If I announce that a certain nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed, but then that nation renounces its evil ways, I will not destroy it as I had planned. And if I announce that I will build up and plant a certain nation or kingdom, making it strong and great, but then that nation turns to evil and refuses to obey me, I will not bless that nation as I had said I would. Jeremiah 18:7-10 NLT

Is this the same God talking that also said, “I the Lord do not change!”? Does God really change His mind? And, if God’s Word says that He has plans to bless and prosper me, will He change His mind on that as well? Can I really depend on a God who would change His mind?

To understand this passage, you must put it into context with the entirety of Scripture. Scripture should always interpret Scripture. First, God is Sovereign. Scripture is clear that God is overall in control. In the end, God wins every time. It is also important to understand that God has an ultimate plan and He is working all things towards that plan. What happens in between now and the completion of that plan is where God is sometimes “flexible”, for lack of a better term. God’s overall plan will not have changed in the end, but He may allow some altering of the path towards reaching the completion of His end plan.

I know that is confusing, so let me illustrate it like this. If you were to leave my house in Tennessee and head to my mother’s family in Kansas, there are several routes you could take to get there. Ultimately one route is probably best, but you could get there from several directions. In accomplishing God’s end goal for our life, God sometimes allows different courses of reaching that end goal.  God will even allow us to take turns that are not really His best plan for us. In that way, God has allowed His plan to be altered, but the overall end plan remains the same.

You and I may never fully understand how God has a sovereign plan and yet He allows us to make individual decisions for our life, but both are true in Scripture.  In the end, when this life is over, God’s plan for our life will succeed. Our best course of action today is to seek and get in on that plan!

For more thoughts on this concept, read THIS POST.

The Grace Community Church middle school camp is this week. Thanks to our family pastor Michael Bayne for letting me grab this video from his blog. (I didn’t ask permission, so I hope he’s okay with this.) Our youngest son Nate is serving as student pastor this summer and so he’s at the camp and in the video. I wish they would let me go sometime. I’d show them a water party!

Anyway, I’m thankful for those that invest in tomorrow’s church leaders. Be sure to follow Michael’s blog for updates on the experience.

Do you wish you were at middle school camp?  Want to start a food fight?

“But your servants, every man armed for battle, will cross over to fight before the LORD, just as our lord says.” Numbers 32:27

Living in a military town and serving as pastor of a church in this city, Cheryl and I have the privilege of knowing hundreds of military families who serve our nation to keep us free.  Grace Community Church is a better church because of the hundreds of these families who choose to worship, serve and grow with us.

One thing some soldiers often do is to leave behind a letter to his or her spouse and/or family in the event that something tragic should happen to them while deployed.  They sign the seal of the envelope and ask that it not be opened unless the worst should occur.  At times, they leave the letter with another family member and other times with a trusted friend. Some of the most sobering moments of my life have been receiving one of these signature-sealed envelopes from a solder leaving for war.  Each time I felt honored and humble by being asked to hold such a letter, but it has always been a sobering reminder to me of the harsh realities of war.

Thankfully, I have never had to deliver one of these letters.  I hope I never do.  Usually when the soldier returns, he or she will request the letter back from me.  At times, I’m asked to continue holding it due to the volatile nature of their career.

I’m also reminded, however, as Memorial Day is designed to do, that many families have had to endure the delivering of their own “letter” from a fallen soldier.   Today I’m praying God comforts them with the memories of happy times together and with the pride of knowing and enjoying the freedom their loved one gave his or her life to protect.

In my experience, soldiers are brave men and women, with families and friends they love, but who choose sacrifice and service over personal pleasure because of a special calling to serve for the cause of freedom.  These are men and women who love their country, respect what freedom brings to a nation, and are courageously willing to put their life on the line to protect it. Many of our Fort Campbell soldiers are deployed this year and Cheryl and I are praying for their continued safety and for the comfort of loving families waiting for their return.

Some of Cheryl and my best and lifetime friends have been military families.  My father and brother are both veterans, along with many of my extended family.  My pride, gratitude and thankfulness for their service to our country cannot be described in words.  I still get goose bumps hearing the National Anthem or reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.  Today, to our soldiers and their families, please accept Cheryl and my sincere appreciation for your service.  We couldn’t do the ministry God has called us to do if you didn’t do what you were called to do.  God bless you and keep you safe!

What do you think of when you think of our soldiers and their families?

(Diana Sumpter)

Cheryl and I love to visit with other churches. We always learn something that can help us at Grace Community Church. Today, after attending the first service at our church, we visited Cross Point Church’s Dickson campus and it was a great experience. We enjoyed the music, heard a wonderful message by Justin Davis, and we were truly ministered to this morning. I encourage all pastors to find times to experience worship without the responsibility of leadership occasionally.

