Growing up I spent 4 ½ years living in Hawaii. Before you get jealous, my family moved to Hawaii when I was 3 and left after I finished the second grade. My older brother and sister could tell you more about Hawaii than I ever could. I do remember a few things, I remember having a coconut palm tree in our yard, and a playground not too far from our house. One thing I do remember was going to school at Nimitz Elementary School. The school was named after Admiral Chester Nimitz, who was the commander and chief of the Pacific fleet during World War II.

As a child, I never thought much of who my school was named for, but as an adult it is something that I cherish. For example, it was Nimitz who said of the men who fought the battle of Iwo Jima, “Among those who served on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue.”  If you study his life and career, you will discover that Nimitz was a visionary leader who worked to develop a strategic plan. He knew the importance of empowerment and delegation and was adaptable and a lifelong learner. These characteristics made Nimitz a formidable leader. But what made him Great was his humility. Nimitz was known for putting the sailors first. He lived this out by investing  time in the men under his command and made sure that he met with every commanding officer that came to Pearl Harbor. When he died in 1966, the year I was born, he could have been laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery, but he left orders that he was to be buried with his men.

Nimitz encapsulates the words of Jesus, “For he who is least among you all is the one who is great” (Luke 9:38). True humility is what makes one great. Humility flies against our nature. By nature, we are proud people who seek to promote ourselves. We want to be great. But Jesus taught us that greatness comes first to those who die to themselves. In whatever you do seek to put others first and will be on the path to greatness.

I grew up in Southern Baptist churches. Because of this, I was a part of Royal Ambassadors (RAs), a program for boys that taught us about missions. The levels you went through were called Lads, Pages, Squires and Knights. When we lived in Fayetteville, NC our church sent us to RA camp at Camp Caraway. This was a week-long camp, where boys from across the state came together for fun, crafts, swimming, archery, hiking, and of course to learn more about Jesus.  I have fond memories and not so fond memories of camp. I was told that I fell off the top bunk in the middle of the night and did not wake up. But I guess the not so fond memory was getting homesick. Most of the time, I was so busy that I did not have time to be homesick, but when things got quiet, I would think of home.

As a Christian, I still get homesick. This world is not my home. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:1, For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Paul calls our bodies a tent. You live in a tent when you are not home. We have a home in heaven. There are times when my longing to be home is so great, that I cannot think of anything else. Yet, as long as I am here, I have work to do. God has called me to be His witness so that others can know Him.

As a youth, we sang a song in youth choir called, Home, Where I Belong, by B.J. Thomas. The words says:

And when I’m feeling lonely,

and when I’m feeling blue.

It’s such a joy to know that I am only passing through.

I’m headed home,

going home,

where I belong.

But the words also say, While I am here I will serve him gladly. So even though, I get homesick, I have a job to do and so do you.

I spent a part of my childhood years living in Fayetteville, NC. Fayetteville is in the sandhills. One of the most dreaded things as a child living in the sandhills were sandspurs. Sandspurs are the spiny seed pods of a grassy weed. The sandspur was a painful reminder that you needed to wear shoes when you walked through the grass in the summer. But you did not have to be barefooted to feel their pain. The sandspurs would stick to your socks, pant legs, shoestrings, and anything it could attach itself. Then you had to pick them off and most of the time those spiny protrusions went into your finger. Ouch!

Sandspurs are not the only thing that can stick to you. The character, behavior, and morals of people we surround ourselves with can stick to us. Paul says in  1 Corinthians 15:33, “Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”  The reason is that it is much easier for people to pull you down to bad behavior then it is to lift them up to good. We need to be very careful of who we have as our closest friends. Proverbs 13:20 says “He that walks with the wise will be wise, but a companion of fools will suffer harm”.

This does not mean that we cannot be friendly with everyone, we need to build relationships with people in order to be a witness. But we need to make sure our closest friends will help us grow in the Lord rather than away from him. Choose your friends wisely, so that the right things stick to you.

With the rise of various movie and television apps, you now can go back and watch television shows and movies from when you grew up. I was born in the mid 1960’s and I remember watching television shows from that era on reruns, as well as shows from the 70’s and 80’s as well.  What is interesting is that many of the shows that I enjoyed as a child, are now what can I say are kind of dumb. I sit back and wonder why I found them so enjoyable. You know the answer, I’ve grown up. I have matured and have put away childish things.

As Christians we are called to grow up. Yes, Jesus said, ““Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”  Everyone one of us should always have a child like faith that simply believes it is so, when it is not so, simply because God said so. But we are not to have a childish faith. The Bible urges us to go onto maturity. We must grow up in our faith.

Years living as a Christian does not produce maturity. We see that in evidence today as so many men refuse to grow up and remain boys playing with their toys. To mature spiritually, we must embrace spiritual discipline.  We grow in our understanding through bible study, meditation, and memorization. We grow in our relationship with God through prayer and fasting. We grow in our service through worship, evangelism, and ministry. We grow in our relationship with others through fellowship and love. Just like a child requires someone to help them as they grow, we need others to help us. So, find someone who is a mature believer and ask them to help you grow up.

Years ago, drinks came in glass bottles. Not everyone saved their bottles but through them out on the side of the road. Those bottles could be returned for cash. As a kid, that was a gold mine. One of the memories I have of growing up was looking for bottles so that we could take it to the store to get some money. Of course, that money went to buying penny candy. When you were looking for bottles, you had to keep a sharp eye out for them. You would walk beside the road, looking for something shiny. When you saw it, you would try to get it in bushes, briars or whatever you had to go through to get it. A broken bottle would break your heart, but a whole one was a jackpot. I wish I could say that all of the bottles we picked up were discarded, unfortunately some of them may have been found on a back porch or two. For the most part, however, it was the hard work of keeping a watch out for bottles.

