Skip to main content

God Matters

I returned last Friday from a four day youth trip. Four days is shorter than usual, but losing sleep at the high velocity as we were made this trip just the right length. And while there was nothing quantifiable that I can give you about the results of the trip, I know it was good.

For the low price of $160, I sent teens off into the wilderness armed with just a Bible, a pad of paper, and a ball-point pen. We did this for two hours each morning while having no access to the outside world. Otherwise, I would have twittered about it.

Two hours of uninterrupted time was well worth their dollars. I started where many would have when you have a blank piece of paper and anywhere to go in scripture. "In the beginning, God..." (Genesis 1:1). We should take our cues from how God has written His word. God wrote about God. He wrote about Himself as if He were the main character. He did this because He, in fact, IS the main character. "In the beginning, God..."

After pondering that for a while, I flipped back to the end. In Revelation 21, I read God's words "I was the First, I am the Last."

Then I flipped to the Gospel of John and was amazed by what I saw, but that's another 3 months worth of blog entries. For today, and for every day, I know what matters is God. God first. God last. God always.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Accountable

I recently officiated a wedding. The ceremony was simple, lovely, and ended with another couple professing to keep the covenant of marriage. But it all started with a clarification...from me. At our first premarital counseling session, as I have done with every couple I have agreed to marry, I clarified a couple of matters. First, I officiate Christian weddings, where both spouses-to-be are professing Christians. I firmly believe that marriage is difficult enough, without adding disagreements about God into the mix. Second, as a minister of Jesus Christ, I believe the pastor’s role in a wedding is to represent the blessing of God on that union. So we have several sessions of premarital counseling where we discuss married life. It’s not that I have this imaginary card in my head, with a picture of me on the front and my stats on the back. (You know, like a baseball card.) Ok, I do picture cards. Pastor cards! And being a competitive guy, I want my stats to look good. The number of coupl

Patience

I am more than halfway through the last year of dropping one of my children off at school. It's my eighth grade daughter, for anyone keeping track of my family.  See, next year she will be at the high school, and her brother will drive her. He says that it's not cool for seniors to drive their freshman sister to school, but I bet it's cooler than being dropped off by your mom in a minivan.  So rather than groan about this daily responsibility, I've been reminiscing about what the drop-off line used to look like, way back in elementary school. Once our children were about halfway through their elementary years, the drop-off line became a test of patience.  Do you know which group you do not want to get caught behind in the parent drop-off line at an elementary school? The kindergartners. These little ones are barely able to walk, but now we put them in the high-pressure situation of trying to unbuckle their seat-belt, grab their backpack (which might be as tall as they a

Jury Duty

I was recently summoned to jury duty. I know, groan. Except I didn't. I had never experienced it before and was curious to see what it was like.   When the day to report arrives, they separate you into groups, asking various questions to decide if you will be selected to serve. Do you know the accused? Do you have conflicts that would keep you from serving? Can you stay focused?  I wanted to answer well, if only because my kids kept wishing me luck the day before, telling me they hoped I made the team. After all, who wants to be rejected? It occurred to me that there are things you probably shouldn’t say right away if you’re wanting to serve on a jury. I know, I know, people don’t typically want to serve on a jury. But that list didn’t seem nearly as humorous to me. Here are the things you probably shouldn’t say if you want to be selected for jury. I hold myself in contempt. You can’t handle the truth. We find the defendant guilty. I believe the judge looks pretty in his robe. I’d