The Bread of Life

Wednesday afternoon I was running out the door to get in my car to pick up my daughter from Water Polo practice. I grabbed a piece of the Pretzel Bread my wife bought the other day at Costco. They are little round pieces of bread about half the size of a baseball and they are really tasty. As I hurried out the door, I took a bite and jumped in my car to start it.  Then I took another bite, when I noticed something. As you can see in the picture, there is a picture of a cross.

Now, normally I try to talk about golf related subjects, but today I just felt that I needed to show this picture as a reminder. In the book of John chapter 6, Jesus is asked when He had arrived to His destination, verse 25, where He had come from. He gave them a different answer than they were looking for. An answer to remind them that they were not looking for Him, but the bread they had eaten during His feeding of the multitudes in the beginning of chapter 6, or in this case, the day before.

As Jesus answers them, He tells them this, John 6:35 “I am the bread of life…” they began to grumble amongst themselves as the passage explains, but then Jesus tells them to stop grumbling amongst themselves and proclaims this staggering statement in John 6:53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” You may be thinking as the listeners of His time did, “what the heck is Jesus talking about…is Jesus talking about cannibalism?”

The bible says that many of His followers began to leave and the story continues as part of Jesus ministry. But the point I would like to highlight is that Jesus is our provision, even when we are not thinking about it. The piece of bread I was eating wasn’t unique at all. In fact all of the breads had a cross on the top. I just realized it as I began to eat the bread when I thought of this story in the book of John that is rarely talked about.

The connection in this story involves different phases of Jesus’ time on earth. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, which in the Hebrew language means “House of Bread”. The little town of Bethlehem was a village that was known for its bread. I see a little God irony here, don’t you? Jesus takes this story in John chapter 6 and tells the listeners that he is the bread from heaven, not just the manna that came in the desert during Moses life.

As I began eating the bread, it reminded me of what Jesus was talking about when He told His followers that they must “eat His flesh and drink His blood”. His message is, we must consume Him. Just like eating the bread to nourish my body, I must consume His words and His spirit to nourish my soul, spirit and body. Like oxygen, we need Jesus because He is life and is the maker of life. If we begin to think of Jesus as our life and not just as an appetizer, we will become more fulfilled and attractive to a world that needs “the bread of life”.

Maybe as we move forward in our daily walk we will think of Jesus as our provision for everything and not just bread!

Freedom, Time, Busy

“If the devil can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy”

 I was excited to see Nick Watney take home the victory this weekend at the Barclays PGA tour stop in New York. He is a native of central California and was a customer of mine when he attended California State University Fresno. I live in a community where it seems everyone knows somebody, so one of my friends knew Nick and sent him to me to get some car stereo work done on his Honda.

I imagine since he is not in College anymore and is now a PGA star, his car is a little nicer. I would like to see him win the Fed Ex cup title this year. Not just because I have met him, but Nick is actually a good person. If the rumors are true about his character, he will do the right thing not only with the money, but with his career. I’ve been told by his friends that he makes time to spend with his family in friends despite his busy schedule. As a top ranked professional, he has a very busy schedule. How about you, is your schedule so busy that it gets in the way of important relationships?

I work in a business that puts relationships first. Now I am certainly not perfect at relationships, but I continue to learn how to cultivate and depend on relationships. I have a lot of friends that are so busy, we rarely see each other because they have gotten so busy. Don’t get me wrong, I totally understand, but it is damaging to our future culture. Our kids are becoming used to a culture of busyness, so guess what that means? They become less engaged with others to the point of loosing communication skills. I see it in our high school students. Just go to a mall or a Starbucks. You will see young people texting to other friends at the same time they are with other friends, while not engaging with the ones they are with. I think it’s strange, how about you?

Unfortunately the busier we get the less time we will find for our family connections and worse our connection with Jesus. There were many men and woman in the bible that stand out to us, David, Moses, Joseph, Paul and of course Jesus and many others that were what we would call “A type” or driven personalities. These people were busy, they were always going. When I think of a driven person in the bible, I always think of Paul. I believe if he was around today, he would be in a few different cities a week, teaching, leading and probably would have a radio talk show and a TV program. All while putting important relationships in the mix.

I believe one of the biggest problem today that sets us apart from our relationship with God is being too busy. As I read in the book of Psalms this weekend, it reminded me of what David would do when he became too busy. At the end of some of the verses you will notice the word “Selah”. In the Hebrew language this word can be a little difficult to translate, but in the context of the book of Psalms, it can be a break in the music, or is mostly understood to say to the reader, “Stop and Listen”. How many times can you honestly say that you “Stop and Listen”? I imagine the only way the Apostle Paul could slow down was when he finally was put in prison and had no choice. And maybe the story of Joseph would not be the same if he had not been slowed down with his time in prison. Both of these men were put in prison and it helped to forge them into the person they became.

