Revival Fire Annapolis

How Does God Heal?

2011-12-01T11:35:00.001-05:00

“These signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name . . . they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” – Jesus, in Mark 16:17-18

God heals in many ways. Most healing happens through the natural healing mechanisms God built into our bodies. Our immune system fights disease. White blood cells battle infections. Broken bones knit. Wounds are covered with fresh skin. Emotional and spiritual healing is not so automatic, but God provides for it nonetheless.

Sometimes we need help with healing. God has given us wonderful gifts of medicine and surgery and therapy and other interventions, and the people who are skilled in them.
Prayer for healing is not over against these other God-given means of healing. Rather, it complements and works with them.

Sometimes God chooses to answer our healing prayers by speeding up natural healing or increasing the effectiveness of medical treatment. Sometimes God chooses to answer our healing prayers by immediately making us feel better. If you feel that you have been divinely healed of an issue for which you have been under doctor’s care, do not make any change in your medication or other treatment protocol until you check with your doctor.

Sometimes it seems God has healed one problem and left another alone. Sometimes it seems that prayers need to pile up over time, then suddenly something happens. Sometimes there is a warm feeling or a tingling or some other physical sensation during healing prayer. And sometimes it may seem that God has done nothing at all. Those experienced in this ministry say that about half the people who are healed through prayer report feeling nothing special during the prayer time.

God heals in many ways, some of which we may not even recognize as healing. Our part is to be obedient by praying, or by asking someone to pray for us. The Bible says, You do not have, because you do not ask. (James 4:2)

Where can you ask for healing prayer? Church is a natural place. I love to see people praying for each other during the coffee time. Bible studies, prayer meetings, even committee meetings are wonderful opportunities for prayer. Healing prayer is part of our Communion services (the first Sunday of every month) and the Flowing in the Spirit gatherings (the second and fourth Sunday evenings). Many people are healed as others pray for them in their homes or even in the grocery store. Any place you can pray, you can pray for healing.

One time specifically set aside for healing prayer is during the Annapolis Healing Rooms. Individualized prayer from trained intercessors is available at a variety of times and places. You can find more details online at annapolishealingrooms.blogspot.com.

Jesus taught us to pray that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. There is no sickness in heaven. Let’s pray and trust God to bring that about more and more on earth as well.

Spiritual Football

2011-09-15T12:46:00.004-04:00

Do you not know that all the runners in a stadium compete, but only one receives the prize? So run to win. – 1 Corinthians 9:24

Football season is upon us. It strikes me that football provides a good analogy for the spiritual contest between the church and the devil. In football it’s all about winning, through offense, defense and special teams. In church it’s all about H.I.M.: Hosting God’s presence, Imitating Jesus, and Making him known.

We know how a team moves the ball and scores in football. Here’s how the church moves the ball and scores in our spiritual battle.

Hosting God’s presence
• The church moves the ball every time we give more weight to what God wants in worship than to our own desires.
• The church moves the ball every time we give more weight to what will be attractive to those who need to find God than to those of us who already know him.
• The church moves the ball when our gatherings are as diverse as our community.
• The devil throws the church for a loss when we argue or complain about how we worship.
• The devil throws the church for a loss when people in the community say, “Those folks aren’t like me, I’m not sure I’d be comfortable there.”
• The devil throws the church for a loss if church services or other gatherings can be perceived as boring or artificial or self-serving or human-centered.
• When new folks say, “Wow, I felt God there,” that’s a touchdown!

Imitating Jesus
• The church moves the ball when a Christian imitates the character of Jesus through the fruit of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control (Galatians 5:22-23).
• The church moves the ball when a Christian imitates the wisdom and God-consciousness of Jesus through hearing and following the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14).
• The church moves the ball when a Christian imitates the power of Jesus in praying for people to receive a miraculous touch from God (John 14:12; Mark 16:17-18).
• The church moves the ball every time a Christian tries something new for God.
• The church makes a big play when a Christian finds his or her fit in God’s plan.
• The devil throws the church for a loss every time Christians allows fear or doubt to laziness to keep them from doing any of these things.
• The devil scores big if a Christian says or does anything that a non-Christian knows isn’t right, so they say, “See, I knew it, all Christians are hypocrites.”
• When a non-Christian notices a Christian acting like Jesus, that’s a touchdown!

Making him known
• The church moves the ball every time a Christian develops a genuine caring relationship with another person.
• The church moves the ball every time a Christian invites a new person to Jesus or a church activity.
• The church moves the ball big every time a Christian gains new skill or confidence in helping others know Jesus or grow in Jesus.
• The devil throws the church for a loss whenever a Christian is afraid to try something new.
• The devil throws the church for a loss whenever he keeps a Christian from doing any of the things mentioned above.
• The devil throws the church for a loss whenever he convinces people that only “trained professionals” or highly unusual volunteers can do all these things.
• When a Christian helps someone find his or her fit in God’s plan, that’s a touchdown!

Winning the game
• The devil will win if the church ever becomes so ingrown and self-centered that we stop doing the new things that are needed to attract and keep new people, because if that happens we will gradually shrink away into irrelevancy and, eventually, disappear altogether.
• The church wins the game when we keep reaching new people and helping them do the things that move the ball on the devil.
• If we can ever reach the place where ordinary everyday church folks are starting up groups that help new people know Jesus, in their homes or workplaces or schools or wherever, that’s winning the Super Bowl!
• And if those new people turn around and start their own new groups that reach even more new people, that’s a dynasty! And that’s what God had in mind when he created this team.

A football team wins by constantly practicing the fundamentals. A church is the same way. Come to practice every Sunday, so you can be prepared to go out and win the game!

Blessings,

“Coach” David

How to Put On the Armor of God

2011-08-22T10:37:00.003-04:00

I've been preaching a sermon series called The Greater One, which talks in practical terms about how to make real in our lives the fact that the one who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world (1 John 4:4). The audio for the 5-part series can be found on the website trinityannapolis.org.

As part of the most recent installment, on the armor of God, I prayed an example prayer of how I put on the armor of God. Several people asked for copies of that prayer. So for those who might be interested, I post it here.

Here’s how I pray it, based on Ephesians 6:10-19:

Lord God, thank you for your presence with me this day. As I prepare for the day, I put on the whole armor of God, according to the Bible.

I put on the belt of truth, that I may not deceive nor be deceived, nor deceive myself, but know the truth to be set free by it, and speak the truth in love to set others free.

I put on the breastplate of righteousness, that everything I say and do and think and feel may be righteous in your sight, O Lord.

I put on the shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace, that I may be prepared for whatever happens to go in peace, stand in peace, and spread the gospel of peace in peace. Let me be prepared spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, and logistically. Let me make preparation a priority, and give me foresight to prepare.

I take the shield of faith, that I may quench the flaming arrows of the enemy. Give me discernment to recognize them and their source, wisdom to deal with them, faith to quench their flames and deflect their points, and faith to stand and to go in peace. Give me faith to believe all you have for me to believe - all the promises of the child of God, and faith to believe for miracles and healings; faith for all you have for me to receive - blessings and favor and fruitfulness and health and long life and abundance and love and friends; and faith to do all you have called me to do.

I take the helmet of salvation, that I may have the mind of Christ and the holy boldness that comes from knowing that I'm saved. Lord, give me your thoughts, your ideas, your attitudes, your feelings and emotions and responses, your creativity, inspiration, priorities, disciplines, wisdom, compassion, insight, foresight, understanding, perseverance, leadership skills, prayer skills, miracle skills, people skills, management skills, family skills, communication skills, everything I need to do what you have called me to do.

I take the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. Please give me a growing love for your word, an ability to read it and understand it and apply it and obey it and teach it and convey it and impart this to others.

Help me pray at all times in the Spirit, that I may remain in constant communication with you. Please open my spiritual eyes, that I may see in the spirit realm. I want to see you, see what is happening and what you are doing so I can fall in line with it, see dreams and visions, see people as you see them, including myself. Open my ears to hear your voice, so I can speak your word and follow your guidance. Let me know your will and your way with clarity, accuracy, confidence and timely obedience.

Lord, I offer myself for whatever you have for me this day. Thank you that you are always with me. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Pray this every day and I guarantee it will change your life!

Dream On!

2011-08-03T10:27:00.001-04:00

Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. – Ephesians 3:20

God’s church, which is the body of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit, has been working on this earth for just short of 2000 years. So why hasn’t the message of Christianity been spread and demonstrated and accepted in every corner of the globe long before now? I’m sure there are many factors, but I’m convinced that one of the major reasons is something that may surprise you.

Lack of faith? That’s certainly a problem – few Christians take the time and effort to build and use the faith God gave each of us. Lack of prayer? If anything is more important than what I have in mind, prayer would be it. But I’m thinking of something else.

Perhaps the biggest reason the church has not reached its potential, perhaps the biggest reason most Christians never reach their potential, is the failure to do one simple thing: dream.

Moses dreamed of delivering his people from slavery. Nehemiah dreamed of rebuilding the demolished city of Jerusalem. Esther dreamed of saving her people from genocide. Paul dreamed of spreading Christianity throughout the Roman Empire.

What would have happened if they never had those dreams? What would have happened if they never followed through on them?

I want you to especially notice one thing, because this is the part that surprised me when I realized it. None of those were things that God specifically told them to do. Moses, Nehemiah, Esther and Paul dreamed up those things by themselves.

I’m not saying that God was opposed to what they did. In fact, God wanted those dreams to be fulfilled. My point is that those four, and countless others throughout history, didn’t just sit around waiting for God to tap them on the shoulder. They were close enough to God that they would not dream of doing things for selfish reasons or against God’s will. But they were free enough to follow their dreams.

(Yes, I know God appeared to Moses in a burning bush, but that was after Moses already tried to rescue his people in his own power. I know God called Paul to be a missionary, but it seems that it was pretty much up to Paul where he went – only once is it recorded that he was called to a specific place. There is no indication of any kind of divine commissioning for Nehemiah and Esther.)

Jesus said, “I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends” (John 15:15). God doesn’t want you to think of working for him, like an employee. God wants you to think of working with him, like a friend.

In other words, don’t sit around waiting for God to say, “Go do this job for me.” Instead, God says, “I have all kinds of important projects going on. I’m educating children. I’m fighting hunger and poverty and disease. I’m importing some of the beauty of heaven to earth, in art and music and craftsmanship. I’m expanding freedom and justice. I’m rescuing and protecting and defending people. I’m making goods and services available to make people’s lives easier. I’m doing all kinds of things, all over the world. I’d love to have you work with me. What sounds interesting?”

