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

Everyday

What do you do everyday? Eat. Bathe (hopefully). Drive. Work. Surf the internet. Talk on your cell phone. Just a small sampling of the stuff most of us do on a daily basis.

Try this one on for size. On Sunday, a dear old gentlemen in our church named Burrel hugged me and said, "We pray for you and your family everyday."

Wow. That is humbling. That is awesome. Burrel and his wife, Doris, pray for Nicki, Ryan, and me everyday. And the thing is, I know Burrel means it. He and Doris literally pray for us everyday.

As a pastor, I crave the prayers of our people. I desire them. I need them. And to know that this family prays for my family everyday…it brings tears to my eyes. I can't even put into words how much that means to me.

Exciting Find

Ever heard of Nebo-Sarsekim? Probably not. He was an official at the court of the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar. He's mentioned in Jeremiah 39.

Big deal, right? Actually this long-deceased dude is creating quite a stir. The British Museum has announced an incredible archaeological find. The Australian reports, "The cuneiform inscription in a tablet dating from 595BC has been deciphered for the first time – revealing a reference to an official at the court of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, that proves the historical existence of a figure mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah."

The name on the tablet? Nebo-Sarsekim. This rare find is great evidence for the authority of the Bible.

It sounds so simple. A guy that the Bible mentions actually existed. But in reality, this is hard, credible evidence that the Bible is historically accurate.

We need to demolish the idea that you can't be a thinking person and also be a person of faith. The Bible has a mountain of evidence in its favor. It is historically accurate, scientifically accurate, etc. You don't have to check your brain at the door when you come to faith. God gave you your cognitive ability, and he's not afraid to allow you to use it. Explore the evidence. Study it. Think about it. Test it.

If you're wanting to really go deep with this, check out the classic book Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell. (It's actually been updated to include new research and archaeological finds.)

Bottom line, people of faith shouldn't be afraid of intellectual pursuits. Education is not our enemy. Science shouldn't scare us. Archeology shouldn't send us running for cover. You don't have to become some non-thinking, wishy-washy, emotion-driven flake to be a Christ-follower.

Directory

I just flipped through the final proof of our church pictorial directory. I can't wait to get these directories out to our people. I think everyone is going to be impressed with the final product. We've got a good looking church family!

Seriously, flipping through the pictures really reminded me how much I love our church. It is an incredible family and I'm blessed to be a part of it.

Interesting Sunday

Sunday was quite a mixed bag. We had what many people deemed "the best worship service we've ever had!" Our worship was on fire Sunday! I loved getting comments from young and old alike about how much they loved the worship song set. I appreciate the humility of our worship band as they reflect all the glory to God. In all that we do, the glory and honor always goes vertical.

The message was a tough one. In the third installment of our What's God Really Like? series, we talked about God's wrath. It was deep stuff. Not a lot of light, fun content. But that was on purpose because God's wrath is something that we've got to take very seriously. We can't ignore it. The feedback after the message was stellar, which was awesome because I really thought I might have lost everybody a couple of times. It's always reaffirming to know that God takes my mediocre messages and does something with them that only He can do. It's easy to stay humble when I realize that, at the end of the day, I didn't do jack squat. God simply used me to accomplish His purposes.

So then yesterday afternoon, after spending the morning talking about God's wrath, we experienced one of the worst thunderstorms I've seen in a long time. The storm snapped some trees in my neighborhood like they were toothpicks. Roads were flooded. There was hail and lightning. Nothing like an intense thunderstorm to accentuate a message on God's wrath!

As the storm was just beginning yesterday, Nicki asked me, "You rolled the car windows up, right?"

I said, "Oh yeah, they're up."

About 15 minutes later, I hear my wife yell, "The car windows are down!"

Sure enough, I had left them down. So I ran out in the middle of the worst part of the storm to roll the windows up. The car's interior was drenched. I was drenched. I slipped on the wet grass and fell down as I was running back into the house. And we're still trying to dry out our car this morning. Fun times.

After I changed clothes and dried off, I headed out for our VBS band practice. Our worship set for this year's VBS is sweet! Can't wait!

And then the day was completed by attending my mother-in-law's birthday party. She wouldn't want me to tell you that she's turning 50, so I won't. :o)

It really was an interesting day. A day filled with God's power and grace, with a little bit of my own stupidity thrown into the mix. (Leaving your car windows down during a downpour isn't exactly an intelligent thing to do.)

Such is life. And it's a great life!

