Coming to the Still Waters

     Peter ends the letter of 1 Peter with 3 verses about people to thank and how we are to be with one another.  It gave me a great platform to end my 18 years long letter with Gaylord Family Fellowship Church this morning.  I had the opportunity to publicly thank Tim, one of the founding members of the church and my wife who I could not have enough words to express the gratitude for.  I could not have scripted it any better to tell of another church in Illinois that sends greeting and prayers and then to speak about how we are to be with one another.  Illustrations from last weekend let the church know that they are following Biblical standards for what a church is suppose to be like.        Next Sunday I will stand in front of a new congregation to me.  I will be the newbie.  I will start a new book of the Bible, Titus.  I think I will be able to get the 3 chapters done in 2 months before we hit the Christmas season.  It speaks of the leadership of the church and then the members

     The picture is another cabin at another men's retreat.  This one was great to have a place to have a fire in the fireplace to take the chill off.  When we start to plan another retreat we start with the setting.  Where will it be?  But the planning goes so much deeper than that.  The material that we will cover is very important but it even pales to creating the atmosphere for guys to be with guys.        I was able to reflect back to our first retreats when I would suggest us singing together and would receive a "no way" to now that we can't think of a retreat without some men singing with the guitar or guitars playing along.  Our devotions were short and kind of squeezed in between the activities to now where the activities are put in around our times of learning from His Word.  A service project was unthinkable because we were here to play to the point now where we ask wherever we are staying, "What can we do for you?"  Wow, what a transformation

     Knowing that I will have a very busy couple of weeks coming up, I have been trying to work on sermons ahead of time.  Working on my last sermon at Gaylord where I will be standing in a pulpit saying "goodbye" and then the next Sunday standing in another pulpit in Oglesby and saying "hello."  Completing the book of 1 Peter and then starting the book of Titus.  Again, I am so amazed at how God orchestrates His Word to be speaking about what each body needs to hear (myself especially included) at that time precisely.      I also give God all the glory for the results of just mere following His lead.  Sunday was one of those days when God confirmed His hand in all of our lives as we continue to walk in His ways.        I am off to another planned Men's Retreat this weekend that I am praying will offer the men of the church to take some more steps for God.  A time to search our hearts and minds and actions and lay them before God in total surrender to His wi

     A pause for those lives lost on this day 13 years ago and those lost in the aftermath or effects of it and also the families who suffered loss...           It was below 40 degrees this morning again so I have started up one of the wood stoves to take the chill out of the house.  It sure has been the summer that was not a summer for northern Michigan.  We try to make it to October before turning on the heat but sometimes it is not possible.  It becomes another thing to do when the wood stove is going.      This is one of those weeks that I am behind on my own internal clock to church duties.  The sermon is still in its infant stages but the bones are there to work on.  Peter is still working on the "p.s." of his letter.  He goes from speaking to the leadership of the church to speaking the members of the church about some last minute things to keep doing.  Submit to God and others.  Be humble to others and to God.  Trust God.  Exercise self-control.  Have vigilant

     A successful trip to get the tractor and other items to Oglesby happened this last week.  It was also an opportunity for our son to see where we will be living and serving and also to meet some of the people who we are coming to love.      Some pre-Sunday reflections:  Peter is finishing up his letter with a p.s. to the church leadership.  He has answered the question about how to live as a Christian in a very hostile world and now he is asking them to look around at the "others" that are around them.  This message will be a lot about shepherding and the shepherd so some explanation of this will be necessary because this is so much not a part of our world today.        Our world has changed so much that once what was common knowledge because so many of us we raised on a farm is now something we have to teach or inform to get the point across to an analogy in the Bible.   The illustrations are so rich with meaning when you understand more fully the picture that Jes