Now, I wouldn’t say for us to go to prison to get time with God, in order for you to slow down to “Stop and Listen”, but we will need to do something extreme sometimes to change our lifestyle in order to hear from the creator of the universe. This famous verse says it for us, Psalms 46:10 Be still and know that I am God…” One of the least used spiritual disciplines and most important is to “Stop and Listen”

If you are so busy that you cannot take time out of your busy schedule to spend time with your creator, you are in serious trouble. Take time to “Stop and Listen” on a regular basis, it will be life changing, because God is always ready to speak! We are stewards of the time given to us, who, what and where will you spend that precious commodity we call “Time”?

Testing, Anger…oh darn!

Saturday night I decided to drive over to our neighborhood course and try one of the fairway woods I have had my eye on for a while. I sold mine a few months ago and can’t seem to find one that I want. As I was walking out of the Pro shop, and a friend of mine was walking in to get a bucket of balls. It was later in the day so there were not very many people there and we were the only two on the range. We talked for a while and he asked if I wanted to play the next day in the late afternoon and I said I would need to check in with my better half, but it probably would be fine.

I mentioned to my boy who I was going to play with and he decided he was in. My friend is a math teacher at the middle school that he would be attending this Monday so he wanted him as a teacher. We began our round and as we began walking off the second hole it happened, a group behind us that we didn’t see slipped in front of us. As they were going to the t-box hitting away I asked in my best imitation of nice, “hey guys, what’s goin’ on?” They began telling us that we were to slow and that we couldn’t hit the ball and so on, all while they themselves were not even getting off the t-box. They began the golf course language, you know the stuff, “F you A hole, we asked you if we could get by you, and you didn’t say anything etc…”  They were not only rude but just ticked off. Now, if you don’t know me, twenty years ago I would have been throwing punches at the guy. My friend just looked at me when I said to the guys, “hey man I’m sorry, none of us heard you say anything to us, we would have gladly let you go through, but we didn’t hear you”, as they continued with the f u’s and all the other colorful language, as I continued to apologize to them. My friend said, “wow, you really have changed those guys were idiots and deserve to be kicked off the course.” The other person we were golfing with began to call the pro-shop and complain, but my 13 year old boy said something that I was not only proud of, but showed a sign of maturity. He said, “Who cares, let it go, I just want to play golf”.

I began to think of those times that Jesus had been insulted, and the apostle Paul and how walking with integrity can look to others. You see, my friend couldn’t believe that I didn’t get upset. But, I half to confess, I was angry, I had just learned to control the anger. Paul says to his readers in Ephesians 4:26 “In your anger do not sin”. If you have learned as I have that when you become angry and let it brew, your blood pressure rises and the blood begins to leave your brain and your body begins to get into protection mode. So what happens to us when we become angry and do not control it, your mind can not make logical decisions because of the lack of blood in your brain. That blood is being pumped into your muscles to get you ready for the strength you will need for your protection. I always wondered why I was in so many fights as a kid and young adult. It is because I did not learn to control my anger.

Many of us have had or struggle with anger issues. I know with many of the guys that I teach at our local mission, they have to go to anger management classes. Many of the men struggle with it like an addiction. I have learned a lot from the men and continually have to be an example to them on this very issue. So I have learned to discipline myself in this area that I have struggled with most of my life. I still have a lot of work to do, but I have come a long way. Sunday was a great example to myself, knowing that the time I have spent working in this area and the regular study of God’s truth, that the power of God’s word and the activation of His spirit in my life has truly made an impact on how I “react” or better yet “respond” to others.

Just remember the next time you become angry, that people are watching you as a “Christian” and they judge us on our response to others. Anger can be a good thing also. Just look at all of the different laws, legislation, ministries etc…that are birthed out of anger to do something good in our communities and our culture. So, next time you become anger, you have a choice, is it to make a change in our culture or to hurt someone?

Bartholomew

“I am not called to be famous, I am called to be faithful." Mother Teresa

I would like to start off today with a question. Will you be remembered when you’re gone and if so, for what? This really began to penetrate my thoughts last Sunday at church. I was not really paying attention to the message because some of the pressures of life were dominating my mind on this particular morning. I began thinking of something I had read that caused me to stumble upon a verse found in the book of Luke 6:12.

