Pastor Bill Lawson's Thoughts
Pastor Bill Lawson's Thoughts
A WORD FROM THE PASTOR
November 2008
“Though the
fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive
crop
fails and
the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle
in the
stalls, yet
I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign
Lord is my
strength;
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to go on the heights”—
Habakkuk
3:17-19. What a beautiful declaration of unconditional trust in the Lord!
Though
Habakkuk had what to us is a strange-sounding name, and though he lived a long
time
ago in a
faraway place, we have something very much in common with him. He liked to ask
God
the “Why?”
questions. “Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong?”
(1:3). “Why
then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked
swallow
up those
more righteous than themselves?” (1:13). Those same kinds of questions plague
us
today,
along with the “What?” questions. “What is going on in the world around me?” “What
ARE the
best choices for our country?” “What is going to become of us?” The questions
of
doubt, fear
and worry come readily.
Though
Habakkuk is a short book, you get the idea that he had many in-depth
conversations with
the Lord,
not all of which are recorded for us. The text quoted at the beginning of this
letter
comes at
the end of Habakkuk’s prophecy, and it’s apparent that God had revealed enough
to
him that he
was willing to forego specific answers to most of his “why” and “what”
questions
because he
now had enough information to walk confidently on. Imagine if they celebrated
Thanksgiving
Day back in Habakkuk’s time, and they, like us, gathered around the dinner
table
to share
what they were thankful for. One would say, “I’m thankful there were plenty of
grapes
on the
vines this year.” Another would say, “I’m thankful we harvested an abundant
crop of
olives.”
Still another would say, “We have been blessed with healthy flocks of sheep and
herds
of cattle.”
We do this
at Thanksgiving. We thank the Lord for all the good things that He has given
us. And
even when
we suffer misfortunes here and there, we are usually able to thank Him that
THINGS
aren’t as
bad as they could be. But the beauty (and example) of Habakkuk is in how he is
able to
look beyond
things to the One who is our Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, and Sovereign—and
even our
Father. No matter what our present circumstances may be, He is in control, we
are in
His hands,
and we have His promise to never leave us or forsake us. “O God, You are my God,
and I will
ever praise You. O God, You are my God, and I will ever praise You. I will seek
You
in the
morning and I will learn to walk in Your way; And step by step You’ll lead me
and I will
follow You
all of my days” ( Step by Step, a song by David Strasser).
Our God
reigns! Let us rejoice!
Pastor Bill
October
2008
Who are the
saints? According to the New Testament, they are the Christians of every time
and
place. This
understanding is particularly evident in the letters of the Apostle Paul: “To
the saints
in Ephesus,
the faithful in Christ Jesus…” (Ephesians 1:1); “To all the saints in Christ
Jesus at
Philippi…”
(Philippians 1:1).
So what is
an “All Saints’ Day” service? It’s a time to celebrate the eternal life we have
in Jesus
Christ!
“All Saints’ Day had its beginnings at least as far back as the third or fourth
centuries,
AD, when
the Christian church set aside an occasion to honor its martyrs” ( The
Pastor’s
Guidebook:
A Manual for Special Occasions, Marion Aldridge, Broadman Press,
1989). Most
people
today, however, are more aware of the counterpart to All Saints’ Day, known as
Halloween,
which is a shortened form of Allhallows (All Saints) Eve.
How did it
come to be that we have a day known as All Saints’ Day and a day called
Halloween
so mixed up
and so close together on the calendar? Back in 835, Pope Gregory IV had set the
observance
of All Saints’ Day to occur on November 1. In another part of the world, the
Druids,
the pagan
priests of the British Isles, observed October 31 as the festival of Samhain,
the “lord of
the dead.”
Their religious practices made use of skeletons, black cats, bonfires,
jack-o’-lanterns
and many of
the just plain weird and creepy things that we associate with Halloween. When
the
early
missionaries came to the British Isles, they brought their Christian
celebrations with them,
but were
not successful in eliminating all the pagan practices, such as the festival
dedicated to
Samhain. So
now, you had this Christian celebration immediately preceded by this pagan
festival,
which morphed into Halloween.
Sadly,
today, everybody seems to know about Halloween, while not so many have even
heard of
All Saints’
Day, or its original purpose. I say, why not reclaim some old territory for the
Lord?
