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Following Jesus
Earthly Cross
His Name Is
Apostles Creed
Dealing with Feelings
Jonah
Get Real
Promised Land Living

Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

Email:
Pastor Scott Carson

Secretary Patti Hall

PASTOR'S PENS 2005

Grace Church of Burlington January 30, 2005 “He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day.”                                                                                               John Bunyan             I’ve changed my mind...you can teach an old dog new tricks. In my defense I’ve only lived up North three decades. We all know that those early, formative years have the most powerful effect on our lives. So growing up in Atlanta, Georgia during those early years had a lasting influence on my life. And while you can take the boy out of the South, you can’t take the South out of the boy.             But I’ve finally succumbed:  I’m finally dressing like a Cheesehead...I’m an official wool scarf man. Over the years it’s been suggested to me and I’ve had a few even given to me (that have sat in a box gathering dust). But this last blizzard sent me over the edge. News reports compared it to the snowstorms of the late 1970's which I well remember. Now don’t laugh but my first year in Wisconsin I asked a room mate what was wrong with the snow because it squeaked when I walked on it. He informed this naive Southern boy that that is what snow does when it’s very, very cold. I had never seen a snow shovel (much less a snow blower) and kept waiting for them to cancel school when we got our first snow dusting. And on more than one occasion, I wondered if I had really moved to Antarctica. So I’ve become a coat man, a glove man and even a double-sock man...but a scarf was one of my last holdouts.             Yet now that I’m a convert, what a wonderful difference I’ve found that it makes. I didn’t realize how much warmer I would be. In fact, I’ve even become a one man commercial for scarf wearing attempting to convince my t-shirted teenagers that they should wear scarves, too. Now I’m sorry that I suffered all of those years when the solution was sitting in a box in my closet.             Today is the last Sunday of January. Perhaps you determined at the beginning of the year to regularly have a Quiet Time, to begin your day in the Word. Are you sticking to the stuff? Reading the Bible is vital for every Christian. How can we learn about God or grow spiritually if we do not spend time studying the Book in which He has made Himself known to us? Taking a few minutes each day to read a chapter, or at least a reasonable portion of His Word, is a good way to start. But we should also block out extended periods of time for exploring God's Word and reflecting on what He is saying to us.             The importance of spending much time with something of great value and beauty is illustrated by an account from the National Geographic magazine about Carl Sharsmith, an 81-year old guide in Yosemite National Park:    “Carl was back at his tent quarters after a long afternoon with tourists. His nose was flaked white and red with sunburn; his eyes were watery, partly from age but also from hearing again an old question after a half-century of summers in California's Yosemite National Park. A lady tourist had hit him with a question where it hurt, ‘I've only got an hour to spend at Yosemite,’ she declared. ‘What should I do? Where should I go?’ The old naturalist-interpreter-ranger finally found voice to reply. ‘Ah, lady, only an hour.’ He repeated it slowly. ‘I suppose that if I had only an hour to spend at Yosemite, I'd just walk over there by the river and sit down and cry.’             A whole lifetime is not long enough to appreciate fully the beauty and learning and value of the Bible. That's why we must take time to study Its truths and make them real in our lives.             It was said that Andrew Bonar, a spiritual giant of another generation, had three rules: 1) Not to speak to anyone else before speaking to Jesus; 2) Not to do anything with his hands until he had been on his knees; 3) Not to read the paper until he had read his Bible. Over the years around our home we’ve emphasized the guideline, “no Bible, no breakfast.” Now we’re not legalistic about it but our children regularly spend time in the Word because of that counsel.             We will never know our Heavenly Father intimately unless we let Him talk to us through His Word. Most of us tend to pray more than we read because we tend to like to control the conversation. And it’s critical that we be people of prayer, but we must first start with being people of the Book. Spending time in the Word each day will warm your soul. It’s a little like wearing a scarf on a cold, winter day. What a difference it makes in protecting you in a spiritually frigid world!