One of the great characteristics of God is that God is creative. God made you in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). That means God made you creative. Creativity starts with a dream. So dream!

I believe one of the main jobs of a church, and of a pastor in particular, is to encourage and help the people of God to dream God-size dreams and then carry them out. We have not always done a good job of that, and the world is the worse for it. But it’s never too late to start.

What is your dream?

Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” You can never dream bigger than God can fulfill. You may not get to see it through to completion – somebody said, “The only things worth doing take more than a lifetime.” But if you don’t get it started, who will?

Dreaming with you for God’s kingdom,

David

Dream On!

2011-06-01T19:20:00.001-04:00

Getting Unfrazzled

2011-03-04T10:54:00.001-05:00

We often hear that we shouldn’t be part of this rush-rush society we live in. In fact, many doctors are telling us that the stress of constant busy-ness is downright unhealthy. But isn’t that the way the modern world works? Is there really anything we can do about it?

God had an idea we might run into this kind of thing. That's why he told us - no, commanded us - to take one day out of seven just to relax. It’s number four in the Ten Commandments: “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days a week are set apart for your daily duties and regular work, but the seventh day is a day of rest dedicated to the LORD your God.” (Exodus 20:8-10).

Personally, as somebody who works on Sunday, I define “Sabbath” as whatever rest day works for me – as long as I get one every seven days. And I define “work” as anything I have to do, and “rest” as anything I want to do that makes me feel relaxed, restored or rejuvenated.

I love the story of when Jesus was told that his friend Lazarus was on his death bed. Jesus didn't automatically rush back and heal him. Instead he asked God what to do about it. God told him to take his time. When Jesus did get back there (four days late by most people's estimation) the miracle was even bigger. And Jesus wasn't frazzled.

The other part of it is to be sure we don’t try to cram too much into the other six days. Some of us just need to learn to say “no.”

But then, what if we wind up with not enough to do? We sure don’t want to be bored. I find the middle ground is to not overbook appointments or things with deadlines, so I don't get frazzled, but always keep a project going so I have something to do if boredom threatens.

The big thing is that God knows how much you can do in 24 hours, including the necessary rest and personal care, and he doesn't expect you to do more than that. The key is differentiating between God’s expectations and people’s expectations – including our own.

Show and Tell

2010-07-15T20:27:00.001-04:00

As we continue looking at what Ezekiel can teach us about revival, we come to a very interesting command from God.

“And now, son of man, take a large clay brick and set it down in front of you. Then draw a map of the city of Jerusalem on it. Show the city under siege. Build a wall around it so no one can escape. Set up the enemy camp, and surround the city with siege ramps and battering rams. Then take an iron griddle and place it between you and the city. Turn toward the city and demonstrate how harsh the siege will be against Jerusalem. This will be a warning to the people of Israel.” – Ezekiel 4:1-3

God calls us to proclaim his message by word and by action. We understand proclamations issued in verbal form. Modern western society is all about words. Proclamation by actions is another matter.

Usually when we hear someone say we should proclaim God’s word by our actions, we think in terms of living a good and kind and holy life. We may think of St. Francis’ saying: “Preach the gospel always; use words when necessary.”

(I understand the point behind St. Francis’ words, but I think it can become an excuse for not using words. After all, if people think that I’m a nice guy just because I’m a nice guy, and don’t know that it’s because of Jesus, it doesn’t help them toward the kingdom of God.)

All this is good, but it’s not what God was telling Ezekiel to do. God instructed Ezekiel to perform what theologians call “prophetic acts.” Regular people would call it “street theater.” God wants his message to get across, and he knows that some people’s eyes glaze over whenever a preacher starts talking. So he told Ezekiel to add to his preaching something that would communicate with the non-verbally oriented people. God basically told Ezekiel to do a show-and-tell.

Annapolis is a highly educated town, and most people can understand verbal communication. That doesn’t change the fact that many people respond better to other means of getting a message across. I believe God is calling his people to be creative. After all, God created us in his image, and God is the creator. What kind of show-and-tells can we create to help make God’s message clear and accepted? The better we can do that, the better our chance of making Annapolis a target of God’s revival fire.

Speak Their Language

2010-07-07T10:51:00.000-04:00

Then he said, “Son of man, go to the people of Israel with my messages. I am not sending you to some foreign people whose language you cannot understand. No, I am not sending you to people with strange and difficult speech. If I did, they would listen! I am sending you to the people of Israel.” – Ezekiel 3:4-7

Ezekiel would have been a very successful missionary. God said that if he sent Ezekiel to a foreign people with a difficult and obscure language, they would listen. But God did not call Ezekiel to be a missionary.

Why would God deliberately steer someone away from a ministry in which he would be successful? That’s not my topic here, but take note: just because you are good and successful at something, even something that seems like God’s work, that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what God wants you doing with your life. Take the time to seek God until you receive his specific guidance for you. (In the meantime, do what seems best, trusting that God will let you know when it’s time for a change.)

God has sent me to Annapolis. With regard to that, I want to look at what may seem like a very minor point. God didn’t refer to the other nations as a people “who cannot understand your language.” He said, “whose language you cannot understand.” The emphasis was on Ezekiel’s ability to adapt to and understand the language of the people, not vice versa.

Shortly after being beginning my ministry at a previous church, I convened a staff meeting and asked why there was not a monthly newsletter. The answer was, “If people want to find out what’s going on at the church, they can call the office.”

To me, that’s totally backwards. We no longer live in a culture in which people seek out the church. We are the ones who are trying to get our message to them. If that means getting a newsletter physically into their house through the U.S. mail, or putting up a sign that is so big and clear that they can’t help but see it even if they aren’t looking for it, or whatever it takes to get their attention, that’s what we have to do. If we want to communicate with people, we can’t demand that they learn to understand our language. We have to understand and use theirs.

A recent article said that the model of evangelism that is based on inviting or attracting people to a church service or event no longer works for 60% of Americans. “Come to church” is not part of their operational vocabulary. What they are saying is, “If you want me, come to me.” If we don’t understand that, we effectively eliminate over half the population from our efforts at advancing the Kingdom of God.

God’s message never changes, but the way we communicate it must. Even Jesus used a variety of methods: sermons, stories, miracles; in synagogues, in homes, in fields; with individuals, with small groups, with large crowds.

Certainly we must keep up our efforts to attract people to church, because four out of every ten people are open to that. But we must also learn the language of those who consider themselves spiritual, even love Jesus, but don’t want to have anything to do with church.

Refocusing on Revival

2010-06-23T15:50:00.002-04:00

It’s time to return to the original purpose of this blog. I apologize for the digressions of recent months. Let’s talk about revival!

Several years ago I attended Randy Clark’s School of Healing and Impartation at Washington Crossing United Methodist Church in Pennsylvania. While I was there, Pastor Scott McDermott prayed over me twice, on different days. Both times he used the words, “Ezekiel anointing.”

I took it as a word from the Lord. When I returned home, I re-read the book of Ezekiel, looking specifically for what God might have been saying to me through Scott. Here’s what I gleaned from it. It has come to form the basis of my understanding of revival.

Through a strange and unforgettable vision, God calls Ezekiel to go to his own people, those whose language he understands. God tells Ezekiel that though many will not listen, he must persevere in his message: warning people of God’s righteousness and judgment while encouraging them about God’s grace and promise of restoration. Ezekiel does this through a series of speeches and memorable prophetic actions.

In chapter 37 the story shifts to a series of visions, beginning with the famous valley of dry bones. As Ezekiel speaks God’s message over the bones – the same message of righteousness, judgment, grace and restoration – the power of the Holy Spirit brings them to life and forms them into a vast army.

The scene shifts again. This time Ezekiel sees a vision of God’s temple – not the stone temple which lay in ruins in Jerusalem, but the ideal which the stone temple was intended to represent: the dwelling place of God. From the temple flows a stream of water. As Ezekiel follows the stream farther from the temple, it becomes deeper and wider, and trees grow along the riverbank, with healing power in their leaves.

The New Testament uses the images of army and temple in referring to Christians. In other words, Ezekiel’s visions are pictures of the church.

More than that, these visions are pictures of what God wants each local church to be, at least in part. The farther Ezekiel got from the temple, the wider and deeper the river got. Water must have been flowing in from other sources. The only source of Holy Spirit water is Christians, whom Jesus said are to be fountains of living water. So the increasing size of the river speaks of the varied contributions of all the different local churches flowing together into one great river of life.

Taking this all together, I condensed it into what I believe is God’s personal mission statement for me: to go to my own people, whose language I understand, and, regardless of their response, to faithfully proclaim through word and action God’s message of righteousness and judgment, grace and restoration, prophesying the Holy Spirit over the dry bones to form them into a dwelling place for the manifest presence of God and a source of the river of living water that brings healing to the nations.

The people of Annapolis are certainly my own people. I grew up in the area. I don’t believe God is calling me to try to organize some big revival movement. But neither do I believe that God has called me to focus on building my own little local church empire. You can’t dam up living water. You can’t catch it all in a cistern inside the temple and keep it for yourself. The purpose of the river living water is to bring life and healing to all those who are outside the walls.

So that’s what I hope to focus on in this blog from now on. I appreciate your prayers and your comments.

Thank you, Stan and Jen!

2010-04-24T11:45:00.001-04:00

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. – 1 Timothy 5:17

Most of us wouldn’t call Stan and Jen Bice “elders.” But they are older than the teens in our Trinity youth group. Since 2003 they have done a wonderful job of “preaching and teaching” and even “ruling” (in the words of 1 Timothy 5:17) our Trinity youth group. Now that they are stepping down from that position in order to give their growing son Corey the attention he needs, I want to be sure we give them “double honor.” They certainly deserve it.

For seven years Stan and Jen have selflessly given of their time and their hearts to the young people of Trinity Church. They have been there for them in times of fun and times of crisis. They have played games with them, taught them, listened to them, counseled them, and encouraged them. They have provided a shining example of what a Christian relationship between a guy and a girl should look like. They have taken their vacation time to attend youth leader training events.

Young people today face problems and pressures most of us even one generation older can’t begin to imagine. Stan and Jen have been there to help our kids navigate these rocky waters with grace and faith.

