Rick Nier...Woo!

This past weekend, I taught teens about relationships, but isn't every lesson about relationships somehow? I called it Stop and Go. You can read part 1, the Stop, right here . Below is part 2, the Go. ______________________________________ GO We have some good examples of people Going after God. Ruth followed Naomi. She was following God. Elisha followed Elijah, even asking for more of God. Twice as many miracles are recorded on behalf of Elisha as were Elijah. Elisha was chasing God. There are plenty of stories of good and bad examples throughout scripture. But there is one who models what I’m talking about here perfectly. Allow me to paint the picture. If you ever start reading 1 and 2 Kings, or 1 and 2 Chronicles, you’ll find a list of kings and the major events during their reign. You’ll find a description of how closely they followed God or, more often, how they were evil in the eyes of the Lord. The history of Israel goes back and forth like this, but always wi

This weekend I presented a lesson I called Stop and Go , about how we pursue relationships. I'll break it up into 2 parts for you, my loyal blog-fellows. I'll post the Stop portion today and the Go portion on Wednesday. ___________________________________ So the whole idea is that we want to be Happily Ever After. As I said at the beginning, many people are after the Fairy Tale story and ending. But the Disney picture is not realistic. So the first step is realizing that we’ve been handed a distorted picture by Hollywood. I say that and realize that many of you know, with your heads, that it’s a lie. But we don’t always think with our heads, now do we? We have been sold a belief that living with your heart is better. Put your heart into it. Follow your heart. It’s all about emotions with us. Even when it makes no sense, we say ‘the heart wants what it wants.’ We say things like this, as if it excuses us from considering truth. I imagine that many of us assume reality is for o

Do you know why people ask what you think? So they can tell you what they think. There are times when people ask my opinion. That is just stupid, for so many reasons. But I have come to realize that what they really want is to give their opinion. That's why they ask. In my opinion, they should simply ask me if they can present me with their thoughts. They would get to talk and I would get to save my breath. Someone, anyone really, and I will have a conversation that goes like this. Someone: What did you think of this book? Me: I liked it for the following reasons. Someone: Well, I hated it. Or they may ask about a movie we both recently saw. Someone: What did you think of that movie? Me: I thought it was epic for the following reasons. Someone: Here's why it wasn't good at all. Oh, ok. Perhaps if I took the advice given in James 1:19. "Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry." If, when

If I were to mention certain words or phrases, I would get an immediate and visceral reaction from many people. Let's experiment, shall we? Dirty diapers. Liars. Healthcare. Taxes. No more cookies. (Okay, that last one was probably just me.) But there is another word that wouldn't get the reaction it should. Oh, we might say it would. If I had included it in the list above, you'd say it garners the same reaction. But I'm afraid it doesn't. Not like it should. The word is sin. Like I said, we may react. We say we don't like it. We agree it's bad for your long-term health. But you won't see people's eyes roll or their faces contorted. Now hear how God responds to the word. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ~Exodus 20:5 There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable t

When we hear preachers that use strong language or offensive illustrations, it would be good of us to read the Old Testament before we pass judgement. Malachi 2 offers as vivid and offensive (and stinky) an illustration as I have seen. God is speaking through the prophet and hopefully not at mealtimes. The audience is the priests, that special tribe called for a special purpose. “Listen, you priests—this command is for you! Listen to me and make up your minds to honor my name,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “or I will bring a terrible curse against you. I will curse even the blessings you receive. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you have not taken my warning to heart. I will punish your descendants and splatter your faces with the manure from your festival sacrifices, and I will throw you on the manure pile. Then at last you will know it was I who sent you this warning so that my covenant with the Levites can continue,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. ~Malachi 2:1-4

It is fascinating to think about how the crowd revered Jesus at the beginning of the week but reviled Him at the end. Keep in mind, this is before the invention of Facebook and Twitter where we get worked up in a new frenzy every week. So the up and down of the crowd is remarkable. Consider the following... While crowds often found Jesus, how often were they able to plan for leaving a palm branch carpet ahead of Him? We should keep in mind that Jesus wasn't winning every poll. There were times when people tried to push Jesus off a cliff (Luke 4:29). There were plenty of crowds who begged Him to leave their town (Matthew 8:34). And don't get me started on the people who tried to stone Him (John 8:59).  So many people questioned who He was that Jesus made it a teachable moment with His disciples (Matthew 16:13-17). Now, all of the sudden, they are hailing Him as King? As Messiah?  It sounds like someone had a worship service where someone made an impassioned plea

Suppose I had a pitcher of water and lots of empty cups. Suppose I had access to lots of water to refill the pitcher. Suppose I had made it abundantly clear that I was willing to give water to anyone who had asked.  Now let's suppose you knew some thirsty people. (We're doing a lot of supposing.) Who are you going to talk to in order to connect the thirsty people with me? Are you going to talk to me? Why? I've already told you I am more than willing to give people a drink. Shouldn't you be talking to the thirsty people? Shouldn't you be telling them about this guy with lots of water to drink?  I wonder if we spend too much time praying about people coming to salvation. Perhaps we talk too much to God about these people, instead of talking to these people about God. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we shouldn't be praying people into salvation. What I am saying is that God has made it abundantly clear that He is wanting everyone to expe

