Presby-Musings

"This is what the Lord says to you: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s ... You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you..." - 2 Chronicles 20:15, 17 This past week has been a sobering and fearful season in my adopted hometown of Austin, TX.  A serial bomber struck five times (and nearly a sixth) taking the lives of two people, and seriously injuring several others.  This morning, the terror ended when the 24-year-old bomber was confronted by law enforcement and set off an explosive device in his car, killing himself in the process.  It was a sad, terrible end to it all.    I started thinking this morning about how helpless and angry I have felt off and on all week, and how that helpless anger guided my responses. Throughout the week, I found myself praying less for the situation and spouting off more.  ...

What are you afraid of? If you have some idea, but don't really know what to call it--let me help you. Here's a list of phobias that might cover some of what ails you: Ablutophobia is the fear of taking a bath.  I think that a lot of pre-pubescent boys suffer from this fear. Ergophobia is the fear of the workplace.  I think a lot of teenage boys suffer from this fear. Philophobia is the fear of falling in love.  I think a lot of college-age boys suffer from this fear. Somnophobia is the fear of falling asleep. Heliophobia is the fear of sunlight, which affects vampires, moody girls who study art, and moles. Chaetophobia is the fear of one's own hair.  I mostly resent mine for leaving me. Oikophobia is the fear of appliances.  As in appliances coming to life and taking you hostage. Coulrophobia is the fear of clowns.  Seriously.  Clowns are creepy. Neophobia is the fear of new things.  This fear is most widely felt by fans of St...

As I write this, one of the largest hurricanes in recorded history is headed for Florida.  It could very well carve a path straight through the state I called home for most of my life.  Meanwhile, my adopted home state of Texas is still reeling from a once-in-eight hundred-year rainfall from Hurricane Harvey.  Thousands are still homeless, and helpless.  The cleanup has begun, but it will take years to restore what was lost.   I'm pretty tired of hurricanes.  Enough already.   This morning I was listening to the latest album by Jason Isbell, one of the great songwriters of our day.  This line from his song "Last of My Kind" struck me this morning:  Mama says God won't give you too much to bear That might be true in Arkansas But I'm a long, long way from there...  I agree with Isbell.  The fact of the matter is that God frequently does allow us to experience more than we can bear.  It's difficult to find meaning i...

I've been having a lot of conversations lately about why God doesn't do more to right all the things in the world that are wrong.   Invariably these conversations turn to what prompts them all in the first place, which is the sense of helplessness and fear that most of us experience in the face of the evil, violence, injustice and uncertainty that seem so prevalent in our world.   It's naive for us to think that ours is the only time in history when people feel such things, and are prompted to ask those same questions about God's presence in the midst of them all.  But still, the questions and the fears remain, and what are we to do about them? To begin, we need to be clear about fear itself.  Fear is paralyzing.  Fear is debilitating.  Fear drives us to do and to say things that come from the darkest corners of our souls.  And, for most of us, fear is an evil unto itself.   The French writer Montaigne once wrote, "Who fears to suffer, ...

Twenty years ago, world chess champion and master Gary Kasparov lost a game of chess to IBM's Deep Blue computer.  He would go on to win the match, but the writing was on the wall.  In a rematch fifteen months later, Deeper Blue , IBM's improvement on Deep Blue caused Kasparov to quit in the middle of the match out of frustration.   ''I'm a human being," Kasparov remarked afterward, "When I see something that is well beyond my understanding, I'm afraid." Human beings have been frightened by unknowing since the dawn of time, but I think now more than ever our unknowing is causing some serious issues both within us and the world around us.   Despite all of the knowledge at our fingertips, despite all of the connectedness that we experience through the Internet and social media, we seem more divided, more confused, more afraid than ever before.   It's hard to know what comes next, and to trust that it's all going to be okay--espec...

I decided to listen to some news on the ride home from Bible study last night.  My twelve year-old son pulled off his headphones at some point and began to listen in, too.   We sat in silence while four pundits on CNN essentially shouted and tried to talk over one another as they debated the latest round of controversy surrounding the presumptive Democratic and Republican presidential candidates.  I felt myself growing dumber and more weary as I listened to them.  I also couldn't help but wonder why--out of all of the potential candidates for President of the United States--we wound up with the ones at the top of their respective tickets.   The news shifted at that moment, and we heard reports of a police-involved shooting in Baton Rouge, and then another in Minnesota.   People had been protesting in Louisiana, and had already begun protesting in Minnesota, the news anchor informed us with just a hint of excitement in his voice.  It was actu...

