What Others Are Saying
- Dhee on Wrestling with James, Part 4
- Steve on Catching Up with the Changes…
- Steve on Do Something
- shawn everingham on Wrestling with James, Part 4
- Ralph Herring on Wrestling with James, Part 4
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I have been blessed in my life to have lived in two battlefield towns, Manassas, VA and Vicksburg, MS. I have spent many hours exploring and imagining in both fields of war.
During my time in the US Navy, while stationed at Dam Neck Navy Guided Missile School in Virginia Beach, VA , I took the time to walk all over the battlefields of Yorktown. Call me silly, but that place evoked some of the strongest and eeriest feelings and maybe even a sense of Déjà vu.
A little over twelve years ago I took a week long field trip with Kyle to the Washington, DC area. The Navy Memorial, The Vietnam Memorial, and the Korean War Memorial are all places pregnant with meaning. And then there is Arlington National Cemetery… if you have never seen the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns, you are missing a singularly powerful and evocative ceremony.
Preaching here in Gulfport has afforded me far too many opportunities to participate in graveside services at Biloxi National Cemetery. No matter how many times I hear taps, my emotions are always stirred.
Whether ancient battlefield, historic monument, or military cemetery, it’s all sacred ground.
It’s all worthy of our remembering.
It’s all deserving of our honoring.
Sacred ground made sacred by the blood and sacrifice of the men and women who gave all.
Sacred ground, sacred memories…
Fair winds and following seas to all those who have gone on before.
Your memory has not been forgotten.
Les, Jr.
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Blog This! (The latest on Cole and other stuff too) »« Catching Up with the Changes…
The Ferguson household is running crazy like always.
Cole seems to be holding his own for the moment. We think we are seeing some early stages of dementia but with the way this stuff progresses we don’t really know. We just love him and hate to see him have such a horribly hard time. but that’s life–and God is still in control. Can I get an Amen?
Conner will be 13 in a couple of weeks. Hormones galore–but that’s the way it’s supposed to be at this stage. The years are flying by. Isn’t this the age where you can legally put them in a box? Just kidding.
Casey is Casey and keeps us all on our toes. I don’t know if every four year old is a trip, but he certainly is! If you can’t handle the humor and logic of a four year old boy, stop reading and skip to the next paragraph… From his mouth this past Saturday: “Hey. My new underwear has a pocket in it. Whoa. My pocket has a pee pee in it.” How can you not laugh?
Maybe the biggest change is in the life of our oldest son, Kyle who has a birthday in a few weeks as well (24). On June 19, he will marry his beautiful bride-to-be, Karissa Lupo. We are thrilled with her! After their honeymoon, Kyle and Karissa will move to Murray, KY where he will become the new campus minister for “Racers for Christ” at Murray State University.
Life is full of changes.
Some of them are not what we want. But some of them are wondrous indeed.
Give me a few more days, and I’ll be sporting a new number. How in the world did 48 creep up on me?
Like I said, changes…
Headed to Montgomery. Karissa graduates from Faulkner University in the morning…
God bless–enjoy your changes!
Les, Jr.
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-05-02 »« Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-04-25
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Want better elders?
Or maybe a better preacher or youth minister?
How about better deacons?
Or better ministry leaders?
Wish you had a better Bible class teacher for you or your kids?
The easiest and best solution for better is prayer. Pray for them. Pray hard.
Can you imagine a scenario where God wouldn’t help an elder or teacher be better?
If you are not yet getting the hint, try this: I want to be a better elder/ preacher/ bible class teacher. So pray for me. And the funny thing is, when you do, you’ll find yourself better as well.
Have a God blessed, Spirit soaked, and Jesus filled evening!
Les, Jr.
I am excited about preaching this coming Sunday (I usually am but this time feels a bit different).
Sunday is the beginning of our Do Something series/ campaign.
In 2009 Miles McPherson released a book: Do Something–Make your Life Count. The ideas he presents are plain, simple, and very powerful.
