A Seat At The Table

I love dinner time when Brenda, the boys, and I can all sit down at our dining table and enjoy a meal. We take turns going around the table talking about our days and telling one another the best thing that happened that day. Some days are average days. Other days are above average.

We all have our assigned seats at the table. I sit at the head of the table. Brenda sits next to me to my left. Turner sits next to Brenda. Tucker sits at the far end of the table and Taylor sits next to him. Tanner sits next to me to my right. We all have a place at the table.

As thankful as I am to have a seat at this table surrounded by the people I love, I am infinitely more thankful for the seat I have at God's table. Reading [Eph 2:1-7] reminds me that though I was dead in my trespasses, Jesus made me alive and I have been saved by the riches of His mercy and grace. He made a place for me at His table. What a blessing. What a joy. I was welcomed into God's family due to no merit on my own. I was welcomed solely due to God's infinite grace poured out through Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross. I brought nothing to the table but my sin. My invitation to sit at God's table is solely based on grace and mercy. I did not deserve it then, I do not deserve it now, nor will I ever deserve it.

At our dining table the boys used to fight to see who would sit where. Finally we had to assign seats to solve this problem. In Heaven I don't care who I sit next to. I will be eternally grateful that I have a seat. There is something special about having a seat at the family table. It means you belong. It means you are loved.

Those two thoughts comfort me today. I belong to God. He knows the good and the bad about me but he loves me anyway and I still belong to Him. I am still loved. What an endless source of joy. Like the old song goes, "Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain He washed it white as snow." Hallelujah. Before Jesus and His grace applied to my life I was a son of disobedience and a child of wrath. Now, I have a seat at the table. I was adopted. He picked me as dirty and filthy as I was.  He washed me in His grace and cleansed me. Then he gave me a seat at the table.

What about you? Do you have a seat at His table? Do you belong to Him? Have you trusted Jesus for His grace applied to your life to remove the guilty stain of sin? If not what are you waiting for? Today could be the day of salvation for you. Today you could also be assigned  your seat at the table.

When Our Backs Are Pressed Against A Wall

There are so many people suffering. Some of them I do not know but there are plenty I do know. Weary heavy laden people. People are hard pressed in trials that appear will never end. The tears fall. My own family is pressed against the wall in a series of tests.

When we have nowhere else to turn, when all hope seems lost, when peace evades, when there does not seem to be a way out I find comfort in reading Exodus 14. Moses and Israel had their backs pressed hard against the wall but God made a way where there seemed to be no way. Take courage my weary brothers and sisters. God will not abandon you. He will come through. The truth there inspired this poem.

O Jesus you see our backs are pressed against the wall,
How our steps falter how we stagger - and on You fall,
You alone can take the heavy burdened wearisome load,
Granting peace, comfort, refuge in your dwelling abode,
You see our way is hedged in - there appears no way out,
Help us believe in you with faith and not give into doubt,
When our strength fails and like soft cookies crumbles,
When our feet get tripped and we begin to stumble,
When the enemy presses in clouding the path of light,
We the tears falls unending and weeping lasts for a night,
We call out your name trusting You O Prince of Peace,
To find shelter and all our cares and burdens release,
O Jesus our backs are pressed hard against the wall,
We have no other hope or other help on whom to call,
So as the day dawns and our troubles continue to linger,
We ask you to reach down to help with your sovereign finger,
You move our burdens and take them from off our shoulders,
Making every looming impossible mountain but a tiny boulder,
We trust you to make a way while our backs are so heavy pressed,
You are our peace, our comfort and where our souls truly find rest.

Midweek Bible Study

Some may see teaching or even attending a midweek Bible Study a drudgery. For the preacher the crowds are always much smaller. For the attenders it is another event to crowd into already overcrowded schedules.

For me I sit here waiting anxiously for time to tick by as I have countless other Wednesday nights. I did this on Wednesday nights as youth pastor. I could not wait for the appointed hour in the first church I pastored. I did the same at FBC Paradise. We enjoyed special times studying through the book of Acts and Revelation. At FBC Seminole we began meeting in a Sunday School classroom and soon outgrew that space and relocated to the choir room. We studied through I Corinthians and parts of Genesis with several character studies on Noah, Abraham, and Joseph. Already at Faith Community we have studied through I Thessalonians, I Timothy, Joel, and James. I count down the moments until the people would  come to break open God's word. Tonight I can hardly wait for the next sixty minutes to pass as we continue to dig through the book of Ephesians verse by verse.

