God, Grace, and Gooseberry: 101 Brief Encounters with the Gospel
By Max Brennan
()
About this ebook
The author hopes to entertain you with these 101 short articles. You may laugh (or cry) at the stories about Gooseberry the cat, Max the dog, and a possum that was far too good at playing dead. But all of the articles in this book are essentially about the gospel. They push us to see that God is not just real, but accessible. There are numerous stories about people who have had what William James called business with God. You will read accounts of profound religious experiences, including near-death experiences. There are moving stories of conversion and dramatic accounts of divine intervention.
And there are articles here about the logic of faith and the relationship between science and religion. You will be told in these pages that faith makes sense and science and religion are ultimately one.
If you are a skeptic about God, or if you believe in a do-nothing God far removed from our lives, this book may challenge you. The cumulative impact of these 101 short articles could overwhelm your skepticism. You may come to agree with the author that God is not just realand accessiblebut obviously so.
Max Brennan
Max Brennan is the long-time pastor of St. Matthew United Methodist Church in East Fort Worth. For over 25 years, he has published newspaper articles as “advertisements for the gospel.” These sometimes funny, always provocative short pieces have a devoted local following. With this collection, 101 selected articles are now available to a wider audience. Access Max Brennan’s sermons and blogs at saintmatthewumc.com e-mail: revmaxb@tx.rr.com St. Matthew United Methodist Church 2414 Hitson Lane – Fort Worth, TX. 76112
Related to God, Grace, and Gooseberry
Related ebooks
Being with God: The Absurdity, Necessity, and Neurology of Contemplative Prayer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bible Pearls, Sacred Cows, and the Kingdom of God Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConfessions of a Godly Woman Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSearching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One God, In One Book For One People Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAdventures in Seeking Knowledge Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDo You Want to Be Healed?: A 10-Day Scriptural Retreat with Jesus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHusbands of Sapphira, Sons of Ananias: Who Are You? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSinners Saved: The Simplified Truth of Salvation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGod is Always Bigger: Reflections by a Hopeful Critic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLiving Your Joy out Loud: Claiming and Exclaiming Who You Are in Christ Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat Is the Soul?: Eternal Answers to Spiritual Questions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBest Catholic Spirituality Writing 2013: 25 Inspiring Essays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTell Them About My Love: A Message from the Father to the Children of Light Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Habit Called Faith: 40 Days in the Bible to Find and Follow Jesus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHumble Roots: How Humility Grounds and Nourishes Your Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lucky: How the Kingdom Comes to Unlikely People Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Furious Longing of God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Meeting Jesus Christ: Meditations on the Word Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTables in the Wilderness: A Memoir of God Found, Lost, and Found Again Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Free to Lean: Making Peace with Your Lopsided Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPrecious Pearls of Faith: Rejoicing in Spiritual Treasures Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPreparing for the New Jerusalem: Seeing the Light at Last Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIt Shall Be Given Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSeeing Jesus: Glimpses of God in My Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReturn to Love: Restoring the Heart of Christianity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAll About the Second Coming of Christ: “10 Lessons to Understand the Greatest Event in the History of the World” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Cup Of Comfort For Christians: Inspirational Stories of Faith Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTouched by Heaven: Inspiring True Stories of One Woman's Encounters with Jesus Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Finding Shelter: An Autumn Companion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Inspirational For You
Finding God in Anime: A Devotional for Otakus: Finding God in Anime, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Be Here Now Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rumi's Little Book of the Heart Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Way of the Shaman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Celebration of Discipline, Special Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rumi's Little Book of Wisdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 50 Fridays Marriage Challenge: One Question a Week. One Incredible Marriage. Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Antichrist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Forgive for Good: A Proven Prescription for Health and Happiness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Following Christ: Losing Your Life for His Sake Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rumi: The Big Red Book: The Great Masterpiece Celebrating Mystical Love and Friendship Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jesus Calling, 365 Devotions with Real-Life Stories, with Full Scriptures Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Finding Chika: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Apocrypha Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFeeding the Soul (Because It's My Business): Finding Our Way to Joy, Love, and Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Conversations With God, Book 3: Embracing the Love of the Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anam Cara [Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition]: A Book of Celtic Wisdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Imagine Heaven Devotional: 100 Reflections to Bring Heaven to Your Life Today Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Knowledge of the Holy: The Attributes of God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dear Jesus, Seeking His Light in Your Life, with Scripture references Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Day My Soul Just Opened Up: 40 Days And 40 Nights Toward Spiritual Strength And Personal Growth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Basis of the Motion Picture 127 Hours Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When God Winks at You: How God Speaks Directly to You Through the Power of Coincidence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gospel of Inclusion: Reaching Beyond Religious Fundamentalism to the True Love of God and Self Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The 4:8 Principle: The Secret to a Joy-Filled Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Red Sea Rules: 10 God-Given Strategies for Difficult Times Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5C. S. Lewis' Little Book of Wisdom: Meditations on Faith, Life, Love, and Literature Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Angels of a Lower Flight: One Woman's Mission to Save a Country . . . One Child at a Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for God, Grace, and Gooseberry
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
God, Grace, and Gooseberry - Max Brennan
Copyright © 2015 Max Brennan.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Biblical quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Published by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
1 (866) 928-1240
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.
