More Than Today

I noticed that a friend of mine had his Facebook account hacked recently. It made me start thinking about the things that might be put as my status posts that if you knew me and you saw them there, you would know my account had been hacked. What would they be for you? What things if someone saw them with your name on them, your friends would just know they weren't from you and know that your account was hacked? I am also wondering if the same thing could be associated with our credit cards? The companies will often contact you if you have purchased something somewhere that is out of context for you. Before we traveled to Tanzania this summer we contacted the banks and credit card companies to tell them so that they would not shut us down when purchases were showing up there. What purchases would be out of character for me that a friend would know I hadn't made. And a scarier thought? What statuses are there and what purchases do I make that are out of character with my tr...

For those of us who struggle with "marketing" the church in order to reach more people for Jesus, these words may prove helpful...or at least food for thought. They come from a book I am reading that is made up of prayers and then after the prayers the author reflects on the topic of the prayer. One of the most helpful parts of this for me is not just about marketing, but about what the kingdom of God was meant to be even before Jesus came and what it had become. Makes me wonder what the kingdom has become in our hands today. "No one has ever provided a better example of marketing than Jesus did. He inherited a situation in which his movement, the kingdom of God on earth, had been taken over by small-minded legalists who had reduced its majestic principles to a rigid set of codified behaviors. Its inspiring orientation toward the future had become a stultifying preoccupation with history and tradition. Its singular focus on right relationships with people and with God...

Wondering today, just wondering not worrying. I will still be able to buy food, gas, clothes, pay the mortgage payment, give money to the church and others. I may still face health or job issues along the way as does happen in life. Friends will laugh at my jokes, or wish I would get a sense of humor. Strangers will pass me by and not even see me, as I them too many times. Others will not have the same opportunities as I do because of their own choices or many of them because of no fault of their own but where they were born and the family they were born into. Sharing love with others will be just as difficult as ever but still necessary regardless of someone's life experiences, passions, or personality.  The world has not ended. My failures are still the ones to be confessed instead of looking to blame someone else. My selfishness still keeps someone else from eating today or having a place to live. My smile can still light upon an unsuspecting person and brighten t...

Myself (left), my sister Rosalyn, and my brother David in 1957. Sometimes throughout my life when I have been asked why I continue doing Pastor/ministry jobs for a living I have said, "It's who I am." While reading this morning I was reminded that is not true. Being a Pastor is not "who I am." Who I am is a child of God. Me, Rich Thornton, a child of God. You too, whatever you do for a living, whatever your role in or out of your family, and every other task you take on in life, who you are is a child of God.

It was Tuesday morning, June 8, 2010.  I got up to see my daughter Emily before she headed off to school for her next to the last day of high school.  She had finals and was studying before driving to school.  I didn’t want to miss these last few mornings with her before high school ended for her so I was up to talk with her, pray with her, and see her out the door to school. After she left, I headed out the back door to walk around the track at Lehr Park that is in my backyard.  That morning I listened to music on my mp3 player and had a variety of thoughts sifting through my head.  After three laps of the track, a total of a mile and a half, I went home, picked up the daily newspaper and got out my keys to go inside and get ready to head to work. It was then that I discovered that I had the wrong keys.  I had the keys to get in the church shed but not the keys for the house.  So I rang the doorbell and knocked for awhile in hopes that my s...

I remember back to when my children started school each day. Most of those years my wife went to work earlier and I was the one who got them up and made sure they were fed and prepared for school. Before Rosie started school I remember thinking about how people were saying how bad it was that prayer was taken out of school. Yes, "in my day" there was prayer in school.  We recited The Lord's Prayer each morning in homeroom until one year when it wasn't permitted any more. Regardless of the importance of having teachers, who may not even believe in Jesus, lead classes in praying a prayer, it just isn't done any more. Yes, there is a time of silence and that is a good thing to prepare for the school day. But I decided that whether there was a time of silence, when I hoped my children would be quiet and even say their own silent prayer, or not and whether there should be a prayer recited out loud, that I would pray with them each morning and read the Bible with t...

