I have had a lot of fun with my wife these past few months teasing her about my upcoming retirement. I officially began my pastoral ministry at the First Church of God in Franklin Furnace, Ohio on July 20, 1980. I have pastored continuously since that time to this present day. Since leaving Franklin Furnace in 1984 I have pastored First/Branchview First Church of God in Concord, N.C. (April 1984-December 1993), First Church of God in Alliance, Ohio (January 1994-June 2003) and now at the Meade Station Church of God in Ashland, KY (June 2003-Present). I keep telling her that people who work for Marathon Oil, AK Steel, KDMC, etc. get to retire when they celebrate 30 years of service. Therefore I should be "entitled" to retire on July 20 of this year!!! I further tell her that her "second job" (which she will need to find!!) had better pay her a lot more than her first job or we are going to be in real trouble real fast!!!!! I see great humor in this. She sees no humor whatsoever in my teasing.
In all seriousness I have labored with this question, "Can a called servant of God ever really retire?". One of my mentors and good friend, Gary Ausbun, retired from pastoral ministry nine years ago but the Lord has used Gary and his wife Frankie in a wonderful interim ministry across the country. Brother Gary and I stay in contact with one another and I know this "second" ministry God has called him to has been both rewarding and fulfilling to him. I can only hope and pray that I might be so blessed. What I mean by that is if the Lord would allow me to live long enough to "retire" from pastoral ministry that He will also give me some good years of health that I might be a continued blessing to to Him and His Church in some capacity of ministry. Having written that I feel we can never really retire from God's service. Our role of service may certainly change but we all should die while still serving the Lord.
I recall two people in my years of ministry who typify my thinking on this. The first is J.O. Fletcher from the Concord Church. When I arrived at Concord J.O. had just relinquished to job of song leader. He was entering his late 70's and his singing voice was beginning to fail him. He and I had a conversation one evening on the front porch of the old church on Corban Avenue about his future role in the congregation. He was feeling a little sorry for himself so I told him he may not be able to lead in singing but God still had something for him to do. And God did have something for him to do. From that day on he became my greatest prayer warrior and closest friend and advisor. J.O. would always tell me the truth about any problem I encountered and every pastor knows the value of someone who will speak the truth into your life. The second person that wrestled with this idea of not being able to serve the Lord as in times past was a lady from the Alliance Church. Her name was Kathleen Hayes. Kathleen had been active in that congregation for many years but she had come to a place to where her health had failed her so much that she eventually had to quit attending services. In lamenting her plight to me one day I asked her to make it her job each week to check on all the people from our congregation who appeared on our prayer list and let me know if there were any specific needs I needed to be aware of. She took that assignment seriously and proved to be a tremendous asset to me and the congregation over the next couple of years until her health failed her completely and she eventually passed away.
In closing let me say I do hope to retire some day. I love the preaching that goes along with pastoring. I love to visit people in the hospital and in their homes. I grow weary however of all the meetings and the relationship issues that you find yourself dealing with as a pastor. If the Lord will give me health and strength I plan to pastor into my mid sixties or about 8-10 more years. But I don't plan to ever "retire" from his service. How about you? What is your commitment to the Lord?
Just something to think about.
Pastor Jordan
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
TIME FOR REFLECTION
The big news the past few weeks has been the weather. Winter has come in a big way here in N.E. Kentucky the past few weeks. It seems that every weather forecast we listen to has that ugly four letter word "snow" in it somewhere. Having survived ten winters in N.E. Ohio I have seen enough snow to last me a lifetime. Every time I am in the barn and see my little aluminum fishing boat I get such a "hankering" for Spring I can hardly contain myself!
All of this bad weather does offer a person one benefit, it gives us time to reflect on things we don't normally have time for. For instance when I step back into my warm house after being out of doors for some reason I wonder how my ancestors survived these harsh winters. I lived in a house the first five full winters of my life where we heated with a grated fireplace and a Warm Morning stove. We burned coal. I can remember mornings when my Mom would tell my sister and me to stay in our beds until she could get the fire going again and then for it to burn long enough to take the harsh chill out of the air. I was to little to bust the coal or to carry it into the house. My Dad did all of that without me ever giving a thought as to how that all got taken care of. Of course that was true of all the other things I enjoyed as well. When it was time to eat I went to a table that was always filled with delicious food. When it was time to bathe I had a tub of good warm water in which to bathe. I never thought about where my clothes and shoes came from. They were just always there. Daddy worked at ARMCO Steel and everything I needed was provided to me.I am sure most everyone who might read this blog grew up pretty much the same as I did. We all have been guilty of taking a lot of good things for granted.