In twenty-nine years of ministry I have worked with many youth leaders, paid and unpaid. I can say unequivocally that Stan and Jen are among the best I have ever worked with.

In the past, Trinity has had paid youth directors. As we are in the process now of returning to that once again, I urge everyone to make a point of thanking Stan and Jen Bice, unpaid servants, for the difference they have made in the lives of many, many young people, and in the life of Trinity Church.

Thank you, Stan and Jen! You’re the best!

Blessings,

David Wentz

Haiti and Holy Week

2010-03-27T18:37:00.003-04:00

Last night (Friday, March 27) Trinity Church was honored to host a marvelously eclectic concert of music to benefit long-term care of orphans in Haiti. Organized by David Slade of the SladeChild Foundation, a great collection of local jazz, blues and worship musicians donated their time, and the appreciative audience donated approximately $1500, 100% of which will go to Haitian orphan care.

I think this was a tremendous way to lead into Holy Week. But the way many people approach the week before Easter, they might miss the connection entirely.

Holy Week, sometimes called Easter Week, starts and ends with celebrations. Palm Sunday, a week before Easter, recalls the cheering of the crowds as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. The people knew that Jesus was the Messiah, the deliverer promised by God. They cheered, sang, and made a carpet of palm branches and their own coats to keep the road dust down as the donkey carried Jesus.

At Trinity, we will celebrate that tomorrow (March 28) with the premier presentation of “Majesty on a Donkey,” an original cantata for praise band (we call it a Praisata), written by our own George Lewis, at the 9:00am and 11:00am Sunday services.

Holy Week ends with Easter, which celebrates the fact that Jesus rose from the dead as a guarantee that all who put their faith in him will also rise from physical death to eternal life. Trinity, like churches everywhere, will be bursting with music, praise and joy.

But there’s a third name for Holy Week or Easter Week: Passion Week. The passion of the Christ, as many people know from the movie by that name, was a horrible episode of betrayal and sadistic torture that Jesus endured in between those Sundays. When the formerly-cheering crowds discovered that Jesus had come to deliver them from spiritual bondage, not from the Roman army that occupied their country, they turned on him. He was beaten, whipped, and nailed to a cross to die. And in so doing, he paid the price for all the sins of all the people of the world.

That’s why we celebrate. And that’s why I think it is so appropriate to lead into Holy Week by doing something to help Haitian children orphaned by a massive earthquake. Because the children in Haiti are suffering. And if you take away the Sundays, Holy Week is all about suffering. Jesus knows what those children are going through, and Jesus cares.

Some people might wonder about jazz and blues music in church, especially leading into Holy Week. But the Bible says, “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress, and refusing to let the world corrupt you” (James 1:27). I think a concert that raises money to help orphans is the purest form of religion.

So have a wonderful Holy Week. Celebrate Palm Sunday! Celebrate Easter! But find a church service on Maundy (Holy) Thursday or Good Friday to remember what the celebration is all about. If you live near Annapolis, we'd love to see you at our service at Trinity on 7:30pm Thursday. Many people say it is one of the most moving services of the year. Or join the 24-hour prayer vigil starting at 8:00am Friday, organized by our youth.

And remember: in Haiti the ground has stopped shaking, but the work has just begun.

Fourteen Rules for Happy Relationships

2010-03-16T10:03:00.002-04:00

From marriage to work to the clerk in the store, it’s all about how you treat people. Jesus said, “Treat other people the way you would want them to treat you.” Here are fourteen specific ways to apply it.

1. Smile

2. Take the initiative - most people are insecure, so say “Hi” first

3. Set the tone for every interaction by projecting the fruit of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)

4. Look for God’s image in everyone

5. Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative – choose to focus on things you like about the other person and things they are doing right

6. Watch your mouth – Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement (Ephesians 4:29)

7. Pay attention – To get anything worthwhile you have to pay something, to get a good relationship you have to pay attention

8. Don’t take offense – choose to give the benefit of the doubt

9. Give the defense a rest – proving your innocence is not always the most important thing

10. Look for win-win – relationships are not a zero-sum game

11. Ask, “Which is more important: getting my way, or this relationship?”

12. Pray God’s blessings for the other person

13. Look for ways to be God’s blessing for the other person

14. Love ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out

What if it still doesn’t work? “If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Romans 12:18). A relationship is a two-way street, and some people just won’t cooperate. Don’t let them make you feel guilty about it.

It Feels Good to Get Something Done

2010-03-08T11:43:00.003-05:00

Three years ago I was invited to speak at a conference on the Holy Spirit in Turkey. Being invited to speak anywhere is exciting. Being invited to speak on the Holy Spirit is really exciting. But being asked to do it for the Christians in Turkey, which is 99.7% Muslim, is downright cool.

A year later I was invited back to lead conferences for Turkish pastors and church leaders in two cities. I will be going back to do the same again in September.

There are fewer than 100 churches in Turkey, a country of over 70 million people. About half of the churches are in Istanbul. Few of them have been in existence longer than about ten years. As a result, there are very few experienced pastors in Turkey. There are also very few Christian books available in Turkish, and none that I know of on the practical aspects of administering a church. That may explain why my talks on that subject were so well received.

In the last year I have been working intermittently on expanding my notes into a book that can be translated and made available to Turkish pastors and church leaders. It will be in three sections, on the pastor, the local church, and the wider church. This morning I hit a milestone. I finished the first draft of the first section!

I know what you're thinking. "You've been working a year, and you just finished the first draft of the first third of the book?" In a word, yes. And it feels good. If you've ever worked a long time of a big project, you can identify.

Please pray that it is useful, and that I finish the rest of it more quickly. (As many of you know, the biggest problem is setting aside time to work on it regularly.)
And please pray for God's work in Turkey.

I Am No Longer My Own

2010-02-16T10:36:00.002-05:00

“I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed by you or laid aside for you, exalted for you or brought low for you. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you are mine, and I am yours. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.” - John Wesley, founder of Methodism

A spiritually significant event happened in the Sunday morning services on February 14. The people of Trinity United Methodist Church formally and officially renewed our recognition and acknowledgement that Trinity Church does not belong to us, but to God.

We did that by praying together John Wesley’s Covenant Prayer, printed above.

I know this is not the first time the people of Trinity have prayed that prayer. In fact, when I first moved into the pastor’s office here, I found several copies of a Covenant Service in which that same prayer had been used. Nonetheless, I believe it was a significant act.

I spent most of the sermon time talking about what it means to tell God that we “freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.” I told of two churches who have prayed that prayer. For one, God chose to “let it be full” and “let it have all things.” It’s now one of the largest United Methodist churches in the world. The other church was one of the largest United Methodist churches in its area when they prayed that prayer. God chose, at least for a time, to “let it be brought low.” (You can hear the sermon at www.trinityannapolis.org.)

When a church prays the Wesley Covenant Prayer, there is no guarantee which way God will take it. On February 14 the Trinity congregation heard the possibilities, took time to search their hearts, and were invited to freely pray it or not. It sounded to me as if almost everyone chose to pray it.

When we acknowledge that the church belongs to God and not to us, then it’s up to God what he wants to do with it. We know that it will be for the greater good, but it may not seem to be for our local good, at least at first.

I’m blessed that Trinity is a people who understand this. For instance, many were very skeptical of putting a big screen up in the front of our beautiful traditional sanctuary, but you were willing to go along with it if that’s what it takes to reach people who don’t know Jesus. And most of us have found now that we actually are glad to have the screen. Going along with God’s plan doesn’t have to be painful.

Of course, all this applies when we pray the same prayer for our own individual lives. Do you trust God that much?

So we’ve prayed the prayer. What will happen now? I believe that God will choose to take Trinity’s yieldedness to his will and turn that to something that, like the video screen, will not only bless our community but bless us as well. I can’t guarantee that, but it’s a feeling I have.

God has a plan for Annapolis. Trinity Church has now publicly said to God, “Whatever you need us to do to make your plan happen, we’ll do it.” I’m excited to see how God is going to answer that prayer. I don’t think we’ll have long to wait.

Snow Day

2010-02-06T07:09:00.002-05:00

As I write this we are in the middle of what will probably be called “The Blizzard of 2010.” I’d guess we have at least fifteen inches of snow on the ground, and forecasters are calling for five to ten inches more by the time it’s over.

Some people have to work during a snowstorm, and I thank God for the plow drivers, first responders, power line crews, and others.

But for most of us, especially if we don’t lose electricity, a snow day is something we look forward to. I know it is for me.

A snow day is a chance to just sit back and relax. Nobody expects us to go to the office. Nobody expects us to run any errands. Nobody expects us to work in the yard or drive anyone anywhere.

So what do we do instead? Read by the fire. Work a puzzle. Play a game. Drink hot chocolate. Odds are the whole family is there in the house together, which may not happen often anymore, and we can do these things together. We might go out and build a snowman or have a snowball battle. Or we might just sit and talk to each other – which most of us need a lot more of.

And when it’s over, you feel good. You feel relaxed. You feel refreshed and rejuvenated. And you may think, “Wow, we ought to do that more often.”

You know what? God thinks so, too. In fact, God thinks it’s so important that he made it one of the Ten Commandments. One day out of every seven. The Bible calls it “sabbath.” It’s a time to rest, relax, be with family and friends, and be with God.

Your body needs it. Your mind needs it – just ask a doctor how many health problems are caused or exacerbated by stress. Your spirit needs it. Your family needs it.

Don’t wait for a snow day to force you to obey the Fourth Commandment. Do it every week. Start with church, which refreshes your spirit in worship and refreshes your soul by being around a wonderful bunch of people. Then spend the rest of the day doing things you enjoy and you aren’t required to do. You’ll be amazed at the difference it will make for you the rest of the week.

God didn’t command us to take a weekly snow day because he likes rules. He did it because he loves you. So enjoy it!

What We're All About

2010-01-28T14:40:00.004-05:00

It's a well-known fact that people who read Revival Fire Annapolis are exceptionally knowledgeable and intelligent (not to mention good-looking). As such, I would like your help with something.

We're doing some work on our Trinity Church website right now. As of this writing, none of the changes are published, they are still in draft stage. One of the things we are adding is some explanation to go with our vision statement: "Jesus: It’s all about H.I.M. - Hosting God’s presence, Imitating Jesus, and Making him known."

The below is what I wrote to go on the first page of our website. I would love to hear your thoughts. Is it clear? Is it engaging? If you were looking for a church, would this make you more likely to try Trinity? Is there anything about it that doesn't seem right?