Today, we're going to conclude the  short two-part sermon series that we started last week entitled, "God Never Said That."  We are going to be explore the second of two of the most misquoted, misunderstood statements about God that are actually not biblical, but sound biblical.  Last week we talked about the phrase "God just wants you to be happy."  We discovered together that God doesn't want us to be happy, he wants us to be holy.  If you missed that sermon, you can listen to it on our podcast, go back and watch it on our live streaming site or pick up one of the CDs as you leave today.   We've listed a few things that church-y people say to make people feel better.  Can you think of some other phrases?  Maybe something someone has said to you that left you scratching your head, or wanting to bang it up against a wall, perhaps.   Today we're going to tackle the second of the most misused of these quotes--"God won't give you any m...

When you research the things that human beings fear the most, fear of ridicule and failure is always at the top of the list.  I also read that most people fear public speaking even more than they fear heights, the dark, spiders, and even (believe it or not) death.  It's not too hard to see how the fear of ridicule and failure, which seems to loom large in most of us, would also influence the way we view things like public speaking, or starting a new venture, or stepping out in faith when the way is uncertain.   I live and breathe within the context of the Church, which (whether fairly or unfairly) has been stereotyped as an institution that resists change and often struggles to move forward into uncharted territory.  I've encountered more than my fair share of inertia over the years--churches and church members unwilling to change, or step out in faith.  I've also heard things like this on numerous occasions:  "We've never done it that way before."...

As long as I live I will never forget my encounter with Buck.  It was nearly eighteen years ago, now that I think about it, and I was working as a part time youth director in a small Presbyterian church in Tallahassee, Florida.  Buck, who passed away some time ago, was an elder in the very first church I served as a staff member.  He was gruff, imposing and he stumped around the church leaning on his cane like he owned the place.   One night, I was leading a youth meeting, which included a rowdy game with the teenagers running amok through the halls of the church.  Unbeknownst to me, Buck was meeting with the Pastor in the room directly across from our meeting space.  I discovered this when they both emerged and confronted me in the hallway.  The pastor had an odd look on his face, and Buck was scowling.  "Young man," Buck said to me in a growl. "I want to tell you something."  He moved toward me laboriously until he stood about...

I know someone who lives their entire life in fear and suspicion.  I am sure you know someone like that, too.  They read into every comment you make, finding criticism where there is none, uncovering personal slights that were never made, always assuming the worst.  These kinds of people live their life in constant fear.  It's a sad and hellish existence.   There was a lady like this in one of my former churches, who served as a volunteer in youth ministry.  One day I gathered for lunch with my main youth volunteers and proceeded to praise them for their gifts and talents.   My purpose was to encourage and inspire them.  She left the meeting and immediately phoned a friend and told her that all I did was belittle her, make her feel small and not as good as the other two leaders.   When you begin to travel down the path of fear and suspicion, when it becomes the way you live and move in the world--it taints every aspect of your...

For most of this week our daily devotions will be reflections based on the sermon I preached earlier in the week for Christ the King the Sunday.  In the sermon, I made the assertion that if Christians truly believe Jesus is in charge, they should be without fear, worry, anxiety, etc.  Our devotions will be centered on that premise for the first part of the week--and then we'll turn our thoughts toward thankfulness as the week progresses.   Some time ago, a friend sent me links to a series of news articles about the horrible atrocities being committed toward Christians living in countries surrounded by extremist Muslims.  The stories were terrible to read.  I was disheartened and dismayed to read through them all--each more horrible than the next.   I have to admit, when I read or hear stories about the systematic persecution of Christians around the world at the hands of extremist Muslims, I get angry. More than once I have wondered aloud whether God...

This week we are concluding the sermon series that we've been working on for the month of October--a series entitled, "Haunted."  The basic premise behind this sermon series has been centered on the fact that all have something in common:  Each of us have things in our past that we wish hadn't happened. We've all experienced pain, doubt, regret or fear in our past.  But for some of us it still feels like it was yesterday.  Many of us are haunted by things in our past.  We're haunted by regret, doubt, hurt and fear, and sometimes it feels as though we will never be free of the things that are haunting us. This is not the way God intends for us to live.  For God so loved the world that he sent His Son, Jesus, whose first sermon proclaimed that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him to set the captives free to bring good news to those who were haunted, wounded, bleeding, stumbling and lost. And so we have been lifting up this simple, but life-changing id...