Recently, my wife and I went to Wichita to see our grandkids and their mom and dad. One evening they asked me to go to Dillon’s the next morning early to purchase some things. I went the next morning, arriving at Dillon’s at 7:15 a.m.

Coming from a small Kansas town I was amazed at the dairy aisle with so many products to choose from. But I could not find any of the buttermilk my daughter wanted. I asked a woman who was dragging a pallet jack loaded with boxes out of the back room, “Where is the buttermilk”? The woman gave me an angry look and said, “You will have to find it yourself.” I was kind of surprised and my first thought was to be angry with a comment back at her, but I kept quiet. I then called my daughter on the cell phone and said, “I have never seen so many milk products in my life and where exactly should I look for buttermilk?”

I am talking to my daughter on the phone at the far south end of this dairy aisle at the same time as the woman who told me to look for myself comes out of the back room and goes to the north end of the display and reaches in the refrigerator door and then without looking at me says in a loud voice, “That is all I have” and then she disappears in the back room again.

I go to the area the woman was at and in this refrigerator are three buttermilk containers in an otherwise empty area. I don’t know if she brought these three from the back room or what.

I take one and move towards the ice cream department. As I start down the aisle a man with a pallet jack filled with frozen goods is in the middle of that area. He pulls his head out of the freezer door and says, “Have you got enough room to get by my stuff?” I said, “Yes.” He says, “Good, have a great day.”

I get to the self-checkout area and am scanning my products and a woman that is working in the store filling in plastic bags at the checkout area is having a conversation out loud with God next to me. She says, “God, I need your help.” The woman actually said that twice and the Holy Spirit prompted me to say, “He will help you and is with you.” She never looked at me but said, “I had to go through Christmas by myself, He better help me.”

Three different people, in a matter of five minutes, one who was angry, one who was very happy, one who was searching for God. To be honest, the more I thought about it, I have been every one of those people in my life also, at some point of time.

Our scout team during my high school years of football was called the rainbow squad. We had different colored mesh pullovers that went over our jerseys and pads. We called ourselves the ‘bows.’ We were the ones who represented the opponent in practice and took on our own varsity during the week leading up to the varsity game on Friday night. We had great camaraderie and were a team within a team on the football roster. We loved taking on the varsity each Tuesday and Wednesday during scrimmage time. Some of my most fond memories of playing high school football came on those weekday scrimmages.

Small groups are important in life whether on a football team, such as linemen, defense, offense, special teams or small civic groups in your town or small groups within your church.

Research shows that 80% of people who join small groups in a church will still be involved in that church five years later. Only 20% of church goers who do not join small groups will be involved in that particular church five years later.

Create small groups in every area of your life and stay involved. The original twelve disciples were a small group and they changed the world.

Here below is the story of Father Kapaun a great Kansan. His remains have been identified in Korea and his funeral is today in Wichita.

Football coaches test players in practice so they can be ready for the big game on Friday night.

Our football opponents, during those games on Friday nights, try to fool the players to get out of position on defense by tempting us with counters, options, reverses, misdirection plays, play action passes and quarterback looks one way and throwing another.

God does not tempt us. God tests us to confirm our faith or commitment to Him.

Deuteronomy 8:2 “Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.”

Satan tempts us trying to pull us away from the will of God.

1 Thessalonians 3:5 ‘For this reason, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter might have tempted you and our labor would be in vain.’

James 1:13-15 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown gives birth to death.