I really appreciated the insightful comments I received on an earlier posting. Please let me know what you think of this. Thanks!

"Jesus: It’s all about H.I.M. - Hosting God’s presence, Imitating Jesus, and Making him known.

Hosting God's presence: God created people to share his love, so God's great desire is to live with his people. Our great desire is to be a people God wants to live with, comfortably and freely expressing himself to us, in us, and through us. We want everyone who comes among us to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are in the presence of the living God who loves you, and a church of people who want to love you as well.

Imitating Jesus: As a church, our job is to help each other become more and more like Jesus. This means growing in the four great characteristics of Jesus, by the power of the same Holy Spirit who lived in Jesus and who now lives in every Christian.

• Spirit-filled character - Jesus always demonstrated the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control that are the fruits of the Holy Spirit. We want to do the same.
• Spirit-led wisdom - Jesus always knew what to do as he followed the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We want to do the same.
• Spirit-powered actions - Jesus brought God's miraculous power to help in time of need. We want to do the same.
• Spirit-motivated multiplication - Jesus invited and equipped others to join him in advancing the Kingdom of God. We want to do the same.

Making him known: This is too good to keep to ourselves. We work to equip, motivate and encourage every Christian to carry the presence of God in love and power everywhere they go, to everyone they meet. And we want every small group of Christians to be ready to be the church and do church any time, any place, with anybody.

We base this on the following passages from the Bible: Revelation 21:3; Ephesians 4:13; Galatians 5:22-23; Romans 8:14; Acts 1:8 and John 14:12; Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 8:4-8."

The Most Natural Way to Connect with God

2010-01-21T11:30:00.003-05:00

What is the best, most natural, most spiritual way for human beings to connect with God? What spiritual practices result in the greatest spiritual passion and fulfillment?

Some say it's all about the Bible. Others say no, the Bible is good, but the Bible is really just to point us toward the real thing, which is experiencing God's power.

Wait, another one says. If you really want to connect with God, go in a closet and close the door and stay there. But that idea freaks out somebody else, who really finds God best by taking a walk in the woods.

As a pastor and a musician, I have had to faced the frustrating fact that in Sunday morning worship services, some people put up with the music in order to get to the sermon, while others endure the sermon as the price they have to pay to hear the music.

And then there are those who say all that is OK, but Christianity is all about serving people, and the only way to truly connect with God is by actively serving someone in need.

Who's right?

All of the above.

Two recent books each outline nine different ways in which different people most naturally connect with God. Christian Schwarz, in The Three Colors of Your Spirituality, calls these spiritual styles. Gary Thomas, in Sacred Pathways, calls them spiritual temperaments. Every denomination and tradition contains people of each style or temperament. The key to spiritual growth is first to discover your natural or native syle or temperament (both books provide help in this), and then to intentionally develop an appreciation for the others.

The point is that no one way is right for everyone, and no way is wrong (as long as it leads you to Jesus, as Jesus is described in the Bible). No one way is more or less spiritual or Christlike. But when we all work together and pool our connection with God, then we have something awesome.

"Why?" Is the Wrong Question

2010-01-16T10:36:00.003-05:00

The prayers and thoughts of people all over the world are with the people of Haiti, and those trying to help them. The last estimate I read said they expect 200,000 deaths from the earthquake, with countless more injured and homeless, without medical care, shelter, food or even water.

When terrible disasters happen - and it seems like we've had a lot of them lately - it's only natural to ask, "Why?" If God is real and God is good, why do things like this happen?

It's amazing how much time and effort people put into trying to find an answer to that question, and the number of different answers they come up with.

"Why?" is a natural question. But I think it's the wrong one.

I'll be talking about that tomorrow morning in my sermon. I won't ignore the "why," but I will be trying to shift us to something I believe is more relevant: what God expects of us in the face of such things. If you can't make it, it should be available in the form of a podcast on the church website by Tuesday.

In the meantime, the two great needs for Haiti right now are prayers and cash. You can pray by just talking to God, wherever you are, in whatever language feels right to you, right now. You can donate at church, or through a number of online sites. I recommend www.umc.org. The United Methodist Church has an excellent emergency/disaster relief program, and 100% of your gift goes straight to the need, because the denomination covers the overhead.

What If I Didn't Get Healed? (Or Stay Healed?)

2010-01-12T12:13:00.007-05:00

A few months ago Trinity Church hosted a guest speaker who led a weekend of healing services. There were some amazing reports of miraculous healings. Many of those who were healed are enjoying their new freedom. Praise the Lord for that!

But some people received prayer and didn't get healed. And others had their symptoms disappear, only to have them return again.

What's going on?

Some people say this kind of thing proves God doesn't really heal, it's all in people's heads. Others say it proves God is capricious or arbitrary or he plays favorites. Some say if you didn't get healed, you don't have enough faith, or the person praying didn't have enough faith, or the church doesn't have enough faith. Some say if something doesn't work every time, it isn't scientific, so forget it.

I don't buy any of that.

People don't get healed every time they go to a doctor. Does that mean all medicine is a fake?

People who do find relief through medicine sometimes find their symptoms returning. Does that mean we should forget the whole thing?

I believe God wants us well. The Bible refers to Christians as the children of God, the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, and the army of God. What loving Father wants his children sick? What head wants its body sick? What groom wants his bride sick? What general wants the army sick?

God so much wants us to be well that he has given us numerous redundant systems to make it happen.

In the natural realm, God put healing in our bodies through an incredible immune system. He gives us medicines, surgery, nutrition, exercise, and alternative therapies.

In the supernatural, the Bible describes a wide range of ways in which miraculous healings are ministered. I have seen people healed in many of these ways.

For a long time I didn't pay a lot of attention to the subject of healing, though I always believed in it and prayed for it and from time to time would see miracles.

Recently, though, God has brought this much more to my attention. In fact, I'm currently working on a book about what I believe are some neglected aspects of the subject. I appreciate your prayers for this project.

The ultimate healing, of course, comes after the death of this mortal body. That's when we receive our new resurrection bodies, fit for eternity. But God wants us well in this life.

God's will is not always done on earth as it is in heaven - that's why Jesus told us, in the Lord's Prayer, to pray for that to happen more. So sometimes people are not well. But that doesn't mean sickness is God's will.

To paraphrase Dr. Robert Tuttle, it's not a sin to be sick and die. But it is a sin to allow someone to be sick and die without doing everything we can to alleviate it.
That includes physical and spiritual remedies.

So I'm learning what I can, and doing what I can. I don't think any of us can do less.

P.S. I always appreciate comments, but I would really like to hear from you about this subject, especially if you have stories or questions.

Non-rehearsed Children's Christmas Eve Pageant

2009-12-21T10:14:00.002-05:00

We're doing it again this year. Trinity's 7:00pm Christmas Eve service will feature a non-rehearsed children's Christmas Eve pageant.

What, you ask, is a non-rehearsed children's Christmas Eve pageant?

I figure every church needs at least one time a year when the kids can dress up in costumes and the grandparents can take pictures. Christmas is a great time for that. Unfortunately, the traditional children's Christmas pageant requires several weeks of rehearsals to get ready, creating a lot of stress on everyone's schedules just at the time they don't need more stress.

The solution? A Christmas pageant with no rehearsals!

Every child who shows up at Trinity's Christmas Eve children's service will be invited to be a part of the pageant. We will provide the costumes, the script, the coaching, the music, and the microphones. The kids take it from there. The more the merrier! We especially enjoy and welcome new children and families.

We did the NRCCEP ("Non-rehearsed Children's Christmas Eve Pageant") last year for the first time, and it was ... it was ... well, it's kind of hard to describe what it was. Let's just say it wasn't a time of solemn reflection. It wasn't even "A Charlie Brown Christmas." But everyone had a wonderful time and everyone definitely wants to do it again. And I firmly believe all the children came away with a greater understanding of the Christmas story.

So we're doing it again this year.

I hope we'll see you there. And bring somebody with you!

Thanksgiving and Christmas

2009-12-09T17:40:00.002-05:00

Just a quick thought -

What if everyone made a list of the things they were thankful for at Thanksgiving, and then for Christmas tried to find at least one person who didn't have one of those things and give it to them?

I don't mean things like a DVD or a box of candy. I mean the more meaningful ones.

For instance, at Thanksgiving I said I was thankful for my wonderful family. This Christmas, how can I bless someone who doesn't have a family?

At Thanksgiving, I was thankful for the bountiful food. This Christmas, how can I bless someone who doesn't have enough food?

You get the idea. What did you tell people you were thankful for this Thanksgiving. How can you give someone else the opportunity to be thankful for the same thing this Christmas?

God Will Provide - Really?

2009-11-04T12:31:00.004-05:00

I found the discussion fascinating. I expected it to be boring, a rehash of things I already knew, but the variety of people and experiences made it everything but.

The setting was a monthly meeting of United Methodist clergy. The subject was (stay with me here) stewardship. Often that means, here’s how to get people to give money to the church. But this was very different.

It started in the plenary session when Chris, the leader, read from Mark 7 where Jesus castigates the temple leaders for their concern with worldly acclaim, then points out the widow who put her last pennies into the temple offering. I have always heard this held up as an example of great faith on the part of the widow, but Chris read an interpretation saying the real point is the scurrilous scribes who are living high on the backs of the gullible poor. Then someone referred to a news story about a church that was being sued - the pastor promised that if people gave money to the church, God would double it for them in nine months, and it didn’t happen.

We moved into smaller groups and continued the discussion. How do you preach about money when people are losing their jobs and their homes? How do you expect people to think about spiritual things when money is such a real and pressing issue? What does it mean to trust God to take care of us?

One African-American pastor told of being a poor seminary student in Mississippi. He had almost nothing, but his pastor had asked everyone to contribute $100 towards missions work. About the only thing he owned was his clothes – a few casual clothes, and (as required by the church culture) four suits. He privately determined to sell two of his suits to raise the $100 to give to the church. Just then he received a letter. A couple in his church had been praying, and this pastor had arisen in their hearts. They had talked about it and decided to do something to help him out. Enclosed with the letter was $500.

I told a similar, though less dramatic, story of a time in seminary when someone brought my family a bag of groceries at a crucial time. Several others agreed that God always comes through.