With time to reflect on such things recently I have been made aware that I have been guilty of taking a lot of things in my spiritual life for granted as well. For instance there has never been a time in my life when God didn't love me. There has never been a time in my life when someone wasn't praying for me. There has never been a time in my life when God didn't have a higher purpose for my life than I dreamed of for myself.
God has always been there for me. His Church has always been there for me too. I don't know about you but I never want to take God, nor His Church, for granted. He is to important for me to take for granted. I need Him every minute of every day. I don't just need Him on Sundays but I need Him every single day and all day long. I need God's people eveyday. I shudder to think where I might be if I did not have people praying for me everyday. I still have people from the very first congregation I pastored who tell me they pray for me everyday. That is a special treasure in my life that can never be replaced.
So in closing let me encourage you to do something for yourself: on these cold snowy days when you can't get out and do the things you normally do take a few minuites to reflect upon God and how good He has been to you. We have all received better than we deserve
Just something to think about.
Pastor Jordan
All of this bad weather does offer a person one benefit, it gives us time to reflect on things we don't normally have time for. For instance when I step back into my warm house after being out of doors for some reason I wonder how my ancestors survived these harsh winters. I lived in a house the first five full winters of my life where we heated with a grated fireplace and a Warm Morning stove. We burned coal. I can remember mornings when my Mom would tell my sister and me to stay in our beds until she could get the fire going again and then for it to burn long enough to take the harsh chill out of the air. I was to little to bust the coal or to carry it into the house. My Dad did all of that without me ever giving a thought as to how that all got taken care of. Of course that was true of all the other things I enjoyed as well. When it was time to eat I went to a table that was always filled with delicious food. When it was time to bathe I had a tub of good warm water in which to bathe. I never thought about where my clothes and shoes came from. They were just always there. Daddy worked at ARMCO Steel and everything I needed was provided to me.I am sure most everyone who might read this blog grew up pretty much the same as I did. We all have been guilty of taking a lot of good things for granted.
With time to reflect on such things recently I have been made aware that I have been guilty of taking a lot of things in my spiritual life for granted as well. For instance there has never been a time in my life when God didn't love me. There has never been a time in my life when someone wasn't praying for me. There has never been a time in my life when God didn't have a higher purpose for my life than I dreamed of for myself.
God has always been there for me. His Church has always been there for me too. I don't know about you but I never want to take God, nor His Church, for granted. He is to important for me to take for granted. I need Him every minute of every day. I don't just need Him on Sundays but I need Him every single day and all day long. I need God's people eveyday. I shudder to think where I might be if I did not have people praying for me everyday. I still have people from the very first congregation I pastored who tell me they pray for me everyday. That is a special treasure in my life that can never be replaced.
So in closing let me encourage you to do something for yourself: on these cold snowy days when you can't get out and do the things you normally do take a few minuites to reflect upon God and how good He has been to you. We have all received better than we deserve
Just something to think about.
Pastor Jordan
Monday, December 21, 2009
GOD STILL LOVES US EVEN ON OUR BAD DAYS
All of us have bad days. It is a part of life. None of us are immune. Nor do I know anyone who has ever gotten out of bed and said, "I hope I have a bad day today!" Yet bad days happen from time to time to all of us.
Yesterday was one of those days for me. It began with my Sunday School class. I teach a young adult class. I love the class and its students. I look forward to our time together each week. Most of them are twenty five years my junior. I look back and see myself and my wife and I appreciate the struggles they go through. I am eager to share what I have learned in life with them. I also look forward to sharing with them what God has shown me to be true in His Word.
Yesterday's Sunday School text was a tough one. It was taken from Matthew 1: 18-25. The text is a great text but we had already discussed some of its merits last week as we studied Mary's visit from the angel preparing her for the birth of Jesus. To be blunt I stumbled and bumbled my way through the whole lesson. I am sure there are hours worth of points to discuss from the text but for some reason it did not click with me and I felt I failed my class miserably!
Upon leaving class I thought the morning sermon has to be better than the class lesson. Once our service started I was pleasantly surprised at our attendance. We normally would have about 190 in attendance for the Sunday morning service before Christmas but our area had been pummeled by a bad snow storm on Friday night and Saturday morning. My wife asked me on Saturday night what I thought our attendance would be and I told her I expected somewhere between eighty and one hundred people to be in attendance. Much to my surprise we had one hundred thirty people for morning worship. The music was great. Our choir did a super job on two songs. Reba Manning's special was outstanding. There was a great spirit in the service but, you guessed it, I bombed on my sermon.