The bible tells us that we are to keep watch. 1 Peter 5:8 says “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”  We have to have a sharp eye to keep watch for the devil’s schemes. He disguises himself as an angel of light to deceive us. He will try to make us question our faith and trust in God’s promises. He uses various temptations, such as lust, pride, power, and discouragement, to lead us astray. He tries to create feelings of discouragement, doubt, and fear to weaken our resolve. He may use past mistakes or failures to make us feel hopeless and unworthy of God’s grace. He may promote anger, bitterness, and resentment to tear down bonds of friendship and unity. He can use his influence to sow seeds of conflict and strife. 

As Christians we must have a sharp eye out for the devil’s schemes by staying alert and aware of spiritual battles and temptations. We must  actively resist evil, and staying close to God through prayer, scripture, and fellowship. We need to pray regularly both by ourselves and with one another for  wisdom, discernment, and protection from temptation. We need to allow the bible to shape our thoughts and actions through regular bible study and meditation. Ultimately we must seek first His kingdom, by making a conscious effort to make our relationship with God and our spiritual growth a priority.

I grew up in a military family. For much of my childhood, we lived far from our extended family. When I was about ten years old, we moved to Fayetteville, NC, which was about an hour and a half to two hours from where my parents grew up and where my extended family lived. One of my favorite places to go was to my Uncle John’s store. Uncle John had an antique furniture store in an old building. For me, it was a maze of mystery filled with rows upon rows of furniture and other oddities, most of which I could not see over. As a child, it was an adventure.

Now that I am older, I realize that I did not appreciate all the hard work my Uncle John did. He went all over the country finding old pieces of furniture that often times people threw away. Some of it was damaged, all of it was worn with age. But my uncle was able to take the time to repair and restore old furniture until it became valuable again. It was hard work and as I child I missed the true wonder of his store. I wish I could have gone to learn from him how to bring about the wonderful restorations he did, but unfortunately, years late a tornado went through the area and destroyed his store.

The good news is that we can all be a part of wonderful restorations. When a person becomes a Christian, they become a new creation in Christ. God begins the process of restoring each of us to what He created us to be. The good news is that at the moment we are saved, God sees us as saints because He sees Christ in us. As we grow as believers, what God sees us on the inside begins to work its way out in the way we live. We can be a part of God’s restoration by telling people about Jesus and when they are saved by helping them grow in the Lord.

Someone asked me recently how many schools I attended, since I grew up in a military household. I told them that I had gone to 3 elementary schools, 2 junior high schools and 1 high school. I cannot remember every one of the teachers I had, but one stands out. Coach Sisk was my 8^th grade history teacher. He also coached basketball. I tried out for the team but did not make it, but that did not give me a bad opinion about Coach Sisk. The one thing that he did that made him memorable was that he took an interest in me, He listened and even as a thirteen-year-old, I could tell that he genuinely cared.

Coach Sisk did not have to do great things in order to be memorable and to make a difference. It was the little things; he did every day that made a difference. As Christians, God has called us to be His witnesses. It is not the big things that we do as Christ’s witnesses that will make the difference but the little things we do every day.

If we take an interest in people, if we truly listen to them. If we can demonstrate that we really care about people, we can make a difference in their lives and we can tell them about Jesus. It is often said, people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. We can demonstrate care and share Jesus. This is everyone’s responsibility. Elton Trueblood said, “Evangelism is not a professional job for a few trained men but is instead the unrelenting responsibility of every person who belongs to the company of Jesus.”  What little things are you doing to help others know Jesus.

That is not the way it is supposed to be. Early in the book of Acts, when the Christian church was started, it was custom to meet on the seventh day, the Old Testament Sabbath. But later Christians switched to the first day of the week. They met each Sunday  to celebrate the day that Jesus was raised from the dead.  The day came to be called the Lord’s Day (Revelation 1:10).

Every Sunday is in a sense, Easter Sunday. Every week, we remember that we have been rescued from our sins. We are united with a risen, living Lord. We also gather with our new family created through our mutual faith in Jesus. The Bible calls us to meet regularly gather each Lord’s day to gather, to celebrate Christ in worship with joy and thankfulness, as well as to encourage and help one another to grow in our faith.

We should have the same excitement every Sunday that many feel on Easter Sunday. Sunday worship should be the highlight of our week. It should be something we look forward to and something we hate to miss.  Is that how you feel?

Romans 8:28 is one of the most precious promises of God but is often misunderstood. We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose (CSB). The passage does not teach us that all things are good, nor does it teach us that the bad circumstances of life will turn out good. It does not teach us that we will understand on this side of glory everything that happens to us. If you do not believe me ask Job.

The passage is a promise that in the end, we will discover that all things work together for our ultimate good. Most of my friends know that I love chocolate. In fact, chocolate has been a vice for me for as long as I can remember. My mom used to make chocolate cakes from scratch. One of the ingredients was cocoa powder. I saw the name Hershey’s on the cocoa powder in the pantry and thought, this must be good.  Long story short, it was not good, in fact it was terrible. How in the world could something so bitter be an ingredient to make something so delicious. It has to be worked together with other ingredients.

God takes everything in our lives both good and bad and He works them together and He brings something good out of them. It is not the good that we think that God should bring but our ultimate good. In fact, the very next verse tells us what the ultimate good is. For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29 CSB). God uses everything in our lives, and He works them together so that we might become more like Jesus.