I was watching the PGA in the morning before I headed to church and the announcers had mentioned a person I had never heard of before. So I did a quick search of him on the pgatour.com web-site. Then I decided to find out a little more about him by checking his stats, world ranking and other info. After just a few minutes, I began to reflect on the thought of, “I wonder how many people know him, I wonder where he grew up, if he had children etc…?” Then I remembered a stat that I had read a few years back and began to think of myself. The stat was in this statement that I have re-worded. “After a generation you will never be remembered…after your kids kid’s are gone, you will never be thought of again”. I know it’s kind of a weird thought, but I am pretty sure most of us begin thinking like this from time to time especially when you’re over fifty.

So as I sat in church this weekend, I stumbled across the verse that I have highlighted, marked and sub-titled in my favorite bible. But it is marked for another reason. I would use this story of Jesus to teach on the importance of priorities.  In this section of scripture, found in Luke 6:12-19, Jesus is found doing what He normally does. He starts off His day in prayer, then He spends time with His family and friends, then He does His ministry or His vocation or some of us call it a job. I was looking at this to work on a teaching about prayer when it hit me, Jesus is calling His disciples. One of them has the name Bartholomew or better known as Nathanael. The name Bartholomew is a Hebrew name meaning, plowman. Nathanael was more likely his personal name.

I began to think about Bartholomew and what he did after Jesus recognized him under the fig tree in the book of John. We never hear of Bartholomew at all after the one encounter with Jesus. But we do hear about Peter, Judas and John, and a small story of Thomas, but that is about it. This story is for the Bartholomew’s out there, which I believe there are many. They were called by Jesus, had an encounter with the living God and went about their earthly ministry never to be heard of, except for the ones they had touched with the story of the gospel. This is for the folks that are not in ministry to get the accolades or even a pay check. Mother Teresa gave up her wealth and security for the burden she had for others that had nothing. There are a lot of stories of so called “Christian’s” failing morally, financially and other unproductive acts, but the good far out ways the bad, but we do not get to hear of the good. The good is almost extinct in some sense, because of all the attention on the negative ones.

I sat and began to meditate on the Bartholomew theory. I realized that it had happened to me, I am a Bartholomew. I remember first starting out in ministry, thinking, “wow, how am I gonna reach all of those people, I’m not a preacher or a professional communicator, I’ll never be able to do this!” Twenty years later, I have had the privilege to invest, pray, lead bible studies to literally 1000’s of people. Most of you don’t know me and you probably never will. My grandkids kid’s will never talk about me and I know that next generation never will. But, I do know this, we are called to be faithful, not famous.

So if you are working in ministry at any level, whether it is your workplace or your church, give it your best, do whatever it takes to please God, Ephesians 5:10 “Find out what pleases the Lord” and then go and do it! Just remember that the world needs Bartholomew’s. Jesus said in Mathew 9:37 “the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”  If you are a Bartholomew, you are blessed. If you are a Bartholomew, you are blessing to others. If you are a Bartholomew, God bless you!

Family, community, “It”

“The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community”. William James

Last week we looked at small piece of Michael Phelps life. This writing is on another Olympian but with a different story. The story of Gabby Douglas has not only taken the world by surprise, but it is a story of family and community. I had never heard of Gabby until the Olympic trials a few months ago. Like most Americans, gymnastics are not followed that heavily until we get the huge dose of it every four years during the Olympics.

When I saw her in the trials a few months ago, I was intrigued by her electric smile and also by her Barbie like style during her exercises. To me, she has “It” and I didn’t even know her until this time. Now, I’m not going to say, “I knew she would win”, but I was drawn to her. People are drawn to people with “It”. We know lots of people with “It”. Some of the more famous and popular people with “It”, are people like Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Johnny Depp, and the countless others. These are the people we see in the spot light. The ones we look to sometimes for inspiration or sometimes we idolize.

Once I watched the video of Gabby’s mother and her new extended family, I thought of how many people today don’t get to experience the power of family and something that can be elusive to most of us, the power of community. I see the character that this experience has instilled in her. When she is being interviewed, I hear a side of Gabby that has integrity and a passion for community and family. I understand that she is still a very young girl, but I see a foundation of the making of a woman for leadership. What kind of leadership, I don’t know, but she has “It” and “It” is not easily hidden.

