Just Between You, Me, & God 11/19/2012

I picked a bad time to start a diet.  This is not the best time of year to start a diet with Thanksgiving this week and Christmas and all the trimmings right behind it.  My timing has not always been the best.  This is a time of reflection and giving God thanks for all He has done for us in the past year.  Growing up, Thanksgiving was generally just our immediate family.  I don’t remember any trips over the river or through the woods to Grandmother’s house.  With three boys sitting around the table a two legged turkey was a little inadequate.   Somehow a wing just doesn’t balance out with a turkey leg.  The best dishes and silver ware would come out and there was more food than even three growing boys and their Dad could put away in one meal.  Everything was homemade, nothing came from the freezer or out of the microwave (nonexistent at that time, yes there were phones and electricity and indoor plumbing).  After I got married and we had kids we would make those trips from Houston to Atlanta, Texas for a big family gathering.  Everyone would get up Thanksgiving morning and check the “chores list” to find out what they were supposed to do.  Bo would deep fry a turkey and have a pork loin smoking on the grill.  Nana and the girls would be busy in the kitchen making a huge tub of the best ever dressing and all the fixings to go with it.  The guys made last minute runs to the store and discussed the games that would be on that day and sneaked taste anywhere they could.  When it was all said and done the blessing was offered, usually with tears of appreciation, and the stuffing began, and I’m not talking about the turkey.  If you went away hungry it was your own fault.  After the meal was done, the living room looked like a battle field with bodies lying everywhere and moans and groans reflecting the pain of overeating.  The guys dozed while the games blared on the TV and the girls would take a walk to work off the meal.  No one could understand how they could eat that much but by the time the evening rolled around we were at it again.  This year I will once again reflect on God’s amazing grace in my life.  He has given me a 5 year experience with Living Hope Fellowship that just a few years before I could have never imagined.  He took a broken vessel, remolded it, and used it to pour out His Gospel to others who were broken.  God truly does use the weak to prove his strength.  Lord I give you thanks for reminding me that I am nothing without you and that you believe that I can do anything that you want me too.  Not to me, but to you goes the glory this year.  Pastor Dean

Just Between You, Me, & God 5/7/2012

Back from a week of vacation and trying hard to get back in the routine of daily life. It’s easy to get pulled off course. Day light savings time sends us in a spin twice a year, long weekends, a holiday in the middle of the week, even an alarm clock that didn’t go off when it should have can disrupt our whole mode of operation. Don’t get me wrong, I like vacations, but I get used to my routine also. It sort of keeps me balanced and going in one direction. You get up at a certain time, there are certain things you do at certain times and in certain places. We sometimes call them habits and if you’re not careful they can become ruts. So what is your daily, weekly, monthly, yearly routine like? Is God a part of your daily routine or do you just work Him in once a week, or maybe every other month or so, or is it just that once a year visit around Christmas or Easter? We had a visitor at our little church on Sunday. I happened to greet him as he came in and I welcomed him and ask if he was new to our community. I got an answer I wasn’t expecting. He had been working down South and was on his way home to a town just North of us but he wasn’t going to make it back in time for worship service at his church. He saw our sign and decided to stop in and share in worship with us on his way home. One of his routines is to worship God on Sunday whether he is at home or away on business, that’s how important God is in his life. Going to church on a regular basis has become less of a routine in more and more lives. There are only so many hours in a day so whenever we delete something from our schedule that gap is quickly filled in with some other activity. In Hebrews 10:25 Paul tells us, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another---and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Christianity is all about relationships, with Christ and with each other. There is power in numbers and when we come together with Christ in worship and fellowship, amazing things can happen in people’s lives. Please be faithful in your church attendance and participation and if you are not involved in a church, find one. Zig Ziglar once said, “If you’re letting a hypocrite stand between you and God that just means that the hypocrite is closer to God than you are.” Have a blessed week and bless someone this week with your attendance at church. Thanks for all you do, Pastor Dean

Pastor Dean Hanssen is the Ministries & Outreach Pastor for LHF.