I never know how many will come for the study. On a few occasions we barely had a enough chairs for the attenders. Most of the time the crowds are relatively small. This does not dampen the enthusiasm to teach and to learn. The night before Thanksgiving we only had nine and four of those were my family. Brenda and Tanner stayed behind to cook. That did cool off my enthusiasm. I got so excited we ended up going a few verses beyond what I had planned for.

The discussion is always lively. I welcome the feedback as learn together. God feeds our souls on the meat of His inerrant sharp two edged sword. There have been a few rare occasions when the studies lasted well over an hour not because of my teaching but because the attenders kept asking questions and kept the discussion going. They did not want to leave.

I love midweek Bible study. This is largely when the remnant of the church gathers together, although in our church, I also see the remnant gather on Sunday nights for our prayer meeting.

Midweek Bible study is one of the highlights of my week. There are times my soul is enraptured in the proclamation of the scriptures. I am eager to exposit Ephesians tonight. I pray the Lord would meet with us and nourish our souls.

The Gift

For years as a child and a teenager I could barely go to sleep on Christmas Eve. I could not wait to see what things were waiting for me under the tree. I recall the year I got the bike of my dreams. I recall getting footballs and football uniforms. One year I even got a Mr. Quarterback, a machine to throw me passes, but it broke before I ever used it. I got toys galore, clothes, and a shotgun when I got older.

My favorite gift of all was on my twelfth Christmas when I got an electric typewriter because I always wanted to be a writer. I sat that typewriter on my desk and let my imagination begin to run wild with short stories. I guess that gift means so much to me because today, though that typewriter is long gone, I am still writing and living out that dream about to publish my sixth book.

I loved everything about Christmas as a child. The decorations. The lights on houses. The special movies. Making my wish list. The candy canes hung our tree I ate throughout the month of December. I guess I loved Christmas so much because my mother loved Christmas.

As I got older I enjoyed giving gifts when I earned money. I especially loved giving to my mother and grandparents. I can still recall the anticipation of watching them open the gifts I had purchased for them with my hard earned money. Those are blessed memories. Around my fifteenth Christmas my grandfather died. He was like a father to me and we shared a special bond. I still enjoyed that Christmas  but it was different. I missed him.

My seventeenth Christmas I received the greatest gift. I still treasure that Christmas gift to this day. Try as I may I cannot remember any other gifts that morning but that one special one. It was a gift to go down in the history of all my Christmas pasts. I may have received some clothes that morning but nothing else comes to mind and certainly not surpasses that one gift in my mind and heart. Truth be told it was an unexpected gift.

O but that gift I received came to mean more to me that year than anything else under that tree. You see the gift I received when I was seventeen was the eternal gift of salvation and forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ. I actually received that in October of 1983 but it came into clearer focus that 1983 Christmas morning. That gift changed everything. For the first time that year Christmas was about the birth of Jesus for me. Being a new convert to Christ that meant everything to me and three decades later it still does. My family openly celebrates Jesus during Christmas. That gift changed my life inwardly and outwardly.

In the months that followed I would buy a Bible and begin to devour it. I would join the Denman Avenue Baptist Church by baptism. I would get active in the youth group and other church services. I would hear and answer God's invitation to preach though scared out of my mind to say yes. Through the avenue of a football scholarship God put me in college to get training for preaching and ministry. God orchestrated events far beyond my imagination to introduce me to a Godly girl from the Metroplex who captured my heart. Three years later I stood before God, family, and friends and married Brenda Ortiz. To this day she is still my best friend. We laugh together often, love and serve God together, and were blessed with Jennifer to raise and then four boys.

Today I drive the third miracle vehicle we have been given. We live in a beautiful home far beyond our wildest dreams and I get to have a home office. I am living out my dreams as a pastor, author, and traveling preacher.

All of that goes back to the gift of salvation I received in Jesus Christ. That gift has never meant more to me than it does on this my 47th Christmas. The Apostle sums up my sentiments far better than I ever could.

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God; not as a result of works so that no one can boast. [Gal 2:1-9]

He brought me to life spiritually. He raised me from the dead end path I was walking and set me on the path to eternity. He lavished me with His rich mercy for my sins were many. He gave me a seat at His table and made one of His children. I have a place to belong. He will put me on display through the ages to demonstrate what His gift of grace can do in a person's life. I am blessed beyond measure this Christmas gift because I have already received the greatest gift.

True Worship

"I urge you, therefore, by the mercies of God of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship." [Rom 12:1]

I am not sure what happened to New Testament Christianity over the years. Today the plea from preachers is for people to come to Jesus and He will make your life better. They proclaim that Jesus will enhance your life. They preach He will give you the best life now. Paul's plea was to come to Jesus and offer your life as a sacrifice. 100% of yourself laid down as an offering to die to self but live to Christ. This same sentiment is repeated in [Matt 16:24] [Acts 20:24] [Gal 2:20] and [Gal 6:14]

A life presented or offered to God as a living sacrifice means absolute surrender. God gets to call the shots and for Paul that meant a lot of suffering. A LOT OF SUFFERING! It included persecution, poverty, and desertion by fellow believers but Paul still offered his life to God as a sacrifice. Day after day Paul climbed back on the altar and yielded his life and desires to the purposes of God.