As one writer
on the Jeremiah Project web site says, “As an alternative to the celebration of
evil
and death,
Christians should rather do what Christians are supposed to do every day and
that is
shine the
light of Jesus Christ.” In keeping with this thought, we are planning an All
Saints’
service for
Sunday, October 26, 7:00 P.M., here at our church. Our Music Director, Arn
Preston,
has been
working with Ron and Linda Sprunger of Ashland Seminary, Technical Director,
Jeremy
Burnison, our choir and others, to put together a service that promises to be a
wonderful
time of
celebrating the eternal life that we have in Jesus Christ. You won’t want to
miss this!
Stay tuned
for details…
Pastor Bill
Bill
Lawson, Pastor
September 2008
You don’t
have to go back too many years to see the radical changes that have come to
television
news. Remember when, if you wanted to see the news, you had to be satisfied
with
6:00 P.M.
or 11:00 P.M.? Of course, they would interrupt “regularly-scheduled
programming” if
something
big was happening. Now, you can get the news 24/7, from around the world via
satellite,
and, thanks to video surveillance, night vision, hidden cameras, and other
technological
wonders,
you can even get in on the action that was previously unavailable. Those
changes are
good, I
suppose, giving us greater access to what’s happening in our world in a timely
manner.
But not all
the changes are good. Have you noticed the marked loss of civility? In
particular,
the way they set up those point-counterpoint situations and encourage people to
try to
talk over
one another? You see it constantly. There’s some kind of story out there (maybe
not
much of a
story really, but when you have to provide “news” 24/7, you have to come up
with
something),
so they invite at least two guests to give their opinions. You need at least
two guests
if you want
to start an argument. Then, instead of hearing anything substantive, they go
after
each
other—in sound bites, because they have to leave plenty of room for commercial
messages.
I don’t get
much out of that kind of exchange, partly because it’s hard to pay attention to
more
than one
person talking at a time, but mostly because I find it so annoying. Did your
mom and
dad teach
you that it’s rude to interrupt? Mine did. In fact, if we kept interrupting, we
were
invited to
keep our mouths shut. They wanted to make sure we grew up civilized.
Yet, there
are times when it’s a good and necessary thing to interrupt. Once, early in our
marriage,
when Robin and I were eating dinner, and I was waxing eloquent about something
important,
she broke in with, “Bill, could you please get the fire extinguisher? The oven
is on
fire.” (My
back was to the oven, and she was facing it.) An occasion such as that merits
interruption,
don’t you think? Sometimes, what the other person has to say is much more
important
than what we have to say, so we should be prepared to receive interruptions
graciously.
Has the
Lord interrupted you lately? The tricky thing about hearing from the Lord is that
He so often
speaks in that “still, small voice.” It’s actually pretty easy to talk over
Him. I don’t
know about
you, but I’m thinking that any time God wants to talk, what He has to say is
WAY
more
important than what I have to say. So let’s practice receiving His
interruptions graciously.
Better yet,
let’s take advantage of every opportunity to listen—so He doesn’t have to
interrupt.
Grace and
peace to you,
Pastor Bill
August 2008
I have long wondered about the
movement to eliminate competition from the childhood experience. You know, the
people who say children should not receive grades, because the ones with lower
grades should not have their feelings hurt; and in any sporting event, nobody
should get a trophy unless everyone gets a trophy because we’re all equal, etc.
No doubt, these ideas come from well-intentioned people, but the fact remains
that we do face competition from our earliest days upon the earth. Storyteller
Garrison Keillor recalls the childhood pain of being chosen last for the baseball
teams: “The captains are down to their last grudging choices: a slow kid for
catcher, someone to stick out in right field where nobody hits it. They choose
the last ones two at a time—‘you and you’— because it makes no difference. And
the remaining kids—the scrubs, the excess—they deal for us as handicaps. ‘If I
take him, then you gotta take him,’ they say. Sometimes I go as high as sixth,
usually lower. But just once I’d like Darrel to pick me first and say, ‘Him! I
want him! The skinny kid with the glasses and the black shoes. You, c’mon!’ But
I’ve never been chosen with much enthusiasm.” Who among us has not felt the
pain of not being chosen for the sport we want to play, the job we want to
have, the position we want to hold? And maybe, if we are chosen, we are not
chosen with much enthusiasm. That’s life! But listen to God’s Word in Ephesians
1:3-6: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has
blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For
He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in
His sight. In love, He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus
Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will—to the praise of His glorious
grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves.” Who is the object of
God’s desire and choosing? You are! Along with all the others He chose first,
He chose you first. In fact, did you see that He chose you before He even
created the world? Amazing! And along with all the others He chose, He chose
you with the greatest enthusiasm! How could you ever turn your back on a God
like that? Why would you ever want to avoid a God like that? Let us enter His
presence with receptive hearts, and let our praise abound to the Lord, for He is worthy of all praise!