The thought I shared was one our State Chairman had shared with us in a meeting I was in a couple of weeks ago. It was a great thought yet a simple thought. I felt it was very timely for the Sunday before Christmas. I had typed myself a few notes to keep me on track. The problem was I never felt I got on track. My stumbling and bumbling from the Sunday School hour carried over into the morning service. No one was more happy to see the close of the service than I was!!!!
I left dejected and ashamed. I have been preaching since August, 1978. I have been pastoring since July 1980. I have preached somewhere in the neighborhood of four thousand five hundred sermons in the past thirty one years. I know when I have preached a decent sermon , and occasionally a good sermon, and when I have preached a bad sermon. Yesterday was as bad a sermon, from a delivery stand point, as I have preached in some years.
I reflected on the sermon all the way home. I continued to mull it over and over in my mind once I got home. I determined that the Sunday night sermon was not going to bomb. I looked over my notes and I prayed and asked God to help me do better. Sunday night's sermon was good. I communicated my thought in a clear and understandable way with a good degree of enthusiasm.
My wife and I stopped for a sandwich after church and then made our way home. I could not get the two failures of Sunday morning out of my head. And then the truth of God's love came to me. I began to realize that I might have been an utter failure Sunday morning but God still loved me. That is a lesson we all need to learn and accept. There was a time I would have beat myself up for days over my failure. I thought the better I did the more God would love me. I have learned in the last several years that is not true at all. There is absolutely nothing we can do to make God love us any less. Nor is there anything we can do to make God love us more. His love is at the maximum level at all times. It never wavers one degree, up or down. I made up my mind right then and there that I was going to get a good night's sleep and Monday was going to be a good day! And I did get a good night's sleep and today has been a good day. And God loves me just as much today as He has every other day of my life including yesterday.
So the next time you mess up or have a bad day always remember this; God still loves you. Learn from your mistakes. Put them behind you. Put a smile back on your face and get on with life. And be sure of this; God is right there with you!!!
Just something to think about.
Pastor Jordan
Yesterday was one of those days for me. It began with my Sunday School class. I teach a young adult class. I love the class and its students. I look forward to our time together each week. Most of them are twenty five years my junior. I look back and see myself and my wife and I appreciate the struggles they go through. I am eager to share what I have learned in life with them. I also look forward to sharing with them what God has shown me to be true in His Word.
Yesterday's Sunday School text was a tough one. It was taken from Matthew 1: 18-25. The text is a great text but we had already discussed some of its merits last week as we studied Mary's visit from the angel preparing her for the birth of Jesus. To be blunt I stumbled and bumbled my way through the whole lesson. I am sure there are hours worth of points to discuss from the text but for some reason it did not click with me and I felt I failed my class miserably!
Upon leaving class I thought the morning sermon has to be better than the class lesson. Once our service started I was pleasantly surprised at our attendance. We normally would have about 190 in attendance for the Sunday morning service before Christmas but our area had been pummeled by a bad snow storm on Friday night and Saturday morning. My wife asked me on Saturday night what I thought our attendance would be and I told her I expected somewhere between eighty and one hundred people to be in attendance. Much to my surprise we had one hundred thirty people for morning worship. The music was great. Our choir did a super job on two songs. Reba Manning's special was outstanding. There was a great spirit in the service but, you guessed it, I bombed on my sermon.
The thought I shared was one our State Chairman had shared with us in a meeting I was in a couple of weeks ago. It was a great thought yet a simple thought. I felt it was very timely for the Sunday before Christmas. I had typed myself a few notes to keep me on track. The problem was I never felt I got on track. My stumbling and bumbling from the Sunday School hour carried over into the morning service. No one was more happy to see the close of the service than I was!!!!
I left dejected and ashamed. I have been preaching since August, 1978. I have been pastoring since July 1980. I have preached somewhere in the neighborhood of four thousand five hundred sermons in the past thirty one years. I know when I have preached a decent sermon , and occasionally a good sermon, and when I have preached a bad sermon. Yesterday was as bad a sermon, from a delivery stand point, as I have preached in some years.
I reflected on the sermon all the way home. I continued to mull it over and over in my mind once I got home. I determined that the Sunday night sermon was not going to bomb. I looked over my notes and I prayed and asked God to help me do better. Sunday night's sermon was good. I communicated my thought in a clear and understandable way with a good degree of enthusiasm.
