The Cannots of Life

When my work for good or evil is done; I cannot go back and repair what was amiss; I cannot now do what has been undone; I cannot recover the hours that have been wasted; I cannot correct the evils which may have resulted from my errors; I cannot overtake and arrest what I have spoken or written; as it has gone out into the world; I cannot summon back the opportunities for usefulness which have been neglected; I cannot obliterate the reality or the memory of wrong thoughts, or wrong motives, or wrong words, or wrong actions. All that has been thought or said or done in these past years has been fixed as a reality never now to be changed.
The only hope of a man – at any age – is not the errors, and sins, and follies, of the past can be changed: it is only that they may be pardoned by a merciful God; that they be covered over by the blood of Christ; that though they must remain forever as facts – facts fully known to the Great Savior of hearts – their quilt may be so taken away that they will not be punished; that by the bloodshed on the cross they themselves may be so covered over – so hidden that they will not be disclosed on the final trial before assembled worlds. That hope, the religion of Christ offers to all. No well-founded hope of heaven ever rests on our merits. The hope of any and every man is found alone in the blood of Jesus Christ which cleans us from all sin! Amen and Amen.

The end of the sermon on May 2, 2010

Making Memories, Instead of Filling the Landfill

History, as I was growing up, was a bad word. It meant that I was going to have to learn a lot of dates, names, places and a bunch of other stuff that did not pertain to anything now.

WOW, was I wrong!

History is our connection with the past. You’ve heard it said that we are to learn from our mistakes... Well, how do we learn from them if we only look at the present and forget the past? There is a lot in our pasts that is good and should not be forgotten.

We all tend to take time to reflect on our pasts. It may be over a cup of coffee with your Dad, at a baseball game with your college roommate, shucking peas with your grandmother, or at the dinner table surrounded by your family. Where ever or when ever, we all do it.

Many of the events of our lives that we tend to remember are times of conflict. Such as vacations when the family car got a flat on the way to Disney, the Thanksgiving turkey that burned and forced you to eat at Wendy’s, or the time that your canoe flipped over and you lost you week’s supply of granola bars… Whatever it is, it is a memory of the past.

So, go make a memory instead of filling the landfills. Instead of getting Christmas gifts, try something our family has been doing for quite a few years now…hold a Cousin’s Christmas. Cousin’s Christmas is a time where we bring the cousins all out for a night they will remember for the years to come. We have been to the Boston Tea Party, Old Sturbridge Village, and several other great places. This past year, we froze while skating on the Boston Frog Pond, ate dinner at a quaint Irish pub, and ended our night remembering past years over some DELICIOUS pastry from Mike’s…

Another thing my family’s been trying to do is have a seasonal gathering for all of my employees/co-workers at our home. We share an evening of memories of the past. We have learned quite a bit about each other’s memories over the past several years and in doing so have created some of our own.

We have also learned much about the people we serve in our business. We love meeting with them and working through things that need to be repaired or dealt with. We have learned that:

• Water is the number one thing that we have to contend with.

• All clients have basically the same needs; the biggest is that they want to know that they are heard and valued.

• Snow plows are never on time.

• Plumbers get paid good money.

• Young people have no fear of computers and can do more for the look of a newsletter than I ever thought possible.

• Older people bring stability to all of our lives.

• There is no such thing as a bad pet, only bad pet owners.

• There is always one in the crowd who believes the rules do not pertain to them.

Memories are what last, not the stuff. Go ahead, try and do something out of the box. Who knows, you may learn something you never knew about even those closest to you. I know I have!

Most pastors, church elders and churches as a whole would say that we need to exhort our congregants to be sober minded, full of charity and attend church each Sunday.

The church needs to remember that every worker is commanded by our Lord to be the best in their field and to accomplish his work as unto the Lord. The plumber in the pew (no pun intended ;-) is to be the best pipe fitter there is…When we do this, we glorify God by enjoying Him. We ought to be serving our Creator through our professions not leaving our faith at home.