Chosen with you, Pastor Bill
July 2008
“How was
your trip?” Have you ever gone someplace for a few days and returned to hear
that
question,
but found it difficult to answer in a sentence or two? That’s how it was
traveling to
Greensburg,
Kansas with the work team from our church. We were only gone a week, but our
stories
could easily fill a book. For any who don’t know, Greensburg is (was) a town
about the
size of
Shreve that suffered a direct hit from an EF-5 tornado on May 4, 2007. That’s
the
strongest a
tornado can be, based on the Enhanced Fujita scale. Sustained winds were in
excess of
200 miles per hour, and the devastation was horrific. When you see the place,
you
can
understand how miraculous it was that so few were killed. An amazing amount of
cleanup
and
rebuilding has already been done, but an amazing amount still remains.
You might
expect that, after staying in Greensburg a while, you would begin to hear
stories of
despair and
bitterness. Perhaps those stories are there, but I didn’t hear any. What I did
hear
were many
stories of God’s love, faithfulness, protection and provision. That made me
come
away from
Greensburg feeling a bit smaller. It’s kind of like hanging out with the
Christians in
Cuba. To be
with people who have been deprived of so much, yet who revel in the glory and
goodness of
God, is truly a humbling experience. They seem to be walking higher, deeper,
closer
with the
Lord. You come away saying, “Lord, I want more of what they have!”
Of course,
it’s not all a rosy picture. The stress of daily life is enormous for the
people of
Greensburg,
and new storms bring back the pain and fear. Many live with a sense of
vulnerability
that they didn’t have before. But they hear God calling them away from a
bondage
to fear.
One Greensburg resident, Roger Yost, quotes these words: “Fear is a tormenting
spirit.
It can be a
very discouraging factor in our lives if we allow it to take us down that road.
The
right kind
of fear is a healthy fear of God and it brings godly wisdom and humility. This
other
fear brings
about crippling, suffering, and death.”
During our
time in Greensburg, it was our privilege to conduct a Vacation Bible School for
the
children
there. One afternoon, we dealt with the text that finds the disciples terrified
in a fierce
storm on
the Sea of Galilee. When they cry out to Jesus for help, He calms the storm
then
asks, “Why
are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” That lesson seemed to be
especially
reassuring to
the children of Greensburg, but every one of us should recall His words as we
face
the storms
in our own lives. John Wesley was fond of saying, “Best of all, God is with
us!”
God be with
you,
Pastor Bill
June 2008
I was doing a little research on Father’s Day and was
surprised to learn that it’s celebrated
throughout the world, but not necessarily on the same day as
we celebrate it. In Iran it’s March 14, and in
Thailand it’s December 5—with various countries’ observances
everywhere in between. In Germany they have
what strikes me as a rather odd tradition, called Herrentag. This
“Father’s Day” observance involves groups of
men getting together and setting out on hiking/drinking
tours. They load up little wagons with beer or wine
and traditional regional foods (such as blood sausage—yum!)
and hike together through meadows and
forests, stopping now and then to drink and eat. As far as I
know, that’s all they do, so perhaps when they
have consumed all the alcohol and food, they use the little
wagons to haul back the guys who are no longer
able to walk. Anyway, I wonder what led to such a custom in
the first place. Maybe the men weren’t receiving
proper honor from anyone else, so they decided to go off and
“honor” themselves.
Thank you, Lord, for a day set aside in this country where we
sincerely put forth some effort to honor our
dads. Being a dad is a high calling, a great responsibility,
and a tough challenge to do right. I think I can
speak for the majority of fathers out there when I say we
continually wonder if we are doing it right, but we
certainly have a heart to do so. And I have no doubt that
when a father asks the Lord to help him do his job
well, that prayer falls on sympathetic ears. After all, God
has endured countless disappointments in His efforts
to be a Father to us. To our shame, we have many ways of
making His job much tougher than it ought to be.