I am thankful for thunder. Not long ago I walked to lunch, walked back, and started working again in my office. In just a bit I heard thunder. It got my attention...because the windows on my car were down some to cool it off. The thunder warned me so that I could go out and put the windows up. Just in time...then the rains poured and poured. Sometimes I need to be more thankful for the warnings, the thunder, the things that get my attention that I better change, get moving, push on...or I will be sitting in a mess. There are enough messes that I cannot avoid...best to hear the thunder and act and avoid the potential messes that I can.

While in Raleigh the other day I was blessed by many things that people said and one came to mind today. My friend Justin Meier  said, after I had shared that I had planted a church that had ended and I felt like a failure in some ways, that my experience there played a part in the movement in Raleigh beginning. I appreciated his words not only because of their kindness, but because of their truth. We learn a lot from the things that don't go well and the point is to keep listening to God and trusting Him by just keeping on and seeing where He leads, even to helping to birth a church multiplication movement in Raleigh and throughout the southeastern area of the USA. I am glad that God cares more about us than about what we do for Him, while taking who we are and leading us to touch lives for Jesus far beyond ourselves and our own abilities.

Christmas is more than a state of mind.  It's more than being nice to someone else.  Christmas is about someone who came to earth not just to be nice or have us be nice.  Christmas is not about being happy all the time or even for a time.  It's about joy which is so much more than being nice or being happy. Joy is rooted in our being, in our soul, in our being created in the image of God.  We experience joy when we are connected to God through His Son Jesus.  Nothing can take our joy away.  We seem to yield it to others sometimes or experience the feeling of losing it when circumstances hit us that are beyond our control.  But the joy that we find in Jesus is ours as we stay connected to God, even when at times we seem driven to disconnect ourselves. I want to be nice to people.  I want to be happy.  But it's not what Christmas is all about.  It is not about me, my niceness, or my happiness.  Christmas is about joy to the...

In his book  What God Thinks When We Fail , Steven C. Roy tells a fictional story about a young violinist who lived in London many years ago. Although he was a superb musician, he was deathly afraid of large crowds, so he avoided giving concerts. But after enduring criticism for his unwillingness to give concerts, he finally agreed to perform in the largest concert hall in London. The young violinist came onto the stage and sat alone on a stool. He put his violin under his chin and played for an hour and a half. No music in front of him, no orchestra behind him, no breaks—just an hour and a half of absolutely beautiful violin music. After ten minutes or so, many critics put down their pads and listened, like the rest …. After the performance, the crowd rose to its feet and began applauding wildly—and they wouldn't stop. But the young violinist didn't acknowledge the applause. He just peered out into the audience as if he were looking for something—or someone. Finally he ...

Always becoming... "Today I let a stranger stick a needle in my spine to relieve my pain.  Trust.  Everyday I want to trust my best friend, my leader, my Savior, to handle whatever pain I have at the moment.  Some days I wonder how He puts up with me putting more trust in a doctor I don't know than He who knew me from before I was born.  But thanks anyway God...I do love you...you know that." -Rich Thornton,lover of God, husband, father, sometimes humorist, storyteller, church planting strategist, songwriter, singer, guitarist, friend of the fallen, fallen himself but safe now in the arms of Jesus through life and beyond, enjoyer of roller coasters and ice cream and chocolate, reader on-line and off, sometimes philosopher, and becomer...so far yet to go, so very far...

It's interesting how life is and how sometimes looking beyond takes you somewhere you haven't even visited yet.  For the past year or so I have been thinking about the Raleigh, North Carolina area even though I have never been there.  Heard about it, saw pictures of it, checked it out online, and believe that it would be a good area to spend time reaching people for Jesus who don't know Him yet. So how does one do that when you live someplace else and can't just drop into Raleigh for an afternoon Coke and conversations? Craigslist. At least that is what I decided to try. So about a year ago I wrote up an ad inviting potential church planters to contact me about beginning new churches in that area. Somehow I don't even think the process worked enough for it to get posted. If it did, it never worked because no one contacted me. So the idea continued to simmer this past year until a week ago, July 27, when I decided to post the ad I had written. Read it over again...

