The Big Diehl

My Pastor in Tulsa was kind enough to share this with me and gave me permission to share it with you on my blog. This is an audio recording of his son, Michael, telling the Christmas story at the age of 4. Click here to listen to this Christmas blog.

Today I had the pleasure of speaking with a retired minister who had invested his life as a pastor in Waterloo. He’s now pretty old, has what seems to be Parkinson’s (his hands shake a lot) and some sort of Alzheimer’s (he told me so), although he remembered me between my two visits. He’s at Betz Nursing Home. Being a young pastor, I love hearing what he has to say. He’s imparted so much wisdom in the two times I’ve spoken with him, I wanted to record it so I’d never forget it. This is a personal log for myself, but I thought my readers might like to hear them as well. Here are the highlights:

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I needed to get back to the church office to finish up some stuff and get ready for other folks who would be meeting me there. I told him that I needed to get back to work. He looked and spoke to me very sternly as if to correct me. “You are at work!” he said. I’ll never forget that. The full-time minister is never “off-the-clock.” I’m always at work. The office is just one of the facets.

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I told him that I was meeting people at the church. He said, “They will be there to meet you there.” I didn’t know what he meant so I asked, “Why?” He responded, “Because they trust you [as a leader]. Don’t ever let them down. Never let them down.” I asked, “Well, what if I do [let them down]?” He responded with words that cut deep into me, “Then you get down on your knees so fast that it tears the cloth of your pants and ask God for mercy so that God won’t let you down.” (God will never forsake me, but His anointing can leave).

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This man had preached for years and years. I will record his words as accurately as I can recall: “Adam, I’m going to tell you something that I’ve hardly told anyone my whole life. All the sermons I ever preached - I never planned them. I only planned and wrote an outline for one sermon ever, and you know what? — it was the worst message I ever preached. When you get up there and listen to the Spirit of God . . . he’ll tell you what to say. The Holy Spirit wrote all my sermons - and He comes up with some good ones.” As I understand it, this man pastored churches which belonged to denominations which generally do not encourage direct divine revelation which he experienced.

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He told me his wife died in April 2003. He told me how much he missed her. I remember him saying, “The love I had for her came straight down from heaven. There was never any lust or anything - it was pure love. And boy did I love her.” He spoke of how excited he was to be in heaven soon because he would get to see his wife again.

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He was so passionate about his faith. He was sickened when another old guy in the hallway would say a swear word (which I didn’t even hear). He never let me leave his room without praying for me. He would speak of witnessing Jesus Christ to another woman in the nursing home who spent her life practicing (and still practiced) another religion.

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Every Thursday afternoon my church does a little service at the nursing home. Today I was asked to share the message and preach. I ended 5 minutes early, to which I was upset about. This man shared wisdom with me, “Just because you stopped talking 5 minutes early doesn’t mean your message ended too early. Your message doesn’t stop until the people stop thinking about. The length doesn’t matter as much as the depth does.”

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I will recall his words to the best of my memory: “People always say that God never leaves us and never forsakes us. That’s in the Bible, and I always heard it. And I’ve been through a lot in my life and it’s about over, and you know what? — it’s true. He never left me and He never forsook me. God’s been faithful. He’s been so faithful.”

I want stuff from God. I want to hear His voice. I want spiritual wisdom. I want supernatural knowledge. I want to see and be a part of divine healing of all kinds. I want to receive a prophecy, or maybe give one myself. I want the signs and wonders of God to be present in and around my life. You probably feel the same way, especially when you hear about supernatural encounters had by others.

In Acts 2, the disciples all went into a room together. The Bible says that they were continuously in the temple praying, and I can only imagine that they were in the room praying as well. After that, God showed up in a very supernatural way. That was the point where supernatural gifts were released in their fullness and made available to every Christian. What initiated this move of God?

We need to chase after God; the heart of God. That should come first. The signs and wonders of God will show up and will be present in the lives of those who seek the heart of God. Often its easy to get excited and seek after signs, wonders, and special gifts. The signs, wonders, and special gifts of God are consequential. We should seek the heart of God first. The signs will follow.

I don’t ever recall God speaking to me, “Adam, this is what I want you to do. How does that sound?” or “Adam, I want you to go there. Does that work okay for you?” God just doesn’t seem to be that concerned with my convenience.

De veras. Wake up. God doesn’t really give a hoot about what’s convenient. I was with Pastor Dennis Kutzner earlier tonight and he shared with me something that penetrated into my heart. He said, “Adam, you know its God when its not convenient.”

That is so true. Was it convenient for Jesus to die for us? Was in convenient for the Apostle Paul to travel across Europe to spread the Gospel–even to the point of imprisonment and perhaps a martyrs death? Is it convenient to share Christ — perhaps with someone you don’t even know? Is it convenient to fill up someone else’s car with some gasoline? Let’s not back away from things that are simply not convenient. God should be allowed to inconvenience us. Give him permission.

