Goin' Mercer…ramblings and rants!

CPR and First Aid

Certified to Save Lives

On Monday night of this week I had the opportunity through our Mother’s Day Out program to come to the church and be certified for CPR and First Aid. The course was great! We are certified to give out first aid and CPR to adults, children, and infants. The course had video, practical training, and exams. The best hope we have though, is that it will not be needed. However, if a situation occurs we will know what to do and will be able to respond.

There are some overlapping lessons of CPR and First Aid within the spiritual body as well. I find it interesting as I have meditated on these things that we as Christians do really well with giving spiritual first aid. We like to take things that are broken, swollen, bleeding, or bruised and come to the rescue. We splint, bandage, or care for others with prayer, advice, scripture, encouragement, or healthy touch. However, when a member of the body is showing little to no signs of life, we sometimes fail miserably. How do we resuscitate the body of Christ. 15 compressions and two breaths won’t get the job done. We must find extreme ways and steady ways to give life back to the body. We give life back to the individual and the church.

One of the best things that we learned from our training was that we are not the experts of saving lives. However, we might be the first on the scene. The one thing we can do is something. It doesn’t have to be perfect (like the right number of compressions to breaths), but it must be something. If all we can do is pray, then we pray steadily and without ceasing. If we know the right things to say, then we humbly give advice or encouragement. However, we must know that we are not the expert at saving souls. God in his infinite wisdom gave us Jesus as our ultimate Savior. He is the expert. So, our job is keep them going as we point them to the expert, Jesus Christ.

There are more lessons to be learned from this analogy, but today it is Jesus the expert on Salvation and we must respond to the hurting or dying body by doing something within our God-given gifts to help.

Who is hurting around you? What member of the body has left? Is your church losing its pulse? How can you respond?

-Michael

Happy Birthday Memaw!

September 24, (I Wouldn’t Dare Put the Year)

I just want to give a warm and caring birthday wish to my memaw! Tomorrow is her birthday! She will be forever young in appearance and heart as well. There are certain things that make her memaw:

Short legs, long heels

Big Hair, Small Body

High Spirits, Low height

Loud Laugh, Quiet and comforting Touch

My memaw has been a wonderful grandmother to me. She helped us out when mom went through the divorce. She kept us at her house and never complained about my temper. She loves unconditionally!! She roots for the underdog (which makes her a good Cowboys fan). She has more than once come to my refrigerator and stomach’s rescue. She loves the in-laws (my wife especially). She never gives up. She laughs and loves a good joke. She is faithful! She’s opinionated. She can cook, oh boy can she cook! (where did my mom go wrong) She is a true servant to her family and others. She is a caregiver. She’s a leader (My Pops never had a chance)!! And best of all She is my memaw! God blesses our lives with special people, some come in and out quickly. Others stay a while and continue to bless. Family is a blessing to me. I have been very honored to have such wonderful grandparents on all sides of my family, including my in-laws. However, today September 24, is my memaw’s day. Happy Birthday! May God bless your year with peace, laughter, joy, love, and His strength.

I love you memaw!

-Michael

Renovation Update

I thought I would let you all know how the Junior High room renovation is going. Last night I came into class having a master plan that took all of the floor plans they made and rolled it into one as best I could. We all agreed on the plan and got to work. They removed everything out of the room. All of its furniture, rugs, stereo, and other junk. Then we swept the room. After sweeping we began to tape the outlining of everything that will be present in the room. Next week I have asked a guest speaker to come in a say a few words about making a budget and its importance. We will have a lesson on being good stewards, then we will try to budget out our project. This will most likely determine what will stay or go.

So last night was pretty fruitful, but I am still in prayer as to how we will come up with the money to actually do something in there. We will find out. God is listening!

On another note:

My friend, Sean, and I received good news about one of our projects for a class in preaching. We go next week to actually preach the sermons we are preparing. Also, I am awaiting a username to take my test in my other class. I have sent my request in, yet no username.

I will back blogging on Monday. Have a great weekend!

-Michael

The Running Sheep

Shepherding when it’s not wanted

In Luke’s gospel we are given this great imagery of a shepherd that leaves his 99 sheep to go after the 1 that is missing. He looks everywhere for this sheep and when he finds this sheep he puts it over his shoulder and rejoices.

It is a great story and I greatly appreciate its context of heaven and how we are found in Christ. However, after we are Christians we are continued to be shepherded. I find that in youth ministry the majority is the 99. There are those occasions when you find the one and rejoice. However, there is a third sheep that isn’t mentioned. It is the runaway sheep. This is the student in your ministry that has been a part of the flock and then runs away and every time you go to retrieve this “one” they run further away.

This is a real life struggle with a few students in my ministry right now. I have some that have not been very active in a while that were once core leaders. I need to find some way to bring them back without running them further away.

This is an adventure and I am living it as we speak! Prayers are great! Advice is Wonderful! God is glorious. May God restore his sheep.

-Michael

Jars of Clay

I took a class two weekends ago on Preaching 2 Corinthians. We go back in a couple of weeks to finish it out and are to preach to the class on a selected text. I chose 2 Corinthians 4:7-12. This is the famous “We hold these treasures in Jars of Clay”. This text interests me for many different reasons. One being that our youth ministry name is C.L.A.Y. Ministries. Even though we get our name from the Isaiah 64:8 scripture on clay, anything with clay in it still peaks my interest. Also, another reason is this dichotomy of world and Christ and how we view our own exterior.

Paul makes an urgent plea to the church in Corinth to defend his ministry and support the idea of consolation in affliction. This idea of someone suffering for anything seemed weak to them (sound familiar). So, throughout his letter back to them he continues to display his weaknesses where only God can be strong.