But another pastor told of a church she served in Appalachia where families were struggling to live on $12,000 a year. She told of several women who would faithfully put money in the church offering plate every Sunday, only to see their children go without food for one or two days each week because the money was all gone. She said there was no question of the faith of these women, or their genuine love for God. So why was God allowing their children to suffer from malnutrition?

Other questions came up along the way. Is giving out of gratitude for God’s gifts the only really spiritual motivation for giving? Is it wrong to expect something from God in return? Is tithing a legalistic Old Testament relic or mandatory for Christians or somewhere in between?

We didn’t arrive at a clear agreement on any of these points. Some felt that preaching tithing to poor people drives them further into poverty, while others agreed with my experience that tithing has proven to be my lifeline out of deep financial distress. Some felt that we give as a response to what God has given us, while others said that we have to give first, as you have to plant a seed before you can expect a harvest.

I had never heard of God failing to come through for people who were genuinely trying to put him first, as in the case of the poor women who couldn’t feed their children, and I said so. A couple others agreed with me. It really caused me to think. And here’s what I think.

God does his work through his people. The church is the body of Christ, and Jesus is the head. A head can’t get anything done if the body doesn’t cooperate. If that couple had not listened to God and followed through by sending something to that poor seminary student, he would have had to sell his suits. If the people that brought my family a bag of groceries had failed to listen to God and obey him, we would have been pretty hungry.

Does God provide for his people? Absolutely. But he does it through other members of the family of God. And we haven’t always come through very well. May God have mercy on us all.

Musings from Vacation, Part 1

2009-10-06T11:40:00.003-04:00

After a long day in the air and in four airports (Baltimore, Detroit, Salt Lake City and Oakland), we finally arrived in California, complete with luggage. We had tight connections and delayed flights - in Salt Lake City we had 15 minutes from the time we deplaned at one end of the airport until our connection was scheduled to depart from the other end - and due to overbooking our carry-on luggage wouldn't fit in the cabin and had to be checked through, and we had not time to buy meals in the airports and no meals were served on the planes, but we made it. I will never again wonder about Paula bringing "just-in-case" food in her purse.

On the shuttle to the airport we met a very friendly Southwest Airlines pilot who was staying in the same motel. He warned us not to try to walk to a restaurant, so we ordered a pizza and shared it and conversation with him. He seemed very interested when we told him of the healings that we saw in the revival services last week, and said he would love to see something like that - he has had very little experience with church. We will be praying for him.

Due to the three hour time difference, Paula and I went to bed around 7:30pm and awoke at 4:30am. The RV folks won't pick us up until around 10:00am, so we have had several hours to just sit in the room. That could sound very dull, but in fact it's very nice. Between reading, napping, and surfing the net, we are finding it very relaxing already, and we aren't even out of the motel! There really is something to be said for getting away from everyday responsibilities - I guess that's the main "musing" for today. I tried a "stay-cation" for two weeks in June, taking vacation time but staying at home, and while it was nice, it really wasn't what we needed. This two weeks in the mountains and along the Pacific coast, away from all normal responsibilities, promise to be wonderful. I guess God really knew what he was doing when he commanded us to take a rest day every week, and set up all those mandatory annual feasts in the Old Testament. They were basically big community barbeques when nobody worked and everybody ate. Some of them even required people to go to other cities or camp in tents for several days. A great idea from our loving God!

More the next time we have internet access. Blessings from vacation!

People Were Being Healed All Over the Place

2009-10-01T20:27:00.001-04:00

You had to be there to believe it. People were being instantly, miraculously healed all over the church.

During special services last Friday and Saturday nights, and after the two regular Sunday morning services, at least twenty people I can identify personally received what John Wimber used to cautiously call “significant symptomatic abatement” immediately after receiving healing prayer. Many more from other churches reported being healed as well.

I haven’t contacted anyone for permission to use their names, but anyone familiar with Trinity Church can identify most of these folks.

One woman had not been able to kneel for ten years. After prayer, she was kneeling at the altar and rejoicing.

Another woman well into retirement age suffered from stress fractures and compression in her back. After prayer she was not only pain free, but touched her toes! – something she had not been able to do, in her words, “for a long time.”

At least three people came into the meeting with one leg shorter than the other. We watched as the legs grew out to the same length in front of our eyes. One reported the next day that it was the first time in years that she had been able to finish a worship service in normal shoes without her feet hurting.

A woman was healed of a deviated septum – she kept going around sniffing to demonstrate!

A woman had broken her wrist some time before and it had healed into a “frozen” position, unable to pivot back and forth. After prayer it had the same range of motion as before it was broken.

A woman I have known very well for a long time wore hearing aids in both ears, and had been almost completely deaf in one ear. After prayer she regained her hearing in both ears without hearing aids.

These are just some of the amazing things God did for us.

For me, perhaps the most exciting thing about it was that Dan Mohler, the Pennsylvania Bible teacher who led the meetings (www.neckministries.org), did not personally pray for most of them. Instead, he led the ordinary members of the church to pray for each other. It was their prayers that resulted in these healings.

In fact, one man was part of a group praying for a woman’s back and neck pain. She received healing. Then the man noticed that his own back no longer hurt. When he told me about it I asked how long he had suffered from the back pain. He said, “Ever since childhood” – which would mean about fifty years!

Jesus said, “Those who believe in me will do the same things that I do, and even greater things” (John 14:12), and, “These signs shall follow those who believe . . . they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover” (Mark 16:17-18). This weekend proved that those promises are still good. True, not everyone received immediate healing, but that does not invalidate what did happen.

Our task now is not to let this become something we look back on as an exciting event that happened once, but as the beginning of a new exciting ongoing ministry. I am open to ideas for how we as a church can encourage each other in stepping out in this ministry, not only in church services, but everywhere we meet people in need. I also urge you not to wait for the church to come up with some program. Go pray for someone!

God is good, God is faithful, God doesn’t change. There are people in need all around us. Let’s go out and demonstrate God’s love and power.

Alone Time With God

2009-09-09T17:19:00.002-04:00

It’s been a couple weeks since I wrote anything on this blog. I have a good excuse, I really do.

Two weeks ago I took four days to backpack into the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area of West Virginia to spend some alone time with God. The next week Paula took five days to go to a silent retreat at a Trappist Monastery to spend some alone time with God. I’m not quite sure how Paula’s absence that second week kept me from writing my blog, but somehow it seemed to.

But what I want to talk about is alone time with God. It’s absolutely vital, and in our modern society it’s very hard to get enough of it.

Of course, it doesn’t need to be four or five days at a time. A little time every day, a little more time once a week, can make a huge difference.

Writer Henri Nouwen tells of the time he visited Mother Teresa. He spent quite some time telling her all the concerns he had about his life and his spirituality. Her response was simply this: “Well, when you spend one hour a day adoring your Lord and never do anything which you know is wrong, you will be fine.”

Wow!

The first part reminds me of St. John of the Cross, who would spend hours just “gazing.”The second part reminds me of John Wesley’s definition of Christian perfection: to reach a place where you are not aware of committing any known sin, and everything you do is done in love. Put them together and I think Mother Teresa was on to something.

Paula told me a great phrase she came across on her retreat: Christians should seek to take what is implicit in Christianity, and make it explicit. What is implicit? God is love; God made us to love; when two people love each other, they love to be alone with each other. You make that explicit by getting alone with God.

It doesn’t have to be four or five days, it doesn’t have to be a wilderness or a monastery. It can be your car while you drive to work, if you can just turn off the radio. It can be your house before anyone else wakes up, if you can ignore the newspaper. It can be the church when nobody else is there. It can be your basement or back yard or a closet.

Wherever it’s just you and God is fine. Lovers find a way to sneak off someplace and be alone together. There’s no special way you have to do it. Just find a way, and get alone with God. And listen.

Not Everybody Connects With God the Same Way

2009-08-11T11:12:00.003-04:00

Twice a month, 12-15 people gather at our house to learn how better to recognize and experience and follow the Holy Spirit. We call the group "Flowing in the Spirit." We met this past Sunday and I'd like to share a little of it with you.

The conversation was around the different ways in which different people most easily experience the presence of God. One of the books I’m reading is Sacred Pathways, by Gary Thomas, who also wrote Sacred Marriage (“What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?”). He points out that many people feel frustrated or even guilty because the ways in which they are advised to grow closer to God don’t seem to work for them. For instance, we are often told that to grow closer to God, we just need to lock ourselves away in our prayer closet for longer and longer periods of time each day. Thomas says this works great for some people, but not at all for others, and it’s not a problem with those others, it’s just that God made them differently.

This was illustrated by the group discussion. Among the ten or so people there (several were away, it being August), we identified at least five or six different main ways in which different ones of us connect with God.

After that discussion, I briefly outlined the nine ways Thomas has identified as how different people connect with God. Then we made a two-part assignment for next time, which will be Aug. 23. The assignment is:
• Try a new way of connecting with God. Pick one of the below that you haven’t done much or at all, and try it.
• Think about what “connecting with God” means to you. How do you know if you have connected with God? What are the signs? How can you tell which of the below works best for you – and what does that mean, “works best?”

Here are Thomas’ nine pathways, very briefly summarized. For a more detailed discussion see the book.
1. Naturalists: don’t need buildings, books or bands. Learn about God from watching nature, feel close to God by being in nature.
2. Sensates: experience and love God through their five senses. Want to be lost in the awe, beauty and splendor of God. In worship, they want their senses to be filled with sights, sounds, smells, feelings, tastes. Love intricate architecture, stained glass, classical music, formal language, even incense and the feel of kneeling or holy water.
3. Traditionalists: love God through ritual and symbol and sacraments. May have a very disciplined life of faith, they like structure, they may not like change to the way they do things in church.
4. Ascetics: love God in solitude and simplicity. They want nothing more than to be left alone with God in prayer, without pictures or music or liturgy to distract them. Their worship is primarily internal.
5. Activists: love and worship God through their actions. These actions are often confrontational, standing for God against evil and calling sinners to repentance. They may experience God most deeply as they lobby or picket or march for a cause. They see church as a place to recharge their batteries for the real worship which takes place out in the world.
6. Caregivers: love and worship God by taking care of other people, like Mother Teresa.
7. Enthusiasts: love and express God with mystery and celebration, clapping and shouting “Amen” and dancing. May feel they haven’t worshiped if they aren’t experiencing and feeling and being moved by God’s presence.
8. Contemplatives: love God through adoration. May often refer to God as their lover, and use images of a loving Father and Bridegroom. Focus is not on understanding or serving God, but loving God as purely and deeply as possible.
9. Intellectuals: love and worship God best when studying the Bible or grappling with theological concepts. They may feel closest to God when they first understand something new about him.