I’m reminded of a saying that I first heard many years ago:
“Any man can be a father, but it takes someone
special to be a daddy,” meaning, of course, that pouring
yourself into the relationship involves infinitely more
than bringing the child into the world. And that’s exactly
what God wants to do with us—pour Himself into
the relationship. That’s why Jesus invites us to call our
heavenly Father “Abba,” which translates as “Daddy.”
God is not satisfied with being our Creator, our Maker.
Bringing us into the world is just the beginning of His
plan. He wants a close, personal relationship with each of
us, but that won’t happen unless we want it to. He
gives us the power to decide whether or not He will be Daddy
to us. What do you say to His offer?
“But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of
a woman, born under law, to redeem those
under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.
Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son
into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So
you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you
are a son, God has made you also an heir”—Galatians 4:4-7.
Thank you, Lord! And please bless ALL the daddies out there!
Blessings,
Pastor Bill
May 2008
In 1775, the Continental Congress called for colonists to
pray for wisdom in forming a new country. In
1863, President Lincoln asked for prayers to help heal a
splintered nation. In 1952, Congress passed
a joint resolution and President Truman signed into law a
bill designating one day each year as the
National Day of Prayer. In 1988, President Reagan signed into
law a bill which permanently fixed the
first Thursday of May as the National Day of Prayer. So this
Thursday, May 1, we celebrate the 57th
annual National Day of Prayer. Can there be any doubt that
such an observance is greatly needed?
Let it be a time for us to praise God for who He is and thank
Him for all He has done for us. Let it be a
time for us to confess our sins and the sins of our nation,
and to cry out to God to heal our land. Let it
be a time for us to pray for our leaders and for those who
defend our country. Let it be a time for us to
seek the Lord’s wisdom and guidance. Let it be a time to
inspire us to make sincere prayer an integral
part of our daily lives.
This year’s
NDP theme is “Prayer! America’s Strength and Shield,” and is taken from Psalm
28:7:
“The Lord is
my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped.” The
Honorary
Chairman of
the National Day of Prayer Task Force, Dr. Ravi Zacharias, offers this “2008
Prayer for
Our
Nation,” and I commend it to you for your own personal prayer time:
“Holy
Father, in a world where so many are hungry,
You have
given us food in abundance;
In a world
where so many are hurting,
You offer
to bind up our wounds;
In a world
where so many are lonely,
You offer
friendship to every heart;
In a world
longing for peace,
You offer
hope.
Yet, we are
so stubborn and resistant.
Have mercy
upon us, Lord.
Our nation
is at a crossroads this year;
We look to
you to be our strength and shield.
Please give
us the guidance to elect one who will honor you
And to
respond to the wisdom from above
So that our
hope may be renewed and our blessings be treasured.
In God’s
holy name.”
Blessings,
Pastor Bill
April 2008
No doubt
all of us are bothered and bored by needless repetition. How about that new kind
of TV advertising where they show you a commercial, then another one, then
immediately go back and show you the first one all over again? It trivializes
our intelligence and overstates the importance of whatever product they are
trying to sell. I decide then and there that I am NOT going to buy the product,
whatever it is, just because the advertising is so annoying!
On the other hand, some things are
worth repeating, perhaps again and again. Take the Gospel story, for instance.
Have you gone as far as you can go with it? I find that I have not. The other
day, I was reading Matthew 27 again (I have no idea how many times I have read
it in my life so far), and it spoke to me powerfully. Reading the details of
Jesus’ trial and crucifixion, it was as if I were reading it all for the first
time. I think a big part of what moves me is the gripping awareness that Jesus
died in my place! Theologians have a long word for that—just as they have a
long word for most everything. The word is SUBSTITUTIONARY. That is, Jesus died
as our substitute; He died in our place. That tears at my heart every time I
think about it. Do you have the same reaction?
And do you have something of the
same reaction when you hear about the line of duty deaths of military
personnel, police officers, firefighters or other public servants? It occurred
to me one day, as I was reading the newspaper, that even though every issue
contains numerous death stories, the ones about our public servants who die
doing their duty are particularly poignant. I think I know why. Their deaths,
too, are substitutionary. Oh yes, it’s true in every case. Every one of them
has died in our place. Think about it—whose responsibility is it to defend our
land and protect the public interest? The responsibility belongs to all of us.
It’s just that certain people step up to get the job done for the rest of us.
