The Boswell's headed out on vacation about two weeks ago and it is beginning to come to a close. We began our journey by spending time with family in AL, celebrated Joshua and Caleb's eight birthday. We then headed even further south to Port St. Joe, FL and stayed at my parents beach house. We went to the beach, went fishing, watched movies, ate seafood a couple of times, and traveled to Panama City, FL to Shipwreck Island Water Park.

It has been very uneventful and rest was had by all. Having been away from the deep south for over 15 years I see things that make me laugh that I perhaps would not have seen otherwise. For instance, an Exxon station had put their pickled pig lips on sale for $1.99 and the church we visited was very traditional (but worshipful).

As the time of vacation begins to come to a close I am beginning to feel the itch to get back to work. I noticed during my morning walk this morning that I had put my cell phone on again (which was off until now). I also have avoided wearing shoes but I guess those have to go back on now. sighhhh. The family had some much needed extended time together and have had some wonderful bonding time.

Staying unplugged has been difficult. Where we stay there is no internet except at a local coffee shop. So I would make a daily early walk to check e-mail, write, and have my devotion. So I was not able to post pictures on facebook as I would have liked -- but perhaps it was for the best.

I am thankful to my church that allows me to have this extended time away every year, and for men who God has brought to Daybreak that can preach and cover the services while I am away.

I am thankful for my family that truly loves me, my wife, and kids. So I am leaving this trip somewhat rested, a little tan, and a deeper feeling of thankfulness for the blessings from the Lord.

In his book Total Church Life, [1] Darrell W. Robinson tells the following story;
“The next morning I sat across from Eddie’s father, Leroy Meek. He looked like a bum. His beard was long, his hair was matted, and his eyes were red. He had been fishing the bayou for his son’s body all night. Leroy began to tell me his story.

‘I am a foreman for a large construction company. I did not go to work yesterday due to the flooding. We have eight children. I told them not to go outside to play. But while I took a nap, three of the boys slipped out and made a raft of Styrofoam material and began to float down the bayou. The raft broke up. Two of the boys were able to get out, but Eddie could not get out. The other two raced home and awakened me. I jumped into the pickup truck and sped to the bayou. I tried to reach Eddie, but the concrete sides were steep and the water was rushing and I couldn’t get to him. He was screaming, ‘Daddy, help me! Help me, I can’t hold on much longer!’ ‘I ran back to the pickup truck and grabbed a rope. Eddie screamed, ‘Somebody help me! I can’t hold on much longer!’ I threw him the rope, but the rope was too short!’

As I listened to Leroy, a chill went down my spine. I chocked back tears as I visualized the scene he described. It was like God was speaking to me and showing me the multitudes of hurting people near our church. Like Eddie, they were clinging to whatever they could hold on to. They were crying, ‘Help me! Somebody help me! I can’t hold on much longer!’ And Christians and churches were throwing out ropes, but the ropes were too short to reach the world.

I made arrangements for the funeral and set an appointment to visit the family in their home that afternoon. Dan, our minister of music, and I were the first Christians to enter the Meek home. They had never allowed our bus ministry workers or others from the church in. That afternoon the Meeks were open to Christ. All of the things they were confident in had failed. What Leroy wanted and needed from me was to know his Creator. Our best ministry at this point was to respond to their spiritual need for comfort from God.

Leroy said, ‘Pastor, I have done all kinds of things with my boys. I have taken them fishing, hunting, and camping out, but I have never sat with them in church.’

‘When the funeral is over, if it is OK, I would like to come back and visit with you about Christ,” I responded.’”

As Christians I am assuming that we are throwing ropes to help people (to ignore the plight of a drowning society would be monstrous), so what are the ropes that we are throwing? Are these ropes too short? How would we know one way or the other? Do the cries of those being swept away saying, “I can’t hold on much longer!” keep us awake at night? Do tears of the Father and seeing him trying to help his loved ones stir us to want to help? Are we content with just doing funerals that may have been prevented?

We can change the world around us and make a difference right where we are by throwing a rope that saves – it is not too short. We have been given the “ministry of reconciliation” where “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.[2]” Christ saved us from drowning in sin and despair, he lifted us onto a solid foundation – he saved us. But he did not send us into the lighthouse to dry off and get warm. Instead he handed us a flotation circle, and a rope and said go and throw your rope.

As long as we throw out the gospel to people, it is the only means of salvation that will not fall short. If we throw programs, buildings, fellowships, come as you are, health and wealth, faith healings, your best now, etc… we will continue to see hands slip below the surface.

[1] Darrell W. Robinson. Total Church Life (Nashville, Tennessee; Broadman and Holman, 1997) 11,12
[2] 2 Corinthians 5:18

Yesterday was Field of Day at Brunswick Elementary School and I volunteered as a station leader (the water sponge relay). Kids would line up in groups of three or four and stand behind water buckets as teams. The goal of the game is to take your team’s sponge (filled with water), run to a cup with a fill line on it, and wring all the water out of the sponge and run back. The team who filled their cup first won the game. Seeing kids do this for over two hours I noticed that in many ways this was a metaphor for life. So here are some “real life” observations.

1. Make every drop count. Many of the kids would loose most of the water in their sponge before they got there, or when they squeezed the sponge, they completely missed the cup altogether.

• In life we get so caught up in the game, running the race, that we lose focus of what life is really about. In the game ultimately nothing matters if the water is not in the cup. We work so hard, but if Christ is not the primary focus and source of strength, then it’s like running through life with an empty sponge – we are just going through worthless motions.


2. Take the hand off seriously. Many of the boys about half-way on their return run would throw the sponge to the next team mate. It would inevitably go flying off in a wrong direction and the second runner would have to go run after it, wasting precious time.

