God's Position on Sin

I know I often blog about funny things that my family does. This is an exception.

I have been impressed over the last couple of weeks about Jesus' response to sinners. I have though long and hard about this and the only people that Jesus got harsh with were the Pharasees of that day. All sinners who came to Jesus weren't criticized, they were loved! From the prostitute to the Tax Collector -- all received compassion.

A verse of scripture that I believe outlines the message and method of the church is when Jesus rebukes the Pharasees and tells them he came, not to the righteous, but to the sinner. It's the same place he said "we don't call the doctor for the healthy, but the sick."

The church has to be on task of being the hospital for the sick. We need to do what the people of Jesus' day did -- bring the sick to Jesus feet. That's our job. Our job isn't to heal them, it's to bring them to the healer.

Many churches miss our calling. We think we need to heal the sick. We DON'T need to heal the sick, forgive people's sins or straighten people out. We need to just bring them to Jesus, one at a time, and let him heal them! And whatever HIS version of healing is, we need to accept that they are healed and love them just the same!

What's That Song?

My phone has a cool feature on it -- you can play a song on the radio or cd, it will listen to it, compare it to a computer bank of songs and tell you the name of the song, the name of the artist and the album. It also gives you the option to buy the song from iTunes.

I was explaining this to my daughter last night in our car. We were watching "Cars" and a song was playing in the background. I turned on the feature on my phone and it gave me all the information of that song that was playing in the background of the movie. My daughter then took my phone and started singing to it. Thinking it would pick up on her song and tell her who the artist was etc.

I guess you had to be there.

Thinking Outside The Box

I read something the other day that made me think. I know, rather unusual for me to do.

A Music Minister friend of mine wrote "trying to figure out how to go to the next level." Someone wrote back "nothing is normal" and "think outside the box." Since then, I've done some googling on "thinking outside the box."

Thinking inside the box is being satisfied with the status quo which is where I wonder if most churches are today. Thinking outside the box means throwing away the template of what's been done before and doing it differently than it's EVER been done.

My goal is, from today forward, to think outside the box. Be revolutionary. Make sure that an idea isn't shot down because we "haven't done it that way before (where have we heard THAT one before?)" I will try to ask all the deep probing questions and try to come up with answers that aren't status quo!

Animal Fiasco

My wife and daughter have begged to bring a new animal into the death chamber called the Mateer home. Understand, our reputation for animals hasn't been stellar and they usually die an untimely and unusual death. Example would be the dog that died in the pool, hermit crabs (and yes, that's plural) that die from lack of water, and on and on the list could go.

I finally consented to a Hamster, thinking a rat was just too gross. They proudly brought home Gizmo and showed him to me. I was like, ok, I can handle this.

On Thursday of last week, I asked casually, is the varmint still ok or have you all even looked at him today. Oh, no, I was assured, he's fine and we play with him every day. On Friday, I got "the call." Gizmo's dead. Dead? He was fine yesterday. Well, fine isn't really the truth. He was losing hair, but my wife didn't think I should know that. Then the truth came out. Gizmo was free (this fact I didn't understand when they brought him home). He was free because his mother and father were brother & sister (West Virginia jokes are NOT appropriate at this time, William!) My wife, who I consider as smart as most vets as far as small animals go (I've heard her personally have to tell the vet what the next treatment step should be), said that she knew there were going to be problems as there were definite genetic problems. Great! My daughter is crying hysterically over a dead animal that had known genetic disorders.

Now the pleading comes back for a rat. No, no, no! I will not have a rat in my house. Only, I say, if I can get a snake that will eat the rat.

Then the research starts to get a new exotic pet. Yes, lets get a short tailed possum. Yep, you heard me right. Possum! After pleading, cajoling, promising, etc, I said, go ahead.

However, a 9 year old shouldn't be responsible for her own animal, so she left the door open to her room and the cats decided it would be fun to play with the possum. We came into the room Sunday morning to find cedar bedding strung from hither to yon, cage totally in disarray, and no possum. Now, I'm NOT happy! The family skipped Sunday school to look for this blessing, to no avail. They locked the cats in the bathroom and just hoped Gizmo II would come home(no, we COULDN'T come up with an original name).

The good news is that the cat led us to the dryer where underneath was crouched a thirsty, hungry, but otherwise fine Gizmo II.

Anyone want a cat?

Pass the Butter please

Where's Home?

Most of my posts are about the kids, and very seldom do I try to wax eloquent. Even this attempt will probably be feeble, but I had to share this thought.