Perhaps the part that most helped make it a successful visit was our first impression welcome from a volunteer. Diana Sumpter met us shortly after we walked through the front door with a smile and a handshake. With a welcoming spirit, Diana quickly made us feel at ease in a strange setting. She gave us a quick tour, introduced us to other people, and made sure we were comfortable. We learned that Diana has been with the Dickson campus since they launched and is apparently just as passionate about her volunteer position as she was the day she started.

The experience with Diana reminded Cheryl and me how thankful we are for the volunteers we have at Grace Community Church. Each Sunday at least 150 to 200 people give of their time so that others can experience life change through the ministry of the church. The truth is that the structure and workings of a church are only as good as the church’s volunteers. We serve an incredibly amazing God, but He builds His church with people who are willing to love and serve others. The staff can and should do much to lead this, but regardless of the size of the church, paid staff is never enough to accomplish the mission.

Please allow me to say thank you for those who sacrifice each week to make the church work!

I’d love to hear from you. Do you serve the church in some capacity? Where are you currently serving?

If you are a staff member, feel free to give a thank you to those who serve!

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” John 5:8 NIV

In order to appreciate the value of Jesus’ command, you need to consider the culture of the day. Today, although some may feel we don’t do enough, there are limited opportunities for the physically handicapped to work and lead productive lives. In Christ’s time on earth, the handicapped were outcast. They lived off handouts they could obtain from begging.

In the above instance, the man had been crippled for a long time. Probably the only possessions he had were the clothes on his back and the mat on which he lay. The mat was almost a symbol of the only hope in his life. His existence was one to be pitied. There was no known cure for what ailed him (except Jesus), and even if there had been, he certainly couldn’t have afforded it.

Jesus had sympathy for the man, and with the spoken word, the man was healed. Jesus told him to “Get up!” take his mat and walk. Obviously, this was a gift greater than anything money could have bought.

Whenever I read this verse, this question comes to mind:

What mat am I holding on to today? What mat are you?

This man was holding on to his mat. It had surely become a treasured possession to him. He slept on it, rested on it, and watched the world pass by on it. He couldn’t have imagined facing the day without it. Jesus tells him to pick it up and walk. When Jesus was finished with the man, he didn’t need the mat anymore. It would take faith to trust Jesus and attempt to walk, but the victory was worth it all. Instead of a mat of hope, this man had the hope of Christ!

What would Jesus have you and I pick up today? What are you holding on to tightly as your hope?

Are you drowning in your sorrow, because you refuse to completely trust God? Are you moping about the setbacks of your life, because you have failed to accept His grace? Are you suffering from the sin that has wrecked everything around you, because you won’t submit yourself to accountability? Do you hold back from committing to God because you are afraid He won’t accept you?

Whatever you are holding on to tighter than your faith, I believe Jesus would say, “Pick up your mat and walk!” Trust Him with that in which you currently trust the most. Permit Him to see you through the difficult days of life. Allow Him to carry your burdens, strengthen your walk and brighten your hope for the future.

Jesus wants to help you. Listen for His command to pick up your mat and walk!

What is that one thing you’ve never been able to let go of, but know you need to do so?

Memorial Day weekend…

Some say it’s the official start of summer…

Picnics, vacations, camps, flip flops, outdoor baptisms, family reunions, fireworks, sweat, grilling, swimming pools, bugs, harvesting wheat, homemade ice cream, baseball, fresh vegetables from the garden….

Those are just a few thoughts that come to mind when I think of summer fun…

What thoughts come to your mind when you think of summer?
What are your favorite memories of summer?
What are you most looking forward to about this particular summer?

Share with us today…

Then the LORD gave me this message: “O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand. Jeremiah 18:5-6 NLT

I’m not going to ask today if you agree with what God is allowing or doing in your life right now, but I do want to ask this question, will you give Him permission to do it? A better question might be, does He have the right to do it?

My son made a sand castle once at the beach. I thought he did a super job with it. People would pass it by as they walked the beach and comment how good it was. He wasn’t happy with it, so he smashed it and started over. I didn’t stop him. It was his sand castle.

God made you. He shaped your life. He’s been in control of every moment of your life. He hasn’t caused all the bad things that have happened to you.  Many of those happened simply because we live in a messed up world, but He certainly had to allow them and will choose to use them for an ultimate good if you allow Him to do so.  He has a plan for your life. He knows what He wants you to look like in the end. The question of this post is: Doesn’t He have a right to do with His creation as He chooses?

