How many of you got up this morning and said to yourself or your family, “We need to get ready to go to church.”?

How, may I ask, can you go someplace that is in existence where you are?  The church is not a building where you go to have a service, or a building you rent to have your service in.  The church is the people of God. You are the church, so how can you get ready to go to yourself?

We have tried to be diligent, my wife and I, about telling our girls we are going to worship.  That is where we go on Sunday mornings, not to church, but to worship.  And that is why we are here, to worship the one who took our sin upon himself and made a relationship with God possible by pronouncing to us God’s forgiveness of our sin…

So Let’s get ready to worship, and remember that every where we go that is where church is!

A clean desk is the sign of completed work, of having all your ducks in a row…

A clean desk is the sign that there is no more work to do, or a sign that we are ready to take on the world…

My devotion for this morning included a thought on how the writer is never quite comfortable with a person in an office who always has a clean/tidy desk.  Well when I read this it made me feel good, because my desk is not tidy.  I know where everything is on it, and my Mac Book is sitting on papers and there are piles all over it, a very big mess!

A clean desk is very sterile and shows tenacity to make sure your work is done, but it also could mean that the person is disconnected from daily life. The frenzy of life is not invading this persons space and causing them to leave things half done to be completed later.

As leaders in the church, God calls us to have a messy desk!  He wants us to be connected, not in the books so the sermons we deliver or the things we do for his church are sterile and filled with theologically right thoughts, but filled with his love and connected with the world around us!  So be connected to the expense of that project not getting done. God needs us in the world to show everyone his love…

What is it the world sees when they think of or look for the Christian Church?

Is it the boundless love we give?  Is it the calm in the storm?  Is it the grace that flows freely from the throne of God? Is it political fights and hypocritical people that see specks in spite of planks in our own eyes.

Today in our Lenten services we here the story of Jonah in the belly of the fish, all alone or is he?

Here is a wonderful story I found on bible.org by Keith Krell.  Here is a link to this article I took the story from

One tribe of Native Americans had a unique practice for training young braves.¹ On the night of a boy’s thirteenth birthday, he was placed in a dense forest to spend the entire night alone. Until then he had never been away from the security of his family and tribe. But on this night he was blindfolded and taken miles away. When he took off the blindfold, he was in the middle of thick woods…by himself…all night long. Every time a twig snapped, he probably visualized a wild animal ready to pounce. Every time an animal howled, he imagined a wolf leaping out of the darkness. Every time the wind blew, he wondered what more sinister sound it masked. No doubt it was a terrifying night for many.

After what seemed like an eternity, the first rays of sunlight entered the interior of the forest. Looking around, the boy saw flowers, trees, and the outline of the path. Then, to his utter astonishment, he beheld the figure of a man standing just a few feet away, armed with a bow and arrow. It was the boy’s father. He had been there all night long.

So just like this brave, Jonah was not alone. God was with him, just as God was with Jesus on the cross…

So do we show the world our love, and our unshakable nerve in the face of fear?  Know that no matter where you are or what you situation is, God is with you.

It is interesting to me, we put so much thought and time into what we are doing for Lent before Ash Wednesday.  We think about what to give up or should we do something extra, a new discipline, to help us grow closer to God…

How many of us though are still doing it?  I have found that I came up with something, and it really became 2nd nature.  I did not tell anyone what I was going to give up or take on, and it is between me and God, and I have not given it a second thought since then.  It really has just been integrated into my daily activities.  And it is wonderful how it is a discipline and not a worry, or a concern that I am constantly beating myself up for.

“We are justified not by what we have done, but by faith through the only one Lord, Jesus Christ.” This is so true, and is a quote from a song by great friend and wonderful lover of the Lord.  You can listen to the song here Whole and Holy. It is by Todd Zielinski pastor of Well of Hope Lutheran Church in Charlotte, NC.

It says not by what we have done…  So the thing we gave up, or taken on is not that which leads us to heaven, it is that which strengthens our relationship with our Heavenly Father.  Not by what we have done, but because of Faith.  Because of Jesus’ faith to lead us and to go to the tree, to die for you and me.  The cross is the place where we look, but our faith takes us home.

Live in this season and draw closer to God, knowing it is the faith you were given by Jesus that brings you to that relationship, and continue drawing closer until at last we are with him!

Ask my daughters, this is one of my favorite phrases!  We always want to know what is wrong so we can fix it.  If we know what the problem is than we can figure out a way to make the problem go away.

This is really the way we work in society now.  If something is out of place, than it is a problem and we have to fix it. But is something that is out of place, makes us uncomfortable or moves us in a direction we had not thought about really a problem, or is it God trying to do something in our lives?

So often we rush in and try to find the problem so we can get the quick fix and get on with our happy lives, but maybe, God is pushing us in a new and exciting way and the quick fix, just stops God from moving us…

Why is the tension so hard to live with.  It’s like Jesus asleep at the back of the boat.  If Jesus is willing to sleep through the storm, I guarantee the storm is not going to cause damage.  He is able to relax completely and sleep…  The tension will not kill us neither will the storm…

So let go of the quick fix and live in the tension of the moment and see where God takes us…

Is there a place one can go to be free from God?

One of my devotions for today is titled A Vacuum of Absence. It spoke about creation and how creation was started by God’s word, but this is not the end of God’s involvement.  God spoke the world into being, but God continues to hold everything in balance.

How is it that at the core of an atom protons all come together, while like particles repel each other?  The only explanation I need and we can give is God.  God holds the world in balance and keeps things running smoothly.

Some will agree with me and others will say I am a religious nut, and say God does not exist.  But what would happen if God were not here?  What would life be like if God was not holding us in the balance and keeping all creation smoothly moving?

I have not seen it but I hear The Book of Eli portrays this very thing.  In this movie, the world has been destroyed and there exists only 1 copy of the Bible.  One man looks for it to return it to the people.  One man looks for it to us its power to hold down people. The person who told me about the movie said, “it is a look at what the world would be like without God, and it is scary.”

Hell is a separation from God, according to some.  Yet Jesus went to Hell (or the dead) and was there.  And where did Hell come from?  Was it part of creation, and if so then God created it?  And if God created it how can God not be in it?  Yes it is true that God could/can create something and then devoid himself of it, or leave it.  Is Hell our creation of the complete rejection of God reacting in our lives?

My wonder is, is there any where we are free from the presence of God?  In our minds, in our creation we separate our selves in our Hell, but is God not with us?

We need to shout it from the mountain tops that God created all of us, and we all our good!  We need to be revealing the beauty of God’s presence in every time and every place.