My Sunday School class goes once a month to a nursing home and sings and I give a short Bible study. I've been teaching through Psalm 23 and yesterday we were on the last verse.

You all know the last verse, "and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

I have always been taught the verse as referring to church. I wanted to be accurate so looked it up in the Hebrew. The Hebrew actually leans more to a home than a church.

Here's my translation: "and I will always be welcome at the supper table of the Lord." I remember leaving home for college and later leaving for the pastorate and both times coming back home. Throughout the years I have returned home for visits and lately, just a short "hi" and how are you (mom & dad live 7 miles from us). I am always welcome and many times open the fridge to see if mom made any tasty treats or to grab a Pepsi.

I have the same relationship with God and am always welcome in his house. His home is my home. No matter what, I can always pull up to the table of God and get my spiritual stomach filled.

Just had to share.

And He Still Bought It?

Most of you know that I went from Preacher to Car Salesman. And the stories I can tell (on both professions).

Today, a customer came in and wanted to drive this lovely Chevy Tahoe. It's a very nice vehicle and he wanted to make sure it was all it looked to be. We looked at the fuel gauge and it had a little below 1/8 of a tank. However, on retrospect, the vehicle had been on the ramps, suspended about 8' above the ground at a very sharp assent, so the guage may have been off at that point.

We left the dealership and the customer said he would like to take it by his house and show his wife. I said, "no problem." We drove out into the country (not TOO far, maybe 5 miles) and up his long driveway to show his wife the new vehicle. They had just had a baby 2 weeks ago and were needing more space. Well, she liked it, and so we decided to go back to the dealership to wrap it all up. We drove back to the road, and about 1/2 mile toward town, my customer said, "I just ran out of gas." I said, "are you sure?" He said, "yep, no power steering or brakes or anything."

We coasted to the side of the road and he called his sister-in-law to come get his keys to his building so she could get his gas can out of the building so she could go get gas so we could presumably start this vehicle. Yes, a very long sentence and yes, a very long proceedure!

Meanwhile, a customer of mine, Mark (also a fellow member of my church) rode by, stopped to check on us, had a HUGE laugh at our expense and went on his merry way before telling EVERYONE at church tonight at "Victor" practice about my plight. Sister-in-law came back about 15 minutes later with the $4 worth of gas. She left and we poured probably about $2.50 worth in the tank as it is impossible to get it all out. Some was on the ground, some in the tank. My dear customer then proceeded to tell me that we needed to bleed the lines. Whatever that means. I'm a salesman, not a mechanic. He did whatever you have to do to bleed the lines and declared it ready to start. Only one problem. Battery is now dead from sitting with flashers on. So, sister-in-law is called and goes and gets customers truck and we jump off the dead battery.

LESSON LEARNED: $2.50 worth of gas is not enough to start a 6,000 pound vehicle. By now, we have attracted the neighbor who rides up in his golf cart. "Outta gas?" he inquired. Yep, customer said. Well, he had 2 1/2 gallons back at the house and FINALLY, after several attempts, we were on our way back to the dealership.

AND, yes, the customer still bought the vehicle! To which my friend, Mark, from church told me I must be some salesman! I was and am -- after all, Mark is driving a car that I sold him!

Honesty Is The Best Policy

I have been watching the commercials for the new reality show "The Moment Of Truth" on Fox. I wondered if people were really dumb enough to risk their marriages on national TV for money. Apparently they are. It always seems to boil down to those questions of fidelity.

I came home last night and my wife said, "come here -- you won't believe this." I looked at the TV and there was the show on in my living room. A woman was sitting there and was telling all for $100,000, $200,000 and hopefully 1/2 a million! Her husband sat there in shock as her ex-boyfriend walked out and asked her if she would rather be married to him. After a few seconds pause for effect, she said, "yes." Of course her husband wilted.

I DO believe honesty is the best policy. I DO believe that you should be transparent with your spouse. I'm trying to help a family member with this right now. BUT, I do NOT believe that a show should be wagering large amounts of money based on the fact that they are ruining marriages left and right.

Fox is supposed to be the level headed network of the bunch, but they have crossed the line on this one.

Cross dresser 17 month old

My daughter has problems getting pants to fit her so we buy them and cut the off, usually removing about 8-10 inches. My son made a game of this the other night and thought he would wear them. One on his head and one around his waist. It actually looks like he's wearing a jean skirt. It was so funny. Hope the picture does it justice.