I think that I shall never see,
A sight as beautiful as a tree.
But those men from out of town,
Chopped the whole darn forest down.
So I guess I’ll sit here on my rump,
And write a poem about a stump.
Don't know where that poem came from, I think perhaps I read it in Mad magazine when I was a kid and it stuck in my brain. Funny how somethings are so easily remembered, ay? Why couldn't I ever remember my Greek or Latin conjugations so easily?
Friday, November 30, 2007
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Stumped?
So I published this piece today about the tree stump on Braeswood Blvd near my new house. It wasn't quite useful for the topic hope, but this site I found is fun. Take a look at The Stump Online.
To the person in charge of the site I ask, "Does your boss know how you're spending company time?"
To the person in charge of the site I ask, "Does your boss know how you're spending company time?"
Of Winter and Stumps
I've moved to a new house recently, so my commuting paths have changed. As such, I've noticed more details while I'm driving around home. One detail is a water oak in the median of the street I drive most. It is among a group of eight or so trees. Some time ago, I can't tell exactly how long, it was cut off about 5 feet above the ground. Now, it has a year or two's worth of growth out of the stump, and it's coming up kind of scraggly and rough looking. It’s ugly, but there’s still life in it.
This tree recalled a bit of forgotten farm folklore for me, although I can't cite the source of this tidbit: Never cut a tree down in winter. That's because, in winter, the tree always looks dead from the outside, even if there is still life going inside. If you cut a living tree in the winter, the stump will send out shoots in the spring when the sap rises with the temperatures.
The point is - In the winters of life we are tempted to cut down dreams, hopes, and ideals but you can never really tell if a thing is dead when the situation is at its worst. Nature teaches us that a thing isn't necessarily dead just because you can't see life in the winter. God taught nature to be that way. Seems that's part of the Holy One’s nature.
In Isaiah 11 there is a promise that a shoot will come out of the stump of Jesse. All of Israel believed that they were in decline and that foreign oppression was their fate. They were ready to cut down the tree, when Isaiah bursts in with "Wait! Something better is coming. Wolves are going to lie with lambs, and the root of Jesse will be a banner over all the people of the earth." And in just the right time, God delivered on his promise that was to come from the family of Jesse - his name was Jesus. And as surely as all of Israel awaited God's salvation, all the earth awaits something even now.
God's methods aren't always easy to understand, and sometimes life throws us curve balls that look like winter time. Advent reminds us that hope isn't hope if it doesn't have to wait and the God of Advent urges us to stop cutting down trees in winter time so that, when spring comes in its many forms, our dreams, hopes, and ideals will still be standing as trees of righteousness in the Kingdom of God.
What do you await? Love? Security? Kindness? Acceptance? Forgiveness?
Whatever you await this Advent, keep on waiting - for that is hope, and that is what we celebrate beginning this Sunday. I'll be preaching a sermon called All the Earth Awaits Hope based on Isaiah 11.1-10. We'll gather for worship at Willow Meadows Baptist Church at 11:10 a.m. and I'd be honored if you join us this week.
Waiting on the World to Change,
Pastor Gary
Not a Sermon – Just a Thought is a weekly column by Gary Long. I’m the pastor of Willow Meadows Baptist Church in Houston, and you can subscribe or unsubscribe by contacting me at http://webmail.logixonline.com/images/blank.png. Feel free to pass this along to a friend or family member who is awaiting something in these days. Encouragement and optimism cost you nothing but they are worth the world to someone else!
This tree recalled a bit of forgotten farm folklore for me, although I can't cite the source of this tidbit: Never cut a tree down in winter. That's because, in winter, the tree always looks dead from the outside, even if there is still life going inside. If you cut a living tree in the winter, the stump will send out shoots in the spring when the sap rises with the temperatures.
The point is - In the winters of life we are tempted to cut down dreams, hopes, and ideals but you can never really tell if a thing is dead when the situation is at its worst. Nature teaches us that a thing isn't necessarily dead just because you can't see life in the winter. God taught nature to be that way. Seems that's part of the Holy One’s nature.
In Isaiah 11 there is a promise that a shoot will come out of the stump of Jesse. All of Israel believed that they were in decline and that foreign oppression was their fate. They were ready to cut down the tree, when Isaiah bursts in with "Wait! Something better is coming. Wolves are going to lie with lambs, and the root of Jesse will be a banner over all the people of the earth." And in just the right time, God delivered on his promise that was to come from the family of Jesse - his name was Jesus. And as surely as all of Israel awaited God's salvation, all the earth awaits something even now.
