Say Yes God

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I remember in the early days when life was still fresh and did not have the patina that is has today.  There was one day when Beth and I were just married and had bought our first car together, a Volkswagen Jetta, with the factory mag wheels and all.  We were so excited.  One day Beth was driving a stretch of North Council where the shoulder had been washed out and drove off the edge of the road, bending the wheel enough to break the bead on the tire and having a flat.  There was a flat spot on the rim and there was no way it would hold a tire, it was useless and when I checked on a replacement it was $100.  To us, back in 1986, that was a lot of money.  But the parts guy said there was a shop downtown that the guy might (might) be able to do something with it.  I drove up to this hole in the wall tire repair garage, a dark grey painted cinder block building.  He told me to leave it with him; it might break due to the type of metal but if he could fix it it was $25.  I came back two hours later and it looked like a factory rim, no flat spot.  I wanted to give the guy $100 just for fixing it but he just stared at me and shook his head.

When I was a kid, my dad spent the time with me on the farm, letting me watch how to use tools, teaching me how to tell when a bolt I was torquing on with my youthful strength was tight enough and let me break a few bolts in learning “the touch”.  We moved to town and I worked on the cars, for the last two years of my High School I went the first half of the day to the Vo-Tech in Enid and spent three hours in the Auto Mechanics Shop.  To me, at the time in my life, working on cars was my passion.  My mom had preaching in mind for me but she blessed me one day by saying that if I wanted to be an auto mechanic then I could be God’s auto mechanic just fine.  All I had to do was say yes to His calling in whatever I was doing.  As a kid, I would wonder why my dad could spend two hours in the tool section of Sears just looking at walls and shelves of tools without really every buying anything.  I don’t know that I ever saw him buy anything.  Several years ago, he gave me his Craftsman toolbox full of the tools he had so carefully spent time collecting.  I don’t know how old they are but they have seen and heard quite a bit of knuckle-busting-name-calling-flying through the air in their lifetime.  I cherish those tools, because they were given to me by dad and that they are so useful.  Ever try to do something and you find you don’t have the right tool?  It’s so frustrating and often you will spend way more time trying to do a job without the right tool than if you equipped your toolbox with what you need.

So that’s life; you are taught, you study, you gain experience, you are given the tools that you need and once in a while you surprise someone (sometimes yourself) and use it to benefit others.  How great is it to just smile and shake your head at their excitement?  It’s pretty great.

Brian Herrian finds himself on the path of life that he would never have chosen for himself but it turned out that it is the exact path he needed to be on.  He wouldn’t trade for it.  Husband to Beth and Dad to Corban, the path Abba put Brian on gave him vision to see God everywhere.

A Samaritan traveling the road came on the injured man. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. The he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, “Take good care of him.” Luke 10. 25-33

Did you hear the story about the experiment a seminary professor conducted with his preaching students?  He asked each of his students to prepare a message on the “Good Samaritan” for a radio broadcast.  The professor then arranged for a man to feign a heart attack on the sidewalk in front of his building where his students were on their way to preach their sermon.  Ready for this?  I every instance the seminary student stepped around the “dying” victim in order to deliver his sermon on the “Good Samaritan.” I must confess that I find the story somewhat believable. Jesus reminds us here in this text that the success or failure of a given day is measured by the quality of interest and compassion toward those around us. The question is not how we feel about our neighbor, but what we have done for him or her.  The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?”  The first question asked by the Good Samaritan was the opposite, “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”

I was hungry and you formed a humanities club to discuss it. I was imprisoned, but you just complained about the crime rate.  I was naked, and you debated the morality of my appearance.  I was sick and you thanked God for your health.  I was homeless and you preached to me about the shelter of God’s love.  You seem so holy and so close to God; but I’m still hungry, lonely, cold and in pain. Ouch.

Dave Lewis is on the Pastoral Care team at the Keller Campus. He blogs daily at The Gentle Healer.

It was happening again. Here was a good friend begging me for a moment of my time to just catch up. She needed an ear. She needed some input. She needed a friend. I scanned through my planner.
“I have … uh… Tuesday night at 9.”
Her eyes flickered with disappointment. “Oh.”
I searched for a more reasonable time, but somehow I had managed to fill my schedule with … stuff. Some of it was good stuff too. Church events. Freelance contracts. And some of it was useless. TV Show finale parties. TV show premiere parties.
I had somehow managed to make myself so busy that I no longer had time for the important stuff.

Know the feeling? Are you spread so thin in your personal and work life that you no longer have time for the most important things? The checklist of things you “should be doing” just grows and grows as the list of things you don’t really have to do fills up your calendar.

Today, make someone feel more important than your day planner.

“Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves.  If you see some brother or sister in need and can do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.” I John 3:17-18

It was about 3:30 in the morning on March 13, 1964, when 28-year-old Kitty Genovese was returning to her home in a nice middle-class area of Queens, NY.  She parked her car in a nearby parking lot, turned off the lights and started the walk to her second floor apartment some 35 yards away.  She got as far as a streetlight when a man grabbed her.  She screamed.  Lights went on in the 10-floor apartment building nearby.  She yelled, “Oh, my God, he stabbed me!  Please help me!”  Windows opened in the apartment building and a man’s voice shouted, “Let that girl alone.”  The attacker looked up, shrugged and walked off down the street.  Ms. Genovese struggled to get to her feet.  Lights went back off in the apartments.

The attacker came back and stabbed her again.  She again cried out, “I’m dying! I’m dying!”  And again the lights came on and windows opened in many of the nearby apartments.  The assailant again left,  got into his car and drove away.  Ms. Genovese staggered to her feet as a city bus drove by.  It was now 3:35 a.m.  The attacker returned once again.  He found her in a doorway at the foot of the stairs and he stabbed her a third time — this time with a fatal consequence.  It was 3:50 when the police received the first call. They responded quickly and within two minutes were at the scene, but Ms. Genovese was already dead.

Remember the story in the Bible about the Good Samaritan? Do you remember that he was commended precisely because he acted?  The priest and Levite, paragons of Jewish virtue, flunked the test because they didn’t do anything when they saw the need.  Jesus asked, “Which of these three, in your opinion, was a neighbor to the man who fell in with the robbers?”  The answer came, “The one who treated him with compassion.”  Jesus said to them, “Then go and do the same.”

Today I am hearing these haunting words of the Great Rabbi saying to each of us, “Go and do the same.”

Dave Lewis is on the Pastoral Care team at the Keller Campus. He blogs daily at The Gentle Healer.

I hate making the second grocery store run of the pay period. We are already out of everything, but can only buy the essentials without busting up our budget. I feel Dave Ramsey perched on my shoulder like Blackbeard’s parrot eyeing my every selection. “Cubed cheese?,” he chides. “CUBED CHEESE?” Buy the 8 oz chunk and hack it up yourself, you lazy over-spender!”

During a recent trip I was at the register loading our stuff on the conveyor belt. A friend of mine got in line behind me and we chatted while waiting. When the checker finished, I pulled out my debit card. Suddenly, I heard a “Wait, Don’t run that!” from my friend. I looked up thinking I was mistakenly overcharged or something, but instead she gave the checker her card.

She bought my groceries. All of them.

“You don’t have to do that!” I said, but I could see by her smile that it was a pleasure. I couldn’t help it. I started crying right there in line at Super Target. THEN, the cashier started crying. I mean really, who goes to Super Target to be nice? I thanked my friend profusely and got all of my stuff in the car.

I was so blessed that on the way home I called a few friends and to tell them the story. I dialed and talked all the way home, and an amazing thing happened. Everyone I told was inspired to do the same thing for someone else. It gave me chills.

Because of the overflow of love in one woman’s heart, the ripple effects of blessing are as follows:

Me
My Husband
My Sons
Cashier
My mom
Several Friends
Unknown number of people who will be similarly blessed by those named above

And of course… you.

That is a huge return for a simple act of generosity. So, what could you do with $93.86?

Andi is a freelance writer and the mother of two young sons. When she is not clipping coupons, she chronicles life with little boys on her blog “Tales From the Running Mama” at www.tobyncharlie.blogspot.com.

Maybe saying “yes” to God simply means saying “no” to everything else. My house is really good at staying busy. Know the feeling? The countless lists of to-do, honey-do, should-do, wanna-do and then the list of things that we actually prioritize enough to finish … how much of these things are unnecessary and keeping me from saying “YES” to Him?

If my heart was turned toward the Father alone, the peripherals would pale, fade and perhaps I would discover some of them never mattered at all.

Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced.  Therefore, I have set my face like a stone, determined to do his will. And I know that I will not be put to shame. [Isaiah 50:7, NLT]

You may have recently seen the movie Yes Man starring Jim Carrey.  The movie was inspired by a book authored by Danny Wallace.  The story goes that Danny Wallace was falling into loneliness and isolation until one day, when a stranger on a bus simply advised, “say yes more”.  It was at that moment Wallace vowed to say yes to every offer, invitation, challenge and chance for a year.  Soon after resolving to be more open to what the universe had to offer, Danny wins $45,000, becomes a television executive and a minister.  He gives spare change to anyone who asks, invents things, travels the globe, nods a lot and finds that romance isn’t as complicated as it seems.  What a drastic change!

I began thinking about the things people miss simply by saying “no”.  I took a quick stroll through Genesis, the first book of the Bible, and here is a short list of things associated with a “no”…

• If Adam would have said no, nothing would have a name, thanks Adam!
• If Noah would have said no, he would have drowned
• If Abram would have said no, he would still live in Haran and missed fathering a nation.
• If Esau would have said no, he would still hold a grudge against his brother.
• If Joseph would have said no, his family would have starved in Canaan.