Where did we lose track that God expects and demands anything less than our lives laid down on His altar today? The altar is not a comfortable place and the word sacrifice tends to be avoided by the people in the church at all costs. Would we really enjoy the benefit of a perfect Savior's sacrifice but be unwilling to sacrifice in our own lives for Him and His cause?

Will you surrender? Will you give up? Will you renounce your life as you make yourself available to Him? Will you make your body, your remaining days, your life an offering to Jesus? This is true worship.

Not the Man

Lord, I come knowing I am not the man you desire me to be,
Nor am I the kind of man I either really would like to be,
I am filled with self and my flesh drags me down today,
I reject the crucified life avoiding the cross come what may,
What do I know of holy, when distractions often abound,
What do I really know of surrender to you who astounds,
I'm impatient, filled with large dreams but small faith at times,
I try my best but you see all and know all my sinful crimes,
I pray for consecration, a more devoted heart and clear mind,
Yet I lose heart and at times find true courage hard to find,
I am not the man you desire and have long willed me to be,
I will only become that man as your grace abounds in me.

Bowed Beneath the Pressure

Somewhere in between moving from Seminole, living in an r/v and in the home of a church member in Paradise, fitting what we could in the rent house three months later, putting the rest of our belongings  into storage and then finally moving to Runaway Bay where we bought a home two years later, we lost our Christmas tree. We think we may have left it in the attic back in Seminole. The new home owners are going to check on it for us.

We purchased a small inexpensive tree a couple of years ago to put in the rent house. Those last two years we did not keep our family tradition. Each year Brenda and I have been married and the kids have been alive we have purchased or made a special ornament for the tree for each member of the family. When we start decorating the tree I sit down and tell the stories behind the meaning of each ornament. It is always a good time.

Since we did not have our real tree we did not even bother with our special ornaments while living in the rent house. We found some cheap ones at a dollar store to put on the new tree and called it done for the past two years. The boys informed me that we had missed out on our tradition the past couple of years and being this is our first year in our new home they were determined not miss out this year.

Saturday night we kept the tradition. Only due to the small stature of the tree we were not able to get every ornament on the branches. We put as many as we could and shared many great memories and laughs along the way. Seeing the boys as babies and now having one about to graduate was both fulfilling and sobering at the same time.

I was shocked when I got up this morning and discovered the tree had fallen over sending ornaments scattering everywhere. My coaching whistle ornament shattered for this year along with a few others. The boys got it all picked up and stood the tree up once again before leaving for church. When we got home after church we once again discovered the tree had succumbed to all the weight and had toppled over sending ornaments scattering.

I wonder how many lives are doing the same thing as we get into the holiday season. How many are bowing under the financial pressure to make ends meet for the month and find money to get everyone what they want for Christmas. Television commercials make it look so easy to buy a $300 one of these and $600 one of those like it is no big deal. Real life for some people make these purchases out of reach increasing the pressure. The temptation to just "charge it" on the credit card is more and more alluring. Deep down you recall you have not even paid off all the purchases from last year.

How many will bow under the pressure of just being alone this year. They miss loved ones who have departed into eternity. I can think of many that died this year leaving holes in my heart. For some left behind, their loss means nobody living will take the time to drop by for a visit, to make a phone call, send a holiday greeting card, or send an email. The children and grandchildren are so busy. The old Sunday School class has just about all died off. The pastor is so busy tending to other more pressing needs in others lives. This saddens my heart as people endure loneliness and depression in what should be a festive time of the year. The lonely and grieving bow under the pressure of it all.

Silently each of these lives bows beneath the pressure. O that we could roll our burdens on the Lord this time of year. [Ps 55:22] How I pray that we will be so anchored in God that we do not bow under the pressure, the sorrows, and the trials. If just one person could read this and lean more on God, get more anchored in the soil of His word driving down deep roots there and do more than survive this holiday season but thrive through it with faith and joy, my little bowed Christmas tree would be worth it a thousand times over.

Cast your burdens on the Lord. Do not live under the weight of your heavy loads another moment. Let Him lift the oppressive weight from your weary shoulders and then bow voluntarily in His presence to worship this holiday season. When you rise do so in the freedom of a life without stress, anxiety and in perfect peace. [Phil 4:6-7]