For most people, one or a combination of a few of these feel very natural and good, and some others don’t help at all. Others are more able to experience God in a variety of these ways. I personally feel that one way of measuring our spiritual growth is by our increasing ability to worship in different ways. It is good to try different ways just to see if one works for you that you never tried, but it is also important to recognize that none of these ways of approaching or worshiping God is more or less spiritual than any of the others. In other words, individuals or denominations that focus on social action in serving God are neither more nor less spiritual, by that fact, than those that focus on silent prayer or doctrinal understanding. Structured liturgical worship is not necessarily more or less spiritual than free-flowing charismatic worship. We need to encourage and support each other in all of these.

I'd love for anyone reading this blog to join us at our next gathering - just email me for details. But whether you can or not, I want to encourage you: if you just haven't seemed to be able to get the hang of connecting with God, try a new way. God for sure wants to connect with you!

Kayak Camping the Outer Banks

2009-08-05T13:40:00.001-04:00

Recently my son Jed emailed me with an invitation. Could I break away and meet him in the southern Outer Banks of North Carolina for a couple days of kayaking and camping?

When your grown son, who is in the Army and lives 800 miles away, extends an invitation like that, you do whatever it takes to make it happen. I loaded the kayaks on the car, he got in his truck, and we met in Havelock, NC.

The next day we put into the water at the Cape Lookout National Seashore visitor center, he in the 15-foot sea kayak, I in my very impressive 8-foot flat-water yacht, which I have named “The Brain of Pooh,” after Pooh Bear’s honey jar boat. We had our camping gear, 5 gallons of Gatorade, and 3 gallons of water. Camping at CLNS is primitive, with no water or other facilities most places.

The weather was beautiful, the water warm, the breeze brisk. It was glorious – at high tide. Unfortunately, most of the times when we needed to land or depart it was low tide. That meant dragging the kayaks across grass and mud and shallows, sinking sometimes to our knees. When we could float, the breeze was often so stiff that we had a hard time keeping our course. (My kayak has no rudder, and Jed’s legs are so long he couldn’t use the pedals on his.) At one point we found ourselves towing the boats through sharp-edged cord grass up to our knees, then carrying our camping gear several hundred yards across Core Bank through marsh grasses up to our eyes. We felt like Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn in “African Queen.”

The real excitement, though, happened the first night. We had set up camp on the sound side of Shackleford Bank. After a yummy meal of canned chili, canned potatoes, and canned peas all mixed together (kayak camping is different from backpacking in that the emphasis is on bulk, not weight), we watched the fire die, the sun go down, the wild horses wander and the beach come alive with thousands of fiddler crabs. Then I started toward where I had laid out my sleeping bag. As I walked toward it, my headlamp trained just ahead of my foot, the beam of light suddenly illuminated a textbook example of a copperhead snake – one of the most poisonous snakes in North America.

Jed verified that was what it was, and while he kept the beam of light on the snake (which wasn’t at all worried by our presence), I carefully removed my sleeping gear. We retreated to the other side of the point and slept on the sand just above the high tide line. Perhaps surprisingly, I had no trouble at all falling asleep.

What are the odds that I would choose to go up to bed just as the snake chose to come to that same place? What are the odds that it would be just where my headlamp shone, at just the time that I shone it? What are the odds that I would have, a few days earlier, decided to buy a headlamp to take with me, rather than the tiny squeeze light I usually used? What are the odds that I would have bothered to use the lamp instead of my normal practice of moving around camp by moonlight? Had any of those things not happened just so, I could easily have stepped on that poisonous snake, or gone to bed only to find it already nestled in my sleeping bag. And we were a two hour night-time paddle from help.

Statistically, the way you calculate a combination of odds is that you multiply the individual odds together. Multiplying the odds against all those things happening just as they did, the result is either an astronomical coincidence, or answered prayer. I firmly believe it was the latter, because I had bathed the whole trip in prayers, for guidance, good weather, fun, and especially protection. Maybe that's why I was able to go to sleep so easily.

I actually used that experience as a sermon illustration this past Sunday, in a sermon I had already planned to preach, called “Deliver Us from Evil.” (You can download an audio podcast of it from trinityannapolis.org.) We don’t often hear about how to pray prayers of protection, but it is a very practical thing to know and do.

I’d rather not go through something like that every time I need a sermon illustration. But God is good, and God answers prayers. And kayaking the Outer Banks is a lot of fun!

Lesson from a Church Auction

2009-07-14T14:57:00.001-04:00

This Saturday is our church yard sale to raise funds to help our sister church in Turkey buy land for a building. Church yard sales tend to remind me of something that happened our first year or two in the ministry.

The tradition in the Mount Airy, Maryland area, where Prospect United Methodist Church is located, was to have auctions rather than yard sales. At an entry-level pastor’s salary, we were very limited in what we could buy even at church auction prices. But that evening, after everyone had gone home, Paula and I walked across the street from the parsonage to look around at what had been left behind for the trash collector.

That’s when Paula saw the bed frame , and old wooden headboard and footboard and side rails. It was in such poor shape that nobody was willing to pay fifty cents and carry it away. I agreed with them. But Paula saw something in it that I couldn’t see. She kept exclaiming about how beautiful it was. So, just to humor her, I carried it across the street to the parsonage.

Paula went to work with stripper and scraper and stain and polyurethane, and she created a wonderful transformation in that old bed. She scraped away the layers of dirt and grime and peeling finish, and brought out what that bed was originally created to be. And just as she said, it was beautiful. Nuances of texture and grain and color just shone.

We really didn’t have room for another bed in the parsonage, so the next time we visited Paula’s parents on their farm in Missouri we put it on top our old station wagon and took it out there. Her folks loved it, and every time we visited for the next decade or so, that’s the bed we slept in. Then when they moved to the city, we brought the bed back and now Joy sleeps in it. It’s still comfortable, and it’s still beautiful. I’m so glad Paula was able to see beyond the damage of years to see what it could become.

And I’m so glad God sees beyond the damage of years to see what we can become. When our mistakes and bad decisions and downright sins have covered us with layers of gunk and grime and we feel like we’re not worth fifty cents, God still sees something in us. He wants to pick us up off the trash heap of life and clean us up and refinish us and make us beautiful and useful. The only difference between us and that old bed is that once Paula decided, the bed didn’t have any choice. We do. But I’ll tell you what: let God have his way with you. Standing strong and beautiful in a nice bedroom is so much nicer than rotting in the county landfill.

Take a Vacation!

2009-07-01T15:31:00.001-04:00

Right after the big celebration (of Trinity UM Church’s 100th anniversary – read all about it in the July newsletter available on the Trinity website), I went on two weeks of vacation. That’s why you haven’t seen anything new here for a while. Now I’m back, and raring to go!

Vacation! Is there any lovelier word in the English language? (Of course there are – love, commitment, sacrifice , and many others – but that’s for another time.)

If you read the Old Testament right you’ll understand that God commanded his people to take vacations. Not just the Sabbath, the one day in seven when God instructs us not to work. We all need to take that seriously, and if more of us did, I personally believe we’d all be a lot healthier, in spirit and mind as well as body. But God actually commands his people to take vacations.

God set aside nineteen days a year as feast days. As described in Leviticus 23, these were essentially national holidays. Two of them, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Tabernacles, were a week long. The others were one-day feasts. These holidays, scattered throughout the year, were specifically set aside for eating and celebrating, like Thanksgiving. Besides eating, during the week-long feast of Tabernacles, the people were specifically instructed to go camping! God understood the importance of getting away from our normal surroundings if we are to really experience mental refreshment.

We are not ancient Hebrews, so we are not subject to those particular laws. But we are God's people, so the principle applies. It is important to take time away.

We went to Shenandoah and Monticello, and visited our son Jeremiah and his family in West Virginia. It was a wonderful time. We talked, we ate, we explored, we played games, we just relaxed and spent time together. It was great. And we all came back feeling refreshed.

So if you haven’t taken a vacation yet this year – and I mean a real vacation, one that gets you someplace else for at least a few days, even if it means mooching off relatives to do it – get out there and vacate! After all, it’s in the Bible.

Kids

2009-05-22T17:15:00.002-04:00

I haven’t written much recently. I’ve been spending time with my kids.

Josh and Julie and their children Moses and Lucy are spending May with us as the last leg of their three-month visit back to the States from their home in Turkey. Joy is home from college for the summer from Oklahoma. John and Suzanne arrived Tuesday evening from Illinois for a week. We just picked up Jed at the airport from Tennessee. And Jeremiah and Becky and their children Isaiah and Malachi are on the road from West Virginia as I write this. Four sons, a daughter, three daughters-in-law, three grandsons and a granddaughter will be spending the Memorial Day weekend with us.

So I’ve taken kind of half-vacation time and I’ve been trying as much as I can to hang out with my kids and grandkids.

It’s an interesting thing. Many people have told Paula and me that we have wonderful children - they all love the Lord, they all earned major scholarships to college, I could go on. A lot of folks have asked us what the secret is to raising such great kids. We have even been asked to teach a parenting class. But as soon as we start talking about what we did and what we feel was important in raising our kids, people don’t want to hear it. We had to cancel the parenting course after the second class because people stopped coming.

I’m on the subject now, so I’ll go ahead and say it. It seems to me the one key element is spending time with your kids. Lots of time. Sure, “quality” time, but also lots of quantity time. Paying attention. Stopping what you are doing to be with them.

For instance, just as I was writing that last sentence I heard Moses waking up from his nap. The middle generation was out for some time by themselves. So I dropped what I was doing and Paula and I spent the next forty-five minutes or so with Moses, until his parents came home.

I believe that during the twenty or so years that a person is privileged to raise children, nothing else is so important. And the way that is played out is to spend time with them, paying attention to them, interacting with them in ways that teach them by example to interact with other people.

So that’s why I haven’t written on this blog in a while. And that’s why I’m stopping here. Gonna go be with my kids.

P.S. A lot of neat stuff happened during our prayer week, including some pretty awesome healings. I wrote about it in the Trinity Church June newsletter. You can read it online at the church website, trinityannapolis.org.