ISBN: 978-1-4908-5902-6 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4908-5901-9 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-4908-5903-3 (e)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014919923
WestBow Press rev. date: 6/11/2015
CONTENTS
Introduction
I – Life Is Difficult
1 Petrified
2 I Hate to Buy Shoes
3 Gooseberry
4 Ash Wednesday
5 Love Pays a Price
6 The Price of Freedom
7 The Elbow Test
8 Slow to Care
9 He’s a Chore, but …
10 I Just Knew
II – God Is Real
11 Life Is Spooky
12 Missing Information
13 |Elaine’s Experience
14 Why We Believe
15 God Will Respond
16 Denying the Obvious
17 The Real Thing
18 How Do We Know?
19 Lost All My Doubt
III – Jesus Is Lord
20 Reason to Believe
21 The Stud Finder
22 A Resurrection—Kind of
23 Running from the Resurrection
24 Reality Bites
25 Still Appearing
26 And There Was Jesus
27 The Old Pulpit Cloth
28 God Stoops to Conquer
29 The Christmas Goat
30 She Never Had That
IV – God Loves Us Unconditionally
31 The Very First Truth
32 We’re Not Listening
33 Still Thinking Law
34 Messin’ with the Cross
35 Doing Time
36 What about Hell?
37 Love Counts
38 Children of God
39 The Narrow Way
40 Grace
41 It’s Me!
V – God Is with Us
42 Precious Memories
43 In Hard Times
44 The Rescue
45 Blessed Assurance
46 A Meddling God
47 God Provides—We Decide
48 An Angel Story
49 I Wonder
VI – God Speaks through Scripture
50 Just the Facts
51 Common Sense
52 The Quickened Word
53 Lord of Scripture
54 The Audacity of Jesus
55 Paul on Women
56 The Teachings of Jesus
57 Jesus Talks Pigs
58 Miracles Happen
VII – Life Is Eternal
59 Fear
60 Our Default Position
61 Reality Check
62 A Word from the Lord
63 Despair to Pure Joy
64 A Strand of Wool
65 I’m Back!
66 Forget Resting
67 Look Deep, Not Up
68 A Distinguished Visitor
69 The Archives Drawer
70 Gooseberry Is Dead
VIII – Prayer Works
71 I Heard You
72 Dirt and Prayer
73 The Mystery of Prayer
74 My Life Is Not My Own
75 God Works
76 A Fish Story
77 The Kindness of God
78 God Speaks
79 Awesome Wonder
Trumps Depression
IX – Worship Makes a Difference
80 The Results Are in
81 The Work of the Spirit
82 The Power of Forgiveness
83 Bobbie’s Story
84 Barely Committed
85 Is That the Way?
86 It Pays to Be Inquisitive
87 Lyin’ Like a Possum
88 The Hour I First Believed
X – Life Is Beautiful
89 Surprised by Grace
90 Times Have Changed
91 A Passion for Reality
92 Just Do It!
93 Giving God Our Attention
94 The Power of Thanksgiving
95 Choose Your Pain
96 Max the Dog
97 Let God Serve You
98 What We Cannot Lose
99 Our Problem
100 The Gift
101 Our Response
A Closing Prayer
Introduction
My grandmother, Rosie Brennan, told the story of a visiting preacher who prided himself on being moderate in his praise. When a church member asked how he liked the meal she had prepared for him, he said, It’s mighty good, what there is of it.
That didn’t sound right, so he took another run at it.
There’s plenty of it, such as it is.
