A note for Sunday morning...

by Glen Gaugh on Sunday, October 31, 2010 at 6:18am

 

I listened to Dennis Miller's radio show late one night, since that is when I am driving to and from work, and he had on a regular guest and friend of his, actor Orson Bean.  I enjoy listening to this program, though it is a secular program, and one reason is that Dennis Miller often brings up religion and Christianity, stating that he is not born-again, but that he is a believer and a person of faith in God.  Recognizing his guest as a Christian and one who has turned his life around from heavy alcohol use, he asked Mr. Bean about his religious beliefs and involvement.  Mr. Bean stated that he was not a church-goer, and that he is much better able to connect with God in other contexts.  However, the part of Christianity that really strikes him is the Cross, and that Christ died to save people who otherwise would be lost.

I hope we remember this today as we plan for worship and the Word today.  All of our rallying for attendance and participation will mean little or nothing if we are not calling people to the Cross of Christ.  Christ and the Cross are all that separate His believers from believers of any other religion.  That our Savior died as an act of love for fallen man so that all might be saved- this is what every skeptic must grasp.  Every atheist who spews hatred for religion, and every Pharisee that encourages such views of religion, needs to realize they are missing the point if they don't realize this is all about God loving us equally and desperately desiring a relationship with all of mankind.  Jesus died on the Cross, the blood flows from the Cross, the Spirit was released from the Cross, there is room for all at the Cross, and we must die out to sin at the Cross in order to live.

Doing Right by our Children

by Glen Gaugh on Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 2:57am

 

1 Kings 3:16.
Solomon's first demonstration of God's wisdom in him was in deciding a child custody suit.  The two women brought a healthy, living son, each claiming to be the mother.  Solomon's solution?  Divide the child in half and give each woman a portion.

Did Solomon actually think that killing the child for the sake of giving each woman an equal portion was justice?  Of course not.  He knew that the true mother would make the tough decision necessary to save the child alive and do right by the child regardless of the personal sacrifice required.  The woman that said, "No, save the child, I give it to the other woman," was the true mother.

Sacrifice is required to do right by our children, and the parent or caregiver who is willing to make sacrifices for the sake of their children is the one who deserves to have those children.  This kind of sacrifice occurs too often today as relatives accept custody and responsibility for children they did not give birth to and never intended to raise, in order to save them from being "divided" by the system.  Parents who raise children with behavioral, developmental, and mental health disorders also make hard choices everyday.  These caregivers are doing justice by their children.

Luke 7:35 But wisdom is justified of all her children.

It is easy to forget why we sacrifice to do right by our children especially when times get tough and the cares and wrongs of the past come to the surface as bad behavior, disciplinary problems, temper tantrums, depression, anxiety, or regressive behavior.  We get scared to death to find out our children try drugs or alcohol, self-mutilation, sexual behavior, fighting, threatening, or stealing as ways to try to get by.  But we have to remember that that child is not yet what he is to become.  Remember the following:

1. Every individual, group, family, and community has strengths (even yours!)
2. Trauma and abuse, illness and struggle, may be injurious, but they may also be sources of challenge and opportunity.
3. Assume that you do not know the upper limits of the capacity to grow and change.  Take aspirations seriously.
4. We best serve our children by working with them.
5. Every environment is full of resources.
(From the principles of Dennis Saleeby's Strengths Perspective from the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare webpage, http://www.socwel.ku.edu/strengths/about/principles.shtml ).

Remembering these principles as we look at our children will help us remember why we do what we do for them.  It will guide us to see the possibilities and to put them on the arc of development, rather than on the spiral of decline.

Even if we do not always have a crystal-clear picture of what our children are to become, we can be assured that our example in caring, encouraging, and modeling right living will pay off in the end.  The wisdom of your sacrifice will be justified in your children in time.

(From a talk I gave to a group of relative caregivers in Madison County on October 7th, 2010.)

