Rick Nier...Woo!

Wouldn't it be nice if, when someone merely mentioned the name of Jesus, people became Christians with no baggage, no past and no consequences from their past? What if, at the very mention of grace, everyone became nice and neat and could simply take their place next to us in our favorite pew? Not our seat, of course. But next to us in a pew that miraculously and suddenly had room for one more. Unfortunately, that is not the way grace, or pews for that matter, works. I recently finished Messy Grace , by Caleb Kaltenbach, a book I believe should be required reading for every Christian. Oh, I suppose the ideas have already been recorded somewhere in a book that is considered required reading for Christians, but somehow many of us have missed the application of truth that the Bible offers. Does it make sense if I say that Messy Grace  is groundbreaking while not actually offering anything new? I don't mean that in merely the sense of 'there is nothing new under the sun...

This is something I shared with my youth group recently...because not even a Christmas party is an excuse to stop pursuing teens with the clarion call of Christ.  I found a list of the "must-have" gifts for Christmas for the past 30 years. This is what  http://www.statisticbrain.com/ had to share. In 1983 everyone had to have a cabbage patch doll. In 1985 we just had to have an $18 Pound Puppy. In 1989 American households scrambled to get a new Game Boy, followed by the 1995 Beanie Baby craze, and the 1996 Tickle Me Elmo frenzy. In the ensuing years American consumers knocked themselves out to buy the following top yearly must-have Christmas gifts: a new iPod (2002), A Wii (2006), a Kindle (2010), the Angry Birds Board Game (2011), the Doc McStuffins doll (2013), and the Frozen Sing Along Elsa Doll (2015). Not much over the past 30 years has changed. We’ve proven over and over again that we’ll buy lots of garbage in mass quantities. Except for the serious collecto...

Each Sunday our children collect change for missions. As we got closer to Christmas, the big bucket was emptied for year-end numbers. And this was how the great juxtaposition of Christmas and noise was about to be experienced.  As our ladies played a special number on the piano and organ, our kids collected change. Except now, the change they collected was dropped into an empty bucket. Can you hear the change thumping and clanging against the empty bottom of a 5-gallon bucket? I could.  The background to the noise was the playing of  O Holy Night , a soft and melodic tune. Or perhaps the background to  O Holy Night  was the change being dropped in the bucket. It's kind of hard to say which was which now.  But it was the familiar sounds of Christmas mixed with the familiar sounds of....noise. One might have wished us to plan differently and have the ladies play apart from the collecting of money. That would have been one way to go, I suppose....

Among the silly and insignificant things I post here, I also share the chapel moments I have with a room full of preschoolers. I'm honestly not sure why I go in with a plan, since I never know what's going to happen once I open my mouth. Herding cats might be more predictable.  I'm taking them through 1 Corinthians 13 this school year. Here was the latest... “Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy.” I've always marveled at the transition between being thankful for everything we have on Thanksgiving Day, to shopping for all the new stuff we want to be thankful for on Black Friday. So I asked the children the following questions. How many of you have made a Christmas list for your mom and dad? How many of you are looking forward to seeing Santa? What if you don’t get everything on your list? Will you be mad at Santa? Or will you be thankful for what you do get? There is something that often happens around Christmas that is a problem for everyone; bo...

If I write a non-Christmas article in December, will I be ignored by everyone who started listening to Christmas music in October? If I write a Christmas-themed thought, will I be ignored by all those sharing the spirit of Grinch and Scrooge? Silly me, forgetting that most people ignore me all year long. Why would December be any different? As anyone who writes any article, blog, book, etc. can tell you, there is an attempt, perhaps assumed and unspoken, by the author to reach the reader. Right where they are. If there can be some magical connection point between those who are not even in the same room, then the goal has been achieved. This is why many simply choose to write whatever is on their heart. If I share my heart in an honest and open way, the thought process goes, then whoever miraculously happens to be touched was likely at a point of needing that word. So cast a wide enough net and you may just snag a few more readers along the way. Others will aim their writing where they ...