The other part of that is confidence in Christ. Adolescents have great faith in themselves and the Lord. Their bravado and confidence helps them through what we as adults might give up on quickly. They keep their exterior strong so as to fight for the Lord. However, Paul says let it be fragile.

I believe there is a compromise or a merge of the two thoughts within this scripture. Paul is not asking to be a victim. He simply is saying that it is not him who does all these great things, but the Lord. His weaknesses prove God’s strength. If there is anything to boast about it is your sufferings not your abilities. However, the treasure that we hold, which is the strength and spirit of God, is held in our fragile exteriors.

So, when a child or adolescent braves a troublesome period of life with great confidence and faith it is not because they can overcome themselves. It is because through their childlike faith they can allow the strength of inside (Spirit of Christ) hold together their fragile exterior.

This is wonderful imagery from Paul. A weak vessel, with a mighty power inside. We may be weak vessels, but we do not walk with our heads low and victim mentalities. We walk with our head high, strong confidence in our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who overcame death, so that we might as well.

What’s inside your clay pot?

-Michael

A Clean Office

I am not sure what it is, but there is something about cleaning out your office that makes you feel good, purified, less stressed. Yesterday, I took some time to clean my office. My office has been picked up many times during the course of the year, but yesterday I went through hundreds of papers, filed what I needed, trashed what I did not. At the end I could see my desk and my file boxes had much more room. And all of the sudden I felt this great relief.

Tonight in our Wednesday Junior High Renovation class we are talking about cleaning out our lives. How do we purify ourselves? Should we even do so? We will also tonight clean out the junior high youth room and begin to prepare to renovate our room. The two Biblical examples I am using are Josiah and his ridding of the idols and Jesus who cleared the temple of the moneychangers. These are two great examples of how the temple was cleared of ungodly things and purified.

What needs to be cleared from your life? What struggle do you just need to let go of? How can Christ help? How can others walking with Christ help? Maybe it’s fear. Maybe it’s sin. Maybe it’s pride.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” -Psalm 139:23-24

-Michael

Preaching Peace

vs.

Living Peace

Sunday I preached on Mark 4:35-41 where Jesus calms the storm. I preached about how through the power of Christ we are given peace. He has power over the turmoil we have in our lives. The sermon went great and many people had needed that word from God. I needed that word from God.

And then there was Monday. Monday was a great day, but very busy with meetings and a Bible study at our home for the students that night. All went well, yet because it was so busy, Satan worked hard to bring about turmoil and overturn peace. The words of my sermon haunted me only one day later and relied upon God to give me that peace.

I can’t say that peace comes instantaneously, but I can say that it does come. Calm leads to storm and storm back to calm. In the midst of this struggle, though, is where Jesus is lying and upon being waken rebukes the storm with a loud shout of “Peace! Be Still!” and then turns to me and says “Why are you so afraid?, do you still lack faith?” and then my only response becomes the question:

“Who is this man that even the winds and waves obey Him?, Who is this man that brings peace to my storm and why did I not trust it before?”

Trust in Peace and you will trust in Jesus! Let Him take you to the calm.

-Michael

Stan the Puppet

Last year our Mother’s Day Out program (MDO) chose to begin a chapel time with the children. This is quite a challenge considering the oldest children are only 4 years old. However, like a prop comic, I took the easy and exciting way out. I have a puppet. His name is Stan. He is green with orange hair, an ugly polyester shirt, with a gold tooth. The kids love him. By the end of the year they could remember his name and welcome each time I did chapel. Stan never talks out loud, he just whispers in my ear and I tell them what he says. Of course, the kids don’t even realize he doesn’t talk. That’s a good thing, not the lie, but the imagination.

Well Stan is back and today will be his first appearance. Today the chapel will welcome Stan and he will share how being different can be a good thing. We are to accept all people. The chapel is suppose to last 20 minutes. However, my chapel usually last 10 minutes. I think that is just long enough.

Wish Stan and myself well as we teach the kids today.

-Michael

Viewing the Cross

From September 9 (Blog Wouldn’t Work)

As I have prepared for my sermon this week I am working with our worship minister on a video montage (is it really a montage if there are only three video clips?) with a song overlaid. I think it will be extremely effective in helping present my thought. I have planned to use it at the end of my sermon so as not to take away from the oral presentation (something I was warned against in class). However, there has been one glitch in this project. I would like a clip at the end of the video that shows Jesus on the cross and then the people he is saving (the crowd). However, I can not find a clip that will focus on Christ long enough to make a good clip out of it. This so far truth, (I hope to find something today) has made me think of something about our entire Christian faith.

We have a hard time watching Jesus die on the cross. I will say that having never seen someone die in my presence, I may not understand the full magnitude of observing death. However, we complain about Jesus’ death. We can’t watch re-enactments because it’s too disturbing, too bloody, too painful, too real, etc. The truth is that Jesus’ crucifixion was too bloody, too painful, too real, and too perfect. I am not saying that we should start showing every crucifixion movie in our services and pass out popcorn. I am saying that this man Jesus needs to become real in us and for that to be so we must be able to observe the death, the murder we are all guilty of, yet pardoned from.

This is our Jesus, He is our Savior, The ultimate sacrifice. How do you view the cross? Is 10 seconds too much, is it better if it doesn’t feel real? Do you pass the cross to get to the resurrection? Jesus could have passed the cross and been even more creative to save us from our sin, however, he took all the pain, shame, and death to pardon us. Praise His Holy Name!!!

-Michael

Somethings Wrong with This Blog

I promise I wrote a blog yesterday, however, after trying all day to get it to load and this morning I have deleted it and given up. I have too much to do to fight this battle. So I am trying this. If it works then I will blog again. If not you will never know, because it won’t show. You’ll just think that I am being like Brock and not writing.

-Michael