Mike Edmisten Follower of Jesus. Husband of Nicki. Father of Ryan & Brock. Communicator of the Word.

The Maze of Marriage

We're starting a new sermon series on Sunday called The Maze of Marriage.

Marriage can be tough because it's a maze that's filled with potential wrong turns. The church must take the lead in helping people navigate this maze. In this series, we're going to talk about four different areas where a lot of couples make some wrong turns: sex, money, kids, and conflict.

This week we're talking about sex. It's time for the church to stop wimping out when it comes to this issue. Marriages are damaged and lives are destroyed everyday because people are buying into our culture's view of sexuality. God has a vastly different perspective, but we've got to understand this: God isn't down on sex! He created it. It's his idea. And his church must have the guts to stand up and tell the truth about sex.

Happy Mother's Day

Hope all our moms have a wonderful day today! I'm not sure who wrote this, but it's worth posting. Thanks to mikeysfunnies.com for these poignant Mom's Day thoughts.

LOVE IN THE HOME

If I live in a house of spotless beauty with everything in its place, but
have not love, I am a housekeeper–not a homemaker.

If I have time for waxing, polishing, and decorative achievements, but have
not love, my children learn cleanliness–not godliness.

Love leaves the dust in search of a child's laugh.
Love smiles at the tiny fingerprints on a newly cleaned window.
Love wipes away the tears before it wipes up the spilled milk.
Love picks up the child before it picks up the toys.

Love is present through the trials.
Love reprimands, reproves, and is responsive.
Love crawls with the baby, walks with the toddler, runs with the child, then
stands aside to let the youth walk into adulthood.
Love is the key that opens salvation's message to a child's heart.

Before I became a mother I took glory in my house of perfection.
Now I glory in God's perfection of my child.
As a mother, there is much I must teach my child, but the greatest of all is love.

The Difficulty of Mother's Day

Tomorrow will be quite a happy day for a lot of ladies as we celebrate Mother's Day…but there are also a lot of women for whom tomorrow will definitely not be a happy day. I was reminded of this when I read the following notes. I've never met these ladies, but their words are great reminders for all of us on Mother's Day Eve.

From Julie: "My 16-year-old son was killed in a car accident. It's been over 5 years, but is still very painful. Needless to say, Mother's Day is awful for us grieving parents. Please remember us along with the women who long to be moms but can't. We are moms, but some of us don't have living children. I do have 3 living children, but they don't make up for the one I lost. I try counting my blessings, but I keep coming up one short."

From Ann: "For Mothers' Day, would you include [those unable to have children]? They suffer terribly on this day that excludes them, makes them feel like less than a woman and stirs up pain sometimes too great for us to imagine. Many of these women have led full lives giving to other kids, being productive in work, and hiding their pain. But they never stop feeling the hurt and inadequacy that Mothers' Day stirs up in them."

I appreciate the candor and strength of these women. Let's not forget those special ladies for whom tomorrow will not be a 'happy' Mother's Day.

Zoo Trip

What a great day yesterday! We took Ryan on a big trip to the zoo. Some random reflections from the trip…

1. It's very cool to see a baby Sumatran rhino. There are only about 300 of these creatures left in the wild. There are only ten in captivity worldwide. The Cincinnati Zoo has the only successful breeding program in the world for these awesome animals.

2. The food at the zoo is madly expensive, but it is also surprisingly good.

3. I think they should take all the animals and hop them up on caffeine before visitors arrive. It's always exciting to see a big ball of fur lying there sleeping.

4. Seeing a polar bear swimming from an underwater perspective is very, very cool.

5. It's perplexing that a three-year-old can be more interested in looking at a common Ohio bird eating crumbs on the sidewalk rather than looking at a very rare bird from the rainforest of South America.

6. Seems like half the zoo is under construction right now.

7. It's good to have friends who can hook us up with discounted tickets. Thanks Marie!

8. I'd like to go to the zoo without my little boy sometime so I could actually look at the animals, read about them, and not be constantly on the move. However, I'm sure I'd feel guilty going to the zoo without him, so it'll probably never happen.

It was a busy and tiring day, but also a very good day. I didn't check my email at all yesterday. (Can't remember the last time that happened.) I didn't talk on the phone. I completely unplugged from work to spend a day with my family. I know how important this is, yet I've been making excuses, allowing myself to work on my days off. Yesterday was a step back in the right direction.

Checking Out

I'm supposedly off on Fridays…although that rarely seems to be the case. Seems like people wait until Friday to call or email me. Not this week. I'm unplugging from everything. No blogging, no email, no phone calls, no telegrams, no smoke signals, etc. My wife has a personal day she's using tomorrow and we've got the whole day blocked out for some much needed family time. (See my previous thoughts on this if you wonder why it is "much needed.")

The blog will be up and kicking again on Saturday. Truck 'em easy.

Josh Hamilton Again

Yep. Another post about Josh Hamilton. I assure you that I am not president of the Josh Hamilton fan club. Although after reading an article in today's Enquirer, I might campaign for that job.