The Importance of Family

by Glen Gaugh on Sunday, September 12, 2010 at 3:30am

 

     There is no doubt about it- whether you examine the Bible or think about your own experience and observation- the choices that are made by moms, dads, and even extended family members in the present, will have an influence on generations to come. Two families in particular- Abram and Sarai in the Old Testament; Zacharias and Elisabeth in the New Testament aptly demonstrate this point in God’s Word.
     Abram and Sarai had the greatest promise offered to them from God- that from their seed, God would create a great nation, numbering more than the sands of the sea or the stars of the sky. The problem came when Abram and Sarai became impatient and tampered with God’s plan. When Abram took Hagar to give him a child, God’s plan for His nation was violated. Also, God’s plan for the family was violated. Lack of faith in God allowed this family to be divided and produced an illegitimate child. The fruits of this decision are felt today, manifest in the current conflict in the Middle East between Isaac’s lineage and Ishmael’s.
     Zacharias and Elisabeth had a great promise as well: their son would be the herald for the Messiah. The opportunity presented itself for this family to be divided by the opinions of other people and by their own insecurities. Zacharias expressed some doubt at the angel’s announcement and was struck dumb as a result. At the circumcision of the child, family and neighbors tried to call the child by his father’s name and were shocked when Elisabeth spoke up to say, “Not so- his name is John.” Zacharias could have, as head of the family, named the child by his own name, fitting the mold of tradition that the others were coming from. However, he obeyed the will of God and spelled it out plainly- the name of the prophet would be John.
     The family is the most basic and important building block of the church, the community, and the society at large. Think about how many of your daily habits and interactions are influenced by your family. From your major beliefs about God, to the way you squeeze toothpaste from the tube, your family relationships and experience have created who you are as an individual. This perhaps impacts others around you profoundly more than your individual personality traits or personal inclinations. Unity of belief and action is vital to making sure your family is not divided. No matter what core beliefs are taught to us by our parents, it is the daily life and actions that we witnessed as children that have influenced us more than anything.
     A few years ago, death claimed a father who spoke his faith in God strongly to his children and to anyone that came to his home to visit him. After his passing, one of his sons held tightly to a memento that his father left behind, and he promised he would always hold and cherish this particular item that was so much a part of his dad’s life. It was not his dad’s Bible, but his dad’s snuff can that was so cherished by this son. We can affirm that we believe the entire Bible, the whole of God’s truth; but it is the way we live this truth that creates the lens that our children, and even lost family members, will view the Bible and the church through. The family’s influence is so powerful that it impacts the view of an individual for the rest of their life. God’s Word testifies of this truth, and families throughout the years have proven it. This is the importance of family.

The ABC's of Spiritual Leadership

by Glen Gaugh on Sunday, March 21, 2010 at 4:12am

 

Advocate- stand up, speak out, proclaim.

Be where the need is; be prepared.

Call on the Lord.

Demand the best from yourself and others.

Educate yourself and others.

Follow the Holy Ghost.

Give all you've got.

Have the right spirit, motive, attitude.

Integrate all that you have in Christ Jesus- His Spirit, your skills, experience, trials, testimony.

Just do it!

Know who you are, whose you are, your responsibilities and limitations.

Love the Lord and people.

Motivate yourself and others.

Need the Lord in all His power.

Open the door of opportunity.

Plan and position yourself for the will of God.

Quiet yourself- hear God.

Respond to the need.

Stand firm.

Trust the Lord.

Understand the will of God.

Validate the call of God in your life and in others.

Work while it is day.

X ray vision- see through the junk.

Yearn for home- don't forget about Heaven!

Zero in- focus!

Praise God! My sins are gone.
Praise God! I am set free.
Praise God! My life has changed.
My life is new, because of You!

What will it take?

