Have You Ever Noticed?

Our secretary, Elaine takes the best pictures. The one pictured here was taken this morning outside her house while standing on her head…Now that would be a good picture to have, Elaine on her head. If you can’t tell this is a dandelion clock. It’s the almost dead, on its last leg, leftovers from the little yellow flowers in your yard. You know the ones you pay good money to kill out of your lawn. This was taken early in the morning will the dew was still sitting. If you look close you can see the small drops of water on the intricate, feather like seed steams. I just thought this was a beautiful, many times missed moment or snapshot of God’s creation.

I don’t know how many times in my thirty years I have walked by, stepped on or even stopped to pick one of these dandelion clocks up and blown them into the wind. But I have never noticed the neatness or uniqueness this picture shows me. I suppose I was feeling pretty soft or reflective this morning because I immediately wonder what else I miss, walk by or blow off in my life. Especially people! There a lot of people we encounter that are pretty void of what the world would consider as colorful or vibrant. Kind of like a dandelion clock…seemingly on its last leg, societal leftovers. Jesus was always attentive to these people.

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is Jesus and the woman at the well. She was definitely a dandelion clock to society. It is after the disciples get back from getting food they inquire of Jesus “what are you doing and why were you talking to her?” Jesus’ response is priceless and very pointed! He says in John 4:35 “Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are white for harvest.” I don’t know exactly what crop he was referring to but the point was they are lot of people we just look right over and they need Jesus. And guess what, those people are not always the most colorful, prettiest, best smelling…Jesus just calls them plain ol’ “white”.

I want to encourage you to open your eyes and take a look at the fields of life around you. What are you missing? What are you not seeing? What are you just walking past or blowing off into the wind? Invest in people! The return is great!

At the end of the day God is still God and He is good!

Is God deaf or just not listening?

If your church is anything like mine it has had its fair share of problems surrounding the Sunday AM worship. Our church has dealt with the “contemporary” issues to the point that I think we missed the point all together. We are study a series in one of our adult classes right now based on the book by Dan Kimball called “They like Jesus but not the Church” The deeper we get into this study the more I see the foolishness of fighting over hand clapping, hand raising, praise teams and dramatic preaching. Because I have got to question is God even hearing or recognizing any of it – Traditional or Contemporary?

Here is where I am coming from: Amos 5
As Amos calls these people to repentance he makes the statement in verses 11 and following that they built stone mansions but would not live in them and planted vineyards but would drink of its wine. Why? Because they had become so self serving that according to verses 11 & 12 they had forgotten to be servants to mankind, especially the poor. If fact they had stripped not only of material needs but robbed them of even justice and fairness. They had become corrupt taking bribes and oppressing righteousness.
What this was doing to Israel is the same think it is doing to us a God’s people still today: it is undoing the promises of God to us. You know the promises of peace, unity, freedom and yes, potentially even salvation. We need to be sure to realize that is not God reneging on His deal, it is us who refuses to see and focus on the demands of God. Look at the simplicity of what God, through Amos is calling for:
Verse 4 “Seek me and live”; verse 6 “Seek the Lord and live”; verse 14 “Seek good not evil that you may live”

When we have our vision clouded with internal issues of worship we miss out on the simplicity of God’s command “Seek HIM” and serve others. In doing this you find yourself experiencing freedom in ways you may not have known to exist. And you may just forget how the guy next you is seeking God in a way that is just a little different than yourself.

There will be more to come on these thoughts but meanwhile give me yours.

At the end of the day God is still God, and He is good!