Hello everyone in the blogosphere,

I know it has been a several days since I last posted. Things have just been too busy around the church. Now that I will be taking a more active lead at our Missouri City campus, I don't know that I can keep the The Word 4ev1 up and running by myself anymore. I hope to finish out John in the next couple of days, and then that might be it for a while. Thank you to all of you who faithfully joined me on this journey.

On the plus side, the blog was read over 1621 times and had hits from every continent except Antartica (obviously). Because, I have a Website tracking the statistics, I know that between 12 and 15 people read the blog every day on average. Also, after writing that many entries, I now have a Word document that is 76 pages long, 10 point font, single space. That is a lot of devotional thoughts!

If the Word 4ev1 ever returns... I will be sure to run announcements at church.

God's blessings today,

Pastor Aaron

Today’s reading is John 16 (click here for link)

A prayer in Jesus' name…

Jesus says that whatever we ask for from the Father—asking in Jesus’ name—we will receive. Wow! Do we take that seriously? Do we begin our work for the Lord with that kind of certainty and that kind of confidence? Perhaps we don’t give the devil enough credit (which I hate to do) for his ability to hinder our prayers!

Of course, Jesus isn’t implying that his name is a magic word that can grant us any wish we desire. No… a prayer in Jesus’ name is like a vine and its branches; our motives, desires, hopes, and dreams are nourished and fed by the one who abides in us and we in him. A prayer in Jesus’ name is a prayer prayed like a son or as a daughter would ask of their father for good things, for guidance, and for help. Good fathers give us what is good for us, guide us in ways that are safe, and helps us when we are in trouble. But that might means we don’t always get what we think we need, but what our Father knows is best.

We are to pray as sons and daughters because we are “in” the true Son of the Father. Jesus no longer has to pray for us as he does in the Gospels, because his crucified body in the presence of heaven is a constant reminder to God Almighty that we are his children. He died for us. Jesus’ crucified body in the presence of the Father means that he will never ignore or abandon us. It means he hears our prayers.

Before you begin your next task for the glory of the Lord, pray in the name of Jesus and God can’t help but address your cause. And if ever you wonder about the work you are doing for him… if ever you doubt or feel on the verge of failure… identify yourself all the more with Jesus. The Father loves his son and because of him, loves you like a beloved child.

Pastor Aaron

Today’s reading is John 15 (click here for link)

In this reading, John uses another image, that of a vine and its branches, to help–and challenge–that early community, and ours today, to claim our close relationship with Jesus. In Jesus' time, people would have been familiar with the vine metaphor; it appears in the Hebrew Scriptures several times to describe Israel. But how many modern day readers know how to grow grapes? I like to garden, but I have never grown grapes domestically. However, I do remember climbing up and collecting the wild mustang grapes that grew wild around my childhood home. The huge vines would completely cover the trees, so closely intertwined that you could hardly see the sky through them. This year I am growing pumpkins and squash which themselves have almost completely taken over the back yard with their tangled vines.

But even if contemporary Christians have never tended a vineyard or even if they don’t like to garden, most of us have seen a tangled mess of vines at one time or another. Looking closely, we see the many entwined branches, winding their way around one another in intricate patterns of tight curls that make it impossible to tell where one branch starts or another one ends. This is not just intricate; it's intimate, and the vine shares with its branches the nutrients that sustain it, the life force of the whole plant. Even closer than the shepherd there on the hillside, this vine is one with tangled branches.

Jesus said, “I am the vine you are the branches, if you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.” A healthy vine is one with tangled branches.
Pastor Aaron

Today’s reading is John 14 (click here for text)

Do not let your hearts be troubled…

Wow, how do you do that? I hear Sean Hannity say this whenever I listen to his radio show. It sounds good, but sometimes, it seems contradictory… I am often very troubled after listening to his show or any news broadcast. This world, our nation, the Church… there just seems to be plenty out there that is troubling. Most of the time, I find myself asking, “Why?” Why shouldn’t I be troubled?

I find that too many Christians (who happen to be politically conservative) these days are speaking so negatively about the state of the world—politics, economics, society, etc. It’s easy to do that. But if we dwell too much on it, we might find ourselves shutting down, turning inward, protecting ourselves. When we think the world is out of control, we try that much harder to batten down the hatches and maintain whatever control we can of our own lives. But Jesus doesn’t leave us with that option. He says we can’t have our own peace. We must live in the peace that he leaves with us (John 14:27).

Jesus’ peace, when I think about it, doesn't so much take away all the difficult things in life but makes them bearable. It's actually a little more than that. Jesus’ peace doesn't take away the difficult things in life; it just keeps them from dominating, from having mastery, from defining who I am and the possibilities around me. It's like these things – our needs, wants, broken places – they still are accurate descriptions of us, at least parts of us, but they no longer define us. We are more than what's missing. We are, as Paul says, a new creation. Jesus’ peace makes this possible. Peace understood this way is not merely some divine plug for the hole we each carry around inside of us, but rather it is a summons to be more, to live and love more, to share more because there is so much more that God desires for us.

Hannity can’t give this kind of peace; I can’t give you this kind of peace—only Jesus can! His is the peace that comes from knowing that no amount of trouble in this world will every undo what he has done. His peace means knowing the world and all that troubles it will pass away and what will remain is the new creation in Jesus Christ. This may seem a flimsy shield against the troubles that will face you tomorrow. But Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Pastor Aaron

Today’s reading is John 13 (click here for text)

Have you ever had a “teachable moment?” I have found as a parent that one of the most important skills to cultivate is the ability to recognize and capitalize on "teachable moments" in everyday life. A teachable moment can happen almost anywhere - in the supermarket, when picking your child up from school, when walking through a shopping mall or doing devotions at the table after dinner. Chances are that many of the valuable moral lessons that you learned from your parents as a child were not consciously taught at all. They were rather learned in the midst of casual moments of real life.

