Hey all,Good Monday morning.  There will be no video this morning!  I know…I know…what will you ever do without it!

Thank you all for the weekend away to work on a project at my dad’s house.  It was a glaring safety issue that Sherry and I felt needed to be addressed after we took him home from his visit earlier this fall.  He almost fell down between the house and the steps!  This was a weekend my brother in KC could get away and help with it but more on that to come.  I will show you a couple of pictures at the end to see what transpired.

We thought this project wouldn’t be so big that we couldn’t get it done in a day.  However, it turned out to be about a 20-hour project!  We had to get the materials we wanted about 45 minutes away.  They cost more than anticipated and I didn’t want to make another trip if I ran short after hours so I bought extra plus some other stuff for “possible” things we might find.  The stairs had settled so they weren’t level.  We didn’t want to break up the concrete and haul it away.  We thought we would just build over them.  Ha! My brother got sick on Friday and couldn’t make it.  He was bringing one of the most important tools – a portable table saw!  Since he didn’t make it everything had to be ripped with a circular saw which increased the amount of time and effort.

Why am I sharing this?  Well, it is a lot like serving others in a nutshell.  Serving others in need can get messy.  This project didn’t go near the way I had hoped.  It got frustrating at times but once you are in the middle of it you have to finish it.  Set aside the fact that it cost more financially and in time, it cost more in terms of physical discomfort!  Twenty years ago Sherry and I would have finished this up without much fatigue and muscle soreness and joint pain!  A lot changes in twenty years even though we work out pretty regularly.  You don’t train in some of the positions we found ourselves in!

Have you found yourself shying away from serving?  Sometimes we don’t really want to do something even though we know it needs to be done. Sometimes we don’t want to serve the people we serve.  I will be honest with you.  My dad isn’t always the easiest to serve.  Every time we get together and Sherry cooks for him my dad will walk up to the stove and peek in the pan or the pot or even the crockpot and ask “What is this *!+%?”  Then he might say, it isn’t that bad or that’s not the way I would have done it. Or even, that’s not the way Mom would have done it. Listen, he eats frozen Jimmy Dean sausage bowls for breakfast!  Sherry made biscuits and gravy and the gravy was too spicy and the biscuits too hard.  By the way, I was in charge of biscuits and I know they weren’t too hard because I like soft, doughy breads!

He had to leave before we finished on Sunday because he had plans to go see one of my nephews acting in a play in a Lincoln (NE) theater company production.  And at 86 years old that was okay because otherwise he just “supervised.”  I had to return some lumber and take my other nephew’s truck back to him when we finished early  Sunday evening.   I was putting gas in the truck when my dad called having just returned home from the play in Lincoln.  “Hey, just wanted thank you for spending your weekend doing that.  It looks nice and I like the handrail.”  Say what?  Goodness gracious a thank you!  Now he did add that there a few things he thinks we need to tweak next time I am up.  Some things never change.

If my earthly father recognized the time and effort – for the most part – what do you think our Heavenly Father recognizes?  I hope it was “Well done, good and faithful servants!”  Think about that the next time you are contemplating serving but think only about the hassle, the people you are serving, the time and effort…and the idea that nobody might notice.  God notices and greatly appreciates you sacrificing your time, finances and energy.

I will be in the office this week on Tuesday & Thursday from 9:30 am until 12:30 pm.  Wednesday night will find me at Wednesday Night Life at MABC?  How about you? Will we see you for supper at 6 pm?

Rick Neubauer
But you man of God, flee from all of this and pursue righteousness, godliness,  faith, love, endurance and gentleness.  I Timothy 6:11

Good Morning MABC family and friends,

In our small group we are working on our marriages doing a study called the Art of Marriage.   Last night’s session had a speaker who mentioned 1 Corinthians 13, the so called “Love Chapter.”  He said that a good test was to substitute your name every time the word love appears.  Love is patient, love is kind would become Rick is patient…oops. Blew it!  Rick is not very patient.  Hence, a written Monday Rewind instead of the video one.  I will get it up hopefully later this evening.

Yesterday we talked about lives falling apart.  How do we handle circumstances when our life seems to be falling apart?  Well, there is often another question that accompanies that one. It is “Why do good people suffer?” That is a difficult question to answer.  There is no perfect way to respond.  So, let’s take a look at that idea of good people suffering and see what we can make of it.

There are some misleading ideas out there that I want to tackle.  The first one is that all suffering comes from God.  Wrong!  Satan would love for you to believe that.  Since the beginning of time, Satan has sought to deceive us and discredit God.  In the Garden of Eden he convinced Eve that God was trying to hold her back, keep her down.  They didn’t need to obey God because if they ate of it they would be like God. Satan is a liar.  In fact, the Bible says he is the father of all lies.  All suffering does not come from God.

The second idea is that suffering comes because of the sin committed by the one suffering. Partial truth here. There are times when we suffer because of poor choices we make. We will talk about accountability next week, about owning our sin.  But to say that ALL suffering is the consequence of our sin is not completely true.  I told you yesterday that Sherry’s sister was killed by a drunk drive.  Anita was on her way home from Christmas shopping and the lady who hit her was fleeing from Walmart where she had been caught stealing $50 worth of Hello Kitty merchandise. $50!   Anita’s husband and daughter as well as her siblings suffered the consequences of the drunk driver’s choices.  The lady driving also caused severe consequences for family as she was married and the mother of young children.  Hard to be part of the family when you are in prison.

So, does God cause suffering?  I don’t know that he causes suffering but I know he uses it for our own good.   He uses suffering to push us to the limits of our faith.  The only way for our faith to grow is to exercise it just like I am exercising patience today. And as our faith grows a little in suffering it becomes stronger.  Then we have to have a little more suffering to get to the next growth stage and then the next and the next.  We talked about running and weightlifting yesterday.  You have to do one more mile or one more rep to get stronger and then your body adapts and you have to do one more than the last time.  Rinse and repeat.   All things work together for the good of those who are called to his purpose (Rom 8:28).

Please remember that James said we are to consider it an opportunity for joy when we suffer.  Know that God is allowing it because he loves you and wants you to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Chris (2 Peter 3:18).  In addition, shift your perspective on suffering.  Quit seeing it as a negative experience and try seeing it in a positive light.  You see, sometimes we may feel like we are beyond God’s reach for the things we have done and the consequences we have endured.  Instead try seeing them as a loving Father redeeming you and restoring you all the while saying…This is going to hurt me a little more than it hurts you.

Be joyful in whatever comes your way this week.  If I have enough patience there will be a video on FB before the night is over!!!  Rick is patient, Rick is patient, Rick is patient, Rick is…

Rick Neubauer