I did something this morning that I've never done before. Sitting at my table, 2:30 in the morning, with the back door open so I can hear the rain and thunder outside, I was startled by my weather radio. This alert, unlike the many that had sounded earlier this evening, was not due to the weather, however. This was an AMBER alert for a missing child in Gibson County. I could not catch all the details, so I went to the TBI website and found the alert along with a picture of the little 5-year-old girl, missing since 7:30pm last evening. I've heard AMBER alerts before, but the difference this time was that I did something about it. being at my computer already, I posted the alert and the picture to my facebook page, so that the information would go a little bit farther than just me. Why? On a stormy night like tonight, I couldn't imagine where this little girl could possibly be, last seen wearing only pink panties, if she was not at home, safe and sound:


Now, I did this because there is something I know about myself: I love children, teens, adolescents, and their families. And my life's actions have not always reflected what my life's PASSIONS really are. The troubling thing is that, the longer you go in life saying that something is important to you, but not acting like it is important to you, the more it begins to appear that the thing in question is NOT important to you. So if I have a passion to help children, but I let an opportunity pass me by to help a child in the least bit, then I could not possibly stand face-to-face with you and say with complete honesty, that my passion is to help children.

I can't help but feel that there are many people whose lives are not fulfilling their passions. So the question is: What is it going to take? With kids dying and being taken advantage of, what is it going to take? With the elderly being abandoned and abused, what will it take? When a million abortions occur and those lives are tossed out before they ever have a chance to begin, what is it going to take? With women being beaten and bruised, what will it take to move YOU?

What makes you tick? What gets your goat? Who are you recognizing needs the love of God on a daily basis that you are able to glide right by, excusing the apathy by telling yourself that it's not you problem? What searing sensation occurs in your soul that time and neglect has caused to become more dull and more weak until you hardly notice anymore? What was the last thing that made you begin to weep tears of sorrow and pray to God saying, "Please do something! Please help ME to do SOMETHING?" I know it's not pleasant to think about, but you and I both have allowed opportunities to slip by in which a little extra time and consideration could have made a whole lot of difference, where taking a small risk of being called "intrusive" or even the slight risk of being wrong, caused us to over look a situation altogether in which someone was secretly crying out for help.

There is not enough love in all the hearts of men and women in this world that can cause all the problems and injustices of people to be solved. Ahmed Zewail, 1999 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, wrote, "Despite human progress, I fear the continuing dearth of visionary solutions to the underlying causes of human misery- ignorance and deprivation." I am not deluded into thinking that man has any solutions to these causes of misery for our brothers and sisters. I am convinced, however, that the solution resides in Jesus Christ. "Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands." II Timothy 1:6. If the gift is in you, then the answer also resides in you. Don't let it take another day of statistics to activate your response to your passions.


Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Katelyn Cole can call the Gibson County Sheriff’s Office at (731) 855-1121 or TBI at 1-800-TBI-FIND

Just me

I am tonight, on the eve of a Sunday service in which I am to preach to the home congregation, just floored about how unworthy I am, not just to preach, but to even be a leader or just a child of God at all! I am no where what I need to be, and sometimes it doesn't seem like I'm that far away from what I used to be. Why are the most basic principles of prayer, fasting, and the Word so hard to follow? Why do I go days and weeks without uttering someone's name in prayer? What is so important that I would let erode these cornerstones of Christ-like life and ministry in my life? Why do the words of sheep in my care bring such cutting conviction; isn't it supposed to be the other way around?

The ministry certainly cannot be separated from the man in whom the ministry is invested. The life of the preacher should be the loudest sermon he preaches! I love preaching, and the office of the preacher, and the pulpit, but I despise having to be in front of the people in the poor, miserable shape that I'm in!

I am striving so hard to get back to a life of striving for the right in my life! Praying for a fresh burden that propels me away from all the diversions that take up my time and leave me passionless, prayerless, and powerless. I don't want my family or my church or my youth to get the rest of me instead of the best of me! I hope the fact that this is a problem for me and that I'm taking the time to write about it means that this is turning around in my life, because I can't go on like this. Please God, in your Holy Name, Jesus, deliver me from the poison of pride and the body of this death! Let me take up my cross instead of lazily dragging it! Let me come back to my first love and my first works, rebuilding on the foundation! Let me be broken on your altar where your oil and blood can reconstitute my broken pieces into the man you want and need me to be!!!