If you aren’t happy with your life right now, I want to encourage you to talk with your Creator. Tell Him your concerns.  Ask Him for changes that line up with His desires for your life. He may allow them but, always keep in mind, if God says “No”, the ultimate role of a follower of Christ is to accept His will for your life. He made you and has a right to shape what He made.

If you could ask God to change one are of your life, what would it be?
(I will conclude this series next Monday through Friday.)

Congratulations to today’s winners:

Craig Dale

Chad Hunt

Kelly Vansell

Over 15 years ago, I started writing an Internet devotional, which was emailed daily to subscribers. This year I decided to collect a year’s worth and put them in a book. Mustard Seed Thoughts are short, easy-to-read and practical. In each devotional, I share personal life stories as they relate to the stories and truths from the Bible.

If you need a devotional book, or know someone who does, here’s your chance to win one. Today I will give away 3 copies of Mustard Seed Thoughts.

To enter today’s Free Fridays:

1. Comment on this post.
2. Make sure I have your correct name and/or Twitter name.
3. Twitter Rt’s are appreciated, but not required.

After 10 PM (CST) I will select three (3) winners using Random.org. I will attempt to contact you by email, but check back on this post, as I will update the blog after winners are selected.

Just curious, what is a devotional that has helped you? How do you do your Bible study/quiet times?

But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so the potter squashed the jar into a lump of clay and started again. Jeremiah 18:4 NLT

Sometimes God starts over with our life. Just as the potter squashed the jar he was working with and started again, God, too, will sometimes begin a new work in our life. Ultimately God is working towards an end goal. For illustration purposes, if God was a potter and He was making His masterpiece out of our life, He would have a picture of Jesus in clear site, because the final destination for our life is to mold us into the image of the Son. (Romans 8:29) Sometimes that process involves radical changes in our life. He doesn’t remove our experiences from the equation; in fact He uses them as a part of His work, but the end product will never look the same when God finishes His work. (Thankfully!)

About 8 years ago God broke every idea I had about how I was going to spend the rest of my life. I never dreamed my career would change from the business world to the ministry, but God squashed old dreams of mine in order to create a new work in my life. My life today is so different from my life then. I can see how those former experiences play into my life today and help me be the pastor I am, but my life is radically different.

God may do the same with your life. God may have extreme changes in mind for your life. You may be in the midst of that process of change now. He may take away your health, break a relationship, change your career, but He will do whatever it takes to further shape you into Christ’s image and the plans He has for you.

Don’t be afraid of change if God is controlling the potter’s wheel. You are in safe hands!

Have you seen God radically change the plans for your life? Share it with us!

(For the other posts in this series, click HERE, HERE and HERE.)

One of the biggest mistakes I see made in marriage, and one my own marriage suffers from at times is:

…forgetting that men and women are not made the same way.

I was reminded of that fact again this morning by reading the story of a man in the Bible named Elkanah and his wife Hannah. (1 Samuel 1) Hannah had been unable to have children and it was the deepest pain in her life. (I wrote previously about that pain HERE.) Every year (and perhaps every day) Hannah would go to God begging for a child. God eventually blessed Hannah with a son, but in the midst of that story is one of the saddest, but funniest verses in the Bible (my opinion). It certainly illustrates the great difference that exists between most men and women. Here is the verse:

Elkanah her husband would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?” (1 Samuel 1:8)

Do you see the mistake? Elkanah could never fully comprehend the depth of Hannah’s emotions. To him, life was good the way it was. He had other children through another wife and he and Hannah were free just to be happy with each other. He couldn’t sense the depth of pain that was in Hannah’s heart. To him it made sense that as a couple they were enough. Hannah, I suspect, could never fully comprehend how insensitive Elkanah seemed to be.

Therein lies what I believe to be one of the largest mistake men and women make in a marriage. Whenever I believe Cheryl completely identifies with me or I completely identify with her, we are bound to run into some conflict. I will never understand the depth of emotions Cheryl is capable of producing and she will never understand the shallowness of emotions I am capable of maintaining. Neither of us is right or wrong, we are just different, and as I look at the situations we have handled together in life, I see why God allowed the uniqueness in each of us. To make our marriage strong, I must be careful never to place expectations on Cheryl for her to be like me and she must do the same with me. I have to learn to be more sensitive of her sensitivity and she has to learn to be more patient with my insensitivity.

This is just one issue among many where Cheryl and I are different, which makes marriage a consistent challenge. With awareness, communication, commitment and a willingness to humble ourselves and give grace to each other, we can allow our differences to work for the betterment of our marriage, not to the detriment.

In what ways are you different from your spouse? How do you see those differences working for the good of your marriage?

For more thoughts on marriage click HERE.