Steve Sikes Blog  

Patti and I were students at York College in York, Nebraska from 1970-1972 and teachers from 1995-2002.  During that time the Nebraska Cornhuskers won four NCAA Football Championships.  We lived in Bloomington, Indiana from 1976 – 1986 and watched our own IU Hoosiers win the 1981 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship.  In 1990 we moved to Texas as the Dallas Cowboys won Super Bowls XXVII & XXVIII.  We then moved back to Indiana in 2002 and witnessed the 2006-2007 Indianapolis Colts win Super Bowl XLI. 
. Last year we moved to South Jersey and cheered on our own Tank Daniels as his New York Giants won Super Bowl XLII.  And of course, every MLB fan knows that last night the Philadelphia Phillies won the coveted MLB World Series Championship!
Almost everywhere we’ve moved, somebody has either won a national or world championship in something!  Coincidence?  Yes!!!  Although I can try to make some association with any or all of the above, none of our family had anything to do with any of these championships.
. However, there is one association of a winner that has everything to do with me!  My Father is the one who created the world! (Isaiah 40); my Brother is the one who saved the world! (Acts 4:10-12); and my resident Holy Spirit is the one who empowers me from acting like the world! (Romans 8:9-14).  GO GOD!!!  God is good.  Steve

With our National election less than 10 days away, I have some questions for you:
1. Do you have some concerns about our next elected president?
2. Do you have some concerns about our nation’s moral, economic, and spiritual state?  How about foreign relations?
3. Do you have some concerns about your own weariness and tiredness while living in today’s fast-paced and TMI (too much information) culture?

There are a great number of things I do not know.  There are many wonders I have not yet seen.  There are many sounds, songs and lessons I have not heard.  But this one thing I know…

(Please allow me to let someone else finish this thought.)  Several days ago I asked Isaiah the prophet if he would guest-write part of the front page of our bulletin and this blog and he said “YES!”  Note:  pay special attention to how he begins and ends his eleven-verse article.  MAY GOD’S WORDS THROUGH ISAIAH COMFORT YOU!

“Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  Has it not been declared to you from the beginning?”

“Though youths grow weary and tired,
And vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.”       
          Isaiah 40:21-31

In the midst of today’s climate and my above stated concerns, I couldn’t help but take Isaiah’s words of declaration and wisdom personally:
1. Steve, do you not know?  The only God, who is Creator and sovereign of all – is in control!  HE IS ALL POWERFUL!
2. Steve, do you not know?  Your God is The Ruler of all the nations!  It is God who judges all the earth! HE IS ALL KNOWING; ALL PRESENT!
3. Steve, do you not know? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning?  It is God who gives you your strength; it is God who gives you your power!  Stop!  Look!  Listen!  PRA(Y)ISE!  Fly/Run/Walk!
GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME!  Steve

The year was 1961.  I had just moved to a new school and had zero friends.  Even worse, my fourth grade class had already started and I was behind.

On my first day in school I remember feeling lonely, nervous, and very uncomfortable.  To top it off, my fourth grade teacher, Miss Gillentine, asked several of us to go up to the chalk board and work a long addition problem. To my surprise I finished first.  (I’d learned a faster way of doing long addition at my previous school.)

The following day Miss Gillentine announced we were going to have a long addition contest on the board.  I won.  The next day she held the contest again.  I won again.  In fact, Miss Gillentine had us do long addition races for the rest of the year!  Each race, my confidence grew and I took that confidence with me everywhere I went.

Yes.  She knew.  Miss Gillentine, a Christian teacher and a wise woman, saw a need and filled it.  She saw a scared and lonely fourth grade boy.  She found something he was good at and provided the opportunity for his success.  Miss Gillentine is one of the souls I want to personally thank when I get to heaven!

Our church family has some teachers like Miss Gillentine!  I’ve seen them work.  Today, thank a teacher!  IT WILL ALL ADD UP IN THE END!  God is good! 

Steve

Her love language is gifts!  Her love language is gifts!  If you knew her at all – you would know she gets so excited when any gift-giving occasion comes around.  I’ve met people who get excited when they are about to receive a gift, but I’ve never met anyone like her whose excitement excels when she is on the giving end of giving!

This past Thursday was National Boss’s Day.  I discovered last year, that our staff celebrates each other’s birthday, Christmas, Secretary’s Day, Boss’s Day, and really any other day we can find to celebrate and encourage one another!

