You are God and I am not.

You have no beginning and no end.

I have a date attached to my birth and death.

You, Lord Jesus, are concerned for your whole world.

I am less than one speck of dust on the planet

Yet, more than angels, more than galaxies.

Wind of the Holy, without you I cannot breathe

With You, Holy Spirit, I live in God’s Facebook.

Thank You for right-clicking me and hitting the Save button.

Thank you for seeing my sin and hitting delete.

That’s why I worship You.  No one else is worthy.

This will be my 1000 post since I started this blog. One Thousand.  How many keyboard taps does that mean?  Musing about life has an endless list of topics that wash up on my beach.  Saturday posts are usually my least read posts during the week.  But this 1000 mark just happens to be on a Saturday.  God’s way of keeping me humble.  No big deal.  There are better things to do than read blogs on such a wonderful sunny day in the summer here on the shores of Lake Michigan.

But today I want to stear you to a column by a guy who is a “son” of my church.  His dad, sister, and niece sing in our church choir. I like what he has to say about sports, family, and life.  Bill Gosse had a good column today in the press: “Success Must Be Earned.” Enjoy!

Now, I’m going outside to enjoy nature…

There’s a pig in the parlor of our church
Which you might think quite funny;
He doesn’t want to be left out in the lurch
He’s just hungry for your money.

Coins and bills, large and small
Are on its favorite menu;
He has the steady wherewithal
To help us in a kosher venue.

This is a different kind of Pig
That you will love to feed;
He’s working for a worthy gig:
For hungry folk’s in need.

He’s working for the “Lunch Brigade”
Collecting your donations;
Happy for all the lunch bags made
Then given in Sheboygan locations.

This Piggy banks on your good aim
To love all without bias;
You ask. What is this piggy’s name?”
Well, say hello to “Pius!”

++++++++++++++++++++

Poem by Steven J. Pedersen for Friday July 10, 2009

I am following one Packer on Twitter – Nick Barnett. He’s a linebacker that can’t wait to level Mr Favre if he plays for the Vikings.
I enjoy the short blasts of tweets from other twitters. Are you tweeting yet with birds of a feather?

Today we faced a big hurdle in ministry.  We had very high hopes for helping the needy.  But the rules put a monkey wrench in the gears of our well oiled machine.  When that happens what can you do?  Here’s what I did.

1. Pray.

2. Talk with people in the mission and dream.

3. Accept the frustration.

4. Keep thinking and dreaming.

5. Keep your head from giving up and stay the course.

6. Remember God is in it – Have FAITH.

7. Maybe God has a surprising detour – God is God and we are not!

8.  Be willing to go down that detour.

9. You will be back in your mission/dream eventually.

10. Stay positive and open to new avenues.

11.  God enters and prayers are answered.

12. Back on the road to mission and fulfilling God’s dream.

No details because of the sensitivity to this mission.  But God is in the process.  God is in the dream because he gave it to us. This is why I always say: KEEP LOOKING UP!

+ After watching the 5:30 NBC News I thought that it should be renamed, “The Drug Company Channel,” where you get some news from time to time.  The side effects of these pills being promoted are not appetizing so eat your meal before the news.

After the “Drug Company Channel” I could not eat the strawberry short cakes Kathy made (from scratch) so we ate them as a 9 PM snack.  Oh, so good.

+ Remember the date: Wednesday August 12th – Church block party on the front lawn.  Dan Ognavic, strolling minstrel will provide music. Bonnie will provide amazing Bingo prizes. (Grand Prize for most Bingo games won will be a 2 night stay in Chilton).  Food grilled by masters of the charcoal.  Plus lawn games including the famous water ballon toss.  Anyone willing to donate a dunk tank?  Andy Hopp loves taking the dunk from kids throwing fast balls to baptize him.

+ An old man and woman were married for many years, even though they hated each other.

Whenever there was a confrontation, screaming and yelling could be heard deep into the night.

The old man would shout, ‘When I die, I will dig my way up and out of the grave and come back and haunt you for the rest of your life!’ Neighbors feared him. They believed he practiced black magic, because of the many strange occurrences that took place in their neighborhood. The old man liked the fact that he was feared. To everyone’s relief, he died of a heart attack when he was 98.

His wife had a closed casket at the wake. After the burial, she went straight to the local bar and began to party, as if there was no tomorrow. Her neighbors, concerned for her safety, asked, ‘Aren’t you afraid that he may indeed be able to dig his way up and out of the grave and come back to haunt you for the rest of your life?’

The wife put down her drink and said, ‘Let him dig. I had him buried upside down.’

Someone came to church worship on Sunday at 9:00.  They sat through the service and then I got a phone call after I went home.  A person called  and told me  the wife who was with her husband got a telephone call at 7:20 Sunday morning informing her that her  20-year-old son had committed suicide. This was a son from her first marriage.  I know her present husband – a friend of mine.

Crap.  I had no clue she and her husband were so in shock and hurting.

I called the husband after lunch and offered my support.  I realized that we never know, as preachers ,who is sitting before us and what recently happened in their life.   Crap. And I felt something in the service when after asking people to pray for Jim in his mother’s death. I felt something prompting me to say, “There is someone here who lost someone – who needs help?”    But I dismissed this intuitive prompting.  Later I realized it was the Holy Spirit praying for us all.

Suicide – a real monster hammer that pounds the clear light out of you.  I hate suicide.  I hate it hate it hate it.  Because of the unanswered questions it leaves.  Like why did a hole blow through my soul when I could have, should have, would have – done, said, answered, talked, came to, offered, reminded them….a question that has a dead end.

It is a black hole that sucks the light and life out of you.  Please pray fro my friend and his wife in their horrible loss.

I hate suicide.

If you bring me a take and bake pizza I will grill it for you and then you give me a slice. Party? Take a number. They are lining up fast!

Born in France on July 10, 1509, he turns 500 this year, so people around the world are pausing to pay him some respect. Calvin was a brilliant young man who intended to be a Catholic priest but entered law instead. After encountering the writings of Protestant Reformers such as Martin Luther, Calvin had a conversion experience. “God subdued and brought my heart to docility,” he said.

Breaking away from Catholicism, he left France and settled in Switzerland as an exile. In 1536, Calvin published one of the greatest theological works ever written, The Institutes of the Christian Religion. This major systematic theology, which begins with God the Creator and ends with reflections on civil government, stands as one of the most important expressions of Reformation thought.

Not bad work for a 27-year-old.

Calvin’s writings impressed the people of Geneva, Switzerland, so he was invited to move there and help with the Reform movement. Calvin’s workload in Geneva was staggering: He pastored a church and preached daily in it, wrote commentaries on almost every book in the Bible, authored dozens of Christian pamphlets, trained and sent out missionaries, and influenced the schools and the civil government.

No wonder Calvin suffered from chronic migraine headaches!

Calvin had God centered theology which could be summed up this way:

It’s not about you. It’s not about us.
It’s not about him. It’s not about her.
It’s not about your boss. And it’s not about loss.
It’s not about work. It’s not about play.
It’s not about money. It’s not about the economy.
It’s not about your parents. It’s not about your kids.
It’s not about your wife. It’s not about your husband.
It’s not about your friends. It’s not about your enemies.
It’s all about God. That’s right. It’s all about God.

And that’s good news for all of us.