Two great miracles are going on in my life right now.
At least, they seem like great miracles to me.
On Wednesday, January 21, my fourth grandchild was born. Malachi Jacob Wentz was born to my son Jeremiah and his lovely wife Becky in Belington, West Virginia. (It was also my father’s 80th birthday. Happy Birthday, Dad!)
Sunday after church Paula and I drove to Belington to spend four wonderful days with Malachi and his big brother, Isaiah, who turned two on January 19.
I don’t need to tell you how special a newborn is. And I don’t need to tell you how much fun a two-year-old can be. We had a great time holding the baby, playing with blocks (custom-made by his grandpa – me), reading books, throwing snowballs, and generally enjoying being grandparents.
In one respect it’s all quite normal and natural. But I don’t care. You can’t convince me it’s not a miracle.
I’m about to embark on the second miracle. I have been asked to travel to Turkey to lead training. conferences in two cities for Turkish pastors. (You can read more about it by going to trinityannapolis.org and clicking on “February 2009 Newsletter.”)
For some people, flying across the ocean to be in on the ground floor of what God is doing in a country that is 99.8% Muslim may seem perfectly natural. Again, to me, it’s a miracle.
Not so much that it’s happening, maybe, but that it’s happening to me. How come I’m one of the lucky ones, out of all the thousands of pastors in America and around the world? Why am I so blessed to be a part of this amazing thing?
The only explanation I have, if you consider it an explanation, is that it’s just another example of God’s amazing grace.
Some people think you can only call something a miracle if you can’t find any other explanation for it. I disagree. I can explain how babies are born, but I still think they are miracles. I can explain how a seed grows into a flower, but I still think that’s a miracle. And I can see a logical progression of events working in my life to bring me to this place, but I choose to see God’s miraculous hand in it anyway.
I think miracles are a matter of perspective. Not that the real, supernatural, non-scientifically-explainable kind of miracles don’t happen. They do, and I’ve experienced them more than once. But I think, if you can see God in something, you can legitimately call it a miracle, at least in the wide sense.
And that’s how I like to see things. It lets me experience a whole lot more miracles. And that just makes the world seem brighter, somehow.
About Me
- Pastor David
- I serve as pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Annapolis, MD. I'm married to beautiful Paula, mother of my 4 sons and one daughter. I was a systems engineer before entering ministry 29 years ago.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
A Day for a Praise Song
I watched an inspiring spectacle today. You probably did, too.
Barak Hussein Obama, son of an African father and a white American mother, raised sometimes in Indonesia and sometimes by his single mother and sometimes by his grandparents, with an Arabic-sounding name in a time of war and terror, was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States of America.
It was only forty-five years ago that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a brilliant man with an earned Ph.D. from Boston University who had followed his sense of calling back to the pulpit of a black Baptist church in the deep, segregated south, had stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and told the world, “I have a dream.”
At that time segregation and discrimination were legal and pervasive throughout much of the United States. Many otherwise good-hearted white people sincerely believed that those of African descent were somehow inherently inferior.
And now we have elected an African-American as our President, choosing him over a white man who was universally acknowledged to be not only a war hero but a very good and decent man, even though less than one in five Americans is African-American.
How could this happen in such a short time?
I believe the answer is in the sermon by Dr. King that I read in church this past Sunday, and in the incredible way millions of oppressed people responded to it. Dr. King’s sermon was called, “Loving Your Enemies.” His main point was that oppression and injustice must be met by love. Retaliation only creates a vicious downward spiral of destruction. Dr. King challenged Negroes (as he used the language of the time) to try Jesus’ method of countering hate with love. Millions responded. In ways that are only becoming clear in the lens of history, the mass application of Christian principles turned this country almost upside down in just one generation.
Today is a time to celebrate. Not to celebrate the victory of one politician over another, or one political party over another. It’s time to celebrate the victory of a principal, won by another principal. The first principal is Galatians 3.28, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” The second principal is love.
It is indeed a day for a praise song.
Barak Hussein Obama, son of an African father and a white American mother, raised sometimes in Indonesia and sometimes by his single mother and sometimes by his grandparents, with an Arabic-sounding name in a time of war and terror, was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States of America.
It was only forty-five years ago that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a brilliant man with an earned Ph.D. from Boston University who had followed his sense of calling back to the pulpit of a black Baptist church in the deep, segregated south, had stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and told the world, “I have a dream.”
At that time segregation and discrimination were legal and pervasive throughout much of the United States. Many otherwise good-hearted white people sincerely believed that those of African descent were somehow inherently inferior.