My wife and I stopped for a sandwich after church and then made our way home. I could not get the two failures of Sunday morning out of my head. And then the truth of God's love came to me. I began to realize that I might have been an utter failure Sunday morning but God still loved me. That is a lesson we all need to learn and accept. There was a time I would have beat myself up for days over my failure. I thought the better I did the more God would love me. I have learned in the last several years that is not true at all. There is absolutely nothing we can do to make God love us any less. Nor is there anything we can do to make God love us more. His love is at the maximum level at all times. It never wavers one degree, up or down. I made up my mind right then and there that I was going to get a good night's sleep and Monday was going to be a good day! And I did get a good night's sleep and today has been a good day. And God loves me just as much today as He has every other day of my life including yesterday.
So the next time you mess up or have a bad day always remember this; God still loves you. Learn from your mistakes. Put them behind you. Put a smile back on your face and get on with life. And be sure of this; God is right there with you!!!
Just something to think about.
Pastor Jordan
Monday, December 14, 2009
TIME OR WANT TO?
This past weekend I logged onto our church's website and looked at my blog space. I couldn't believe it had been four months since I had posted something. It is not that I don't enjoy writing, I do. As I matter of fact I have always dreamed of writing a novel and hopefully more than one. Some people who know my dream ask why I haven't done so. The answer is simple: TIME . I know everyone has the same number of minutes in a day to work with so I have concluded I am lousy at time management.
It seems I used to have more time especially for personal things. For instance a passion of mine for many years was to bow hunt for deer. I would spend several hours before season came in scouting different areas and hanging tree stands. I would then hunt at least one day a week and often times more, hunting my day off and then trying to get in one or two evenings as well. This was always great mental and emotional respite for me. It gave me time to think with no phone ringing in my ear or being interrupted by an unexpected visitor. I have bow hunted less than twenty times in the past seven seasons. The problem: TIME.
As I become older I am more and more time conscious. For instance I am keenly aware that what I hope to accomplish for God in the remaining years of my life and ministry is being cramped more and more by time. The things my wife and I have talked about doing together such as revisiting the Adirondack mountains in western New York or taking a long trip to Alaska are getting squeezed more and more by time.
For all my life time has been a more precious commodity to me than money. As long as I have enough money to pay my bills I am content. But time is another matter altogether. If I only had time I could be with those I love more, I could read more, fish and hunt more and yes, even write more.
I will soon be 56 years old. My father died at the age of 72. Four of his siblings never reached 70. Two died after passing 70 and two are still living well past that age. Statistically speaking one would conclude I won't live to be 80. I do not fear that nor do I dread that. I am ready to go. But there are things I hope to do before I leave this world. People I hope to impact for Christ. Life long lessons I hope to impress upon my children and grandchildren. But all of that requires time.
Erzie Lavender used to say, "Brother Rob, people are going to do what they want to do when they want to do it." With that thought in mind maybe time is not my problem after all. Maybe it is my "want to". Maybe time is only a convenient excuse for me and my actions.If Erzie is correct I don't need more minutes in the day. What I need is more "want to" in my heart and spirit!!!
Perhaps that is why you are not accomplishing the things in life you want to do. It may not have anything to do with time, money or opportunity. Rather your "want to" might not be in the right place. Before time does run out search yourself and ask the hard question, "What is my real "want to" in life and then get on with making that "want to" a reality.
Just something to think about.
Pastor Jordan
It seems I used to have more time especially for personal things. For instance a passion of mine for many years was to bow hunt for deer. I would spend several hours before season came in scouting different areas and hanging tree stands. I would then hunt at least one day a week and often times more, hunting my day off and then trying to get in one or two evenings as well. This was always great mental and emotional respite for me. It gave me time to think with no phone ringing in my ear or being interrupted by an unexpected visitor. I have bow hunted less than twenty times in the past seven seasons. The problem: TIME.
As I become older I am more and more time conscious. For instance I am keenly aware that what I hope to accomplish for God in the remaining years of my life and ministry is being cramped more and more by time. The things my wife and I have talked about doing together such as revisiting the Adirondack mountains in western New York or taking a long trip to Alaska are getting squeezed more and more by time.
For all my life time has been a more precious commodity to me than money. As long as I have enough money to pay my bills I am content. But time is another matter altogether. If I only had time I could be with those I love more, I could read more, fish and hunt more and yes, even write more.