When I came into the office building on Boss’s Day, she was beaming, smiling from ear to ear!  I definitely don’t consider myself her boss, but by her desk were two gift-wrapped boxes with cards attached – one for Dan and one for me.  She couldn’t wait till we could all get together in Dan’s office and begin the celebration.  We all had work to do before our pre-lunch party, but I knew the wait would be the hardest on her; she just couldn’t wait to give!

Dottie Grillo reminds me of someone else who just loves to give and can’t wait until we open His gift:  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)  God’s love language is gifts and Jesus is His best!  God is good! 

Over 5 weeks ago I knocked on his door and he invited me in.  I sat on a not too firm chair in his living room as he offered me some figs and goat cheese and some kind of hot fruit drink.  We initially shared background information and then I found myself caught up in his unending wisdom, grateful that I had brought my notebook along.  Somewhere near the beginning of our conversation I remember him clearing his throat and saying, “Steve, when you are in the very worst of trials, try the following: (Now, I’ve been in some trials that were real doozies, so it would be an understatement to say this guy had all my attention and then some.)
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• “Grab all of the faith you can muster and pray for wisdom from above.”  (At this point I interrupted him and asked what good wisdom would do if I was in so much pain?  Shouldn’t I be praying for strength to just hang on?!)  He smiled and handed me another fig.  Good move – that shut me up.
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• He went on to explain, “You’re not getting it.  Wisdom from above is first pure – pure in thought and purpose.  You may not understand all that is happening to you, Steve, (especially when you’re in the middle of a tidal wave experience), but for sure you want your mind to be pure so that you won’t stoop to blaming, back-stabbing, complaining, gossiping, and judging those around you.  You especially want to be pure in how you are experiencing your suffering in order for God to redeem it for good.”  (I remember thinking, “Now that’s a lot to chew on” as I reached for another fig.)
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• “Wisdom from above is also peaceable – peaceable to others, yes, but to you as well.  Can you imagine having this kind of peace in the midst of a trial or better yet, being a vessel of peace to others when your own world has turned upside down?!” 
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• “Wisdom from above is gentle and reasonable and merciful and unwavering!  It is genuine.  You will need all of these qualities to deal with whatever trial(s) you experience.  Extending mercy to others when you in fact need mercy from them is not crazy (as some count craziness) – it is God!  It is Spirit!  And it is certainly evangelistic!”  (It may also be the process of heaping coals of fire upon the head of the enemy if I’m reading Romans 12:20 correctly.  Whew!  This is good!)

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• “Many people look at trials as a pain… an interruption to what real life is to be.  Yes.  Trials are painful, but in truth they provide the necessary arena for God to forge His character more deeply and completely into His children.” (I began to understand that in the middle of a trial, this guy wasn’t just handing me a new set of coping skills, he was revealing an entirely new perspective and paradigm of thought!  I felt some measure of joy coming over me, but at the time, had no handle on what that was about.)
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Leaving his house that first day I knew I’d be back.  I was being fed much more than figs.  Now 5 weeks later I sit here contemplating all that I’ve learned.  I’m not the same person; I don’t see my world the same.  Trials are still a headache (initially) but at least my prayers have changed: “God, through Jesus, with all the faith I can muster, would you please give me Your wisdom, Your character, Your purity, Your peace, Your gentleness and reason, Your mercy, Your steadfastness, Your genuine Spirit!  Use whatever is happening to me and to my family, to forge me, O God, more into Your likeness for Your glory.  Shalom.”
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Thank you, James, for the study!  Thank you for the five chapters, five weeks, and five sermons.  When I first came into your living room and said, “Give me five” – without a doubt, you certainly did!
. James 1:2-6a, 3:17-18, 5:13 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.  But let him ask in faith without any doubting…But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.  And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace…Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praises.”  NASV
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God is good all the time and all the time God is good! 

When our children were the ages of 4, 6, 8, and 10, I asked them one evening over supper what they wanted to be when they grew up.  When it came time for our youngest daughter to answer, she said she wanted to be a widow.  She went on to add, “But I don’t want to get married – I just want to be a widow.”  At the time I was the pulpit minister of a congregation that had over 65 widows.  What a positive impact they had made on my daughter to want to be like them!

Our family regularly visited one widow, Margaret, in particular, that lived across the street from us.  It was easy to see Jesus in Margaret; she was so faithful, giving, loving, serving, and kind.  I’m sure Margaret was uplifted by our visits, but I always came away even more encouraged to live a more godly life than before!  Maybe visiting godly widows is one way God helps us keep unstained by the world!  “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”  James 1:27

God is good all the time!