One thing that I find inconvenient is prayer and fasting. Definitely not convenient, but I think that’s okay — I need to do it anyhow. One of the associate pastors I work with at my church just started a blog and it sounds like he’s dedicating the next few weeks to discussing prayer and fasting. This is a “plug” for Pastor Chet’s Blog. Check it out.

I can be doing all the right stuff, and someone will get mad at me. Ugh. I hate that. Sometimes I know I am following God’s specific direction, yet people get mad at me. I know that what people think shouldn’t change what I do, but what people think changes how I feel. Do you know what I’m saying? Whether we’re at work, church, school, or just “around” . . . people sometimes get mad at us for doing what we’re supposed to do. And that bugs us, it causes us to get all closed up inside and sort of shut down.

I think God knew we’d feel this way when he inspired the Apostle Paul to write, “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary” (Galatians 6:9 NASB). When we are doing what we’re supposed to do, we should stay focused. We should keep our courage and not be fainthearted.

The end of this verse it says, “if we do not grow weary.” In the original language, this had more of a connotation of meaning, “we will reap a harvest if we do not get relaxed in our faith.” That says to me that there is a certain amount of tension in our lives that God wants us to have, but we can’t let that tension wear us down.

When someone gets mad at us while we’re doing the right thing, let’s not lose heart. Let’s just keep going.

I came into a front side door of my church’s auditorium awhile ago. It was pitch black. I couldn’t really see anything at all, but since I am so familiar with the facility that I was able to easily walk around all the obstacles between me and the back of the room. Let me say that again: because of my familiarity, I could walk around my church while in complete darkness.

Is it possible to become so familiar with our Christianity that we can walk around just fine yet still be in the darkness? I think so.

Satan knows that he can’t stop most of us from going to church or following Christ, and I think he knows it. So instead of blatantly lying to us (we’re expecting that), he tries to trick us by allowing us to do all the right “steps” . . . but keeps us walking in the dark. If he can keep us from actually doing something for Jesus, then the Kingdom of God will not advance any further. If he can get us to put our relationship with Christ on “maintenance mode” instead of us passionately seeking God’s voice, then the Kingdom of God will not advance.

But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. (James 1:22). Let’s do it!

Several years ago I worked in the office of a temporary employment agency. Part of my job included helping with scheduling people for temporary jobs. There was a whole set of abbreviations we used to keep records. “NCNS” was used when someone failed to show up at a job assignment without reason; “No Call, No Show.” “NER” notated someone who was “Not Eligible for Rehire.” “LPM” was used all the time to notate that someone in the office had “Left a Phone Message.”

Now I oversee the worship arts department at New Hope, which includes making sure that there is a full worship team for all the services. Today I called someone to fill-in for someone else on the worship team one week. I left a voicemail for them and then for my record I made a note with their name and “LPM” next to it. I make this notation all the time, but it wasn’t until today that I realized where it originally came from.

Just exactly how much of my today is influenced by my past? Hmm. I wager to say close to all of it, in one way or another. So if my today is influenced by my past, then it only makes sense that all of my future will be influenced by my today.

Paintings have many parts. The art of the painting contains line, color, shape, texture, etc. When observing a painting it can also be helpful to understand what was going on in the life of the artist at they time they painted it. Why then do we treat music any different than other forms of art, such as paintings?

I think we should be cautious to label music “Christian” or “Secular.” Music has line, color, shape, and texture just like any other work of art. What do the words communicate? What emotion does it evoke? What associations are made in your mind? If these things dishonor God, then we probably shouldn’t listen to it . . . at least not without an extremely protected mind and heart.

God made music, and he made it good. Many people pervert it into something it isn’t. But I don’t think that means we should completely ignore any music that doesn’t have “Jesus Saves” on the front cover.

My church has a daycare which holds a chapel service for the preschoolers every Thursday afternoon. Last week it was my turn to talk to the kids. As I finished and was leaving, one of the children asked me, “Pastor Adam, how big is God?”

What a question.

I replied to the boy, “Bigger than your imagination.” After thinking about it, I suppose that’s about the best answer I could have given. God really is bigger than any of us could possibly imagine. I am reminded of this especially when I see God work in my life in ways I wouldn’t expect in a million years.

Since I’m talking about it, I’ll take this opportunity to make a “plug” for Michael Gungor’s incredible CD called “Bigger Than My Imagination.” It’s got some very tight music on it, including a rhythmic acoustic guitar rendition of the Doxology. Check it out.

If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been doing a blog series on Hearing God’s Voice. I’ve talked about hearing God’s voice through circumstances, divine revelation, Godly counsel, and through the Bible.

Is one of these “more accurate” than any of the others? Yes. I believe so. Correct interpretation of the Bible is always the true voice of God. Every time. God will never speak something contrary to what He’s already said (in the Bible).

Just like in my pizza hut example, hearing God’s voice through circumstances is subject to human error. Hearing God’s voice through divine revelation is also subject to others’ selfish desires. And the Godly counsel we receive could always turn out to be not-so-Godly after all. But correct interpretation of the Bible is a sure thing. Every time.