I will soon be 56 years old. My father died at the age of 72. Four of his siblings never reached 70. Two died after passing 70 and two are still living well past that age. Statistically speaking one would conclude I won't live to be 80. I do not fear that nor do I dread that. I am ready to go. But there are things I hope to do before I leave this world. People I hope to impact for Christ. Life long lessons I hope to impress upon my children and grandchildren. But all of that requires time.
Erzie Lavender used to say, "Brother Rob, people are going to do what they want to do when they want to do it." With that thought in mind maybe time is not my problem after all. Maybe it is my "want to". Maybe time is only a convenient excuse for me and my actions.If Erzie is correct I don't need more minutes in the day. What I need is more "want to" in my heart and spirit!!!
Perhaps that is why you are not accomplishing the things in life you want to do. It may not have anything to do with time, money or opportunity. Rather your "want to" might not be in the right place. Before time does run out search yourself and ask the hard question, "What is my real "want to" in life and then get on with making that "want to" a reality.
Just something to think about.
Pastor Jordan
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
FIRST LOVE
For the past four weeks we have been studying the seven churches Jesus addressed in Revelation chapters two and three. The first letter was addressed to the church at Ephesus. If you are familiar with this text you know Jesus commends them on several points but he has one major thing against them, they have left their first love. That is, Christ no longer holds the first place in their hearts. If you continue to read all seven letters you can also conclude that the churches at Sardis and Laodicea suffered from the same spiritual problem, that somehow Christ had been replaced by other things and was no longer first in their hearts and lives.
Any true student of scripture knows God's word is timeless. It is relevant to every age. As I have given myself to study these letters once again I realize that congregations are still wrestling with many of these same problems today. The churches of Asia Minor were faced with the task of living faithful lives unto the Lord in the midst of a pagan society. Is this not our challenge today?
The greatest ache of my heart as a pastor is to see so many people continue to reject the good news of the Gospel and continue living in sin. The second greatest ache of my heart is to see so many people profess Christianity yet live lives that obviously do not love Christ first and foremost above anything else. I witness this loss of first love on a daily basis.
This is not a new problem. We know from scripture it has existed for at least two thousand years. I have witnessed it personally in my walk with Christ for the past twenty nine plus years that I have pastored. People profess their love for God but they find every excuse imaginable why they can't render service unto the Lord. They say they love Him but they would rather play or sleep than worship Him.
As a pastor I have no recourse. I can express my concern. I can even go so far as to admonish someone for their lack of faithfulness but my experience is that people don't generally accept such criticism very well. I cannot spank someone or put them in time out. I can't fine them. I can only remind them of God's love and pray that the power of His love will draw them back. But it is very obvious from the letters sent to the seven churches Jesus knows all things and He is keeping score. I do not pen these words to sound harsh. I pen these words not so much as a warning but a reminder in love, some day we will give an account of our decisions and deeds. It is within our power and ability to love Christ first, before all other things in our lives.
I too am a human being. I know how easy it is to let "things" and "stuff" take a priority in our lives. I battle this temptation everyday. I have had my failures. But I have also learned that Jesus must be first in all things. He must be considered and consulted in every decision and action of life. Some view this as restrictive and suffocating. I have come to learn the opposite is true. I have found that putting Christ first in all things is the safest and most liberating choice we can make. Think of all the trouble you might be in today. Who got you into that trouble, you or God? I think of Jonah. Jonah did not get into trouble by doing what God asked him to do. He got in trouble when he DID NOT DO WHAT GOD TOLD HIM TO DO!!!!! Has your life been any different than Jonah's? Mine has not!! My experience has been the same as Jonah's.
So who, or what, is your first love? You don't need me to tell you what the signs are if you are not where you should be in your relationship with Jesus. The still small voice of the Holy Spirit lets you know if you are where you need to be. That is His job and He does it far better than I ever could. So again I ask, who is your first love.
Just something to think about.
Pastor Jordan
Any true student of scripture knows God's word is timeless. It is relevant to every age. As I have given myself to study these letters once again I realize that congregations are still wrestling with many of these same problems today. The churches of Asia Minor were faced with the task of living faithful lives unto the Lord in the midst of a pagan society. Is this not our challenge today?
The greatest ache of my heart as a pastor is to see so many people continue to reject the good news of the Gospel and continue living in sin. The second greatest ache of my heart is to see so many people profess Christianity yet live lives that obviously do not love Christ first and foremost above anything else. I witness this loss of first love on a daily basis.
