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I AM ENJOYING A QUIET MORNING AT THE OVERLOOK at UCSC, spending a few hours of reflection and prayer, seeking to focus my atten-tion upon the Lord and His Word; seeking direction for the days ahead, but there is so much around me to grab my attention, to shift my focus.
There are the ever-expanding views as the morning mist begins to lift over the city of the Holy Cross. There are the sounds of nature mixed with the sounds of passing cars. There is a gentle breeze that passes through the open window of my car, and there are words, both spoken and written which jar my thoughts. Not all these distractions are bad, in fact some are created for me to enjoy, but they can be overwhelming so as to make it near impossible for me to stay focused upon the task at hand, which is to listen to the Spirit of God.
As I contemplate this I realize that this lack of focus is often true in the life of the Body of Christ. There is so much that grabs our attention as the church, much of it good, but it can keep us from remaining focused upon the key tasks that we have been given by our Lord.
As followers of Jesus Christ our focus is primarily to “make disciples of all nations.” Which begins with helping people to see Jesus for who He is, and to help them understand all that He has accomplished for them. Sadly, I think we often are so caught up in the sights, sounds and smells of ministry, that we lose focus and in doing so accomplish more while ac-complishing less.
May our focus be always upon Him, and His kingdom work, and may any distractions be only divine.

THEY SAY THAT, “GOOD NEWS TRAVELS FAST,” and I say, “Bad news just never leaves.” Too often all we hear is the bad news. Wars, rumors of wars, hurricanes, earthquakes, famine, floods, genocide, and the list goes on. Add to that list our own personal “bad news stories” and our world can get downright depressing. Bring on the Prozac!
I think we need to hear some good news, don’t you? It’s time to hear that there is both rhyme and reason to the world in which we live. That the story that has been written, and is in the process of being written, has an Author whose heart’s desire is for our good.
We can read this story, in greatest detail in the pages of our Bible. It is a story of love given, rejected, and given again. It is a story of broken plans and renewed hope. It is a story of pain and healing, of forsaken-ness and forgiveness. It is the story of God’s unending love for His crea-tion, and the unfathomable lengths he went to in order to demonstrate that love to us. It is a story of good news.
In this week’s passage from Acts 13, we encounter the Apostle Paul setting out upon his missionary journey to bring the good news to his world. As he encounters people in his travels he relates to them, in con-cise form, the redemptive story of God’s love. It is a story that always bears repeating. It is a story that has been told over and over throughout the ages. It is a story that is tirelessly eternal, and intensely personal.
This past week I put it to the participants of my blog (pastorsstudy. blogspot.com) to try their hand at communicating God’s story (His-Story) as the Apostle did. A couple of them took up the challenge and did so with very good results. I commend their writings to you, and would en-courage you to try your hand at ‘writing the story,” it’s a good process.
Yes, there IS good news in the world, and as followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to be the communicators of that good news, whether we write it, speak it, sing it, paint it, or dance it, we are to live it for the world to “read.”

LIFE HURTS. Life, by its very nature, contains various types of pain. There is of course physical pain, but let us not forget emotional or spiri-tual pain. We all experience pain in varying degrees from the time we are born until the time we die. Yes, pain is one of life’s basic realities.
Some pain we experience is self-inflicted either purposefully (like banging your head against the wall in a fit of frustration) or inflicted by ac-cident (as in banging your thumb with a hammer.)
Some pain is other-inflicted. An unkind word, or a slug to the solar plexus. With one having much longer effect than the other.
Some pain is life-inflicted. The cancer or tumor or hurricane. There’s not much you can do but to seek to endure and pray for mercy.
Yes, pain happens, of this we can be sure, but the question that is truly before us is, “How do we deal with the pain we experience?” Do we complain or strike back? Do we give-in or seek to conquer it? Do we medicate or meditate? I suppose that throughout one’s life we respond in all of these ways, I know that I have.
How are we to deal with the pains that we experience in this life? I have discovered that one of the things that makes pain bearable, be it physical, emotional or spiritual, is whether or not I have hope. Knowing that the pain will stop after awhile gives me the strength to endure physi-cal pain. Knowing that there are others who love and accept me gives me the ability to endure emotionally draining experiences. And the knowledge that there is a God who loves me, and is at work in me, and has created a home for me, helps me to carry on in the journey of faith.
The words of the Apostle Peter have often brought me comfort during the painful periods of my life and I pray they do the same for you. He writes, “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 5:10-11)
Therein is my hope.

KEEP IT SUPREMELY SIMPLE. Contained in that statement is a great operating system for life. I believe it is echoed in the words of Moses when he said, “Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other.” (Deuteronomy 4:39)
This is one of the aspects of our faith that I so very much appreciate: its simplicity of focus. We do not have to keep a long list of gods that we must appease. We do not have to remember which god wants what when. We, in fact, do not even have to wonder if were worshipping the correct god, because according to the passage quoted above, “There is no other.” How simple is that?!
The key therefore in living our daily lives is to keep what is “supreme” in our lives “simple.” The God, spoken of in the Bible, is the One who said, “You must not have any other gods but me.” (Exodus 20:3) Why? Simply because there are no other gods but Him. Our task is thus to keep this one true God supreme.
How? The Apostle Peter writes that we are to “set apart in our hearts Christ as Lord.” (1 Peter 3:15) That is we are to consider what Jesus wants before, and over, what we want. We are to remember that He is Creator and we are the created. He is Lord and we are servant. He is Eternal and we are finite. He is all-knowing and all-powerful and we are so very limited. He is God, and we are not.
Our lives are to be lived in simple obedience to His almighty suprem-acy. Living life like He matters.
Simple. Not necessarily easy, but simple nonetheless.