Too often we do church and church is just a Sunday morning affair.
Frankly, I can’t do church anymore.
Thank you, Miles.
It is my prayer that we become a people who do something and make a difference in our families and communities!
God Bless!
Les, Jr.
In 1993 alternative rockers Collective Soul released Shine. While I am not really a fan of theirs, this song touches me. It touches me because the lyrics have captured my desire…
Give me a word, give me a sign. Show me where to look, tell me what will I find
Lay me on the ground, fly me in the sky. Show me where to look, tell me what will I find
Oh, heaven let your light shine down
Oh, heaven let your light shine down
Oh, heaven let your light shine down
Oh, heaven let your light shine down
Love is in the water, love is in the air. Show me where to go, tell me will love be there
Teach me how to speak, teach me how to share. Teach me where to go, tell me will love be there
Oh, heaven let your light shine down
Oh, heaven let your light shine down
Oh, heaven let your light shine down
Oh, heaven let your light shine down
Years ago, Don McLaughlin, who preaches for the North Atlanta Church of Christ, wrote a book, Heaven in the Real World. I still have my much underlined old copy. His book also captured my heart’s desire.
I long for heaven and I am greedy. One day God will call me home–but I need a piece of heaven now.
Paul tells us in Ephesians 3: 6 that God has raised us up with Christ and seated us in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus… Sometimes I really wrestle with this verse. If Paul got it right and I know he did, I should be experiencing a bit of heaven here on earth.
How come life often feels like the opposite of heaven?
Somehow, I suspect you can relate.
In Don’s book, chapter five is titled Imitating Heaven’s Touch. The short and sweet is we get to be heaven’s touch in the here and now. Those who are searching for the light of heaven to shine down on them need to see, feel, and know heaven in our words, attitudes, and actions.
Somehow I suspect we find it easier to show a bit of hell than we do a bit of heaven.
And maybe, just maybe, when searching for your own touch of heaven you’ll find it in being the touch of heaven in the life of another.
Shine on, brother, shine on…
May heaven be in your heart and in your touch!
Les, Jr.
Tomorrow is Easter Sunday. Maybe it has escaped your notice. Or maybe you are from a faith tradition that pays little attention to the high holy days of Christianity.
Tomorrow is Easter.
Today we will be dying Easter eggs with Conner and Casey, getting clothes ready for tomorrow, etc. Maybe we’ll even put a roast in the crock pot for Sunday Easter dinner.
But tomorrow is different.
Tomorrow like every Sunday, we will remember that Jesus died and rose again.
Tomorrow, a few more folks than normal will be in worship. Some of them will be there because it’s a traditional thing for them to do. Frankly, we will see some of these folks only a couple of times a year. And some will be there because they are looking, searching for something different.
Maybe it’s a word from God; maybe it’s a bit of human connection with someone who will look beyond the color of their skin or how many times they have been married or whatever it is that has painted the canvass of their life in colors stark and dreary.
So today on Easter’s eve, I pray for those of you who come tomorrow. I pray you hear something you need. I pray you find a connection that is so far missing in your life. I pray you find a place of non-judgment. I pray you find a place of love and acceptance.
I pray you meet the Risen Lord!
Tomorrow is Easter Sunday.
Today I pray…
Les, Jr.
I don’t normally write about politics.
Although I have been a political junky for most of my life, writing and talking about it just wasn’t much on my agenda. That may have to change.
Never have I struggled with as much outrage, indignation, and extreme frustration as I am feeling right now. I foresee a sharp increase in my political activism.
How to balance my anger with my life as a preacher is going to be delicate and tricky–but I believe it can be done. At least I will try.
Freedom is precious to me. It’s why I served for six years in the US Navy.
God bless America. May she withstand all foes, within and without. And, may her people see and understand that violence is not the answer. That is something every all political party must repudiate together.
One final reminder… our greater allegiance is to a Kingdom that will and does surpass any nation of this world!
Les, Jr.