Here’s a book of short articles, and there are plenty of them. They have appeared in newspapers over the last twenty-five years as advertisements for the gospel. They are before you now because readers have pushed me to assemble a selection of my little articles
as a book.
In the newspaper, these short pieces appeared in small print in a small box. I was surprised when I let them out of the box. They blossomed out to a couple of pages.
But getting 101 of these short pieces together between two covers was a challenge. It was hard finding an organizing principle for articles written about so many things over so many years.
I finally decided to group them under these ten statements, which cover much of what we need to know about life.
Life is difficult.
God is real.
Jesus is Lord.
God loves us unconditionally.
God is with us.
God speaks through scripture.
Life is eternal.
Prayer works.
Worship makes a difference.
Life is beautiful.
Each section ends with a prayer. I wrote the prayers to fill a blank page at the end of each section. Now, I sometimes choose one of them to begin my day.
But how do you read a book like this? An article a day? Three or four at a time?
Or will you plow through a whole section at a sitting?
Read it any way you want.
Use it for a personal devotional time or as a source for class devotionals. Ministers may mine it for jokes and illustrations. (I would!)
Use this book as you wish. Or don’t use it at all. Just read and enjoy. And I do hope you enjoy.
But let me confess that I have an agenda in every one of these short articles. Whether I’m talking about my old cat Gooseberry or how I hate to buy shoes or the three hours I spent in jail, I’ve always got an agenda.
I’m pushing the gospel.
I’m glad if I entertain, but above all, I want to encourage. I want you to know that God is real, that we are loved, and that life is more wonderful than most of us ever dare to dream.
If I can also give you a few laughs along the way, that’s okay, too.
God bless,
Max Brennan
Note: My next book, with the working title Discovering God, is mentioned in some of the articles. It will not be available until late 2015 or early 2016—and it may have a different title when published.
Life Is Difficult
1
Petrified
Scott Peck said it in the opening sentence of The Road Less Traveled: Life is difficult.
But I learned a long time ago that we create a lot of our problems.
I was in the sixth grade when I won that essay contest. The grand prize was five bucks! As Martha Stewart says, That’s a good thing.
But I had to stand on the stage in front of the whole school on awards night to get my money. That was a bad thing.
I was a country kid. This seemed like big-time show business to me. I was petrified. I knew I would make a mistake and look stupid. But I was a smart kid. (Hey—I won the contest!) I would devise some foolproof plan to get me through this.
The plan I came up with centered on the old pot-bellied wood stove in the school auditorium. (Am I dating myself?) It was right in the middle at the back. While I was on stage, I would focus on that stove, concentrating all of my attention on it. I would think about nothing but that stove. If I didn’t think about where I was, I wouldn’t be nervous.
So on awards night, I made my stage debut, seven or eight other kids around me, all of us getting prizes as our names were called. My family was there. The auditorium was filled. I had never seen so many people in one place at one time. And I was on display before them.
But I watched that stove.
I watched it like nothing else existed. And my plan was working. I wasn’t nervous. I was in another world—a world that was serene and quiet.
Absolutely quiet.
I heard nothing.
I didn’t hear the principal call my name. He was two feet from me, and he called my name several times. Some kid finally had to shake me.
I looked stupid—my worst fear!
I looked like a fool.
My reputation was shot.
My life was over.
On the way home, my family did all they could to argue me out of my despair. Nobody noticed,
they said. Don’t worry about it.
But Linda Mae Harper, sitting behind me in first period the next day, could hardly wait to get the words out—the absolute and terrible truth as only a sixth-grader can tell it.
Max, I saw you last night. You looked so stupid.
And that was it. Just as I thought.
Life was over.
But it wasn’t.
That was half a century ago. I’m still here. The night I turned to stone in front of everybody I knew simply taught me one of life’s lessons.
Life goes on.
I needed to know that.
I needed to know it then, and I’ve needed to know it a hundred times since then. Sometimes we make a mess of things, but we live and we learn and life goes on.
Thanks be to God.
This one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining toward what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus
(Philippians 3:14).
2
I Hate to Buy Shoes
I hate to buy shoes.
I really do.
I have a friend who loves buying shoes.
I look in his closet and see all these shoes—row on row of them. I wonder, How many feet does this guy have?
I have trouble buying shoes.