Reposting this from Brennan Manning’s book The Ragamuffin Gospel (page 86).  He writes, • “The question which the gospel of grace puts to us is simply this: Who shall separate you from the love of Christ? What are you afraid of? • Are you afraid that your weakness could separate you from the love of Christ? It can’t. • Are you afraid that your inadequacies could separate you from the love of Christ? They can’t. • Are you afraid that your inner poverty could separate you from the love of Christ? It can’t. • Difficult marriage, loneliness, anxiety over the children’s future? They can’t. • Negative self-image? It can’t. • Economic hardship, racial hatred, street crime? They can’t. • Rejection by loved ones or the suffering of loved ones? They can’t. • Persecution by authorities, going to jail? They can’t. • Nuclear war? It can’t. • Mistakes, fears, uncertainties? They can’t. • The gospel of grace calls out: Nothing can ever separate you from the love of God made visible in Christ Jes...

Today is our 26th wedding anniversay. Diane and I met at a singles group called Discovery, were married outside at Doubling Gap Center, and at our wedding reception sang a song that I wrote describing ourselves as "Two Roses." Our garden has grown and now we are blessed with Rose Thornton and Emilie Thornton, the best daughters anyone could have. 

This morning I was reading some more of Max Lucado's book,  "Outlive Your Life."  There was a little bit about  microfinance , where regular people like me can give a few bucks so that people in other countries can borrow it and help their families by owning their own business. Then they pay it back and someone else gets the money. Pretty cool really. My gift keeps getting recycled to help families climb up at least some as they help their families and the community around them.  So many times I miss opportunities like this by just "moving on" to other thoughts. Not today. Helped some guy in Kenya, one of the next door countries to where Rosie will be in Tanzania in the Peace Corps. I easily could have talked myself into waiting until she gets to Tanzania and seeing what help may be needed in her village. But there is nothing to stop me from doing that then.  But this is now. Joseph Kimeto will also be able to send his children to school and purchase the mater...

An overcast day may try to cast shadows on my joy in Jesus.  Even when the weather and recent circumstances try to steal my joy, I understand that it can never be stolen.  I can give it away, I can forget it for a time, but nobody can steal it.  I am responsible to cling to Christ and to hold on with dear life to His joy.  Laughter may elude me, smiles may not come as often for a time, but the joy of the Lord is my strength and I will not relinqui sh it.

This morning on Facebook someone posted: "I rejoice in following your  statutes  as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways." Psalm 119:14-15. When I read the word  "statutes"  I saw  "statuses " instead. It was the "facebooking" of the scripture I suppose.  I then thought about it and it is true that "I rejoice in following your  statuses,  God, as one rejoices in great riches." God has a new post every morning, and all through the day he posts again and again...inviting us to read them and rejoice in following them. May I not only see/read/acknowledge the statuses of God today but may I rejoice in following them.  May I meditate on God's precepts (commandments, instructions, orders intended as an authoritative rule of action) and consider the ways of God.  When I do this, my life will be enriched beyond measure.  Doing this long enough you might not even recognize me even more....

You are creator and you are love.  You made the stars above. When we can't see way out ahead.  You show the next step instead. We praise You God.  We Praise You God.  For who You are. We thank You God.  We thank You God.  For all you've done so far. You are mercy and You are wise.  You are the one who supplies. Help us trust in Your faithful ways, through all our nights and days.

This is what the Lord says:    "Stop at the crossroads and look around.      Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it.    Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls."                                                  (Jeremiah 16a, NLT) God invites us to stop at the crossroads and look around.  There have been many crossroads in my life.  Times when I had a choice to make.  Would I do the right thing, the hard thing, the thing that was difficult...or would I go my own way?  A choice of my way or the old, godly way.  Would I ask for the true way, the old, godly way, or I would I kid myself that I could just do what I wanted.  I was going to walk from this crossroads in one direction or another.  My soul cried out to walk in the old, godly way...the way of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob...Les...

I am thinking today of current events such as: the Supreme Court stands up for free speech rights but at what cost; the President decides he is not going to defend the Defense of Marriage Act because his thoughts on this are evolving; and Libyans seeking freedom try to draw in an already over-stretched United States military.  I am praying for freedom, marriage, and peace.   Meanwhile, I seek to refuse to cast the first stone at those who make important decisions on our behalf.  I seek to discern truth, support those in authority, and speak up for those without a voice.  These things seem to be at odds at times and yet I must wrestle with them none the less.