Today Jesus capitalizes on a teachable moment as he washes his disciples feet. He says, “Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”

Ouch. Lest we think that we can simply ignore the messy work of loving those dirty others out there, Jesus takes aim at our complacent tendencies. Perhaps Jesus wanted to make sure that his disciples didn’t adopt the attitude that he had conferred some dignified status upon them. Perhaps he was preventing them from thinking that wandering around at the heels of the Son of God had elevated their stature above the filth and squalor of the world. And certainly he didn’t want them to exempt themselves from the unpleasant work of actual discipleship. Of course, washing someone’s feet was certainly not an enviable chore, and here Jesus uses this act as a symbol for how his followers are to relate to each other and to the world. If you think you’re above such menial tasks, or that stooping to touch the dirt, the cracks, and the calluses of the world is beneath you, Jesus would ask you a question: Do you think you’re greater than I am? If I did these things, why can’t you? I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them.

His Peace,
Pastor Aaron

Today’s reading is John 12 (click here for link).

It is commonly held that self-preservation is the first law of nature. We don’t naturally take risks. Yet Jesus is constantly pulling us away from that natural mind set. He says, “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” Christ directly challenges the mindset that has self-preservation as its highest goal. If self-preservation controls us, He says, we’ll end up losing our life. Think about this for a second… you will end up losing your life! Doesn’t that seem to defy our natural logic? At least for me it does. I so often live my life according to “my time,” “my interests,” “my money,” “my…” But Jesus says it’s only when we’re willing to give our life away that we’ll truly have life for now and for eternity. I think perhaps this is the most challenging statement I have heard Jesus say so far.

We are faced with the choice of willingly giving our lives away everyday or the choice of attempting to clutch our lives to ourselves. But it probably won’t be dramatic. Drama is easy. The mundane life of the day-to-day is more complicated. For most of us it will never be a case of facing a firing squad and being given one last chance to renounce Christ before we are blindfolded and shot. It is the daily choices we make that reflect whether we’re entrenched in self-preservation, or whether we genuinely give our lives away, day-by-day.

But how relieving it is to have Jesus as our model for this. He is giving and forgiving everyday.

Hope you are enjoying the rain today. I love rain!
Pastor Aaron

Today's reading is John 11 (click her for link)

I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day break. I also pray that at some point you gave thanks for the many men and women who have faithfully served our nation and protected our interests. God provides for us through sacrifice.

When I was 19 I first visited the American military cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer with my family which sits on the bluffs above D-Day’s Omaha beach. Yet, much of what I remember about that first trip was talking largely with my brothers about war and the carnage of D-day. However, later in college, I had the privilege of visiting twice more; once when President Bush was there to commemorate the 60th anniversary of that terrible day. It was a very moving experience. My friends and I had managed to talk our way into being seated with the V.I.P.’s. We were literally seated among the families of the fallen and veterans of that day. Of course, I know this sounds unbelievable, especially since we just showed up without knowing that any of these commemorations were going on. Apparently, reservations were to have been made months in advance, with everyone being thoroughly background checked. We were just a bunch of college kids on a road trip through France—hardly people to be trusted when the President was in town. But me and a buddy were in the Corps of Cadets, and when we got to the front gates we talked with the sergeant in charge, who happened to be friends with a friend of a friend who was in the corps… and one thing led to another and before we knew it, we were sitting 30 yards from President Bush, in the middle of this majestic cemetery, surrounded by honorable and brave veterans of war, with V.I.P. tags around our necks. It was truly an unbelievable experience. I’ll never forget the chill that went down my back. I was in the midst of greatness.

(Although, on a side note, it does make me a little nervous about the security of our national leaders, if a bunch of college kids from A&M could talk our way into being 30 yards from President Bush without so much as a background check—but that is another issue.)

The cemetery over the beaches of Normandy and places like it, such as Point Du Hoc, cannot help but create awe in the mind of the visitor. I was stopped by the sight of row upon row of perfectly aligned white marble crosses that seemed to go on forever. It is a painfully beautiful sight where conversation, if any, is held in hushed tones. It is enough to move a grown man to tears. I mean it! Our reading from John 11 coupled with the lectionary readings for this Sunday from 1 Kings 17:17-24 (click here for link) and Luke 7:11-17 (click for link) in a strange way summoned these memories in my mind. It is always like that when death comes suddenly and takes those who seem too young to experience it. (The average age of men who died at Omaha beach was 22). In 1 Kings, the widow weeping gives her only son to the prophet whose presence she assumes has led to his death. “What do you have against me, O man of God?” The prophet is equally pained and questions the intention of the One for whom he speaks. Why, O Lord, have you killed the widow’s son? I imagine not a few of the 9,387 who lie above the beach, or the 1,557 never found, whose names etched in the stone colonnade are all that remain, had mothers like the widow who wept their questions, “Why?” or like the prophet accused God of less than holy intentions. Martha too seems to wonder “why?” as runs to meet Jesus. But what answer can we give, when all in this world is doomed to die?

Jesus gives us the answer: “I am the resurrection and the life…” LIFE IS STRONGER THAN DEATH! Just as Elijah stretched out three times on the breath-less body of the widow’s son and the Lord restored his life, the lifeless body of the Lord, stretched out three days in the darkness of death, burst forth from the tomb so that one day those slain in the course of human conflict might be revived and know the truth; life is stronger than death. When at last the nations learn to study war no more and death is swallowed up in victory those who wait in the silent sleep of death at places like Colleville-sur-Mer will meet again, not as brothers in arms, but as brothers in the arms the Lord.

I proudly salute the brave men and women of our armed forces,
Pastor Aaron