My Story…His Plan

“You must be very careful not to forget the things you have seen God do for you. Keep reminding yourselves, and tell your children and grandchildren as well.”
Deuteronomy 4:9 (Contemporary English Version)

In our recent Missions Weekend, I was struck by one of the lines in the song we sang, which said, “Somehow my story is a part of Your plan”. Hold that thought…

My family and I were recently blessed by being able to take a trip to revisit the place where the kids were born when we lived in the UK. Along the way, we made stops in Amsterdam, Paris, York, London, and our former home, Lincoln.

All are very historic cities, and all have places of ‘monuments to faith’ – cathedrals, etc… all built in a day gone by, when Christian influence was so significant in Europe. But today, they’re only relics and curiosities for most people.

However, one of the great moments was at York Minster. Amongst the throngs of tourists, the voice on the loudspeaker interrupted everyone at 3pm to invite them to honour the place as being a house of prayer, and to silently wait or join in as the person said afternoon prayers – reminding everyone that it is still a place of worship!

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And God Remembered Us

Back in January, I had just returned from studying in Los Angeles for a couple of weeks when I realized that the text I was preaching on was going to be very difficult for me. My wife and I have struggled with infertility for a number of years after having our second son. Like so many others whose plans for children have gone unfulfilled, we were working out how to trust God even when we didn’t understand what he was doing in our lives.

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Buying Hamburgers Versus Making Them

I went to a hamburger restaurant a year or two ago and had an interesting experience. My order was pretty clear at the counter - I wanted a cheeseburger with no tomato on it. I don’t like tomatoes. I wish tomatoes didn’t exist, in fact, so I didn’t want one on my cheeseburger. It looked like the person behind the counter understood me. She smiled and nodded as if to say, “I perceive that you don’t like tomatoes on cheeseburgers. I will make sure to eliminate the tomato when your particular burger is assembled.” Then she left me and went to get my order.

A few minutes later, as I was sitting at my table ready to bite into my freshly made burger, I noticed a red fruity/vegetably thing sticking out from under the bun. It was a tomato.

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The Return of the Blog

Well, I have been away for awhile from blogging. First, I went to New Zealand for three weeks and then I came back to more emails than I could imagine. Only now am I getting around to posting something in the blogosphere (I’ve always wanted to use that word. I sometimes think about using it randomly in sentences - “Hi Jim. Nice blogosphere you’ve got there.”)

After preaching this weekend, I was thinking about all the stuff that I would have liked to have said about the triumphal entry of Jesus, but just didn’t have time for. So, here are a couple of thoughts…

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To Worship as One

Johnny Markin passed along some thoughts he had written a few years back about the nature of worship and what happens when we gather together as a corporate body each weekend. Here they are…

The church is an enigmatic creature. Where else can we find a collection of people that willingly band together in worship, despite differing ethnic, cultural, financial, and demographic backgrounds?

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