Check it out.

Elephant Family

Yesterday morning, Ryan (my almost three-year-old son) was heading upstairs to get dressed. On his way, he found one of his little toy elephants. He has three of them: a daddy, a mommy, and a baby elephant. Somehow the baby elephant had made his way downstairs, while daddy and mommy were upstairs in Ryan's room. Ryan picked up the baby elephant, and then looked at me and said, "He needs to be with his family." And with that, Ryan carried baby elephant upstairs and there was a joyous elephant family reunion.

There was such a simple truth communicated in Ryan's statement. Families belong together. It's one of my core convictions. I'm a minister, but I'm a husband and a father first. Our church had a preaching minister before me. They'll have another one after me. But I am the only husband and father my family will ever have.

I'm far from perfect in figuring out how to balance family and ministry, but Ryan's statement did tell me that I'm doing something right. In his three-year-old mind, families belong together. His experience has taught him that. Ryan has a mommy and a daddy that love being home together as a family.

Ministry is incredibly busy. Because of the time-consuming nature of my job, there are times when I have to say "no" to something in ministry simply because I want to say "yes" to my family. That decision can cause problems in my ministry. It's hard to say "no" to something that a church member believes is important. However, it's just not possible to say "yes" to everything at church. If I did, I would always say "no" to my family.

In all honesty, spending time with my family is the greatest thing I can do for my ministry. It keeps me healthy and balanced. If I find myself spending too many hours at church, my equilibrium gets altered. My ability to preach and teach with excellence, my passion to pastor our people, and my vision for the future of our church all are enhanced when I am spending quality time with my family.

As Ryan likes to say, "He should be with his family."

Photo Sessions

Lifetouch will be taking pictures for our new pictorial directory May 17-19. We want all our members and regular attenders to be included in the directory! This is a great tool for our ministry, but it won't be complete if all our people aren't included.

We now have online scheduling available. Just click here to schedule your photography session. Or if you want to do it in person, please sign up this Sunday.

Q&A Continued

We wrapped up our Q&A series this weekend. I loved it! It was so good to provide Biblical answers to questions that our people are wrestling with. We had a ton of great questions submitted in our survey. I just couldn't possibly answer them all in four messages. So, as promised, I'm going to tackle some more of them on my blog. I'm going to start with a very practical, nuts-and-bolts question that we received.

How do I know which version of the Bible to use?

To fully understand this question, you have to know that the Bible was not originally written in English. The original Bible consisted of three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Your Bible is a translation of these languages.

It can be confusing when you see so many different English translations available. That confusion can be compounded when some people preach and teach that only one version is correct. There are some people who will tell you that, “God only wrote one Bible: the King James Version.” That is a statement that is steeped in ignorance. The Bible God wrote wasn’t in King James English. It wasn’t in English period! If a person prefers to read the King James Version, that's fine. But it is arrogant and dangerous to preach that there is only one valid English translation of the Bible.

I use a variety of Bible translations in my preaching. Some of the ones I use are the New International Version, the New American Standard Bible, the New Living Translation, the Contemporary English Version, the Good News Bible, the New Life Version, etc.. I will also occasionally use The Message and The Living Bible, but these are paraphrases. They’re not actual translations from the original language.

I use these, and several more, translations because seeing a passage in different translations can really help us understand God’s truth in a deeper and more meaningful way.

When it comes to choosing a version of the Bible for your personal use, here’s a simple formula to remember. You’re looking for three things, and all you have to do is remember your ABCs. Your Bible translation should provide:

Accuracy
Beauty
Clarity

Be sure that, when you choose a Bible translation, it is accurate to the original languages. Since most of us can’t read Hebrew or Greek, we’ve got to rely on Bible translators. Be sure that your Bible was translated by people who believe the Bible is God’s Word and is without error. That’ll take you a long way on the accuracy road.

And the Bible should also read beautifully. There are so many beautiful, poetic passages in the Scripture. The great author Charles Dickens said, "The New Testament is the very best book that ever was or ever will be known in the world." The Bible is not only the word of God, but it’s also the most beautiful literary work ever written. The translation you choose should reflect that.

And finally, choose a translation of clarity. One that is easy for you to understand. If you can understand King James English, then that’s great. If not, choose a more modern translation like the New International Version or the New Living Translation. They’ll be more clear and easy to understand.

How Good is Josh Hamilton?

I found these stats in The Cincinnati Enquirer. Take a look at where Reds outfielder Josh Hamilton stands a little more than a month into his major league career:

• He was the National League Rookie of the Month in April after leading all MLB rookies in home runs (6), extra-base hits (10), on-base percentage (.365), slugging percentage (.609) and tying for the lead in RBI (13).

• In the three-game series with the Rockies this past weekend, he hit .462 (6-for-13) with one double, one triple, two home runs and three RBI. He scored six runs, walked once, stole a base and had two outstanding catches in center field.

• For the season, he's hitting .306 with eight homers, five doubles, one triple and 17 RBI. His on-base percentage is .398. He has not committed an error in 24 games.