Tonight, before bedtime, we had a thrilling family game of Trouble. Here’s one of the two people trying to beat me. FYI – I kicked tail…
Monthly Archives: January 2015
Don’t Forget This:
I Don’t (just) Believe in Jesus
Do you believe in Jesus?
Tonight, a simple thought that I hope will challenge you as a Christian:
Belief in Jesus just isn’t enough. There has to be behavior that follows.
Do you remember what James 2:19 says? It reminds us “You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror.” Satan and his demons believe in God, believe in Jesus, and believe in the Spirit.
Believing is great. I believe in Jesus. But that is not enough.
There has to be action. There has to be response. How will you show you are a believer? What will you do to show that you’re a follower of Jesus? Belief is just a step. Taking action is a big step – will you take it?
Things That Make This Grown Man Cry: Volume 1
- Watching a group of grown men praise God after the NFC Championship football game – giving Him glory and honor for their talents. Bonus – having a guy from the losing Packers team in the circle with a bunch of Seahawks players, plus having a coach in there as well.
(This picture is actually from the Rams/Seahawks game on December 29, 2014)
- Hearing people tell you that they’ve been praying for you. Knowing that they are sincere.
- Today we snuck over to my parents to worship with them at Maple Hill. I love watching my father play with my daughter. He’s so patient, loving, kind, and compassionate. He brought down an old jar of bubble gum trinkets from when he was a small child, and told of how his grandfather used to give him 10 pennies every Saturday, and he would get 10 trinkets out of the bubble gum machines. He saved all of them, and he was able to make my modern, technological loving little girl be awe inspired by small, tiny, plastic trinkets from 60 years ago.
(these weren’t the actual trinkets – I failed to snap a picture of the two of them looking at them – my father’s trinkets were much older!)
- God’s blessings. When I stop and think about how much He loves me – I can’t help but shed a tear.
Help Wanted: Do You Have What it Takes?
Can you help me out for a second?
I’m in the process of trying to commit more time to writing on my blog. One thing that is needed to make a blog successful is to have some followers. I have several right now, but am looking to increase my readership.
I don’t want to do this just so I can have massive amounts of people following. In fact, I’m not a numbers guy at all. The reason I want to do this is because I feel like this is a very effective way of reaching people who are lost, reaching those who are spiritually confused, or those who are seeking. You never know what someone scrolling through social media may be struggling with these days, and when you share something – it may be just what someone needs that day!
You can help me in these ways:
- Please “Follow” my blog via email. I will never spam you, or send you requests for things – this simply means that when I make a post, you’ll get an email notifying you that I have a new blog post up. You can do this by looking to the top right of the page, and click on the “Follow” button. It looks like this:
- Favorite and Re-tweet my posts on Twitter. I automatically share my posts to Twitter when I publish them, so if you see them on Twitter – could you just hit the Favorite button, and then hit the re-tweet button as well. You can follow me on Twitter @lanewidick
- Like and Share my posts on Facebook. Just hit the like button, and then hit the share button. You can make a comment, you can tag someone in the share that you know may need that thought that day.
- Do this for others. For ministers, this is just one extra way we can enlarge our sphere of influence for the Kingdom.
Thanks everyone!
The Widick Family – The 2014 Christmas Gift to our Parents
This year for Christmas me and my siblings decided to get my mom and dad a wonderful present that would trap a moment in time forever. Pictures are always a wonderful present. Special shout out to Mollie Cochrane who did the shoot at Edwin Warner Park in Nashville, TN. It only took us about 4 years to get around to doing this…life is paved with good intentions, right?
Me, my wife Kristen, and my little girl Josie:
My sister Mary Anne, her husband Kevin, and their kids Faith and John Derrick:
My brother Marty, his wife Penny, and their kids Emilynne, Nathaniel, and Susannah:
All the kids and their families:
Me, my brother Marty, and my sister Mary Anne:
And finally – one of all the grandkids:
Thursday Potpourri
Every once in a while, its good to just let your mind wander. I don’t have a vast audience for my blog, but its a respectable group of folks and I’m appreciative for the hits each day. Today, I’m just going to let my mind reflect on a few things I’ve been thinking on lately.
- Thanks to some good friends, Grey and Melanie Carter, I have gotten into the “Buy Sell Trade” Facebook pages. These things are pretty cool. I haven’t bought anything off any of them yet, but I have sold a few things – a train table, a pair of shoes, and a couple of movies. If you have some junk around your house, join one of these groups. I’m amazed at what people will sell or buy.
- I was disappointed this year that my Crimson Tide went out the way they did for the season, but truth be told, I thought they overachieved this year. If you had told me at the beginning of the year that Ohio State would have won the inaugural playoff run – I would have said you were nuts. Congrats to the Buckeyes.
- Josie has been in the process of losing her two front teeth for about a month now. Its almost cartoonish to look at her cute little smile.