Contentment

Been struggling with contentment lately. I don't know what has brought it on, but it seems that I'm noticing what everybody else has and wondering why I don't have the same things. This is a direct contradiction to what God has said in the Bible.

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5, NIV)

In other words, be content where you are and with what you have because God is with you. His presence is enough.

And then this…

But godliness with contentment is great gain. (1 Timothy 6:6, NIV)

Chasing after God while being content with your current situation is the goal. I've fallen short of that goal lately. I don't know why. It's incredibly stupid. I'm crazy blessed with everything I have in my life. And yet, like a total moron I seem to focus only on what I don't have.

I've been feeling seriously convicted of this sin over the last few days. I can't keep living like such an ingrate when God has just poured out blessing after blessing on an undeserving goofball like me.

Tall Meets Small

There was an interesting meeting this week as Bao Xishun, the world's tallest man, met He Pingping, possibly the world's shortest man.

Bao stands at a massive 7'9", while He stands at a mere 2'4".

Pretty cool, huh?

Tough Sermons

Thomas Mann said, "A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people." There have been times in my life when I've definitely found that to be true. Today is one of those times.

I'm really wrestling with writing a message this week. We're currently in a monster 8-week sermon series called What's God Really Like? This week's message is tough because it's focused on God's wrath. There is nothing comfortable or easy when you're speaking on this topic.

Sometimes sermons just happen. They almost write themselves. Not this week. But as I've been forced to wrestle with this difficult aspect of God's character, I've learned some things. Hopefully I can pass them on to our church with some semblance of clarity this weekend.

Right now, my brain hurts.

The Perfect Bag

Heard this on the radio this morning. Apparently the CBS Morning Show recently ran a hard-hitting segment on how to pack the perfect bag for a weekend getaway. Not a year. Not a month. Not even a week. A weekend getaway.

Who needs help packing a bag for a weekend?!? Throw a few clothes in your bag, zip it up, and hit the trail! My family is planning a trip to Virginia in August. We're going to be gone for 6 days. And even though this is almost a week-long trip, I still don't think I'll need CBS News to tell me how to pack.

It's growing more and more apparent that the media is convinced that you and I are incoherent morons who need somebody to hold our hands every step of the way. I'm gonna prove them wrong! I'm packing my own bag in August.

Enough with the Animals

We've had some opossum issues at church this week. Well, that has transitioned into cat issues. Our thermostat isn't currently working thanks to all the electrical problems that the opossums caused, which means that it's really hot in my office. So I've got all the doors at church propped open trying to get as much air inside as I can. Apparently a neighborhood cat took that as his invitation to come on in.

The cat made it all the way downstairs at one point. We threw him out. He came back in again. We threw him out again. Back in. Threw out. Back in. Threw out. Get the idea?

Finally, when the cat came in for the fifth time, I got tired of playing this game and chased him out, yelling at the top of my lungs, and kicking stuff to scare him away. I about broke my foot in the process, but the cat seems to be gone.

Enough with the critters already! This ain't Animal Planet!

Quitting

I read a decent amount of blogs, news articles, etc. everyday. And in all the stuff I read, I have consistently been running across a similar theme: quitting.

Quitting sounds like a negative word. But there are times when quitting is exactly what we should do. Like quitting smoking, for example. I don't preach against smoking because there really isn't a solid Biblical basis for it. Not to mention the fact that it's pretty small potatoes compared to other things going on in people's lives. However, is smoking a good thing? The evidence says no. Quitting is a good idea.

I have recently renewed my commitment to quit overeating. I used to be a fat slob. There's no other way to say it. A few years ago, I lost almost 70 pounds. But, I find that I've gained some of that weight back this year. I'm still far from my heaviest weight, but I'm going in the wrong direction. So I'm recommitting myself to quit overeating. One helping is just fine. I don't need to go back for seconds, or thirds, or fourths, etc.

In certain instances, quitting is exactly what we should do. But a lot of the time, quitting isn't such a positive thing. It's an easy way out of a difficult situation, but it's possible that God would rather us stay in the difficult situation a little while longer.

This is tough because we live in a quitting culture.

Got a tough marriage? Quit.

Got a difficult job? Quit.

Taking a hard class? Quit.

Things not perfect in your church? Quit.

One of the characteristics of a Christ-follower is perseverance. I'm not suggesting that you can never quit something. But I am saying that perseverance is a characteristic that is honored by God, and therefore is one that should be valuable to us.

What would happen if you stuck it out? For one more year? For another month? Even for another week? What could God do in your life if you persevered just a little longer?

I'm convinced that we often quit right before God begins.