God Invented Sex

2009-05-04T09:20:00.001-04:00

I’m preaching a six-week sermon series on the real-life issues we all have to deal with. Things like life and death, and politics, and when God doesn’t answer prayer. Yesterday’s sermon was, “God Invented Sex.” (You can listen to a podcast on our church website, www.trinityannapolis.org.)

At the 9:00 service it was my turn to give the children’s sermon. Most of the kids are between two and six years old. I asked them if any of them were married, and they laughed and one said no, they were too short. Then I asked them what married people do. I was thinking about things like taking care of each other, so I was a little surprised at the chorus of snickers from various parts of the congregation.
Why is that the usual reaction to this topic?

Forty years ago, 8% of children were born out of wedlock. Twenty years ago that had climbed to 18%. Today, depending on what you read, the percentage of children born to single mothers is between 40 and 51%. Adding in the wide availability of birth control, and the number of children conceived by single mothers who are never allowed to be born, that points to a huge amount of sexual activity outside of marriage. And more and more couples I talk to in pre-wedding counseling have no idea that God even has an opinion about that.

That’s not something to be snickered at.

Then there’s the increasing visibility of the GLBT population: those who consider themselves gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered.

This is not just something we read about in the newspaper. Most of us know unmarried couples of all sexual orientations living together. Often they are in our families.
Somebody asked me recently, “How do I treat these people? What do I say to them?”

The simple answer is this: you love them. How can they ever know that God loves them if we don’t show them God’s love by loving them ourselves? That doesn’t mean we condone what is obviously unbiblical behavior. Encouraging people to continue in anything less than God’s perfect plan is not loving them.

But these folks know the church doesn’t approve. They don’t need us to tell them that. They may not know God doesn’t approve – in the eyes of many people there is a big disconnect between God and the church – but they’re not likely to take our word for it.

Our job is not to condemn non-Christians for acting like non-Christians. The Holy Spirit is the one who convinces people. Our job is just to love them, and tell them what Jesus has done for us.

Most of us grew up in a time when the Christian view of sex was accepted as the common morality. That is no longer true. If the church doesn’t tell people what the Bible says, nobody else will.

But if we don’t love them first, why should they listen to us?

Sudden Death

2009-04-18T06:14:00.001-04:00

Darlene Henry, the warm and talented wife of my predecessor as pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church, had a massive stroke Easter evening. She died three days later. Eddie retired two years ago, and Darlene was set to retire in two months.

This was the second unexpected death in the church family in as many weeks.

One of the first things that comes to most people’s minds in such a situation is, “Why?” We understand that everyone has to die, but when someone doesn’t reach what we consider a normal life span, we want a reason. There are those who get comfort from believing that God wills and causes everything that happens, and that we just have to trust that God had his reasons. This is not the place for a theological argument. Let me just say that the way I read the Bible, and the way my relationship with God leads me to understand him, makes me see it differently. We live in a fallen world where God’s will is not always done. People dying painfully or before their time is an example of that.

What hit me about both these deaths was the unexpectedness. We can make all the plans in the world, but tomorrow is never guaranteed. I’m all in favor of delayed gratification and prudent planning for retirement. But I have to ask myself, is there something I really want to do, something I believe is important, something I am putting off into an uncertain future, that maybe I should begin working on right now, or that might give me a reason not to work until they make me stop? Those books I want to write, if I believe they are going to be a blessing to other people, can I really afford to wait until I retire to start writing them? Those special things I want to do with Paula and the kids, how sure can I be that they and I will be around and healthy and able to enjoy them fifteen years from now?

Death makes you think about things.

Washing One Another’s Feet

2009-04-10T22:03:00.001-04:00

Last night Trinity had our Maundy Thursday service. Maundy Thursday is what they call the Thursday before Easter, when Jesus turned the Passover meal into the Lord’s Supper/Mass/Eucharist/Holy Communion.

Usually our Maundy Thursday service focuses on the Lord’s Supper. This year we added a foot washing piece.

In Israel at the time of Christ, everybody wore sandals, and they either walked or rode donkeys – on rare occasions, camels or horses. Sandals were easy and cool, but they let all the dirt and dust and “donkey pollution” from the roads get all over your feet. So whenever you went into somebody’s house, they would have a servant untie your sandals and wash your feet. Since this was such a dirty job, it was usually the lowliest servant who was assigned to this task.

On that first Maundy Thursday, Jesus and his disciples were in a rented room. There was no host, and no servants. So everybody just came on in and sat around the table with their dirty smelly feet sticking out.

John’s gospel tells us the meal had gotten well under way. In other words, Jesus gave everyone ample opportunity to do something. They all missed their chance. Finally Jesus himself got up from his meal, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, took a pitcher and basin, and began to wash his followers’ dirty feet. Jesus, the Lord of the universe, took the place of the lowliest servant.

The values of God’s kingdom turn the values of this world upside down. Jesus was demonstrating that in a way none of them would ever forget.

Last night we offered an opportunity for folks to wash one another’s feet. Maybe a third of the people there did. You could tell it was a moving experience for everyone, those who washed and those who watched.

For me, the most moving part was seeing several older couples, people in their seventies and eighties, washing each other’s feet. Very slowly and carefully getting down on their knees, then very tenderly washing and drying the feet of the man or woman they had lived with and loved for fifty years or more, then reversing roles and allowing their feet to be washed.

What a picture of love and devotion. I won’t forget it soon.

Babies, Babies, Babies!

2009-04-04T11:50:00.000-04:00

Two days ago Paula and I went to visit one of our families and their new baby – what a cutie! This afternoon we plan to visit the families of two more babies recently born at Trinity. We are expecting another one any moment, and I have been told there are twins on the way within the next month or so.

That will make nine new babies at Trinity since October. Wow!

It’s a good thing we got the nursery renovated.

We’ve known about most of these babies for some time. One of them was a total surprise – a baby suddenly up for adoption, and just as suddenly adopted.

Some people say what God does or allows in the natural realm is often a sign of what God plans or intends for the spiritual realm. If that’s so, what does God have in mind for Trinity?

I’m not sure, but I think we should start thinking about renovating our spiritual nursery!

St. Patrick’s Day Turkey

2009-03-24T11:40:00.001-04:00

Our St. Patrick’s Day Turkey diner was an unqualified success!

March 17 was the only day Ali Pektash and Josh Wentz, pastors of our sister church in Ankara, Turkey, could make it to Annapolis to give us an update on what God is doing there. It was St. Patrick’s Day, and our ladies went all out: corned beef and cabbage, Irish potatoes, Irish soda bread, and green tablecloths and shamrocks everywhere you looked.

They don’t celebrate St. Patrick’s day in Turkey, but Pastor Ali really got into it. He asked for something green to wear, and somehow nothing was right for him until my wife Paula offered him her big round lapel pin that said, “It’s Great to be Irish!” Josh translated it for him, and sure enough, that was what he wanted. Needless to say, this Kurdish ex-Muslim shepherd from Turkey doesn’t have a drop of Irish blood in his body, but he wore that pin with a twinkle, and he didn’t give it back!

Somebody counted 138 people there for dinner (that’s a lot for us). They came from Trinity and at least three other local churches. Then there was David Hunter, who drove five hours from Pennsylvania. He had worked 17 years for the Lord in Turkey. He brought with him three other people, including a Turk and a Turkmen.

Pastor Ali later told me it was the best meeting he had ever been to. He said the people didn’t seem like they were at a church meeting; they seemed like they were at a family reunion. He was especially touched by the way everyone seemed to take a personal ownership in the Turkish church.

Ali and Josh explained that the greatest need their church has is to own a building, or at least a piece of land. Turkey is officially committed to religious freedom, but the few churches there face a good deal of petty harassment, especially from local government officials. Owning property indicates to the Turkish mind a degree of legitimacy and official status that would make much of that harassment go away. It would also save tens of thousands of dollars each year in rent.

When asked, Josh said that they could buy a good piece of property for about $80,000. If they had that, he said they would meet in a tent if necessary until they could erect a building. The first step is to acquire the land.

So that’s the prayer right now. The missions chair of another church was in attendance, and she was so moved that afterward she suggested that the eight or nine churches across the country that are involved with Josh’s ministry might work together to raise the money to buy that land.

In this economy, that sounds like a lot of money to me. But God can do it. And I expect him to. I just hope my spiritual ears are open enough to hear how he wants me to be involved. I’ve already had the chance to do some exciting things with the Turkish church, but I don’t want to miss any opportunity to be in on the ground floor of what God is beginning to do in Turkey, the Middle East, and the entire Muslim world.

Josh and Ali Are Coming!

2009-03-16T13:07:00.001-04:00

I’m so excited! My son Josh and Pastor Ali Pektash, from the Batikent Protestant Church in Ankara, Turkey, should be arriving tonight. They will be joining us tomorrow for a special St. Patrick’s Day dinner at church. After that Josh will lead us in some Turkish worship music on his guitar – besides being co-pastor, he is often the worship leader at their church. I will get to join in on my flute, as I did when I visited Turkey last month for the leaders’ conferences. Then Josh and Ali will give us a presentation about the miraculous ways God is working in Turkey. I’m sure Ali will break into preaching (with Josh translating) – it just seems to bubble out of him.

Ali is an amazing story. Ten years ago he was an alcoholic Muslim construction worker. He often worked in cities far distant from his home village, not because work wasn’t available closer to home, but because he knew that when he was home, he would get drunk and beat his wife, and he didn’t seem to have any control over it.
Finally, in an effort to break free from the alcoholism, Ali joined some friends on a pilgrimage to Mecca, the most holy city in Islam. This pilgrimage, called the haj, is something every faithful Muslim is expected to do at least once in their life. Ali was not exactly a faithful Muslim, in the sense of dutifully practicing the religion, but he was desperate. He hoped that if we went on the haj, Allah would deliver him from alcohol.

Instead, Jesus appeared to him in a night vision. Jesus told him, “You belong to me now.” He told Ali to return home without completing the pilgrimage. Ali obeyed, and Jesus miraculously delivered him from alcohol. Now Ali is one of the very few native Turkish pastors in the nation.

Josh and his family (wife Julie and children Lucy and Moses) are back in the U.S. for three months, their first time home since moving to Turkey over two years ago. Ali came with them for the first few weeks. They are spending March in Indiana with Julie’s family, but Josh and Ali are driving to Annapolis today so Ali can meet with us here before he has to fly back to Ankara.