And now we have elected an African-American as our President, choosing him over a white man who was universally acknowledged to be not only a war hero but a very good and decent man, even though less than one in five Americans is African-American.
How could this happen in such a short time?
I believe the answer is in the sermon by Dr. King that I read in church this past Sunday, and in the incredible way millions of oppressed people responded to it. Dr. King’s sermon was called, “Loving Your Enemies.” His main point was that oppression and injustice must be met by love. Retaliation only creates a vicious downward spiral of destruction. Dr. King challenged Negroes (as he used the language of the time) to try Jesus’ method of countering hate with love. Millions responded. In ways that are only becoming clear in the lens of history, the mass application of Christian principles turned this country almost upside down in just one generation.
Today is a time to celebrate. Not to celebrate the victory of one politician over another, or one political party over another. It’s time to celebrate the victory of a principal, won by another principal. The first principal is Galatians 3.28, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” The second principal is love.
It is indeed a day for a praise song.
Monday, January 12, 2009
God is Faithful!
The economic downturn has affected people and organizations of all kinds. Churches are no exception. But the economy is not our source, God is! Government bailouts are not our source, God is! Even our jobs and retirement accounts are not our source. God is! And God is faithful and God is able.
Blog readers who attend Trinity Church will know that we entered December projecting a shortfall of approximately $56,000 for 2008. We would be able to pay all our current operating expenses, but we were way behind in our missional promises and obligations.
Similar situations had occurred in the past. The solution had always been to have the chair of the Finance Committee make announcements in church every Sunday begging for funds. Not surprisingly, nobody enjoyed these, especially the chair of the Finance Committee. So part of our Consecration Sunday stewardship campaign last April was the decision that we didn’t want to do that again.
Instead, starting the first Sunday in December, we put written accounts of our situation in the bulletin each week. Sometimes we remembered to draw people’s attention to them, sometimes we didn’t. And two weeks into December we had made up $20,000! But we still projected a shortfall of $36,000.
That’s when we really started praying. And we shifted the focus of our prayers. Instead of asking people to pray about their own level of giving, we started asking them to pray that God, with his infinite resources, would meet all our needs.
Preliminary calculations on January 2 indicated that our shortfall had been cut to under $6,000. Praise the Lord! That was a major shift! And out of an annual budget of over $500,000, that $6,000 did not seem very significant. But from the perspective of a missionary out in the field who might be really depending on support from Trinity, that could be very significant indeed. We really didn’t want to leave anyone hanging.
So the Finance Committee decided to extend the deadline for 2008 missions giving to Sunday, January 11.
Sunday morning, January 4, the amount needed remained at just under $6,000. By the time the announcement was made in the beginning of the first service, half of that had been made up! At the end of the 11:00 service the amount was less than $2,000. By Friday it was down to just over $900. And by the time the second service started yesterday, January 11, the entire shortfall had been made up. All our 2008 expenses, including some rather hefty unexpected ones, had been covered. All our obligations to the denomination for their missions and other work had been covered. And all our goals for giving to our own Trinity missionaries, local and around the world, had been met. All this is in addition to several thousand dollars that was given off-budget through the year for a variety of missions projects. Hallelujah!
Yes, the economy is bad. Yes, there are people in our congregation who are looking for jobs, or additional jobs. But God is good. God is able. God is faithful. And God’s promise always holds true, for individuals as well as churches: Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well (Matthew 6:33).
Blog readers who attend Trinity Church will know that we entered December projecting a shortfall of approximately $56,000 for 2008. We would be able to pay all our current operating expenses, but we were way behind in our missional promises and obligations.
Similar situations had occurred in the past. The solution had always been to have the chair of the Finance Committee make announcements in church every Sunday begging for funds. Not surprisingly, nobody enjoyed these, especially the chair of the Finance Committee. So part of our Consecration Sunday stewardship campaign last April was the decision that we didn’t want to do that again.
Instead, starting the first Sunday in December, we put written accounts of our situation in the bulletin each week. Sometimes we remembered to draw people’s attention to them, sometimes we didn’t. And two weeks into December we had made up $20,000! But we still projected a shortfall of $36,000.
That’s when we really started praying. And we shifted the focus of our prayers. Instead of asking people to pray about their own level of giving, we started asking them to pray that God, with his infinite resources, would meet all our needs.
Preliminary calculations on January 2 indicated that our shortfall had been cut to under $6,000. Praise the Lord! That was a major shift! And out of an annual budget of over $500,000, that $6,000 did not seem very significant. But from the perspective of a missionary out in the field who might be really depending on support from Trinity, that could be very significant indeed. We really didn’t want to leave anyone hanging.