So let’s show our gratitude at
every opportunity. Would it be too much to thank Jesus every day for what He
has done for us? And would it be too much to go out of our way to show our
appreciation for those in our society who put their lives on the line so we
don’t have to? Let us be intentional about doing so.
With a grateful heart,
Pastor Bill
MARCH
2008
As we look forward to the Easter season, I’m excited to tell
you that we’re working on some unique programs to inspire, bless, and bear
witness to the glory of Christ. Allow me to talk briefly about two particular
events.
On Palm Sunday, March 16, we will be hosting a Passover
Seder. No doubt you are at least somewhat familiar with Passover, an annual
event celebrated by the Jewish community in commemoration of God’s delivering
His people out of Egypt centuries ago. (Seder is a Hebrew word that simply means
“service” or “arrangement.”) But the Seder is much more than a Jewish
observance. It is a powerful object lesson that beautifully explains the
fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy through Jesus, the Messiah. Thus it is a
service to which all Christians can relate and by which we can be wonderfully
blessed. Jews for Jesus, as well as other Messianic Jewish organizations have
put together worship materials that make it quite simple for us to conduct the
service on our own, and we have their invitation and blessing to do so. So, all
are welcome to gather on Palm Sunday in the new fellowship hall for the Seder.
The service will begin at 5:00 P.M., and the entire event will last
approximately two and a half hours. That sounds like a long stretch, but it
includes a full meal and a good bit of interaction among those attending. Parts
of the service are geared particularly toward children, so of course families
with children are most welcome. In order to prepare adequately, we will be
including sign-up slips in the church bulletins, so please watch for those and
take time to fill one out.
Later in Holy Week, on the day we traditionally refer to as
Maundy Thursday, you will have the opportunity to worship in the “Living Last
Supper Celebration.” This will feature a reenactment of the Last Supper modeled
after Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting and based on Scripture, as well as
special music and Holy Communion for all. This service will start at 7:00 P.M.
I believe that both the Passover Seder (Old Testament) and the Living Last
Supper (New Testament) will bring alive for you the significance of Christ’s
death and resurrection as perhaps nothing else has.
As Easter draws near, let us anticipate great things from
God!
Standing
with you in grace,
Pastor Bill
FEBRUARY 2008
“Praise the
Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to
praise Him!” (Psalm 147:1). Yesterday was a very long day, but late in the
evening, when my head hit the pillow, I thought, “Lord, this has been a very
good day because you have shown me once again how blessed I am, and how blessed
we are as a church.” During morning worship, we took time to celebrate how far
we’ve come with the BRIC campaign, and then we launched into the last phase of
paying off the new facilities. If you weren’t there at the end of the dinner to
hear the report of what has been pledged to this point, know that the response
has been outstanding! Many thanks to all of you who have already made a pledge,
and to those of you who are still deciding what your contribution will be. We
give God praise for every gift—“Fulfilling the Vision” is on the horizon!
But that
was just the morning. In the afternoon, seven of us traveled to Wadsworth for a
district training event, with numerous workshops for various church leaders. We
went our separate ways for the workshops, then riding back home in the van we
began discussing what each of us had learned. For me, what we learned wasn’t as
important as what we were reminded of. As each of us began reflecting and sharing
the conversations and interactions of the day, we hit upon a common theme: God
has blessed us tremendously at Shreve United Methodist Church. During the
afternoon, intermingled somehow with the workshop content, were the stories
from other churches of aggravations, frustrations and troubles that God has
spared us. No, my name is not Pollyanna; yes, I know we have aggravations,
frustrations and troubles here. We are not perfect, and we all (myself at the
head of the class) have our faults and weaknesses. But when you step outside
this church and take note of life in the larger church, it becomes apparent
that God has blessed us in great ways.
All of you who have been married
for any length of time know that one of the intriguing things about marriage is
that while the passing of time can reveal imperfections, it can also reveal
wonderful possibilities. Part of the secret of good marriage, then, is looking
for and working with those possibilities. Isn’t this true as well in the life
of the church? The longer we are around one another, the more we can detect the
imperfections. But we should also ever have that eye of love and grace that
looks for and embraces the wonderful possibilities within the Body of Christ.
The longer I am here, the more I interact with you, the more I see in your
lives and mine the wonderful possibilities to know Christ more deeply and serve
Him more fully. “How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and
fitting to praise Him!” Let us give God the glory for where He has led us from,
what He has brought us through, and where He leads us now. The possibilities
are wonderful!
Blessings,
Pastor Bill
