we are in that position the danger lies in not giving proper thought or prayer to the decision making process.  What may appear to be a quick fix or answer to prayer may in fact be a tragic pitfall or at best a diversion.  Desire is motivated and fueled by the desperateness of our needs.   We find ourselves being pushed into bad choices by emotions like that of guilt, fear, inadequacy, greed and the list goes on.  Later, sometimes much later, we realize that had not our needs been so overwhelming at the time we would have made different choices.  Just like the person that leaves an abusive relationship for another one.  Had not the feelings of loneliness, the desire for companionship, the need for two incomes and so on been so great they might have taken time to recover, pray and seek out a better choice for a companion.  That leads me to the next important thing in living life to the maximum, making a good decision.  Be honest with yourself and look back at what influenced your good choices and what influenced your bad ones.  In my life, my best decisions always contain some common denominators:  prayer, counsel and time.  Anything worth doing is worthy of prayer.  When it comes to counsel, even Scripture will tell you that, “Two heads are better than one.”  There is no important decision that should be a spontaneous one.  Lastly we must look at influences in our relationships.  Relationships are by far not the only influences upon our lives and our decision making, but they are one of the most important.  Rule of thumb:  Any relationship that leads away from your relationship with God is not worth having.  Guard your heart.  People become attached in friendships and even fall in love with the wrong people.  Your relationship with God is the msot important of your life.  Decide now to hang on to that one regardless. 

Show Teens met again this past Thursday.  The rain stopped earlier in the day making it possible to have our class with fire.  Fire in the firepit that is.  Attitude tee shirt night was won by Grant McCoy.  Great going Grant.  The lesson was on the least of the least.  Gideon was the subject of the lesson.  God saw Gideon as “a mighty man of valor”.  Gideon saw himself as the least of his clan, which was the least clan in the tribe of Manasseh, which was the smallest tribe in Israel.  The object of the lesson was to see ourselves as God sees us not as what we see.  Show Teens continues to grow.  Thanks for your faithfulness! 

Show Teens are growing!  This past Thursday plan B went into effect due to the continually falling rain.  We had pizza instead of a cookout.  With several new teens present, the lesson this week was on getting rid of offenses.  Thanks to those who spoke on what God has recently done in their lives in setting them free from offenses they had carried for several years.  The prayer at the end of class was powerful.  Videos were played at the beginning and end of the class.  The cookout is planned for next week weather permitting.

Life has a way of teaching you things about the order of your life and differences between our desire and what really had purpose.  Some years ago, at a low time in mine and Joanne’s ministry, we were desperate to make a meaningful change.  A church in Illinois was in search of a pastor and we were contacted as potential candidates for the position.  At first glance it seemed to be the answer to our prayers.  After a successful weekend try-out we were to be voted on singularly.  It would seem to have been a done deal, until the associate pastor threw his name into the pot.   Although we received the majority of the vote, he split the vote enough to where neither of us received enough votes to win the position.  We were devastated.  One year later we found ourselves pastoring in Virginia Beach and for nearly ten years enjoyed a fruitful ministry there.  Looking back at it now, I realize the young man who threw his name into the voting probably did so by the design of God.  Evidently neither of us were the will of God for that congregation.  This way both of us were eliminated from the running.  On a side note, I also realize that Joanne and I both would never have been content in such a small rural town.  Thank you God, that you have been in control and not me.  We need to realize that much of our life is shaped by our decisions alone.  On the other hand, much of our life is shaped by the decisions and actions of those around us.  Just as in the case of my candidacy for the pastorate in Illinois.  Had it not been for the decision of that young man to candidate for the same church, we would have gone there to pastor and probably been somewhat successful until we got our fill of the slow pace of the area.  To put a cap on the story, one Joanne’s dearest life long friends and her husband now pastor that church and are doing great things for God.  At that point in our lives, our needs were in control of our desires.  This is a very dangerous place to be for anyone.  Most of us want to live purposeful lives.  Here are some steps to take toward maximizing a life of purpose.  One is to look back over the path of life that has brought you to where you are today.  Determine the good decisions and the bad ones that you have made.  Then determine who has influenced your life to the good or bad.  Now repeat the process that resulted in good decisions and eliminate the bad influences in your life.  I will follow this up with more details because it is not just that simple.  Now make the most important decision of all, let God have full control of your life.

I am a people watcher, are you?  Later you can ask me, as my wife often does, did you notice what they were wearing?  I must confess that most times my answer is no.  I watch their behavior more than anything else.  What they wear does not interest me at all.  It is what they do.  Like the person who will not get off the phone while sitting with someone at dinner.   Sacrificing the pleasure of the other person’s company just to hold a conversation that probably could be done later.  Or the young lovers sitting in a corner booth away from the crowd, more interested in each other than the meal that is getting cold while they pursue the path of emotional and social discovery.  Last evening while Joanne and I were enjoying a meal in one of the local establishments, a group caught my eye.  There were, if I assessed the situation correctly, a couple sets of grandparents, a young couple in their thirties and four children:  a boy about seven or eight, a set of twin girls maybe six and a younger sister of about four.  It was the twins’ birthday as I realized later when the waiters and waitresses came out to sing Happy Birthday.  What caught my eye was that the young father was holding one of the twins like a baby in his lap.  She was afflicted.  Later, when it was time to go, they would put her in her wheel chair that had been put out of sight for the celebration.  Joanne and I were enjoying our time together and were having wonderful conversation.  But from time to time I would find myself glancing over to watch the goings-on at the other table.  These were not he nor his wife’s natural children unless from a previous marriage.  All but the boy were African-American and Caucasian mix.  Yet with care and love he held her and occasionally he would shift her position from his lap to his shoulder,  probably as much for her as for him.  She did not talk or move, she just watched without expression.  He talked to her, smiled a lot and once in a while wiped her mouth with a napkin.   He would hand her off to others.  All the men at the table seemed to take their turn, but she always came back to Dad’s arms.  Oh, that I had been Jesus, just to go over and heal her and lift the burden from their shoulders.  The remarkable thing that I witnessed is that this young man had decided to be a Father to this young girl and her siblings.  Often such things are thrust upon us and we respond faithfully.  Then there are those who chose to so love.  True fatherhood is not a mistake or just the draw of the cards, it is a choice.  Just look at our Heavenly Father.