Thankfully, these people said yes and history was made.

I can think of several times that I have said no and today I’m wondering what my life would look like if my “no’s” were actually “yeses”?  How about you?  Can you think back on times that you have said no and then later realized you missed a blessing?  What an adventure to say yes to God before we know the question.  Who knows…Danny Wallace’s story could be your story…and you might even save a life…

Danny Stokes is the Denton Campus Pastor.

Saying “Yes, God” is sometimes easier said than done.  Just after my husband was laid off last September, I was basking in the early morning stillness of our kitchen.  As I read about the call of Elisha (I Kings 19:19-21), God spoke clearly to my spirit, “Just as Elisha destroyed his former means of livelihood, get rid of yours.”

I had never really intended to return to my former career as a civil engineer, so what He asked was not a huge sacrifice.  God has clearly called me into ministry.  But, in the back of my mind (and in a box in a dark corner of our attic) the opportunity had always been there—every project, certification, test and timesheet to prove my ability should we need money for kids’ college or even groceries.

As the months passed with no job in sight for my husband, I would occasionally be reminded of the task that sat undone.  Other than that, I wasn’t hearing much from God.  I’d sit before Him in a stupor each morning wondering why our relationship wasn’t what it used to be.

Never overbearing, yet never willing to give up, God would occasionally remind me of the box.  My perception that it was not a big deal, combined with the mice that had been up there last fall, caused me to put off obeying Him for six months.  When I finally retrieved the box, I dumped it all—well, all except one very thin folder that summarized everything.  After all, what would that hurt?  “The bleating of sheep” (I Samuel 15:14) rang in my ears for three days.  Early Sunday morning, the Spirit told me what I had to do.  As I ran the last of the pages through the shredder, I fell to my knees, then on my face, in worship.  A sense of God’s presence poured over me.  As Samuel reminded Saul in his disobedience,

“What is more pleasing to the LORD:
your burnt offerings and sacrifices
or your obedience to his voice?
Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice.”
I Samuel 15:22 NLT

Have you committed something to God, but are still holding onto an opportunity to opt out?

May we obey you, Lord…even when it’s no big deal in our eyes, even when it doesn’t make sense, even when we look like fools.

Teri Jones is a wife, mom and part-time homeschooler who loves hiking, scuba diving, rock climbing and rafting.  Teri is the Volunteer Coordinator at the Keller Campus and thanks God for setting her free to really live.

It was November 2006, when I came to realize something about my work.  Standing in the dumpster, a literal dumpster, as a warehouse manager, I realized that I was smashing down boxes in order for us to get more boxes into the dumpster.  But wait, I have a four year college degree in youth ministry. What the heck am I doing in a dumpster?  How did I get here?  I turned to Lobo Vongsakda, my co-worker and asked him the same question I had just asked myself.  He smiled and nodded and handed me more boxes. I couldn’t help but start laughing.

There have been times in my life when I have just not wanted to express the power of a loving Father into the lives of my coworkers.  Various reasons of why are on the list but the biggest reason is simply one word…”No.”  I discovered I had a disease, a fairly common disease that overtakes us at times and it had overtaken me.  I had cognitive dissonance. What? What is that? Simply stated, it is attempting to hold onto two beliefs of conflicting thought at the same time. The conflict results in being miserable and life basically being, well, not good. I had been hearing Abba’s voice prompting me to be true to him, to be true to the calling that I had heard long ago and still heard.  I just didn’t want to think that the place where I was standing was the place I was supposed to serve.

It was in the dumpster where I said yes to God.  And saying “yes” was me being tired of the results of having said “no” for long enough that I didn’t want to say “no” anymore.  That week, my life changed for the better.  In fact the next morning I began to notice the change.  I spoke truthfully about my faith and told my story about how I got where I was without fear of rejection.  It didn’t matter anymore because my heart, the new heart that Abba gave me, had also said yes.

Unexpected events began to happen in my life and that of my family.  Life became smoother making the rough spots easier to handle and family life began to grow better. I was at peace instead of conflict even standing in the dumpster.  Letting go of the conflicting thought that was standing in the way of God’s work in me opened up a new room in my mind and I again began to see God everywhere. I started seeing answers to prayers… some things I had even forgotten about. Someone gave me a truck, I found my dream job, and that’s just part of all that God began to open up for me.

There are many other unexpected events that captured my attention. The best thing is none of the monetary or like-mannered gifts we received even begin to compare to the worth of what Abba gave to me a long time ago.  The gift of a son, His son, and saying “yes” to the calling he had heard from his Abba which lead him to a cross and which lead him to me in the dumpster, has changed my life forever.  I wonder what would happen if you said yes to God?

Brian Herrian finds himself on the path of life that he would never have chosen for himself but it turned out that it is the exact path he needed to be on.  He wouldn’t trade for it.  Husband to Beth and Dad to Corban, the path Abba put Brian on gave him vision to see God everywhere.