​Pastors are a whole lot like people. If I am not growing as a person, then the church cannot grow beyond the limits of my leadership. If I am not growing as a pastor, the church cannot grow. If I do not stretch myself each week, the congregation and our ministries cannot take healthy steps forward. The temptation is to always stay in the worn paths, also known as, the ruts. A key life-verse for me is 2 Timothy 15, which begins “Study to show yourself approved unto God.” (KJV) Twenty years ago I took the suggestion of a noted church leader and began to purposefully randomize my reading and my experiences. That simply meant exploring outside the smooth and familiar ruts of faith, work, and family. On the front of a Schlotzsky’s personal-sized bag of chips, the following words appeared: Sandwiches need chips, shoulders do not. Fast food theology.

​At first, I started reading books in different fields. Later, I started listening to Ted Talks and audio books on subjects with which I had no experience or understanding. I also began reading the Bible and studying the Scriptures in unfamiliar ways, like reading a letter of Paul with the last chapter first, then the second to the last, etc. I increased my reading sources to include people I always disagree with, to better understand my own ideas. Social media is a black hole from which many never seem to recover. I have limited my time on social media for my own spiritual health. I take time each morning, if possible, to read three different newspapers. On my tablet I discovered that I could follow multiple subjects for free through aggregate feeds on a program call Flipbook. I have observed that the pastors who get in trouble, many times have grown bored with their own repetitions or burned out with the constant expectations of ministry. Giving myself permission to be random has opened my outlook to hearing the Spirit nudge me forward in creative ways.Some Dove candies come wrapped in interesting sayings. One of Dove’s words of wisdom include the mandate to “Trust with your heart not with your mind.” Truer words were never spoken about chocolate. Proverbs 3 qualifies this for people by saying, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Overcome a rut. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

​

 Our Missionary in Residence

Despite still suffering from MS nerve damage. I (Kevin Avery) am quite grateful that opportunities to minister have been steadily growing. When 2021 ended and 2022 first began, I kept asking the Lord what he wanted me to do since my mobility was limited. In response, he answered, “Trust me.” I was thankful he answered my question, but for several seconds, I thought perhaps I needed to have asked my question in a different way. Maybe I should’ve asked, “Lord, what ministry would you have me do in 2022?” or “What am I to do to financially help my family?” But before I could verbalize either thought, the Lord told me again, “Trust me.” I paused but then nodded and asked him to empower me to do this fully. After all, it was clear my level of trust was less than I had thought. 

As weeks continued, I was uncertain about the future, but I never stopped pursuing the Lord through Scripture and prayer. Also, a few days after Russia attacked Ukraine, I began to lead Prayer for the Nations Zoom meetings every Tuesday night. We are now on our 23^rd week. Further, I kept doing what ministry I could, whether I was preaching occasionally or helping write for Joni and Friends or the Lausanne Movement begun by Billy Graham. I continue to serve in these ways. In addition, I was asked to write a chapter illustrating James 1:2, “Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds.” I did write this chapter (which is now chapter 3 of the recently published book “Mature and Complete: How God Uses Trials, Brokenness, and Wilderness Times for Our Good”). 

In recent weeks, though, I better understand why God would embed the idea of “Trust Me” within me before showing me what ministry he would have me do. The Lord has begun leading me to pray with and to write alongside ministers in third world countries, especially with those in English-speaking areas of East Africa. Like Aaron or Hurr helping Moses in Exodus 17, I am serving in support roles. I am virtually helping ministers who cannot pay me back, at least not financially. For instance, I have started helping a South Sudanese pastor named Peter serve refugees with hearing impairments. Specifically, I’m helping Peter prayerfully brainstorm and write out ministry and business plans. In other words, I am again raising support so that I can support the global church through prayer and writing.

This is a “summer rerun” of a cat story I shared here in 2014. 

If a story begins, “it seemed like a good idea at the time,” it probably wasn’t. I’ve written before about our cat, Doll (1996-2016). I received her as a Father’s Day gift in 1996. I believe her to be part cat and part squirrel because of her tendency to climb great heights around the house, and then take great leaps of faith. She rests during the day so that she can hunt for her toy mouse after we go to bed, and then when she has found it, she brings it to us with triumphant howls around midnight, or later if she has difficulty locating her prey. A very close relative of mine began rewarding this effort with a flashlight shining on her victorious capture and with words of praise. She loves words of praise in the middle of the night.

