My good friend Bill had his pancreas removed last Friday. He's got a family history of pancreatic cancer and things were starting to look suspicious so they decided to cut it out. A very delicate, risky and lengthy surgery. He was in for eight hours. It was successful and we're all waiting on the biopsy results. Your prayers are welcome.
Anyhoo, I got to thinking about a gathering we had at my house a couple of summers ago. My brother Pastor Mike and his family were there as was Bill and his family. Bill is hilarious, profane and bright. A sort of practicing Catholic. He didn't know my brother was a pastor. The three of us were sitting in the backyard enjoying some beers and watching the kids play. Bill was being his usual self and was stunned to find out my brother was a pastor. He peppered my brother with questions. "You're sitting around with us like a normal guy drinking beer?!" Yes, some pastors (the ones I like anyway) are quite normal, funny, and some even like to have a few beers. Human you might say. The conversation turned to love and forgiveness. Mike explained that God loves us all (keyword: all) and that we all receive God's grace. Bill argued that God couldn't forgive or love someone like him. A sinner. I could see his wheels spinning as the questions continued. I think he came away understanding that God really does care and that following some set of impossible rules is not the path to receiving grace. I shared this story with Pastor Matt over lunch today and he interrupted to say that Bill is probably the kind of guy that God especially loves. I agree.
Jesus wasn't big on rule books. Still isn't. We simply need to receive his love and act out of that love. It's not about saying some stupid magical prayer and being saved on the spot or following a rigid set of guidelines. I don't mean to say that we have carte blanche to sin like drunken sailors but if we accept his love we're that far ahead of the game. When we love someone we are compelled to try and please that person with our actions.
Jesus loves you Bill. Hell, he even loves me. It just took me about 43 years to figure that out.
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3 comments:
Hello John,..
Great to see you back it it. I was gonna comment on the Dec 5th post but I doubt anyone reds that far back.
My church has a bizillion young parents and their kids,....but has the same praise song pap that plagues just about everywhere.
I shall have to check out your Sunday night thing. Nasty cold and cough this week. Don't want to infect.
Through some sort of magic doctordoug showed up. I was expecting the account name that I cretaed years ago to show. I had, of course, forgotten that the display name wa different than the account name. I have fixed that. I shall forevermore be known here as Alebert.
As you were.
Doc... er Alebert,we'll be doing the next evening service on 1/28. After that we're going to try for twice a month and take it on the road to Javateas coffeehouse in Ephrata. I'll be posting the particulars.
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