Rev. Allen Schleusener, Pastor

Favorite hymn - cw 379 Amazing Grace

Favorite Sermon text – Matthew 7:24-29 Put it into Practice

Life has taught me that God must have a sense of humor.  When I was a young man in Christian Grade School I remember thinking about the pastor’s plea for young men to think about being a pastor.  I absolutely could not understand why anyone would want to do something so “boring” and seemingly sterile.  In a ten year old’s mind it was like signing up for a summer camp that involved only basket weaving and watching paint dry.  I could not see why this should even be in my radar.

So I pursued the typical fun things a teenage boy loves to do: run around during the summer months with my friends, going on road cruises, trying to find out which beach had the cutest girls, and just plain silly fun.  In college, I pursued the college equivalent of a “good time.”  It was no problem to live for me and to indulge my passions while still maintaining a good enough church attendance record that would satisfy my parents.  I believed but I was not overly active as a Christian.

Then, soon after college I was in a Bible study with my sister at her church and the message from God that morning hit me between the shoulder blades.  I slumped in my chair, a little saddened that I had wasted so many years on me, sad that people I knew were headed to hell, and even more sad that I had never tried to deter them from that path.  God awakened a desire to help them that was more exciting and enticing than any pleasure I had pursued up until that day.  There were literally tears in my eyes as I begged God to let me be a pastor.  That’s when I first realized that God must have a sense of humor.

He let me pursue that path – although difficult at many junctures.  I met Pastor Muske in the very first year of my training for ministry and we have been in contact ever since.  I’ve had the pleasure of watching God answer large prayers for my friends Pastor Muske and Pam, small prayers, medium sized prayers.  Every prayer He answered strengthened my understanding of Him and I realized to an even greater degree the love He has for little old me.                                                                                                   

 Why me?  Why you?  Why does He love us so much?  Because He invested His time into putting us together and planning out our life.  Because He invested so much of Himself in redeeming us from our own sinfulness and in the death of Jesus I can see a love letter, written in blood, that says to me personally, “I love you buddy,”  signed, “Jesus.”

My life has been graced by the presence of the perfect women for me, Chanda.  She is fun, tender and tough and loving, athletic (where I am clumsy), and really cute, beautiful, make my toes curl when I see her smile.  God has blessed us with five children (one in heaven) and hopefully many more to come.  Our oldest is Kyla – I loved her from the first moment I saw her and still do.  She is a “hugger.”  Just try getting a hug from her and you might think a bear just squeezed you.  Packed into that hug is a lot of love.  Malia is our second child here on earth – she is creative and loves to make up songs.  Her voice is so sweet – I just love hearing her tell me about her day.  Jo Jo is our third and he is a thrill for me because now I see what I put my Dad through – he climbs everything; he nearly gave me heart failure one day when I saw him scale the van and then held on with one arm.  Selah is our newest addition and we pray she is not our last.  These blessings are very evident.  Selah makes us smile and warms our hearts with her eyes and her dimpled smile.

Part of the reason I share with you the intense love I have for my family is that I want you to keep on considering how God would talk about you to someone else.  What I have recorded here about my wife and kids is just the tip of the iceberg – I could go on for days about how much I love and appreciate them.  So could God your heavenly Father.

He loves your smile, He loves it when you laugh, is hurt when you stumble, sad when you cry, overjoyed when you find that time to read His letter to you, thrilled when He watches you grow . . . In short, His love for you is real, is personal, is unique and different from every other person in the world but is equally as strong.

Let us, as the family of God, continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Heavenly Father and Of Jesus Christ.  Blessings to you all.

 

Pastor Al