So the Finance Committee decided to extend the deadline for 2008 missions giving to Sunday, January 11.
Sunday morning, January 4, the amount needed remained at just under $6,000. By the time the announcement was made in the beginning of the first service, half of that had been made up! At the end of the 11:00 service the amount was less than $2,000. By Friday it was down to just over $900. And by the time the second service started yesterday, January 11, the entire shortfall had been made up. All our 2008 expenses, including some rather hefty unexpected ones, had been covered. All our obligations to the denomination for their missions and other work had been covered. And all our goals for giving to our own Trinity missionaries, local and around the world, had been met. All this is in addition to several thousand dollars that was given off-budget through the year for a variety of missions projects. Hallelujah!
Yes, the economy is bad. Yes, there are people in our congregation who are looking for jobs, or additional jobs. But God is good. God is able. God is faithful. And God’s promise always holds true, for individuals as well as churches: Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well (Matthew 6:33).
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Another New Year
Today we begin another new year.
2008 was a wild one. Most people are probably happy to see it go.
For me personally, the biggest event of 2008 was our son Jed going to Iraq as a brand new cavalry officer, and returning safely 10 months later. There was also a wonderful trip to Turkey to teach in a conference on the Holy Spirit, and many other happenings in our family and church.
For the world, the biggest news was probably a tie between the economic downturn and the election of Barack Obama to be president of the United States.
These two events lead directly to thoughts of the coming year. What will happen? How can we best prepare?
As Christians, we have to keep two things foremost in our minds: the God we know and worship is the same God who made the universe, and he calls us to use our prayers to open a way for that love to act.
Sometimes going to church and singing the songs and hearing the sermon gets so routine that we lose sight of just who it is we are worshiping. We act as if we have forgotten that God is not confined to our church building. This is the God who created the world and everything in it. This is the God who holds all things together and keeps them running. So we are not facing the new year alone. God knows you, God loves you, and God is with you.
Through our faith in Jesus, this God of love and power has granted us intimate access to himself. So the second point is that we need to use that access through our prayers to bring God’s loving power to bear on our circumstances and our world.
The Bible is clear that God often waits for our prayers before he will do something, even something good. In fact, some theologians have said that God will not do anything without prayer.
The Bible is also clear that any Christian can offer prayers that are powerful and effective in their results.
As we enter 2009, we face many challenges, as individuals and families and churches and nation and world. But we face them with the love and power of the God of the universe, accessible through our prayers.
Pray for yourself. Pray for your family. Pray for your church. Pray for the economy. Pray for Barack Obama. Your prayers are the key to 2009.
If I could encourage you to make one New Years resolution, it would be this: learn and practice prayer.
2008 was a wild one. Most people are probably happy to see it go.
For me personally, the biggest event of 2008 was our son Jed going to Iraq as a brand new cavalry officer, and returning safely 10 months later. There was also a wonderful trip to Turkey to teach in a conference on the Holy Spirit, and many other happenings in our family and church.
For the world, the biggest news was probably a tie between the economic downturn and the election of Barack Obama to be president of the United States.
These two events lead directly to thoughts of the coming year. What will happen? How can we best prepare?
As Christians, we have to keep two things foremost in our minds: the God we know and worship is the same God who made the universe, and he calls us to use our prayers to open a way for that love to act.
Sometimes going to church and singing the songs and hearing the sermon gets so routine that we lose sight of just who it is we are worshiping. We act as if we have forgotten that God is not confined to our church building. This is the God who created the world and everything in it. This is the God who holds all things together and keeps them running. So we are not facing the new year alone. God knows you, God loves you, and God is with you.
Through our faith in Jesus, this God of love and power has granted us intimate access to himself. So the second point is that we need to use that access through our prayers to bring God’s loving power to bear on our circumstances and our world.
The Bible is clear that God often waits for our prayers before he will do something, even something good. In fact, some theologians have said that God will not do anything without prayer.
The Bible is also clear that any Christian can offer prayers that are powerful and effective in their results.
As we enter 2009, we face many challenges, as individuals and families and churches and nation and world. But we face them with the love and power of the God of the universe, accessible through our prayers.
Pray for yourself. Pray for your family. Pray for your church. Pray for the economy. Pray for Barack Obama. Your prayers are the key to 2009.
If I could encourage you to make one New Years resolution, it would be this: learn and practice prayer.
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