Is anybody happy that winter is behind us and Spring is before us? We live in Michigan so it is easy for me to come up with words I associate with winter: death, ice, hypothermia, wind chill, death, snow, shoveling snow, shoveling more snow, buying a snow blower, death, salt trucks, black ice, dead batteries, frostbite, gangrene, thermal underwear, ice fishing, diminished mental capacity, seasonal affective disorder, recreational eating, and death.

These are all things I associate with winter. I know, some people say, “God made winter. It must be a good thing,” but I want to point out there is no mention of winter in the Bible before the fall. In the beginning of Genesis, we read of trees that are bursting with fruit and people who don’t even need clothes to wear. The Garden of Eden was clearly not in Michigan in January.

My wife’s mom and dad avoid winters in Michigan, so there are some who avoid snow, but there’s another kind of winter from which you can’t move away. There’s a winter of the soul, and it’s inescapable because we all go there at some point in our lives. Winter of the soul is the place where nothing good seems to grow and the place where many would say nothing good happens. The Bible has some books that we could describe as “wintry” type books–books of wintry spirituality. The Book of Job might be the most famous one. Job’s remarkable story is one that is wintry, a story in which all the warmth and life seems to die in his life. His story digs deeply into the human condition and is a great place to learn about the God who is bigger than our sufferings.

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Big Idea – Sometimes we have to often go backwards in the physical in order to go forward in the spiritual

Have you ever had a time when you needed God to do something, but he didn’t do it? Has there ever been a time in your life where you knew that God could do something, but he didn’t and you can’t figure out why God just isn’t doing it? Doesn’t it just drive you crazy when you know that God can do anything, and yet you can’t figure out why he’s just not doing it?

When that happens, then we begin to think that there’s something wrong with us. We doubt that we’re praying right, or we doubt the love of God. We tend to think there’s something wrong with me, because we know God is perfect and we’re not, so therefore we reflect, there must be something wrong with me.

Not understanding what’s going on when this happens is a real problem because it deeply affects our relationship with our heavenly Father, and it affects how we understand ourselves, and it affects how we participate with God in his mission of bringing heaven to earth. It affects everything and Satan loves to trip us up on this part of our journey. He loves to get us sideways in our journey with God and take us off the path of following Jesus, because when he does that, then he makes us ineffective, and when he makes us ineffective, then he robs us of joy, peace, and love that God created us for. Read the rest of this entry »

After 22 years of marriage, there is one thing that I realize will never be true. I will never be enough to make my wife happy. Now, what I don’t mean this in the negative derogatory sense that some men mean when they’re not happy with their marriage. My wife and I have a good marriage and we love each other unconditionally and I can’t imagine being married to anyone else, but I know that I will never be enough to make my wife happy. The reason is that I’m damaged goods. This isn’t an excuse. It’s just a statement of fact.

I also know that after being a father for nearly 17 years, that I will never be enough of a dad to make my kids happy. I have a great relationship with my kids and I love them deeply and I’d do anything for them, but I’m not enough to make them happy, because I’m damaged goods.

I say that because we work with people and we live among people who are not models of emotional maturity and spiritual health. Because when it comes to the human race, you have reached the damaged goods department. There is a mind that will not open. There is a mouth that will not shut. There is a backbone that won’t hold firm. There is a stiff neck that won’t yield. There is a temper that will flare. There is a fear that will take over. That’s everybody here. If you’re visiting this weekend, you have arrived at the damaged goods department.

With that said, we should never be satisfied to live as damaged goods. There is something better that God is calling us to. This morning I want to look at two words that are not fully understood where we live. The two words that we’re going to talk about are a bit foreign in the world we live in. The two words are grace . . . and blessing. We’re putting them together because they are deeply connected.

Grace is concretely expressed from the very first chapter in the Bible. And always connected to this word grace is the word blessing that we’re going to follow all the way through the first book in the Bible. Only the first book, because that’s all we have time for. Let’s take a look

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