Ordinary Time: Thursday, January 21, 2010

Today, just a quick thought:

God comes to us before we go to Him. This is God's habit. God came to Abraham when there was nothing to come to, just an old man at a dead end. But that's God for you. That's the way God likes to work. He comes to old men and to infants, to sinners and to losers. That's grace.

James Van Tholen

Ordinary Time: Thursday, January 7, 2010

Today, just a quote:

Circumstances may appear to wreck our lives and God's plans, but God is not
helpless among the ruins. Our broken lives are not lost or useless. God
comes in and takes the calamity and uses it victoriously, working out his
wonderful plan of love.

Eric Liddell

Advent: Monday, December 21, 2009

Today, just a quick thought. I've found folks like these as much as the longer ones. The less said the better sometimes :)

The will of God may lead us on a winding road that doesn't make sense, even to the most mature mind. But when the way gets puzzling, we can still trust in God. He knows the end from the beginning, and we can trust His character, knowing that His plans are aimed at accomplishing the best goals.

Donna Morley

Advent: Monday, December 14, 2009

Today, just a quick thought:

If you feel like you're at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on! Because God's a God of miracles, and He's holding the other end.

Pat Hicks

Ordinary Time: Thursday, October 29, 2009

Let your work on God's team be inspired by the old story Rufus Jones told about a little boy playing on the deck of a ship plowing through a pitching storm at sea. When a passenger asked the boy if he was afraid, he replied, "I am not afraid because my father is the captain of this ship. Your Father is the Captain, and all is well.

Ordinary Time: Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Today, just a quick quote. I'll return to my normal format tomororow:

Remember that to the new heart there is a joy even sweeter than that of being forgiven, even the joy of forgiving others.

--Andrew Murray

Ordinary Time: Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Today, just a quick thought:

Every day may not be good, but there's something good in every day.

--Author unknown

Ordinary Time: Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Today, just a quick thought by way of my good friend Dr. Rocky Henriques

We always seem to find the time
To grumble and complain,
To think of all our troubles,
Our sorrows and our pain.
Yet if we would but stop and think,
I'm sure we would be glad
If we counted all the troubles
That we never had.
The loved ones we still have with us;
Our house that didn't burn;
Our automobile that wasn't wrecked;
The money we still earn.
When we're counting all our blessings
God gives us by His grace,
Let's think today of all the trials
We were not asked to face.
--Author unknown

Ordinary Time: Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Today, just a quick quote:

The very fact that a holy, eternal, all-knowing, all-powerful, merciful, fair and just God loves you and me is nothing short of astonishing. The wildest part is that Jesus doesn’t have to love us. His being is utterly complete and perfect, apart from humanity. He doesn’t need me or you. Yet He wants us, chooses us, even considers His inheritance (Eph. 1:18). The greatest knowledge we can ever have is knowing God treasures us.

--Francis Chan

Ordinary Time: Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Today, just a quick quote

If you want to smile through your tears, if you want to rejoice through times of suffering, just keep reminding yourself that, as a Christian, what you’re going through isn’t the end of the story … it’s simply the rough journey that leads to the right destination.
--Charles Swindoll

Ordinary Time: Thursday, June 25, 2009

Today, just a quick quote. I'm on the way to the Delta (Cleveland) for a funeral. Please remember the Litton family in your prayers today:

It is one thing to love the ways of the Lord when all is well and quite another thing to cling to them during discouragement or difficulty.

Charles Spurgeon

Easter: Wednersday, April 15, 2009

Today, just a quick thought:

Christ is looking for greathearted people. The world has plenty of intellect, but God wants something better. He wants expanded, boundless hearts in which He can dwell and from which He can bless the universe. God will give you as much as you are able to love.

--A. B. Simpson

Lent: Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Today, just a quick thought:

God will be faithful to see you through your storm and time of difficulty. Don’t look down in discouragement, but look up to him, who has promised to stay with you even “through the valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23:4). Did the Lord begin this beautiful work of grace in your life only to let you fall into some black hole of hopelessness and despair? Never!
--Jim Cymbala

Lent: Thursday, March 19, 2009

Today, just a quick thought and say a prayer for Bill Kuykendall this morning as he recovers from a heart attack and faces a heart cath today.

I think that if God forgives us we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than Him.

CS Lewis

Lent: Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Today, just a quick thought

Attitude is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than what people do or say. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. The remarkable thing is, we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We can not change the fact that people act in a certain way. We can not change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.

Charles Swindoll

Epiphany: Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Today, just a quick thought: 

 I would rather walk with God in the dark than go alone in the light.

Mary Gardiner Brainard

Epiphany: Thursday, February 12, 2009

Today, just a quick thought: 

I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess.

 Martin Luther

Epiphany: Thursday, January 29, 2009

Today, just a quick quote

Be assured, if you walk with Him and look to Him, and expect help from Him, He will never fail you.

George Mueller

Thoughts on UMC Bureaucracy

I love the United Methodist Church.  Born into it, baptized, confirmed, and converted within, now serving as an ordained elder.  I love our church, I love our theology. 

But, as the old saying goes, we kid because we love. 

I read this tweet from@amforbus on Twitter.  If you aren't familiar with Twitter check it out - www.twitter.com.  You can follow me, I'm @atstod.  Anyway, this was @amforbus' recent tweet: 

Methodists may sprinkle for baptisms, but we immerse when it comes to bureaucracy.

I think that is funny, true, and a little said. We Methodist were historically a flexible bunch.  In revival days when the Methodist church was the biggest in the nation (yes, there was  time when that happened!) we went to where the people were. We went, we preached, we ministered.  We knew that the people and message mattered most.  

Now, today, we know they matter. . . . . . but, you know. 

We have to do things the right way.  I was a conference recently and one of the speakers talked about how the surest way to crush innovation is to push innovation into a certain "way."  There is only one "way" to innovate.  Methodists do it one way, Baptists another, Catholics another.  Instead of focusing on the bigger mission, we focus on the means to provide the mission. And the mission must be provided in a certain way for it to be valid.  

And there in lies the rub.  Bureaucracy is not in itself bad.  Hierarchy is not in itself bad.  Structure is not bad. But, when these things stop being a means to end, and become the end, then we have a problem.  

An no matter the organization, be it a Church, Business, Club, whatever. When the means becomes the end, then things become backwards. 

So, in short, we must focus everything, bureaucracy, everything on achieving that end. And, by use any means necessary to achieve that end. 

And in doing that, we'll recover what it means to be mission minded.  Not institution minded.  

Advent: Thursday, December 11, 2008

Today, just a quick through.  I've got go down to Jackson for a meeting in the Conference office.  Please pray for this meeting and pray I don't get snowed in anywhere!  

Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.

C. S. Lewis