30 Wonderful Years

My wife (Debbie) and I celebrated our 30th anniversary last week. I should say we celebrated phase I of our anniversary. She had surgery and so we were a little limited in what we could do. We went out to eat. Phase II of our anniversary will be in a couple of weeks when we go the New Dinner Theatre in Overland Park and see The Sound of Music. And then phase III is the big one when late this summer we will fly to San Antonio and see the famous Riverwalk and go to Sea World. (How can Shamu the whale be in San Diego, San Antonio, and Orlando at the same time?)
My wife is pretty, smart, a world-class cook, and a very good pastors wife. I am fortunate to be married to her. If I had it to do all over again, I would marry her in a heartbeat!

Rise Up Like Eagles

Monday I paddled my kayak up the Little Bull Creek arm of Hillsdale Lake. It was a beautiful morning and I saw a lot of wildlife. As I was paddling back to the put in/take out I noticed three bald eagles in a huge nest high up in a dead tree. The nest was huge. I saw one adult bald eagle with the white head and white tail and two young eagles. The young ones do not have a white head yet and are mostly brown. As I paddled by (not too close), the adult eagle left the nest and soared on the wind current. It was a beautiful sight. It reminded me of the Scripture in Isaiah that says that they that wait on the Lord will rise up like an eagle. The eagle I saw did not do much wing flapping to stay aloft. It just spread it's wings on the winds of adversity and floated! Perhaps that is the way we should approach adversity. Wait on the Lord and then soar with wings like eagles. Live above the circumstances.

Yesterday I preached a message called "Walk Worthy". It is based on Ephesians 4:1 where the Bible says the believer is to walk worthy of the vocation to which he is called. In other words, we should be a good testimony and representative of the Lord Jesus Christ in our walk out in the world. I preached this because there seems to be such a disconnect between the way some Christians live at church on Sunday and the way they live at work or school on Monday! For example, a lady I know worked in the jewelry department at Wal Mart. She said the item that was once most shoplifted was the WWJD bracelets. I'm pretty sure Jesus would not do that!

I gave three key words in the message that can help the believer 'walk worthy' throughout the week. The words are 1) YIELD (to the Holy Spirit) 2) APPLY (apply the Word of God, don't just file Bible facts away like a computer) 3) USE (your spiritual gift ) Eph. 4:7-15.

In this very wicked age we are living in, may we not just make a difference, but may we be the difference. A difference that doesn't differ doesn't make a difference.

Oz Preacher/Paddler

Welcome to my first blog. The name of the blog is Oz Preacher/Paddler. Preaching God's Word and paddling my kayak are two of the things I like to do best. Oz is the nickname of the town of Osawatomie here in Kansas (where else?) where I pastor.
Sometimes I will post some thoughts about Bible principles I have observed in day to day living. Other times, I will post some thoughts gleaned from being on the water in Lava, the name my daughter has given to my 12 foot orange, red, and yellow kayak. You may wonder what is spiritual about kayaking. I think people make way too many distinctions between spiritual and secular. I believe everything we do should be to the glory of God.
I paddle for three reasons: 1. To get alone with God in the great outdoors 2. To exercise (paddling is a good upper body workout ) 3. To see wildlife and nature from a different perspective. All three of these reasons are spiritual. We all need to spend time with the Lord. We all need to take care of the temple that God has given us, and we need to appreciate the world that God has created for us to live in.
The Bible says, "whatsoever ye do, do it heartily unto the Lord, and not to men"