- My wife and I have been really into the thought process of down-sizing our possessions. The other day, I went through my closet and pulled out about 15 shirts that I haven’t worn in the past year. I haven’t gone through my drawers and storage. When was the last time you did some cleaning like that? I found it rather therapeutic.
- I’m not a big fan of the “winter breaks” that a lot of television shows are taking these days. I suppose its nice to have continuity without weeks in between shows all year long – but lots of the best shows seem to take about a 2 month break these days. What show are you looking forward to returning?
- I’m trying to get in more reading this year as well. The current book I’m reading is entitled : “Satan and His Kingdom: What the Bible Says and How it Matters to You” written by Dennis McCallum. Its a good read on how to understand the Evil One a bit more, and how he attacks us, how he works, the powers he possesses, and much more.
I hope your 2015 has started off great!
Are you really “Praying” for others?
When you tell someone you’re praying for them – do you? How earnestly do you do so? Is it a fleeting moment? Do you write their name down and pray for them daily? I’m guilty of saying “I’ll pray for you” and casually mentioning a name in a quick prayer. But is that enough?
Tonight’s post is taken from the blog site “My Utmost For His Highest: Daily Devotionals by Oswald Chambers” and this specific post can be accessed here: http://utmost.org/intercessory-prayer/
Intercessory Prayer
You cannot truly intercede through prayer if you do not believe in the reality of redemption. Instead, you will simply be turning intercession into useless sympathy for others, which will serve only to increase the contentment they have for remaining out of touch with God. True intercession involves bringing the person, or the circumstance that seems to be crashing in on you, before God, until you are changed by His attitude toward that person or circumstance. Intercession means to “fill up…[with] what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ” (Colossians 1:24), and this is precisely why there are so few intercessors. People describe intercession by saying, “It is putting yourself in someone else’s place.” That is not true! Intercession is putting yourself in God’s place; it is having His mind and His perspective.
As an intercessor, be careful not to seek too much information from God regarding the situation you are praying about, because you may be overwhelmed. If you know too much, more than God has ordained for you to know, you can’t pray; the circumstances of the people become so overpowering that you are no longer able to get to the underlying truth.
Our work is to be in such close contact with God that we may have His mind about everything, but we shirk that responsibility by substituting doing for interceding. And yet intercession is the only thing that has no drawbacks, because it keeps our relationship completely open with God.
What we must avoid in intercession is praying for someone to be simply “patched up.” We must pray that person completely through into contact with the very life of God. Think of the number of people God has brought across our path, only to see us drop them! When we pray on the basis of redemption, God creates something He can create in no other way than through intercessory prayer.
What’s Holding You Back
Tonight’s post is just a simple graphic. So, what is holding you back?
When God Slams the Door In Your Face
Mid South Youth Camp was my home away from home for 4 straight summers during college. There were 6 guys and 7 gals serving as counselors at the camp each week. We each had our own cabin we dealt with, and a different group of kids came in each and every week.
The counselors had a special place to “live” which was located on a screened-in porch. Each of these porches was the main entryway into the cabin. The only way into the cabin was a wooden screened door.
Each and every week, my first rule when I shared the cabin rules on Sunday night was this: DO NOT LET THE DOOR SLAM WHEN YOU ENTER AND EXIT. I know it sounds silly, but spend 9 weeks in a row listening to a door slam next to your face, and you’d make it a rule too!
Its a simple rule, but hard to to follow for 8-18 year old guys. So, needless to say, I would constantly hear the door slam as the guys would come and go. The boys would run out of the cabin in a rush, and about 4 seconds later – WHAM!! Pictures would fall off the wall of the porch, my ears would ring for a few seconds, and this happened countless times each day.
This rule, when broken, had consequences. If you let the door slam, you had to come back, open and shut the door gently and quietly 20 times. It was great fun watching these guys run out, forgetting the rule, hearing it slam, and hanging their head as they had to come back to open and shut the door 20 times quietly.
I hated that sound. I never could understand why they couldn’t grasp the idea of not letting the door slam.
You know what else I don’t understand? Why does it seem like God allows doors to slam in our face as well? Have you ever felt like God opened up a door for you to walk through, only to have it slammed in your face? A wonderful opportunity comes up, everything looks awesome, and WHAM!!! The door is slammed in your face.
Why does this happen? Could it be that maybe we conjure up our own idea of what God’s will should be, and when it doesn’t happen we are disappointed? Maybe upset?
What I’ve learned is that when we feel like God slams a door in our face – He calls us back to assess the situation, and as we look back, we realize that God has put us where we need to be instead of where we want to be. If we let Him, God will lead us where HE wants us to go, and will keep us out of the places we need to pass by.
Today – maybe we should praise God for slamming doors.
(I wrote this “article” for the church bulletin in Ashland City, TN, where I had my first Youth Ministry job. It was printed on April 18, 2004. My mom found a copy of it in a closet at home with some old pictures.)
Being Changed from the Inside Out 