I have a somewhat Type-A personality. For those of you that know me (at all) there will be some of you that disagree totally and will perhaps point to some area of my life that is a big hot mess. If that's you, I have two things to offer you.  1. Don't tell me. I have a wife for that. 2. I did say  somewhat  Type-A. As I examine my life, the Type-A area in which I am most Type-A has to do with to do. Lists, that is. I like to make them. I like to complete them. Which is why the following would not work for me.  That would not go well for me. This is also why I struggle in my ministry life. Because the to-do list of a pastor never gets fully checked and completed and put away. In fact, I love lists so much I have downloaded Wunderlist on every piece of tech I own, so I can always have my to-do lists with me.  I have created to-do lists for every day of the week. I do this so I can remember what needs to be done. In planning ahead, I can place a task on a l

You young kids may not believe this, but there was a time when there were only two X-Men movies. There was a time when live-action superhero movies were just beginning to overtake our universe. And since there were only a couple of X-Men movies out, we were being introduced to people. Who they were, what they could do and why they were the way they were. There is a line from X-Men 2 where Magneto asks a young guy named John what his name is. When John answers with 'John', Magneto asks for his real name. It's Pyro. Not surprisingly, he can play with fire. Magneto affirms his powers and encourages him. This could have been a real made-for-TV kind of moment until you realize that Magneto is amassing an army. Oh, and he's the bad guy, despite what he may tell you. So Pyro isn't going to be making any campfires for s'mores anytime soon. But Magneto's point is clear - don't hide from your real identity . I believe that is key for all of us to remember. We p

If you’ve never heard the story of Hosea before, you’re missing out. Hosea was an OT prophet who was told to marry a prostitute. (I bet nobody thought I’d start out sex and dating month that way!) God told Hosea to marry Gomer, a prostitute. They had some children together. A daughter they named Lo-Ruhamah, which means ‘not loved’. I don’t know what your name means, but I imagine you’d get the message if your name meant ‘unloved’. Then they had a son and named him Lo-Ammi, which means ‘not my people’. It’s kind of scandalous when you consider a prostitute having a kid and naming it ‘not mine’. (It would be like your parents giving you a name that meant ‘ugly one’. Thanks Mom and Dad!) All of this was at the command of God. He told Hosea to marry Gomer and He told Hosea what to name these children. Why? Because God is trying to communicate to the nation of Israel the curse they were under. They had turned their back on God, so He was letting them know the consequences. Our names have si

I have a picture up in my office. It has two boys, dressed classicly from the 50's. It's clear they aren't headed for any full-ride scholarships from any college looking for the next star quarterback. At the bottom of the picture, it reminds us all that some days are hopscotch days, while others are waiting to get nailed at dodgeball kind of days. There will be whole seasons of getting nailed at dodgeball. At least, it will feel that way. And sometimes those seasons will run back to back with each other. Perhaps you can't remember the last hopscotch kind of day you had. Maybe you feel like God stopped making those days.  I don't know what you're going through. Oftentimes I have trouble figuring out what I'm going through. Board meetings take ugly turns, students can seemingly turn on you at the worst moments, parents can say the wrong thing, events and group meetings can turn disastrous.  It can cause one to wonder when the next dodgeball is g

God speaks. This in itself should be an amazing enough truth for us to grasp. In a college group I lead we discussed whether we thought a deistic approach to life was true to reality. But we never mentioned the possibility that it might be all we deserve. Consider this: an all-knowing, all-powerful, omni-present being decides to make a world. Even if we forget that this Being we believe in is all-good, He makes us. Should it really be a concern of ours if this Being decides not to talk to us? Do you speak to your paintings, your music, your dinner? We profess to believe in a god that is as far superior to us as we are to anything we create. Why should we ever expect Him to talk to us? We are presented with a broken world and we say that we didn’t ask for this suffering. Perhaps not, but what a wonderfully me-centered way of looking at things. No wonder the Apostle Paul wrote what he did in Romans 9. But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?  ~Romans 9:20 If we rea

It happened on a Monday. And why not? Mondays aren't meant for Disney World trips or winning the lottery. Mondays are for rude wake-up calls. And nothing, my friends, is more rude than a cold shower. This was not the fault of the women in my home. No, I've felt the last vestiges of hot water quickly flee down the drain, causing me to quicken my showering procedures. This was cold water with no hint that hot water even existed...ever...anywhere. A trip to the basement revealed a water heater that was not working. Identifying the problem also ended my expertise on the situation. A call to the plumber revealed we were the lucky owners of a unit with a left-handed thermal coupler. Now, I don't know what that means, but apparently it was like finding gold at the end of a rainbow, because nobody had one.  Even the makers of this unit only sold conversion units in order to make it a right-handed thermal coupler. But the good news didn't end there. Before ordering my p

I'm resigning! I'm pregnant! I've gained 100 pounds in 1 week! Nope, none of these are true. Bring on the ridiculous because it's April 1. April fools! I trust nobody today. I believe no one. My apologies if something big, good or bad, happens to you today, because I'll be skeptical. I've steeled myself to not be fooled. And that got me wondering... What if we lived everyday as prepared to live for Christ as some people do to not be fooled on April 1? Or as prepared to fool people, if you're that kid. By the way, I think I accidentally grew one of those kids.  My 12-year old daughter had no less than 5 pranks at the ready for home and school today. My wife's last word of advice to her was to not get suspended. We'll see what happens.  But what if my approach to everyday was to be on the lookout for people I could love? What if I was prepared to help people as the need arose? What if I prayed in such a way to be prepared for t