God's methods aren't always easy to understand, and sometimes life throws us curve balls that look like winter time. Advent reminds us that hope isn't hope if it doesn't have to wait and the God of Advent urges us to stop cutting down trees in winter time so that, when spring comes in its many forms, our dreams, hopes, and ideals will still be standing as trees of righteousness in the Kingdom of God.
What do you await? Love? Security? Kindness? Acceptance? Forgiveness?
Whatever you await this Advent, keep on waiting - for that is hope, and that is what we celebrate beginning this Sunday. I'll be preaching a sermon called All the Earth Awaits Hope based on Isaiah 11.1-10. We'll gather for worship at Willow Meadows Baptist Church at 11:10 a.m. and I'd be honored if you join us this week.
Waiting on the World to Change,
Pastor Gary
Not a Sermon – Just a Thought is a weekly column by Gary Long. I’m the pastor of Willow Meadows Baptist Church in Houston, and you can subscribe or unsubscribe by contacting me at http://webmail.logixonline.com/images/blank.png. Feel free to pass this along to a friend or family member who is awaiting something in these days. Encouragement and optimism cost you nothing but they are worth the world to someone else!
Friday, November 16, 2007
Forming Faith in a Missional Church
Here's a story that circulates the email vortex a little too often, but for this week's sermon it was cogent:
A boy went to church for the christening of his younger brother. Going home, he sat in the back seat quietly weeping. His father asked him, “Son, what’s wrong?”
Bravely, the boy replied, “Well, the pastor said he wanted us raised in a Christian home, and I wanted to stay with you guys.”
Funny! Or not so funny?
After all, do Christian parents know what it takes to make a home specifically Christian? Do parents know what spiritual formation is? And for that matter, how many Christians – adult or child – are being spiritually shaped at all? There are a whole bunch of preacher-types out there who tell me that church should be “missional” and go out into the world, but what should be done to spiritually prepare people for this kind of sending?
In last week’s sermon I suggested that a missional faith should be holistic and apostolic, but how do we acquire such a faith? Or, put a different way, how can we be shaped by God to live the missional faith to which we are being called? The answer lies in seeing souls as beings that need to be shaped and changed, not merely “educated” with lots of knowledge about God, but rather encounters with God. Instead of pouring Bible facts and doctrinal statements into our minds, a missional faith is best shaped by experiences with God that aim not only at head knowledge, but heart-level change. This means that that you and I may have to change how we seek God, listen to God, and imitate God’s ways.
We may also discover that our familiar ways of Christian education are inadequate for preparing us to live missionally. Sunday School is a start, but do all the Bible facts we’ve learned through the years change our ways of living? Does missional faith require something more? Yes.
That’s what I’m talking about in Sundays’ sermon entitled Change Your World – By Allowing God to Change You, based on parts of Psalm 119. We’ll explore some ways that you and I can be changed by God (spiritually formed) for missional living, and you may be pleasantly surprised to find that you’re already doing some of these things – and that they’re actually fun!!! Things like conversation, art, hospitality, or exercise, games, or sharing life with others. It all boils down to the fact that God is already working in our lives on multiple levels and in varied ways – we simply need to see things that way and be changed by it.
Hope to see you Sunday,
Pastor Gary
Not a Sermon – Just a Thought is a weekly column written by me, Gary Long. I’m the pastor of Willow Meadows Baptist Church in Houston, Texas.
Psalm 119. 1-8 and 33-40
1 Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD.
2 Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart.
3 They do nothing wrong; they walk in his ways.
4 You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed.
5 Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees!
6 Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands.
7 I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws.
8 I will obey your decrees; do not utterly forsake me.
33 Teach me, O LORD, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end.
34 Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart.
35 Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight.
36 Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain.
37 Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word.
38 Fulfill your promise to your servant, so that you may be feared.
39 Take away the disgrace I dread, for your laws are good.
40 How I long for your precepts! Preserve my life in your righteousness.
A boy went to church for the christening of his younger brother. Going home, he sat in the back seat quietly weeping. His father asked him, “Son, what’s wrong?”
Bravely, the boy replied, “Well, the pastor said he wanted us raised in a Christian home, and I wanted to stay with you guys.”
Funny! Or not so funny?
After all, do Christian parents know what it takes to make a home specifically Christian? Do parents know what spiritual formation is? And for that matter, how many Christians – adult or child – are being spiritually shaped at all? There are a whole bunch of preacher-types out there who tell me that church should be “missional” and go out into the world, but what should be done to spiritually prepare people for this kind of sending?
