Pre Cinco de Mayo Celebration!

join us for lunch

Sunday, April 27

at Mike and Cindy's

Tacos! a Pinata! Mucho fun!

RAINED OUT!

...by one tiny isolated thundershower that dropped 2.5 inches on Spring!

Stay tuned and stay ready!

HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE

If your brother sins against you, go and rebuke him in private.

If he listens to you, you have won your brother.
Matthew 18:15

Sounds simple enough. So why do precious few people ever follow Jesus’ instructions?

First, there is the GO part. When someone offends us, normally the last thing we want to do is meet the offender face to face unless we’re able to get in their face, and that’s not exactly what Jesus is talking about. If we can’t tell them off, we normally choose to write them off, and then we nurse a grudge until our bitterness threatens to turn to downright hatred.

Next, there’s the PRIVATE issue. I mean, seriously? How many times have we been wronged and actually kept quiet about it? No behind-the-back whispers…no irate emails…no feigned “prayer requests” for the offender with a few juicy details thrown in…no phone conversations that turn into full-fledged roasts…no off-handed “jokes” to cover the hurt.

The LISTEN part is a challenge because it implies we’re going to not only GO in PRIVATE, but then we’re going to have the peace of mind to do more than share a piece of our minds. No one would listen if our goal were to defend our own honor, blow off steam or smear shame and guilt everywhere we feel it belongs. No doubt Jesus is talking about more than giving vent to our feelings here.

Finally, the WON part makes it a done deal. Few of us are ever interested in doing more than winning the argument, making a point, or having the final word. After all, isn’t that the definition of sweet victory?

Not according to Jesus. He’s talking about winning the other person to Christ. First, taking the initiative to GO for that purpose alone. Not to confront, but to conform the other person to the mind of Christ about the issue involved. In PRIVATE. Without telling a single soul. With an interest in protecting the other person’s reputation more than in defending our own. To say with love what the other person may be willing to LISTEN to if he or she is convinced that I have come for his or her sake, to WIN the other person over to the righteousness of Christ. Not to point out how deeply they’ve wounded us, but to spell out how far they’ve strayed from the heart of God. As someone wisely said, Don’t point AT the sheep…point TO the Shepherd.

It’s not natural to want to respond this way to a person who has wounded us. And most of the people around us would encourage us to either write the person off or blast her with everything she deserves.

But, as Christians, we don’t have to act naturally. And we certainly aren’t obliged to react the way the world responds. In fact, we can act supernaturally because we are called to kingdom, not wordly, living, and we are invited to think and respond and conduct ourselves like Christ.

One more item of responsibility we bear as Christians. We need to make sure we don’t become the sounding board for another Christian brother or sister who has been wronged. In other words, when someone else comes to us to share the details about how they’ve been wronged, we need to have the guts to refuse to listen. Instead, we should guide them to follow the instructions given by Jesus: go in private, share the Truth so they will listen, and do everything in your power to win them to Christ.

That, my friend, would result in sweet victory.

THE TENSION IS MOUNTING...

Our two (currently undefeated) class softball teams...

Glory Daze and Big League Chew...

will face off on Tuesday, April 22 at 8 PM!

Make plans to be there (at the church softball field)!

We have come full circle. When our family moved to Houston from Mississippi four years ago, it was the hardest thing any of us had ever done. Never, in a million years, would I have dreamed that our close little family of five would leave the Mississippi Gulf Coast, let alone the blessed Magnolia State itself! But, believing that God was leading us to Texas, we hosted our eldest daughter's dream wedding and the next day we loaded up our belongings and moved to Houston. For months on end we were tempted to believe we had made a mistake. Our youngest daughter, Lia, missed her sisters, grandparents, friends and dance teacher, and she felt very much like a minnow in a big sea at Klein High School. But we stubbornly insisted on trusting God and believed the promise we felt He had given us that, if we were faithful, He would bless Lia's life by revealing Himself to her. Four years later, we can attest to God's loving faithfulness. Not only has Lia grown to love and trust the Lord, but she has grown to love Texas. In fact, our biggest concern for the past few months of her senior year has been that she would choose to attend one of the Lone Star State's fine universities, not one of which is less than a 10-hour drive to our daughters' homes in Mississippi. Yep. First she was devastated about her move to Texas, and now she would be devastated to leave. So, we prayed. And we tried our best not to manipulate or coax her with scholarship offers from Mississippi. But, a couple of months ago, the Lord finally got hold of me and basically said, "Let her go. You can trust Me with her future. I have brought her this far. I've got a plan and it's a good one." And I knew it was true. I have no business thinking I know what is best for any of my daughters. Why, had it been up to me, I would have kept us in our comfort zone in Mississippi and we would have missed out on all the blessings the Lord has showered on us in Spring, Texas. It was a trust issue, and if there's one thing I know, it's that the Lord God is trustworthy. So, I let her go. I mean I truly let her go. I took her to tour Texas university campuses and even helped her ponder whether she would look better in maroon or green. With all sincerity, I asked God to move Lia to whatever university He had in mind, no matter how near or far it might be. And, as I leaned on Him, I began to be perfectly okay with whatever the future might hold. Then, on our way back from a Texas university I was almost certain Lia would end up attending, she made an announcement that stunned us all: "I have decided I was born to be a Bulldog." As in, Mississippi State University! We are thrilled. Our daughters and sons-in-law are thrilled (all but one of them attended and loved MSU). And, best of all, Lia is thrilled. The Lord looks down from heaven; He observes everyone. He gazes on all the inhabitants of the earth from His dwelling place. He alone crafts their hearts; He considers all their works. (Psalm 33:13-15). GO DAWGS!