This is not a new problem. We know from scripture it has existed for at least two thousand years. I have witnessed it personally in my walk with Christ for the past twenty nine plus years that I have pastored. People profess their love for God but they find every excuse imaginable why they can't render service unto the Lord. They say they love Him but they would rather play or sleep than worship Him.
As a pastor I have no recourse. I can express my concern. I can even go so far as to admonish someone for their lack of faithfulness but my experience is that people don't generally accept such criticism very well. I cannot spank someone or put them in time out. I can't fine them. I can only remind them of God's love and pray that the power of His love will draw them back. But it is very obvious from the letters sent to the seven churches Jesus knows all things and He is keeping score. I do not pen these words to sound harsh. I pen these words not so much as a warning but a reminder in love, some day we will give an account of our decisions and deeds. It is within our power and ability to love Christ first, before all other things in our lives.
I too am a human being. I know how easy it is to let "things" and "stuff" take a priority in our lives. I battle this temptation everyday. I have had my failures. But I have also learned that Jesus must be first in all things. He must be considered and consulted in every decision and action of life. Some view this as restrictive and suffocating. I have come to learn the opposite is true. I have found that putting Christ first in all things is the safest and most liberating choice we can make. Think of all the trouble you might be in today. Who got you into that trouble, you or God? I think of Jonah. Jonah did not get into trouble by doing what God asked him to do. He got in trouble when he DID NOT DO WHAT GOD TOLD HIM TO DO!!!!! Has your life been any different than Jonah's? Mine has not!! My experience has been the same as Jonah's.
So who, or what, is your first love? You don't need me to tell you what the signs are if you are not where you should be in your relationship with Jesus. The still small voice of the Holy Spirit lets you know if you are where you need to be. That is His job and He does it far better than I ever could. So again I ask, who is your first love.
Just something to think about.
Pastor Jordan
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
I QUIT!!!
I would imagine all of us think the the words, "I QUIT", from time to time. We may even utter them under our breath. Or perhaps we go so far as to confide in a spouse or close friend and inform them of our frustration by saying those two words to them. In some cases we may even follow through and do just that, quit.
There are certainly some things in life we should quit. Things that are sinful. Things that are destructive to our selves or others. Things that bring question or suspicion upon our christian witness.
But there are times quiting is a way to escape responsibility. Or even worse, it is an attempt to turn our back on God's call upon our lives.
My father taught me a lot of good life lessons. For instance he always told me not to borrow something from someone unless I absolutely had to and when I did borrow something to return it as soon as possible in as good or better shape than I found it. Another important life lesson was this: quiting is the easiest thing to do. Quiting means we no longer have to fulfill an obligation. Quiting means we can walk away from our responsibility. Quiting means I don't have to fulfill someone else's expectations of me even if that someone is God. Quiting means I can dump my load on someone else. Quiting means my time is more important than the person who has to take up the burden I have walked away from.
Of course there are times when change in leadership or personnel is needed and called for. There are also times when we are called to another task and we must lay down one responsibility for another. Life changes also necessitate a different path in our lives from time to time. There will come a time when we will have to quit many things we have been accustomed to doing.
The quiting I am talking about is the quiting that allows us to walk away from a commitment or calling for our own convenience sake. For instance, I see this type of quiting in a lot of divorces. Marriage is sometimes hard work. It calls for genuine effort and perseverance. Commitment to the Church is another area that I see people walk away from for convenience sake never giving a thought to those they disappoint, or even hurt, often times out of selfish motives. Sad to say but I have seen many of my colleagues in ministry walk away from God's call on their lives believing that some how life will be better outside of God's will for their life.
We live in a day and age where everything is about "ME". Self gratification is what life is all about for most folks these days. In reality everything is not about "ME". In reality everything is about "HIM", about God and His will. Many Christians have forgotten the fact that we are no longer our own when we come to Christ. We have been purchased by Christ through His blood shed on Calvary. We forget, sometimes for convenience sake, the fact we are to die to self daily so that we might more conform to the person of Christ. We ignore the doctrine of the Lordship of Christ. We love the idea of Him being our Savior but there is no way we are going to relinquish the reigns of leadership for our own lives and let Him truly be Lord of our lives! If we truly allowed Him to be Lord then the "I QUIT" option would not be an option at all. Rather we would go deeper and deeper into prayer and fasting and ask, "Lord, what are you trying to show me through my difficulties and how should I proceed from this point on that your will might be accomplished in this matter and in my life?".
I will confess to you there have been many times when I have wanted to quit pastoring. Dealing with one's self can be frustrating enough but dealing with the attitudes and opinions of 200 other people can seem impossible at times. But where do you quit on God's call upon your life? Where do you quit loving God's people?