There are many people with “It”. Would you recognize “It”? Some people with “It” are more visible than others. Some have a bigger dose than others and some are arrogant about it, while others are humble about “It”. Some people may not know that they have “It’”, but it just seems to flow out of them like water from a cool running brook.  Gabby’s character seems to have been shaped by her family and the talent that has been given to her at birth. She seems to have been born with “It”. But what if she was not nurtured the way she has been by her family and the extended family that invested in her future? I think it is obvious that her character and talent would not have been shaped in the way it has been. Isn’t it strange how we get around the right people and our personality can change or get around the right crowd and our views seem to bend?

When my oldest daughter was in high school, she began to get around a group of girls that were going down the wrong road, but she couldn’t see it because she was invited into a group of girls for the first time and to her, it felt good. I remember telling her a verse from the book 1 Corinthians 15:33 “Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” But I didn’t tell her the address, I didn’t want to sound like I was preaching at her, I just explained to her that bad company corrupts good character. After she began to go too far I finally moved her to a private school. She was mad at me all week until she realized that she had realized that who she was keeping company with was going to get her in some serious trouble. I still remember her coming to me at the end of the week saying, “thank you daddy, I know this was the right thing to do, I love you”. And well, guess what...it was!

I like what Gabbys mother said in the interview. She said that it was the hardest thing she had ever done, was to let go of something she loved so much, but realizing that her little girl would need to go away in order to become the champion she has become. I think the most important things we can do for our kids is to learn how God has shaped them and help them see what God has put on their hearts for their future. Gabbys mother learned through loving her little girl and seeing the obvious talent she had.

Sometimes we will need to let them go to another family in order for them to grow in their talents and character. I’m not saying to give them away to another family, but to get help from another family. When I coached my boy’s 9 year old baseball team, the other coach would coach my son on the mound and I would coach his boy on the mound. You probably have been there. You give them direction and they turn their back on you and the other dad tells them the same thing and they excel. You may have been there before, a team that is run by a few different coaches and your kid responded to the other dad. Family’s are the difference makers in kids lives along with community to reinforce the parents. I enjoy family with a big dose of community, it is what drives me in learning to serve others.

Just remember that we serve our community by serving our family. Next time you see “It’, help “it” out. You may serve the next Olympian!

Success!

With the start of the Olympics and the beginning of football, golf has not been on my mind that much. Although I still practice and continue to work on my sons game, the other two have a taken over for the time being. As the swimming has gotten most of the press and my daughter is a high school swimmer and water polo player, we have been watching closely.

Michael Phelps has done somewhat was expected by breaking the record for Olympic medals. As you can see above, I have posted a video of his interview with 60 minutes. I enjoy stories. But this interview really kept me interested. Phelps seems to be almost bothered by his success in his sport. We have all heard stories about his actions with teammates and others that seem to bother him. Even though I did enjoy the interview, I see something in his personality. (I could be wrong and hope that I am) Phelps is board with his life. He has been in the pool for most of his life and probably feels that he has missed some of his younger days of “messin’ around” and has some catching up to do. The reason why I seem to know this is, I am familiar with that attitude and look. I did it. It’s easy to spot when you are familiar with the “look”.

I was reminded of a verse out of the book of Genesis while I watched the interview. Genesis 4:6 “Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? ⁷ If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”  This is not to say that Michael is angry or he even did what Cain did, but the last verse came to my mind, “sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” As far as most of our world is concerned, they probably think it’s cool for him to go off and do whatever he wants to, and to some extent they are right. He doesn’t have to continue to swim anymore. Michael has already proven what he wanted to prove to himself. I’m just worried about his next move in life. I guess since I’m a dad, I think that way and care about kids. Yah, I said kids. I still look at him as a kid. He is only 26, and still has a lot more life to live. And when young men have the status he has along with the millions, I see all kinds of temptation out there just waiting to take him down. Just ask Tiger!

After the Olympics are over and the pool is empty, Phelps is going to have a lot of free time on his hands. What will he do to occupy those young thoughts, good looks and oh yah, a huge bank account? I really don’t want to see another TMZ storey on a drug crazed and broken down celebrity. I know what he needs to do, but my opinion doesn’t count. I like to sometimes put myself in those shoes and think what I would do, or hope I would do. I know when I was that age, the more money and status I would have had, the more trouble I would have been in. That is why I like this verse found in Proverbs 30: 8 “Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. ⁹ Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God”.  

We have seen a lot of young athletes fall into this trap. Some come out of poverty and are instant millionaires, but still have the same character. I have learned that money is just an extension of your heart. It will expose who you really are. Hopefully we will see a heart that is set on helping others with his success and wealth.

What do you think his next move will be?