So when this close relative saw there was a free cat game available for download to a smart phone or mini-tablet, it sounded like fun. The game, by the way, is for the cat. Just as partaking in word and skill games is supposed to keep aging minds active, this cat game is designed to help elderly cats stay alert. Doll loves to play her game. All she has to do is tap the moving red dot on the screen and she gets 100 points, and a beep, for as long as she wants to play. If this sounds like something your cat would enjoy, I have two suggestions: make certain your cat has been declawed; and, have a tight-fitting case for the occasional screen licking. Doll loves this game so much she wants to play it whenever her humans get out their electronic devices. This can get annoying.  

This all reminds me of that Bible verse in Galatians 6 which points out that people reap what they sow. This passage cautions us to be mindful of our actions, for we must live with the results. And sometimes the results may keep us up at night.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Sow well. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

Lucy and Charlie Brown are going through their psychiatrist-patient routine in the old Peanuts comic strip. She only charges 5¢, you know. Charlie asks about his dreams and why they occur. Lucy matter-of-factly replies, “The dreams of the night prepare you for the day that follows. At night when you are sleeping your brain is really working—trying to sort out everything for you, trying to make you see yourself as you really are.” Charlie Brown gets up and as he turns to leave says discouragingly, “Even my brain is against me.”

Who wants to see themselves as they really are? I would rather like to see myself as the hero of my life, faster than a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings with a single bound. You know, Super Me. Turns out I am more flawed me than I would like to admit. Charlie Brown found himself living each day somewhere between hope and despair. His hopes were always high, but his reality always seemed to bring him to despair. Is that why we like Charlie Brown so much? Is there a bit of Charlie Brown in each of us?

When it comes to “trying to make you see yourself as you really are,” my first inclination is, “I’d rather not.” Yet that seems to be the pull, not only of our brains, but also of the Word of God, which is like a mirror before our souls. The spiritual truth is, when we hear or read the Scriptures, we see ourselves the way God sees us—sinful and not very strong at all. That might even lead some people to say, “Even the Bible is against me.” We need our sleep so our brains can process our lives. We need God’s Word so our lives can mirror God’s grace. Your statutes are my delight; they are my counselors. (Psalm 119:24)

Read a few sections of Psalm 119 to see the power of reflecting on the Word of God. As you remember, in the original Hebrew, Psalm 119 is poetry set forth as an acrostic. The psalm is divided into equal sections according to the Hebrew alphabet. Each section has 8 verses. The first word of each verse starts with the same letter that heads the section.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Mirror God’s grace. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

You may have noticed that it is hot—triple digit hot, as the weather guessers like to say.  Also, it has not rained for over a month now. Dorothy and I took a little excursion to Porter, Oklahoma over the weekend to buy some of the best tasting peaches anywhere. I have family in Georgia and the Carolinas that can brag about their peaches too. Except I can truly say this year that we bought the sweetest ugliest peaches ever. I last wrote about Porter peaches in 2018, a year that was very hard on the peach tree farmers. Last year was a hard year because a late April freeze destroyed most of the budding fruit. This year is hard because of a massive hailstorm and excessive rain followed by this heat wave and drought. Farming is hard work and dependent on good weather. The peaches are beat up but still juicy. The prettiest peaches are sold in the grocery stores and on display at the peach festivals. The rest show the bruises, scars and gouges left by the hail. Ugly peaches are the cheapest. Ugly peaches take a little longer to carve out the damaged areas and cut up. Our ugly peaches are beautiful on a bowl of vanilla ice-cream, baked in a cobbler, or sliced on a bowl of cereal. 

It is always about 103 when Dorothy and I travel to Porter. This year we skipped the festival and went straight to the Livesay Orchard. We always remember Six Flags. Near our first wedding anniversary, Dorothy discovered that I had never been to Six Flags over Texas. We skipped work and enjoyed an afternoon together, but she was amazed that there were no lines of people waiting for the rides. There were other people there, but no one seemed in a hurry. It was only as we were traveling home to Fort Worth, that we heard on the radio that the temperature that day had reached a high of 108. In those days the heat index had not yet been discovered. Even though it was a hot day, we still had a great time.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Eat a peach. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.