Life is not easy. Every decision has consequences that must be dealt with at some time in the future. Walking away from responsibility may sound like a respite today but that decision many times becomes tomorrow's nightmare.
Let me give you an alternative to quiting. Let me suggest to you that you pray and fast every day for 30 days before ever making a decision on an important matter in which you are tempted to say, "I QUIT". Fast at least one meal each day for 30 days and spend the time you would normally spend in eating that meal in praying over this specific matter. It may be the Lord is leading you to quit whatever you are doing. If that is the case then you had best quit. But it could be that in that period of time God will allow you to see , or at least glimpse, the bigger picture of what you are dealing with and you may come to realize that quitting is no longer an option.
The next time you are tempted to quit something out of mere frustration remember what my daddy used to say, "Quitting is the easiest thing to do." In all reality quiting may not be the easiest thing to do once we are faced with the consequences of our decision.
Just something to think about.
Pastor Jordan
There are certainly some things in life we should quit. Things that are sinful. Things that are destructive to our selves or others. Things that bring question or suspicion upon our christian witness.
But there are times quiting is a way to escape responsibility. Or even worse, it is an attempt to turn our back on God's call upon our lives.
My father taught me a lot of good life lessons. For instance he always told me not to borrow something from someone unless I absolutely had to and when I did borrow something to return it as soon as possible in as good or better shape than I found it. Another important life lesson was this: quiting is the easiest thing to do. Quiting means we no longer have to fulfill an obligation. Quiting means we can walk away from our responsibility. Quiting means I don't have to fulfill someone else's expectations of me even if that someone is God. Quiting means I can dump my load on someone else. Quiting means my time is more important than the person who has to take up the burden I have walked away from.
Of course there are times when change in leadership or personnel is needed and called for. There are also times when we are called to another task and we must lay down one responsibility for another. Life changes also necessitate a different path in our lives from time to time. There will come a time when we will have to quit many things we have been accustomed to doing.
The quiting I am talking about is the quiting that allows us to walk away from a commitment or calling for our own convenience sake. For instance, I see this type of quiting in a lot of divorces. Marriage is sometimes hard work. It calls for genuine effort and perseverance. Commitment to the Church is another area that I see people walk away from for convenience sake never giving a thought to those they disappoint, or even hurt, often times out of selfish motives. Sad to say but I have seen many of my colleagues in ministry walk away from God's call on their lives believing that some how life will be better outside of God's will for their life.
We live in a day and age where everything is about "ME". Self gratification is what life is all about for most folks these days. In reality everything is not about "ME". In reality everything is about "HIM", about God and His will. Many Christians have forgotten the fact that we are no longer our own when we come to Christ. We have been purchased by Christ through His blood shed on Calvary. We forget, sometimes for convenience sake, the fact we are to die to self daily so that we might more conform to the person of Christ. We ignore the doctrine of the Lordship of Christ. We love the idea of Him being our Savior but there is no way we are going to relinquish the reigns of leadership for our own lives and let Him truly be Lord of our lives! If we truly allowed Him to be Lord then the "I QUIT" option would not be an option at all. Rather we would go deeper and deeper into prayer and fasting and ask, "Lord, what are you trying to show me through my difficulties and how should I proceed from this point on that your will might be accomplished in this matter and in my life?".
I will confess to you there have been many times when I have wanted to quit pastoring. Dealing with one's self can be frustrating enough but dealing with the attitudes and opinions of 200 other people can seem impossible at times. But where do you quit on God's call upon your life? Where do you quit loving God's people?
Life is not easy. Every decision has consequences that must be dealt with at some time in the future. Walking away from responsibility may sound like a respite today but that decision many times becomes tomorrow's nightmare.
Let me give you an alternative to quiting. Let me suggest to you that you pray and fast every day for 30 days before ever making a decision on an important matter in which you are tempted to say, "I QUIT". Fast at least one meal each day for 30 days and spend the time you would normally spend in eating that meal in praying over this specific matter. It may be the Lord is leading you to quit whatever you are doing. If that is the case then you had best quit. But it could be that in that period of time God will allow you to see , or at least glimpse, the bigger picture of what you are dealing with and you may come to realize that quitting is no longer an option.
The next time you are tempted to quit something out of mere frustration remember what my daddy used to say, "Quitting is the easiest thing to do." In all reality quiting may not be the easiest thing to do once we are faced with the consequences of our decision.
Just something to think about.