It’s hard to find shoes that fit, and when I do, they are always in some weird color, like maroon. So looking for a new pair of shoes can take me hours.
And shoes don’t last me.
My friend’s shoes—row on row—are all polished and shiny. Mine get scuffed as I carry them home from the shoe store in a box.
Because I hate to buy shoes, I do it as seldom as possible.
Look at the ones I’m wearing now. They are clearly far beyond their prime. And I wore one pair of Sunday-best till the nails in the heels came through the soles.
And I wore them for a few weeks after that!
Every step was a pain.
I finally had to give up and hobble my way to the shoe store. I told the clerk not to show me anything in maroon.
I also told him my feet were hard to fit or I was hard to please—or something.
An hour later, he began to agree with me.
I finally found some shoes I liked. In fact, they were perfect. They fit, they were a normal color, and they allowed me to walk without a limp.
I was delighted. I thanked the clerk for his patience and headed for the counter to pay. I reached for my wallet.
It wasn’t there.
It was back home on my dresser. But that was okay. I would use a check instead of a card.
But the clerk wouldn’t take my check without an ID.
I assured him I was an honest fellow—a minister, in fact—a Methodist. I would have claimed to be a Baptist, if that would have helped. But nothing could get me around the store rules.
No ID, no check.
I put on my old shoes and limped out of the store, back into the mall. I was tired, exasperated, and angry—angry at my own stupidity—angry at the nail in my shoe—angry at the whole world for being such a difficult place to live.
A mood was upon me!
Until she rolled by—a young girl, mid-teens, in a wheelchair. She was brimming with joy, talking and laughing with a friend who walked beside her.
I remembered the old saying, I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.
And I paused for a moment of prayer: Lord, give us grateful hearts.
Continue to live your lives in Christ Jesus, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving
(Colossians 2:7).
3
Gooseberry
I got up a little early this morning.
Gooseberry, my big black cat, was hollering at me from downstairs well before dawn.
I love cats, but I didn’t want one when Gooseberry entered my life. He was just there in my yard when I got home from vacation a few years ago. I opened the door to carry in my bags and Gooseberry came in with me. He began a tour of my house to make sure it would serve him.
He didn’t ask me if I wanted a cat.
He just moved in.
And as I watched him snoop about, a bitter dessert called A Gooseberry Surprise
which I had eaten on my trip suddenly came to mind.
Thus the name: Gooseberry.
Now—my Gooseberry
Gooseberry is an old cat. He was old when he walked in the door six years ago, and my guess is he’s sixteen or seventeen now.
He’s been sick. Gooseberry became ill just before I went on vacation this year. I hardly had time to get him to the animal hospital before my flight. I left him hooked up to an IV while being prepared for tests. (A cat scan, perhaps?)
I didn’t expect my cat to be alive when I returned from vacation. I called (from England!) a couple of times to check on him, but the receptionist was short on information. And she always got me confused with the cat.
Yes, Mr. Gooseberry,
she would say, I’ll check on your cat.
Gooseberry lived. When I went to pick him up, the receptionist shouted toward the back, The owner is here to pick up Max Brennan!
She really said that!
And I don’t think she was joking.
And the bill she handed me was no joke either.
You can imagine—a cat—in the hospital for two weeks—with a heart problem!
Now Gooseberry is on medication.
Pills twice a day. I hide them in his food.
So far, so good.
But the medicine Gooseberry takes is a diuretic. That keeps him busy at the litter box.
It keeps me busy, too. Gooseberry is unusually fastidious. He wants that box changed after every use.
Otherwise, it’s the floor!
But I put up with all of this.
My old cat couldn’t survive without me.
He’s a dependent creature.
And he knows it. He knows who to come to when he wants something. He looks to me to change that litter box, to put out that food, to haul him inside when it rains.
You and I are dependent creatures, too. But we forget.
We forget the one who sustains us, the one who holds us in his grace—the one who guarantees our very existence.
Gooseberry knows who to turn to.
But you and I forget.
I’d hate to think my old cat is smarter than we are.
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I; for you are my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. Let me abide in your tent forever, find refuge under the shelter of your wings
(Psalm 61:2).
4
Ash Wednesday
We’ve had a few Ash Wednesday problems—adjustments, really.
When I was growing up, Protestants didn’t observe Ash Wednesday—or, for that matter, the season of Lent, that time of repentance and renewal between Ash Wednesday and Easter.