The Front Line

 

To those of us that live inside the United States, we need to be a little more grateful than most folks around the world. There isn't an American alive today that has witnessed the ravages of war on our own homeland. On the contrary, there does exist a plethora of wartime veterans that survived the harrows of war abroad, and to that particular group of veterans may I say a tremendous "Thank You" to each man and woman that has served our country during times of war. We could never repay you for the sacrifice you made, nor the ultimate sacrifice that so many made on foreign soil. To even attempt to imagine the horror of being cast into a battle where bullets and bombs are going off around you and the comrade to your side was just killed is ludicrous, but with the technological advances that the audio/visual industry has made over the past several years we can get a tiny glimpse into what it must have been like to have fought in any of the wars such as World War I, World War II, the Vietnam or Korean Wars, or the more recent Gulf War and numerous conflicts in other sections of the Middle East. Standing on the front line, knowing there was a strong possibility that a bullet could very well be headed in your direction as you take your next step out of a foxhole, or around the corner of the building definitely takes more courage than I believe I could muster. Thank you will never be enough, but thank you for your service to this great country. 

 

The front line of a battle is something I cannot even begin to imagine. Books and movies attempt to reenact the horror these brave souls encountered, but my mind tells me that the attempt is futile regardless of the intent to recreate these types of scenes in words or visual attempts. Fighting on the front line is probably the most sacrificial example of service that a person can make due to the fact that the odds of survival are always tilted in the direction that most of us would not choose to take. Yet, American soldiers dedicated and diligent in service did so because they believed that their sacrifice served a much bigger purpose than self. Those that have fought on the front lines did so because they desired to see their children and their children's children live a life of freedom in this grand country. To those that fought on the front lines of a war, thank you. 

 

As previously mentioned we are fortunate to not have had an actual war on American soil since the Civil War 1861-1865, but there is a war that exists on our fertile soil here in these United States of America. This war has been waging since the dawn of man when Adam and Eve encountered evil in the Garden of Eden, a war that includes the battles men and women have fought down through history. The war between good and evil, right and wrong encircles our American way of life, and it permeates the entire globe with no exceptions made for man, woman, or child. The battle is real and the front lines are much closer to each of us than you may want to admit. 

 

Are you willing to go to the front lines of this war? Daily you are faced with that decision. Regardless of whether you consciously realize it or not, we are engulfed in the battle between good and evil daily. Are you ready to do that kind of battle each day? If so you need to know who your real enemy is. In the Book of Ephesians Paul clearly identifies our enemy. "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Ephesians 6:12. It isn't the Democrats or Republicans who should be enemies, it is not a battle between peoples with differing tones of skin color or geographic area of origin, (By the way, there isn't a person who is black or white, we are all just a little different shade of brown. Just saying), no the battle as Paul points out is against dark powers and evil spiritual forces. I would go as far as to suggest that the inward fighting that is so prevalent in the United States and other countries around the world is directly being choregraphed by those dark powers that creep into people's minds and thoughts. Yes, we have to own the thoughts and choices we make, and the truth of the matter is we have the ability to choose good over evil, we can choose to follow the status quo and fall in line for bickering about the right and the left, or we can follow the example of the one man who taught us to love our neighbor, and fight for right over might. 

 

Jesus abhorred evil, there are written accounts throughout the Gospels demonstrating his disdain for the evil of this world. Yet again and again, Jesus loved those that hated Him. He prayed for them and showed them a love that they did not recognize. Even after being tortured, beaten, made to carry His cross as a public spectacle, and finally nailed to and hung on that very same cross, what did Jesus do? He asked His Father God to forgive them because they did not know what they were doing. (Luke 23). Jesus did battle with the powers of darkness each day as He fought demon possessed men and women, healing them instead of killing them. That is important to note, why didn't Jesus just put a demon possessed man or woman to death? My Bible tells me that Jesus loved the person, but he hated the sin/evil that possessed people. That is our example. We are at war, we do battle each day, my prayer is that we as a nation, we as a world, have our eyes opened so that we see the person and not what we deem to be evil, and may our hearts be in tune with the model that Jesus provided each of us. "Love thy neighbor as thyself" Matthew 22:39 is our command, and... "Your love must be real. Hate what is evil, and hold on to what is good." Romans 12:9. 

 

We are all on this front line and the battle is ours to wage. The good news is you will never fight the good fight alone! Our God goes before us leading the charge and fighting our battles with us and/or for us!