The following sermon is from a on again/ off again series for 2010 called Snapshots of Jesus From the Gospel of John. This particular sermon was a bit revealing and painful, but I choose to use some difficulties from my life to illustrate–I hope the reading of this sermon encourages you to walk…
In 1991, the first commercially successful alternative rock band, R.E.M released their song Shiny Happy People. It was a pretty good song except for one simple fact: many didn’t see themselves as shiny, happy people–and the song was ridiculed, mocked, and parodied.
And I think I get why. Take a look at the people sitting around you? What do you see? When you visited before services or during meet & greet, what did you hear? Did you come expecting to find well dressed, happy, adjusted people? Did you come looking to find a place of light and life, joy and peace? Did you come thinking the good vibes of folks who are doing well and living life might somehow rub off on you? Did you come hoping to hear a word to alleviate your pain or somehow elevate your life?
Another preacher, Marshal Hayden paints a sobering word picture of a church: Over here is a family with an income of $550 a week and an outgo of $1000. Over there is a family with two children who, according to their dad, are ‘failures.’ ‘You’re stupid. You never do anything right,’ he is constantly telling them. That lady just found a tumor that tested positive. Sam and Louise just had a nasty fight and each is thinking of divorce. Last Monday, Jim learned he was being laid off. Sarah has tried her best to cover the bruises her drunken husband inflicted when he came home Friday night. This teen feels like he is on the rack, pulled in both directions. Parents and church pull one way; peers and glands pull the other. “Then there are those of us with lesser hurts, but they don’t seem so small to us: an unresponsive spouse, a boring job, a poor grade, a friend or parent who is unresponsive … on and on the stories go.
The lonely, the dying, the discouraged, the exhausted, the imperfect, they’re all here.
Our snapshot of Jesus today is one of joy and happiness as a need is met and a life is changed. But you need to understand the focal character interacting with Jesus is just like the modern churchgoer–tired of being lonely, discouraged, exhausted, and imperfect.
And if this man was like me or maybe even you, it would be so easy to find hope non-existent or at the very least overwhelmed by circumstances and situations outside of his control.
John 5:1-15…
I get the man at the pool. He’s a searcher, hoping, looking for the magic answer, the easy solution to the major obstacle in his life. I get him because when you have spent the majority of your life overweight, you develop a sixth sense for every gimmick and every pill that offers an easy way out. I get him because I am a parent of a handicapped child desperate for answers that differ from the prevailing medical wisdom. I get him because even if you are not fat, handicapped, blind, paralyzed, or lame, all of us have issues we feel powerless to change!
Can I get an Amen here?
When we meet the invalid–have you ever noticed that one way of pronouncing invalid is in valid–we find him lying by a pool with his particular brand of contemporaries–the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed. The first time we did Special Olympics was a gut wrenching day. That was the day I realized that all these special needs people were my son’s peers–and most of the world would rather shuffle people like that off to a place where they are best unseen. Did the man lying lame for 38 years feel that way? Every fiber of my being knows he would have been hard pressed to feel otherwise. And so here he is, lying by a pool where local legend has an angel from time to time stirring the waters and providing the first one in with the healing they need.
And Jesus shows up. The lame man is just looking for a helping hand to beat the crowd into the pool, but instead of hoping against hope that a legend or superstition would be his answer, Jesus gives him his health.
John 5:8-9a, Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
Instant healing. Instant restoration. Sometime later Jesus sees him and says, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” Physical difficulties sometimes happen as consequence of sin. And for some, life brings heartache and pain because it is a product of a broken world–it’s why bad things happen to good people through no fault of their own.
But there is something worse. There is something worse than the pain of being an invalid for 38 years. Because even if the doctor cures your cancer or restores your sight… even if the best surgeons in the world can repair your heart or rid you of paralysis, only Jesus can restore us to spiritual health–only Jesus can truly heal a heart broken by the absence of God!
Isaiah 53:5, But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
Jesus came and offers life.
He gives us the ability to stand up and walk with Him.
Will you walk?
