SCC Pastors' Blog

Ah, leave it to modern sports to continue to give us endless illustrations of how to live well… or not in some cases. Going to bed last night, I thought, “I don’t know what I’ll blog on yet from my message last week.” After reading this morning’s news, it’s the Olympics to the rescue, they gave me just what I needed!

This one is golden (ok maybe just silver, depending on how you look at it…)
I was looking at the news events of the day – not the Olympic news, and a headline caught my eye, “Putin attacks Plushenko judging.” I wondered what the Russian Prime Minister was so hot about? Imagine a politician ranting about the judging of an Olympic sport! It turns out that the American beat the favored Russian. But what really caught my eye was the gracious words from the silver medalist Russian…

“You can’t be considered a true men’s champion without a quad,”
“For someone to stand on top of the podium with the gold medal around his neck by just doing triple jumps, to me it’s not progress, it’s a regress because we’ve done triples 10 or even 20 years ago,”
“Just doing nice transitions and being artistic is not enough because figure skating is a sport, not a show,”
“I was positive that I won. But I suppose Evan needs a medal more than I do,” Plushenko said through a translator. “Maybe it’s because I already have one…”
“Now it’s not men’s figure skating, now it’s dancing.” Plushenko said.

Hmm… I confess I didn’t watch the interviews (maybe he really was a gracious second place finisher), but the comments seem to underscore a less than complementary attitude. An attitude that is more concerned with “me” than others. I know it – I’ve had it.

When I was in High School I played water polo. I won the MVP award on the JV team. I went home and threw it at the wall and the arm broke off (I still have it in my garage somewhere, I now keep to remind me of the attitude). I was so upset because I didn’t get my varsity letter that year. I practiced with the varsity and played on the varsity team in most of the non-league and tournament games. I thought I DESERVED the letter. I was so angry that I was unable to enjoy the award I had gotten. Pride is a ruinous thing. I wonder if some people are unable to celebrate God’s gracious gift of salvation because it is ultimately about Him, and giving Him the thanks and praise He deserves, because in doing that, it takes the spotlight away from their focus on themselves? Or even serving others because then you can’t be serving yourself?

My prayer for us all this week is that we would embrace Philippians. 2:3 …”Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”

OK, I know the score: two weekends, two messages on Biblical authenticity.  You’re thinking ahh, yea, that’s right.  I seem to remember something about that.

Well my friends, and I do consider you friends and family, seeing as how we will be enjoying God’s eternal provisions together in the not too distant future.  It’s time to make a change.
Yes, it’s time to make a change.  I will not allow another moment to pass in your life where you don’t stop and consider the depth and meaning of a God who knows your every thought, motive, and action.

After you’re done wrapping your mind around that incredible truth, start thinking today how that should make it a lot easier to begin conversations with others in the faith of Jesus Christ with a clear declaration of God’s greatness and your great need.   Start talking about it in every facet of your life and do it with God and do it with each other.

Remember –  Authentic people tell the truth about themselves because they know what God knows about them.  So encourage those that confess to you and encourage yourself while you’re at it.  God actually loves you beyond human reasoning through Christ Jesus.

Two: What I am asking for is legitimate transparency, so find someone you can trust, form a small group for accountability purposes, heck I don’t care, just take your faith to the level of ‘real’ today.  If you don’t know anyone then get plugged into Bible studies or men’s or women’s groups and start meeting fellow sinners saved by GRACE,  please!

Three: Accept that other folks have weaknesses/sins different from yours.  Don’t condone them but remind them of God’s great forgiveness and mercy and that you’re there to help them win the day over whatever ails them.

Please know the pastors here love you and care deeply about your commitment to Christ and we believe a life lived authentically is our absolute best opportunity to impact the people we know, both in faith and without faith. 

Let’er rip!!!

love being your pastor,

dan

I coached YMCA basketball for a few years while I was in High School.  Two of the years we won the championship.  It wasn’t because of my coaching, I had the three best players in the league!  Several of the games they would get so far ahead, so quickly that I told them they had to make five passes before shooting just to take up more time!  They were so good that I think we could have gone without practice all year and still won every game.  So my goal was to make practice meaningful.

One of the things I did was to work through drills at the beginning of practice then end practice with a scrimmage.  To keep score, rather than count each basket, you only got a point if the team used one of the skills we practiced before the scrimmage.  So for instance if I had them practice left handed lay-ups in a drill, when they scrimmaged they would score a point for each left handed lay-up they made.  Like most people they lived for the scrimmage and hated the drills, but as the season went on, I could see that they took the drills more seriously, knowing they count when we played at the end of each practice.

On Sunday I gave you all homework.  I wanted you to practice telling someone “Three Stories That Matter” – God’s Story, My Story (My – being you own) and Your Story (yours – being someone you know).  Many of you are like the players I coached, very talented people, but just like my team, practice made good players even better.  I know that if you work at telling these stories in a clear, concise, and compelling way, come time to share others – you’ll be ready to make a difference in the life of someone you love!

Ok I have to admit it I forgot I preached last Sunday.  I have been down in L.A., Lakewood to be exact, helping my Mom transition into her Alzheimer’s Care Facility.  It’s a nice place as these places go, but in the end my Mom is having a hard adjustment, therefore it’s been hard on me and the rest of my family as well.  I tell you this simply because I think it’s the reason for my forgetfulness. 

Then I think of our friend Bob Andrew, and of course the tragic events in Haiti and, well, you get the picture.  Life can come at us in waves, and truthfully, I have experienced the most depth of trust in God and the worst examples of faith in this past week.  I feel manic spiritually, one moment in sync, the next disobedient.

One thing I’ve learned is that God isn’t leaving me, it’s always me leaving Him.  So it makes this passage from last Sunday all the more poignant in my journey to stay close to Him.

“His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—… Acts 17:27

God’s purpose … I love that thought — but when you realize the desired outcome from our Creator’s purpose is that we find Him, well, I am left speechless at such a concept. I’d love for us to meditate a few moments of our busy lives this week and consider a God who loves you enough to orchestrate history so that we might “feel our way toward Him” and actually, “find Him”.  Then perhaps when we find Him we might work vigorously to keep that line of communication open and ongoing. 

I hope the depth of God’s love on such a grand scale as history will warm your gizzards as the storms line up this weekend.

Love being your pastor and sharing my life with you,

dan

The Book of Acts is full of “historic moments.” These were events in which the decisions and actions of people like the Apostle Paul literally changed the course of history. The results of those decisions are still rippling through our lives to this day.

Consider this: Paul had been determined to carry the news about Jesus to the people of present-day Eastern Turkey, Georgia, and possibly Azerbaijan. But in obedience to a vision he sees while in the town of Troas (Acts 16), he changed direction and went west to northern Greece instead . . . and the rest, as they say, is history.

But here’s the question: Do you think Paul and his companions knew they were doing something historic or do you think it all seemed like another “normal” day in the life of a missionary? Do you think Lois & Eunice ever dreamed that Timothy would play such a significant role in the spread of Christianity while they were raising him? (2 Timothy 1:5)

My point is that our actions and decisions matter because they start chain reactions that ripple through time. So make each day, each decision count . . . some of them may turn out to be historic!

Blessings, Pastor John