Pastor Jordan
Monday, May 25, 2009
MEMORIAL DAY
Today is Memorial Day 2009. What a wonderful day for reflecting on times past. As a small child I can remember my mother's family gathering at the little Baptist Church at Danelyton in Greenup County, Kentucky to decorate Grandpa Burchwell's grave and the grave of my Mom's oldest brother, Charles. Grandpa Burchwell was killed in a timber accident in December, 1937 and was buried on Christmas day. Charles died in the 1940's from cancer. As the family would gather Mom's older siblings all had a story to share about "Poppy" or Charles. Other people from the community would also be there decorating the graves of their loved ones. Some of them had known my grandfather and uncle. One older man in particular used to speak of my grandfather with great fondness. He said it was always something special when the preacher would call upon my grandfather to pray in church. He said he had never heard anyone that could pray like my grandfather. Well naturally this always made me quite proud of a man who had died sixteen years and twenty three days before I was born!
As I grew older our family began to experience more deaths, especially on my Father's side of the family. One by one my Dad began to lose his aunts and uncles. Most of these people were very special to me. My Dad was real close to most of them and we had visited their homes many times when I was a child. Five of these uncles lived very near to where I live today, all of them within a ten minute drive of my house. Some of their old houses are gone. Three of the houses are still standing and only one of them is habitable although it stands vacant.
Three of these uncles are buried in the Jordan Family Cemetery that I maintain with the financial support of several of the family members. Every time I enter that cemetery I do so with a great amount of respect and reverence. Not only are three of my great-uncles buried there but two of them have their wives buried alongside them. My great Grand Parents on the Jordan side are buried there as well. To me this is a special place. Some of my fondest childhood memories involve my Uncle Con and Aunt Hattie. Once I turned about ten years of age my parents would let me stay with them for four to five days at a time in the Summer and on Christmas break from school. Uncle Con loved to hunt, fish and trap. He also was a great hand at gardening and worked his ground up with horse drawn equipment. This was all very exciting to me. Aunt Hattie wasn't to be outdone. She was the best baker I have ever known, bar none! She made biscuits that would put Bob Evans to shame and no body could bake a cake as good as she could.
Of course as I have gotten older I have lost my other grandparents, my father and six of his siblings. My Mom has lost two more brothers. The old saying is true, time stands still for no one.
I am now fifty five years old and I realize at best I have but a few years of life left. I just hope and pray I can leave behind some good memories for my children and grandchildren. Hopefully one of my grandchildren will stand beside my grave some day and hear some old saint of God brag on me as the old man used to do in regards to Grandpa Burchwell.
All of us have but a few years in this life to live. Live them for the Lord my friend and live them well. Our day is coming you know.
Just something to think about.
Pastor Jordan
As I grew older our family began to experience more deaths, especially on my Father's side of the family. One by one my Dad began to lose his aunts and uncles. Most of these people were very special to me. My Dad was real close to most of them and we had visited their homes many times when I was a child. Five of these uncles lived very near to where I live today, all of them within a ten minute drive of my house. Some of their old houses are gone. Three of the houses are still standing and only one of them is habitable although it stands vacant.
Three of these uncles are buried in the Jordan Family Cemetery that I maintain with the financial support of several of the family members. Every time I enter that cemetery I do so with a great amount of respect and reverence. Not only are three of my great-uncles buried there but two of them have their wives buried alongside them. My great Grand Parents on the Jordan side are buried there as well. To me this is a special place. Some of my fondest childhood memories involve my Uncle Con and Aunt Hattie. Once I turned about ten years of age my parents would let me stay with them for four to five days at a time in the Summer and on Christmas break from school. Uncle Con loved to hunt, fish and trap. He also was a great hand at gardening and worked his ground up with horse drawn equipment. This was all very exciting to me. Aunt Hattie wasn't to be outdone. She was the best baker I have ever known, bar none! She made biscuits that would put Bob Evans to shame and no body could bake a cake as good as she could.
Of course as I have gotten older I have lost my other grandparents, my father and six of his siblings. My Mom has lost two more brothers. The old saying is true, time stands still for no one.
I am now fifty five years old and I realize at best I have but a few years of life left. I just hope and pray I can leave behind some good memories for my children and grandchildren. Hopefully one of my grandchildren will stand beside my grave some day and hear some old saint of God brag on me as the old man used to do in regards to Grandpa Burchwell.
All of us have but a few years in this life to live. Live them for the Lord my friend and live them well. Our day is coming you know.
Just something to think about.
Pastor Jordan
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