Coach Carter

 

Peace Be Still

"Why me?" Have you ever asked that question about something that is going on in your life? I mean if you are reading this blog then more than likely you have some foundational relationship with God our Father, so why would He allow something like whatever it is you had going on happen to you? There's plenty of non-believers out there to let the bad instances of life to be dumped on, so the question begs to be asked, "Why me?" 

When we are hurting we are vulnerable, and it is safe to say that we probably also feel alone, which can definitely activate fear and even hopelessness. Been there. But, that was in a different life, I have grown so much over the past ten years, grown closer to God that is. As I have nurtured my relationship with my Father, the things that would have probably gotten me to that point of asking "why" just haven't happened as frequently as in my past. But don't think you are the only one out there that has a relationship with God and is still trying to figure out why "bad things happen to good folks", even the disciples were guilty of asking the "why" question.

In Mark 4:36-40 we read about a time when Jesus and His disciples were caught in a storm at sea. Jesus was in the stern asleep when the disciples came to Him for help. "And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”  Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.  But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” So, the disciples were basically asking "why me?" and they were in the same boat with the Son of the Living God! You would imagine that if you were right there in the boat with God's Son, you surely wouldn't think that God would let your boat sink in the midst of the storm you were experiencing at that moment. But look at what the disciples said, "Do you not care that we are perishing?" (v.38) In other words, "why me?". 

In this particular situation Jesus spoke the words "Peace be still" and the winds immediately died down and the storm subsided, which I'm sure lowered their anxiety levels one hundred percent, but Jesus wasn't finished with the disciples yet. I guess Jesus was thinking the obvious, if you are in the boat with the Son of the God that created everything, even the high winds and stormy seas, what do you have to worry about anyway? If we have a true relationship with God then we are in essence in the boat with God and regardless of the storms of life we are facing He is there with us. Jesus asks the disciples if they just don't have faith in Him after everything they have been through together. To that point I guess I'm asking you the same question. If you have a relationship with God then do you understand that He is right there with you in your storms of life?  

I have one more point to clarify and this one is critical to the whole idea of trusting and believing, i.e. faith. When Jesus came out from the stern He immediately calmed the winds and the storm subsided. Lean in and understand this, the winds subsided allowing the deadly conditions of the storm to pass, but the wind did not disappear. Even though the disciples asked Jesus to take care of their predicament, He didn't remove the storm's source, Jesus just made it all bearable for the disciples so they could navigate the boat and safely reach the shore. Just as Jesus calmed the winds but didn't remove the wind from the sky, many times God doesn't necessarily answer our prayers when we cry out "why me" in the exact manner that we believe He should respond to our cries for "help". God is with us in the storm, the winds may blow and the storms may gust, but we have an anchor that holds in the midst of life's storm*. When God speaks "Peace be still" He isn't saying be gone, His command is to "be still" or be at ease, comforted, at rest. 

That is the message of hope I want to share with each of you today. Call out to Him today, whether you have a relationship or not, call out for his help and He will be there in your time of need. God will give you peace to confront the storm, He may not necessarily take the storm that you are in and completely take it away. His promise today is the same yesterday and today as it was some 2000 years ago. I will be with you, the storms may still be there, but you will be able to handle them because God is there with you and even when the storms of life rear their ugly little head, we find comfort and strength knowing that God is right there with us. You are not alone! The One True Anchor is there with you in spite of any storm you will encounter.

Coach Carter

 *A little praise and worship this morning embrace it: The Anchor Holds

 

 

 

 

The Prodigal

 

Throughout the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John parables that Jesus shared with his disciples and others are recorded for us to learn from and grow others through. Parables by definition are "simple stories used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels." Generally, the parables Jesus shared were told to drive home a point about the choices we make throughout our lives that impact our relationship with God and those we spend life with each day. Think of the shepherd who went out to find the one lost sheep, or the man who built his house on the solid ground as opposed to the other who chose to build on the sinking sand, Jesus used His parables to give us a practical image of how we should live our lives. On a few occasions I have heard ministers take a scripture from the Bible, and insert their name in place of the character in the verses of the scripture, personalizing the takeaway and driving home the point that God loves each of us individually and that Jesus sacrificed His life here on Earth for you and I. For our FTM Thought this week, I'd like to share a parable that I'm pretty sure you are familiar with, but let's make it personal. 

 

I'd like to ask you to slow down, turn down the outside noise, find a quiet place to sit down, ask God to speak to your heart, mind, body, and soul, and read the following parable. When you come to a blank space, replace it with your name. I took the liberty to add "daughter" to the text.  Make this a personal story, because it is. 