In last week’s sermon I suggested that a missional faith should be holistic and apostolic, but how do we acquire such a faith? Or, put a different way, how can we be shaped by God to live the missional faith to which we are being called? The answer lies in seeing souls as beings that need to be shaped and changed, not merely “educated” with lots of knowledge about God, but rather encounters with God. Instead of pouring Bible facts and doctrinal statements into our minds, a missional faith is best shaped by experiences with God that aim not only at head knowledge, but heart-level change. This means that that you and I may have to change how we seek God, listen to God, and imitate God’s ways.
We may also discover that our familiar ways of Christian education are inadequate for preparing us to live missionally. Sunday School is a start, but do all the Bible facts we’ve learned through the years change our ways of living? Does missional faith require something more? Yes.
That’s what I’m talking about in Sundays’ sermon entitled Change Your World – By Allowing God to Change You, based on parts of Psalm 119. We’ll explore some ways that you and I can be changed by God (spiritually formed) for missional living, and you may be pleasantly surprised to find that you’re already doing some of these things – and that they’re actually fun!!! Things like conversation, art, hospitality, or exercise, games, or sharing life with others. It all boils down to the fact that God is already working in our lives on multiple levels and in varied ways – we simply need to see things that way and be changed by it.
Hope to see you Sunday,
Pastor Gary
Not a Sermon – Just a Thought is a weekly column written by me, Gary Long. I’m the pastor of Willow Meadows Baptist Church in Houston, Texas.
Psalm 119. 1-8 and 33-40
1 Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD.
2 Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart.
3 They do nothing wrong; they walk in his ways.
4 You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed.
5 Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees!
6 Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands.
7 I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws.
8 I will obey your decrees; do not utterly forsake me.
33 Teach me, O LORD, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end.
34 Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart.
35 Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight.
36 Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain.
37 Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word.
38 Fulfill your promise to your servant, so that you may be feared.
39 Take away the disgrace I dread, for your laws are good.
40 How I long for your precepts! Preserve my life in your righteousness.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
With Friends Like That, Who Needs...
A few years ago I asked God to send me some good friends. You know, the kind you can call at 2 a.m. if you need 'em, the kind who will show up and feel welcome to rummage through your fridge, the kind who are there to celebrate big and small stuff.
I was at a birthday gathering for my wife on Saturday night, and caught this photo of me and two such friends . Looking through the photos today, I realized: Answered prayer. That would be the caption for each of these photos. There are a lot more folk in my life who fit that bill, but were not available for the photo.
I was at a birthday gathering for my wife on Saturday night, and caught this photo of me and two such friends . Looking through the photos today, I realized: Answered prayer. That would be the caption for each of these photos. There are a lot more folk in my life who fit that bill, but were not available for the photo.
Friday, November 09, 2007
The biggest sports news the first of November didn’t get much press. An NBA player signed a contract for less money than he could have gotten! Granted he won’t be starving, because the contract was for $13 million a year. But he went against his agent’s advice and took a lower amount of money.
Al Jefferson signed a contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves for about $2 million per year less than he could have negotiated for. "I didn't even think I was worth max (money) this year anyway," Jefferson said at a press conference on Thursday (11/107). "I would've been a fool to go up there and ask for max, having not really proved myself for that. So the number I got was the number that was my goal from Day 1. And I think it was a win, win situation."
You just don’t hear about this kind of thing very often in our cash crazy country. I was discussing this with a friend and he said, “Yeah, but come on, he’s got $13 million a year, how much more does he need?”
Fair question – for Jefferson and for you and me.
How much is enough money for us to live? And how much of our money should we use to sustain our lifestyle and how much should we give away?
Fair question, but hard question. And a timely question.
This weekend Willow Meadows Baptist Church begins our annual offering for world missions. We’ll be raising money for missionaries, theological education, orphans in Moldova, churches in Mexico, and food for the poor in Southwest Houston. There are even more good causes that I don’t have room to list.
We make these contributions over and above our regular giving to our church and other charities, and I challenge you to ask and answer the question my friend raised about an NBA player: How much is enough?
I challenge each of my readers to consider this as the end of the year spending spree called Christmas approaches. I challenge you to spend less on yourselves and your family and to put your money where your faith is - support your favorite churches and charities generously.