• How we relate to other people is so important. People are important. We tend to take people, relationships, and time with those people for granted. When we fail in our relationship “hand offs” become difficult and so much time is wasted. How many years are wasted when dads take their children for granted, and when he finally reaches out to them they resist and are “busy.” How many hand offs are fumbled because somebody thinks its funny to play around with other people.


3. Don’t take too long wringing the water out. Squeezing the water out of the sponge over the cup is a critical part of the game, but several students would stand over the cup and wring with all their might, and continue to do so, even when the pay off is a single drop of water. Other students could have returned with a full sponge of water.

• Wringing too long deals with obsessing. Do you tend to dwell too long on something even when it is obvious to others that it is time to move on? Do you have to always be right? There is a point in making decisions when to stay with something is no longer worth the pay off.

• Also, the student who squeezes too long doesn’t realize that there are other people on the team who can come after them with a full sponge of water. It is ok to let someone else to be next on the team. Run back to the line and quit working so hard. Trust your team.

4. Don’t kick the cup over. Twice during the games a kid in their excitement of playing the game would kick the cup over. This happened because they were more focused on getting the water in the cup, and would lose focus on where their feet where.

• I saw both of the students when they kicked over the cups, but you know what I noticed? The team didn’t get upset, they were content to put the cup back upright and keep playing the game. They knew they wouldn’t win, but they didn’t seem to care. When we kick the cup over in life, it’s because we have allowed our lives to get out of balance. We focus on one thing too long and with too much energy so that we are not aware of what the rest of our body is doing. Do you have systems, alarms, or people that will let you know if you are beginning to obsess?

5. Have fun! Life is not always about winning. You have friends on your team, play the game and have fun.

• The weather was beautiful on Field Day; the kids were excited to be outside and to play the games. The teachers were joyful to be outside with their students, and the parents enjoyed helping the school. Life has its’ difficulties and rainy days, but when the sun shines and the people are in your life whom you love – then smile, enjoy the sun, and play the game.

Words of John Bunyun in Bedford England are carved on a statue of him that state;
A very great person hung against the wall;
And this was the fashion:
Eyes lifted up to heaven,
the best of books in his hand,
the law of truth was written upon his lips,
the world was behind his back;
he stood as if he pleaded with men;
a crown of gold did hang above his head.

He describes the preacher as being God’s gift to the world. While I do not consider myself in the same high esteem, I do know many gracious men who I could say this about. The position of the pastor is of utmost importance to the church, as well as his role as leader and representative before God.

The preacher is sent on a heavenly mission (as are all Christians). He is to declare the message of God to the world, “Whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear” (Ezekiel 2:5; 7; 3:11). Preaching was recognized as a gift from God in the Old Testament. Noah was “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5) by those whose testimony the primitive world was condemned (Hebrews 11:7). The psalmist and the prophets delivered their messages of truth in pleading, exhortation, prophecy, and promises from the Lord. The prophets were preachers of their day and the predecessors of the New Testament heralds of the gospel.

After the exile the reading and exposition of Scripture were from the beginning the chief feature of the synagogue service, and is frequently mentioned in the New Testament. Jesus, “as his custom was,” went to the synagogue service on the Sabbath day and there delivered the wonderful message of hope recorded in Luke 4:17-22. In Acts 13:5, “after the reading of the law of prophets” the rulers of the synagogue invited the two preachers, Paul and Barnabas, to deliver this message of exhortation. In Acts 15:21, James the pastor of the church at Jerusalem and the presiding officer over the council in Jerusalem, spoke of the fact that “Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day.”

The New Testament church, likewise, moves on the feet of those who, “preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things (Romans 10:15). It was Paul that declared that faith in Jesus as Lord will save all who call upon him (v. 9), but “How . . . shall they call on him in whom they have believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? (v. 14)” This preaching of salvation that Paul referred to is the proclamation of the Word of God recorded in the Holy Scriptures and centered in the redemptive work of Christ. It is a summons of men to repentance, faith, and obedience before the Lord Jesus. It is God’s appointed means for communicating the gospel of hope to the unbelieving world for communicating the gospel of hope to the unbelieving world and for the strengthening of the faith of those who have found refuge in our living Lord.

The apostolic message (kerygma), the preaching of the men who first heard the Great Commission of our Lord, consisted of these seven things:
1. It was a definite body of facts; it was “propositional truth.”
2. It was not speculative philosophy but an announcement of the intervention of God in human history for the salvation of those who would hear and accept.
3. It was centered on the redemptive work of Christ, in his cross and atonement, and glorious resurrection.
4. It was witnessed to and confirmed in the human heart by the Holy Spirit.
5. It was historically and organically related to the Old Testament.
6. It imposed a stern, ethical demand upon men.
7. It was a vast eschatological dimension. It looks forward to a triumphant forever in Christ.

In God’s plan, there is no such thing as the delivery of this glorious message of truth without a preacher. In the elective purpose of God his will and work are made known to us through a living personality. This is the essence of preaching and is the first, primary calling of a pastor. Each generation must experience falling in love, building a home, rearing children. So each congregation must have a living pastor. The truth of God must be made to live again and again.

That is the calling of a preacher-pastor. It is preaching the Word of God that people desperately need. And it is preaching that feeds the souls of Christians. Paul wrote about the services of public worship in Corinth, “Let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40).

The verse concludes a lengthy discussion of disorder that marred the meeting of the Corinthian Christians. The worship of God ought to be worthy of his glorious name. Therefore, the pastor has been called to preach God’s Word and to lead the church. He should be allowed to do this so that order and appropriate worship may take place, and the message of the gospel may be preached.