 

The Parable of the Prodigal Son/Daughter Luke 15:11-24

¹¹ Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons/daughters. ¹² The younger one, ________ said to his/her father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

¹³ “Not long after that, __________ got together all he/she had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his/her wealth in wild living. ¹⁴ After __________ had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and _________ began to be in need. ¹⁵ So _________ went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent _________ to his fields to feed pigs. ^{16 __________} longed to fill his/her stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave ________ anything.

¹⁷ “When ___________ came to his/her senses, __________ said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸ I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son/daughter; make me like one of your hired servants.’ ²⁰ So ________ got up and went to his/her father.

“But while ________ was still a long way off, his father saw __________ and was filled with compassion for him/her; he ran to his son/daughter, threw his arms around __________ and kissed __________.

²¹ “___________ said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son/daughter.’

²² “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on ___________. Put a ring on ___________   finger and sandals on __________   feet. ²³ Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴ For this son/daughter of mine was dead and is alive again; __________ was lost and is found.’ So, they began to celebrate.

 

Now, if you did the first steps that I requested you should be in a place where you can think about how personal your relationship is with God. Each of us has a different story to fill in the blanks with our name, but at the end of the day, God sent Jesus to this Earth for you and for CHUCK.  I was the lost sheep, I built my house on the sand, I planted seeds in places where I knew it wouldn't grow, and many times I don't want to give up the "good" for God's "best". Yet when I finally come to my senses, God is there, He always was, always is, and always will be. Just like the father in the parable, God is waiting on us when we are out in the world lost and He welcomes you and he welcomes me home when we make the decision to seek Him. "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13. 

 

There are times when we have all been in the shoes of the prodigal son, after personalizing this parable, you may have realized that you are lost in some sense of the word right now. Just as the son realized in the parable, his father was there waiting for him, welcoming him home with open arms. That same truth exists for you today. Go home, God is waiting on you, He loves you, and He welcomes you. Maybe you haven't ever met the Father, no matter, God is the Creator of All, so He is there for each of us no matter what our circumstances might have been or what our current situation is. God loves ______________.

Coach Carter

 

  

Expectation or Faith?

 I was pondering the two nouns in our title today, asking myself if the two are one in the same, or if one encompasses the other in a much broader sense. Let me set up our time together on this topic in this way. Expectations are clear and dependable, almost factual in their nature. Faith is dependable, yet the clarity of faith is quite different than that of an expectation. Now that made everything about as clear as mud I'm guessing?? Let's take a little deeper look at these two actionable terms and make sure we are moving closer to the faith side of the spectrum with the expectation tagging right along with us. 

 

Expectations are clear and dependable. What does that mean in terms of God and our relationship, or reliance on Him? We expect that the sun is going to rise in the east and set in the west each day. We expect that if we work at our job and do what is expected of us that we will receive pay for our work on Friday. Expectations are accepted as true and factual in the scope of our daily lives. Commonly accepted, the expectation is that when cars see a red light ahead, they will slow down and come to a complete stop so the traffic from the opposing direction may move along without fear of being slammed in to by other cars.  Sound simple enough? Let's try this one. We have an expectation that when we lay down at night, we are going to wake up the next morning. True statement? Do we expect that we will wake up the next morning, or do we trust that if it is God's will for us to have another day we will wake up? There in is the conceptual difference between having an expectation and demonstrating our faith in God the Father to have a full-blown plan that exceeds our wildest imagination. Now we are entering the realm of faith. 

 

In my opinion, I believe we blur the lines between having expectations and where faith takes over. We expect God to have a plan, but so many times we expect that plan to be what we envision it to be. We expect God to heal the sick after we pray for healing. We expect God to protect those we pray for from those deadly "D's" (Debt, Disease, Divorce, Drugs, Depression, or Death). And, we expect God to intervene in our afflictions and adversity to "fix" the situation in the manner that we expect things to work out for someone that believes in God. Am I on track so far? Let's take a look through the lens of faith and determine where these two words, expectation and faith live in harmony, and then where faith takes over at a totally different level of trust. 

 

Faith takes effort. Faith is built around a relationship. We come to expect things to be the way they are and, in most cases, the "way they are" is favorable to our humanness. Like the example above, we expect to lay down to sleep and then wake up the next morning. Our faith trusts that we will wake up in the morning, but faith also believes that if something happens and I don't wake up the next day it is all a part of God's plan and that plan may directly or indirectly involve my life. Faith promises me that through pain, through suffering, in conflict, and throughout adversity God has a plan. There are no coincidences. The guarantees of expectations are extended in faith because if you trust in God then the guarantee is that God has a plan, and we don't get to pick the one that best suits us, that is why it is God's plan not our own. 