This Sunday I’ll be preaching a sermon called Change Your World – Splot by Splot. My November sermons will focus on how to “Change Your World – For Good” by not only giving money, but by adopting a missional lifestyle. That’s a lifestyle were our faith is wholistic, incarnational, and apostolic. Find out what those words all mean by reading 2 Timothy 1. 3-14 and joining us for worship if you’re in Houston this weekend. We gather at 9:00 a.m. and 11:10 a.m.
Show me the money,
Pastor Gary
Al Jefferson signed a contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves for about $2 million per year less than he could have negotiated for. "I didn't even think I was worth max (money) this year anyway," Jefferson said at a press conference on Thursday (11/107). "I would've been a fool to go up there and ask for max, having not really proved myself for that. So the number I got was the number that was my goal from Day 1. And I think it was a win, win situation."
You just don’t hear about this kind of thing very often in our cash crazy country. I was discussing this with a friend and he said, “Yeah, but come on, he’s got $13 million a year, how much more does he need?”
Fair question – for Jefferson and for you and me.
How much is enough money for us to live? And how much of our money should we use to sustain our lifestyle and how much should we give away?
Fair question, but hard question. And a timely question.
This weekend Willow Meadows Baptist Church begins our annual offering for world missions. We’ll be raising money for missionaries, theological education, orphans in Moldova, churches in Mexico, and food for the poor in Southwest Houston. There are even more good causes that I don’t have room to list.
We make these contributions over and above our regular giving to our church and other charities, and I challenge you to ask and answer the question my friend raised about an NBA player: How much is enough?
I challenge each of my readers to consider this as the end of the year spending spree called Christmas approaches. I challenge you to spend less on yourselves and your family and to put your money where your faith is - support your favorite churches and charities generously.
This Sunday I’ll be preaching a sermon called Change Your World – Splot by Splot. My November sermons will focus on how to “Change Your World – For Good” by not only giving money, but by adopting a missional lifestyle. That’s a lifestyle were our faith is wholistic, incarnational, and apostolic. Find out what those words all mean by reading 2 Timothy 1. 3-14 and joining us for worship if you’re in Houston this weekend. We gather at 9:00 a.m. and 11:10 a.m.
Show me the money,
Pastor Gary
Thursday, November 08, 2007
A Prayer for Today
I was reading some stuff on missional thinking on this blog today, and found that this prayer provided me with a bit of spiritual sustenance for the frenzy of my life:
May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships
So that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and
To turn their pain into joy.
And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world.
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.
May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships
So that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and
To turn their pain into joy.
And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world.
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
If you're ever in Refugio...
Do two things:
1. Pronounce it (ruh\fury\o). I know, it makes no sense to me, either.
2. Eat at this restaurant/bus stop. It's the best Tex-Mex I've ever had - and I've eaten me share o' Tex-Mex.
The Lectionary
Last week our church staff made a decision that we would follow the lectionary for corporate worship at my church. We agreed to begin with the first week of Advent and stick with it all the way through Advent 2008.
For those of you who don't know this, the lectionary is a three year systematized way of reading most of the Bible in depth. The schedule follows the church year.
For those of you that know me, you can guess several reasons why this is a seriously hard commitment for me, and why I'm twitching.
1 - I don't usually plan that far ahead. Without my wonderful assistant I wouldn't hardly know what I am supposed to do today.
2 - I'm more like the wind that I care to admit. This commitment means that I don't get to waver off course because the whole team is planning and working alongside me on this.
3 - I fight structure at most every turn. I'd prefer to be loose and free wheeling in my approach to all of life, even my sermon planning.
We'll see how this goes. Any of you readers follow the lectionary in your church? Would love to hear how you make it work. Of course, I'm telling you all so that I'll be more accountable to actually doing this!
For those of you who don't know this, the lectionary is a three year systematized way of reading most of the Bible in depth. The schedule follows the church year.
For those of you that know me, you can guess several reasons why this is a seriously hard commitment for me, and why I'm twitching.
1 - I don't usually plan that far ahead. Without my wonderful assistant I wouldn't hardly know what I am supposed to do today.
2 - I'm more like the wind that I care to admit. This commitment means that I don't get to waver off course because the whole team is planning and working alongside me on this.
3 - I fight structure at most every turn. I'd prefer to be loose and free wheeling in my approach to all of life, even my sermon planning.
We'll see how this goes. Any of you readers follow the lectionary in your church? Would love to hear how you make it work. Of course, I'm telling you all so that I'll be more accountable to actually doing this!
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