The Apostles complained about having to serve tables because it took them from their vocation of preaching the Word. Might I suggest that the chef or cook may have an equal right to complain if asked to leave their vocational service at the table to preach the word?
We should not leave our vocation in order to do ecclesiastical work. In reality, doing so could be against God’s will.

We are all called to preach the Word in season and out of season, to be hospitable, and so on. However, we need not change professions to do so. The contemporary church wastes time and energy, and moreover, commits sacrilege as they demand that secular workers should neglect their given vocation in order to do Christian work.

Christian work is work done well; work done to the glory of the Father. How many of us, if honest, can say we go to work each day to show a lost world the Savior, simply by the way, we do our job. The way we speak to those around us, and especially the ethics with which we handle all of our affairs.

What a marvelous task the preacher of the Word has, he gets to show us all how to do such things. That’s him: just doing his job…

Check it Out!

At Monday night's rally, I was interviewed by the Boston Herald. Yesterday morning, my wife found this article by Hillary Chabot and Edward Mason: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1226592
(I'm quoted at the bottom.) God really does wok in amazing ways!

A Note to all America, but Especially our MA Friends...

Last night our family attended a rally for Scott Brown in Wrentham, MA. If Mr. Brown is successful in this election, it will be the first time since 1967 that a republican candidate has been elected as a US Senator for Massachusetts. This is HISTORY playing out right before our eyes... To learn more about Mr. Brown please click here.

We also found this video of Dr. Paul Jehle. He is speaking to spiritual leaders, but it applies to all of us around the country.
So, all of our Massachusetts friends, we're asking you to make sure you get out and vote today. Voting is our civic right, and one we are blessed to have!
May God bless all of you, and may He be glorified through this election!
~The Axberg Family~

Harvard

Last week, I stole away for an afternoon to see what the Lord is doing at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. I enjoyed an afternoon of history and Christ, with Chaplain Jeremy from RUF. (Reformed University Fellowship: http://www.ruf.org/.) If you get a chance, check out their website, and if you are a student, look for a RUF group on your campus.

Jeremy and I had lunch at John Harvard's. Has some great food and really cool website http://www.johnharvards.com/ (The virtual tour is exceptional:)

...And the back wall is the exposed field stone foundation. Cool huh?!Notice the books on the Harvard Seal. The three books on the seal represent the Old and New testaments and the Book of Nature (information from this article by Michael Welker.) The founders had the book of nature face-down in the original seal (pictured above) because they believed that no one had discovered all there was to know about God's creation. However, Harvard's seal now has all three books facing upwards.

The Massachusetts' Bay colony's reason for founding Harvard University.The Chapel is a memorial to all the graduates of Harvard that have died in the wars of the past centuries, except the Confederate soldiers of the Civil War. (Side Note: There are Nazi soldiers memorialized here, but not our Southern brothers... Think about that for a minute.)

While quartered in Cambridge, George Washington's troops stayed in this building. After the War, many repairs needed to be done to the building. As a result, Harvard sued the Continental Congress for damages.

Self-education, by whatever degree, is not intended to make the dreams of leisure a reality.
Education is to enrich the soul with the discoveries and possessions our Lord has placed in this world. To give us pleasure, however, ultimately meant to give God glory. These aforementioned discoveries and possessions are under the common fatherhood of God. They are to be consecrated alongside the principles which underlie society. They imply a brotherhood of men which demands that our talents, however many, uplift the groveling, struggling multitude of the world.
When we humble ourselves and are strengthened by the power of this religious faith, we are able to stand up with its primal strength and beauty to realize true happiness. In turn, when each member of the community, no matter what sphere, shall, under the discipline of self education, learn to really think for himself. He can only then act in the radiance of his own enlightened reason. In turn he can fear God, and therefore fear no one else. No longer shall these imaginations and fallacies pervert the judgments of men.
If all this is practiced we will see a Republic rise that far transcends the loftiest conceptions of our founding fathers. It shall be a republic of which poets have dreamed and prophets have spoken; it can be “A city on a hill.”We will then see a most radiant and fragrant Christian civilization.
~My thoughts inspired by a lecture on self-culture, written by Joseph G. Hoyt in 1863.