 

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1. We can't see what tomorrow holds, we base our faith in the fact that God holds tomorrow in His hands and His plan will be fulfilled. Will we see the plan become reality? Will we see the mountain move because we have the faith of a mustard seed? (Matthew 17:20). I believe the answer to that question is yes, we have a faith that believes that if we say in faith to that mountain move, then it will be moved when God is ready for it to be moved. We must continue believing and trusting that God will move that mountain when it is time for it to be moved regardless if we ever see it moved in the time God has given us to live and serve. 

 

Allow your faith to exceed your expectations. Spend time in God's word and spend time alone with God seeking to better understand the full impact of faith in your walk with God. When faith is present then pain and suffering take on a whole different perspective. Faith may not remove pain, but faith will make it bearable because we understand that our pain will benefit someone else. We may serve as an example to others so that they can bear the pain they are getting ready to experience, or we may serve as a counsel or guide when affliction is knocking. Faith holds a promise and I am grateful for that promise, it is my job to put God in a box and limit His promises to what I want or wish to see as an outcome for others problems. 

 

At the end of the day we hold on to certain expectations that are housed inside our faith. We cross the realm of having expectations when we live out our faith in God by trusting his omnipotent and omniscient power and strength! My prayer for each of us is that our faith will be increased through a committed effort to know God and to trust in His plans. It won't happen overnight, but it will grow each day we submit our will to Him and allow His plans and purpose for our life to be fulfilled. 

 

Coach Carter

Squeaky Clean

 

I'm notorious for washing and drying my dress shirts and then allowing them to accumulate before getting out my iron and ironing board. I figure there's no since in ironing just two or three shirts, so I have convinced myself that I prefer to iron 10-12 shirts and maybe listen to a sermon or TED Talk while I'm building back my selection of shirts for the next work week. My system for ironing placed me in a fine predicament a couple of months ago, which led to some truly squeaky, clean dress shirts. 

As my normal routine, I got out the ironing board, the iron, and my can of spray starch, or maybe I should say what I thought was my trusty spray can of Faultless Niagara Heavy Duty Starch. (Note: I was sharing this story with some younger folks and they had no idea what "starch" was. If that term is foreign to you my suggestion would be Google it.) I cranked up a sermon on Alexa and dove right in on my blue and white pinstripe button down shirt. Sleeve one, left side with the shirt pocket, back of the shirt, right side, and then finishing up with the right side of the shirt, one of twelve done! Once you get in a rhythm ironing becomes a methodical chore, you just have to be careful not to create more creases than wrinkles that existed before ironing took place. 

 

I had reached shirt number eleven when I finally stopped long enough to notice that my spray can of starch was looking kinda peculiar. I spun the label and much to my chagrin, I had grabbed the bottle of spray glass cleaner that I keep on the same shelf with my starch. I had just completed ironing eleven dress shirts with an aerosol can of window cleaner. I looked the shirts over, no staining. I smelled the shirts, no bad odors. So, I placed shirt number twelve on the ironing board and finished out the dozen shirts with the window cleaner, no sense in grabbing the starch for one last shirt! As I was ironing the last white button down, I had to snicker a bit to myself at what I had just done. I mean lots of potential problems could have occurred, yet in this instance no harm, no foul. End result one dozen "squeaky clean" dress shirts. 

 

I was fortunate that the window cleaner didn't stain my shirts or cause a fire, (I don't know if that's even possible, I just tried to think of what might have possibly happened.) In my mind I was doing the right thing, I have ironed my dress shirts for years and to me there wasn't anything different about the spray that was coming out of the can that resembled starch. 

 

That incident caused me to give a reflection on how it is important that we all slow down and do an analysis of what we invest our time and energy in and assure we aren't spending our time and energy on things that aren't beneficial and productive in a positive manner. While we are hurrying around in all our "busyness", it is possible that we may miss out on what our true purpose is and what we should really be doing. Proverbs 14:12 warns us that "There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end, it leads to death." And Proverbs 11:24 explains that, "One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty." You see at times we are doing what we think we are expected to do, or possibly we just get caught up doing what is perceived to be the acceptable thing to do, but it can lead to devastating results. 

 

Stop, reflect, and then analyze your actions and the motives behind your choices and plans. If things don't appear to be lining up with the examples given to us in God's Holy Bible then it may be time to "iron" out some new paths and choices. 

 

Coach Carter