Ali is one of the most amazing people I have met. For that matter, so is Josh. I can’t wait to see them! I pray that many other people will respond to the advertisements and come out for the 6:30 dinner and 7:00 program. I know we will all be blessed.

It’s Hard Being a Single Christian in Turkey

2009-03-04T16:31:00.002-05:00

One of the most moving conversations I had during my two weeks in Turkey was with four young men in a discipleship training program. Two of them are Turkish, and two are Iranian refugees.

As part of the conferences I was conducting for Turkish pastors and church leaders, I had been asked to address the pastor’s family relationships. I made that a panel discussion and opened it to questions from the listeners.

One of these four young men said earnestly that he was sure that what we were saying about the pastor’s wife and children was all very good. Unfortunately, he and his fellow students were all single. In Turkey it is hard enough to find any Christians at all, let alone young single Christian women. Did we have any advice?

One of my colleagues offered to send over some American girls – at which a single American girl who was visiting suddenly disappeared out the door.

Everyone laughed, but it was clear that these young men were very serious.

Another of the students added more information. They didn’t just need wives for personal reasons. Especially in the rural villages, it is very difficult for an unmarried person of any gender to be taken seriously as an adult with anything worthwhile to say. How could they get a hearing for the gospel without a wife and family to legitimize them as someone to be listened to?

I answered as best I could, encouraging them that God knows their plight and will provide for them if they pray. (You might pray for them as well, if you think of it.) But as I thought about it, I realized that for these young men, the decision to follow Jesus Christ instead of Allah meant more than just potential misunderstanding or even persecution. It meant cutting themselves off from 99.9% of marriageable females, and facing the very real possibility of years, even a lifetime, of singleness. Some people are called to that, but (I believe) very few. For the rest, which obviously included these young men, that’s a very high price to pay for one’s faith.

First Fruits

2009-02-23T17:23:00.000-05:00

This is the first in a planned series of reflections on my recent two weeks in Turkey, leading conferences for Turkish pastors and church leaders.

In this land of 75 million people, estimates are that only about 3,000 are Protestant Christians. 99.8% of the population are Muslim.

I was privileged to lead conferences in the capital city of Ankara, and in the Mediterranean city of Adana. I also preached in churches in each of those cities. Each time I told them this:

I believe, and many others believe as well, that God is preparing a great harvest of souls for Turkey and the Middle East. In any harvest, a few fruits (or vegetables or grains or nuts) ripen first. These are called the first fruits. Then all the rest come ripe very quickly.

Those Turkish people who have come to Christianity in the past few years are the first fruits of the coming great harvest. Some time, probably not too far in the future, many thousands of people are going to come to faith in Jesus very quickly. Then they will say, “OK, now I’ve believed in Jesus, now I’m a Christian. Now what do I do?”

They will look around and see you (one of the Turkish believers I was talking to), and they’ll say, “You’ve been a Christian for a year, or two years, or five years. I just became a Christian. Tell me what to do!”

My purpose in leading these conferences was to help equip Turkish pastors and church leaders to prepare their people for that time.

My advice to them was, I think, also a good exercise for every Christian, in America as well as in Turkey. Here is what I told them. Next time you say a prayer, or read the Bible, or go to church, or try to do what Jesus would do, think about what you are doing. If a brand-new Christian asked you why you were doing that, what would you say? If they asked you to show them how to do it, how would you explain it?

You don’t have to be in Turkey for people to ask you about Jesus, and the practice of Christianity. It could happen to you tomorrow. Are you ready?

I'm Back from Turkey

2009-02-18T10:12:00.003-05:00

I got home from two weeks in Turkey about 10:15pm Monday night (Feb. 16). It was a wonderful experience leading conferences for the Turkish churches in Ankara, the capital city, and Adana, the fourth largest city. We visited Antakya (Biblical Antioch) where Jesus' followers were first called "Christians," and where Paul and Barnabas were commissioned by God as the first traveling missionaries. We also visited Tarsus, Paul's home town.

Over the next few days or weeks I'll be posting thoughts about my trip here in this blog. I hope they are a blessing to you as the trip was to me.

And I'm so grateful to those who kept Trinity Church moving forward in my absence. Good folks we are blessed with here!

Two Miracles

2009-01-31T10:51:00.000-05:00

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.

A Day for a Praise Song

2009-01-20T17:24:00.001-05:00

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.

God is Faithful!

2009-01-12T11:34:00.000-05:00

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).

Another New Year

2009-01-01T05:59:00.001-05:00

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.

Christmas Eve Chaos

2008-12-23T10:10:00.000-05:00

I really set myself up this time.

Our 11:00pm Christmas Eve service will be a traditional warm wonderful old-fashioned Christmas Eve, with lots of Christmas carols to sing and everyone lighting a candle as we sing “Silent Night.”

I’ve done that kind of service before and I know it will be great. It’s the 7:00 children’s service that I don’t know what I’ve gotten myself into.

The plan – and it’s too late to back out because we’ve already advertised it – is to put on an impromptu, unrehearsed Christmas pageant involving every child in the building who wants to take part. Instead of a sermon, I’ll call all the kids up front. I’ll read sections of the Christmas story from a children’s Bible, then we’ll stop and assign parts and hand out costumes (I hope we’ll have enough) and tell the kids what to say and walk them through it. Then I’ll read the next section and we’ll do it again.

It may be total chaos, but I don’t think so. I think it will be a lot of fun, for the kids and everybody watching.

And of course we’ll sing Christmas carols and the children’s choir will sing and we’ll have a birthday cake for Jesus and the usual things.

I think there are lots of parents out there who would like their children to have the chance to participate in a Christmas pageant, but they haven’t gotten them into rehearsals and so on. I hope those folks will hear about this and bring their kids and it will be an easy, fun way for the whole family to be involved in a part of Christmas that is not about shopping and Santa Claus.

Speaking of events that don’t involve shopping and Santa Claus, our Night in Bethlehem this past Sunday evening was incredible. The auditorium was transformed into Bethlehem Main Street. There were about eight decorated shops where kids could put on costumes and make toys and rope and bread and sandals and jewelry and eat figs and dates and olives and such. Shopkeepers and townsfolk and a tax collector and a Roman soldier in costume interacted with visitors. We even had a before-and-after Mary and Joseph: for the first two hours one of our pregnant couples played the part, then they went out and one of our just-had-a-baby couples replaced them. We had about 115 people register for the “census” as they came in. The men did a great job building the shops. People are already planning for how to do it even better next year.

So that’s over and it went great. I have no worries about the traditional candlelight Christmas Eve service at 11:00pm. But at 7:00, inviting all the kids up and getting them to put on the service, that’s a new one. But I think it will be fun. At least it will be memorable!

Refill Your Candles

2008-12-23T09:39:00.000-05:00

I was just checking the candles in our Advent Wreath in preparation for our Christmas Eve services. I had noticed Sunday that they didn’t seem to be burning, even though they had been lit.

These particular candles are “oil candles,” actually oil-burning lamps made to look like candles. When Wanda Lee and I checked the candles, we found that there is oil in them. But when I lit them, they smoldered, but didn’t really burn brightly enough for anyone to see.

On further investigation I found that while the bottom of the wick was wet, the top was dry. There was oil in them, but not enough to make a visible flame.

I wonder how many Christians are like that? We’ve been lit, but to look at us, we sure don’t seem to be burning.

In the Bible, oil is often used as a symbol of the Holy Spirit of God. Just as the oil candles need to be kept filled with oil, we need to stay filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18).

How do we do that? Spend time in prayer, Bible reading, and just sitting quietly focused on God. We who know the Lord need to allow God to fill us in our personal devotional times, so when we come together in worship we can burn brightly for God and provide light for others.

The Spirit of Christmas

2008-12-17T16:41:00.003-05:00

Yesterday morning, at our church's weekly prayer meeting for our military, one of the men, who probably wouldn't want me to use his name, told a wonderful story.

(This guy is pretty wonderful himself. He was a Marine in World War II, part of the invasion of Iwo Jima 62 years ago,and still going strong.)

Here's the story. I think it's a great picture of the Christmas spirit, the spirit Jesus came to bring us.

Some years ago a church was putting on a Sunday School Christmas pageant. Everybody got a part: a girl would play Mary, a boy would play Joseph, others would be shepherds and angels and wise men. One little boy - we'll call him Johnny - had what we nowadays would call a learning disability. But he wanted to have a part in the pageant, and everybody wanted him to have a part.

They decided the easiest role for Johnny to play was the innkeeper. All he had to say was one line: "There's no room in the inn." Five words. They figured Johnny could handle that.

The night of the pageant came and Johnny was there, resplendent in his costume and his excitement. The director and the teachers and even the other kids kept going over Johnny's line with him, just to be sure he knew it. "There's no room in the inn. There's no room in the inn."

Finally the pageant began. Gabriel appeared to Mary. Another angel appeared to Joseph. A Roman soldier announced the census. Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem.

It was time for Johnny.

The boy playing Joseph knocked on the door. Johnny said his line perfectly: "There's no room in the inn." Joseph and Mary turned away, giving a convincing portrayal of sadness and desperation. That's when Johnny called out: "Wait, don't go! You can have my room!"

Back from Iraq for Thanksgiving

2008-12-10T12:53:00.002-05:00

Paula and I had a great and unexpected blessing this Thanksgiving: our son Jed and his entire 101st Airborne (Air Assault) Division returned early from their deployment in Baghdad. Originally scheduled for a fifteen-month stint ending this coming February, this early return was wonderful news.

Trinity Church hosted a community Thanksgiving Eve service this year with three other churches, but I left it in the capable hands of Sheila Dunn (minister of visitation) as we drove to Ft. Campbell, KY to welcome Jed's plane.

It was an amazing experience. At 9:30am, Sunday, Nov. 23, a chartered airliner landed at the base airfield to the cheers of several hundred sign-waving family and friends. (Anyone who knows Paula will not be surprised that our sign was the biggest.) A brass band played. A general gave a wisely short speech. The joy in the air was electric.

Jed had been gone ten months, serving as a 2nd Lieutenant Cavalry Scout, leading patrols in what we later learned was the most active sector in all Iraq in terms of IED attacks. Paula and I had driven down to see him off, and on the drive back home we felt God showed us how we should pray for him. Among other things, we felt we were supposed to envision Jed walking off the plane on his return, healthy, whole, sound and strong. That mental image served as a focus for our prayers and our faith.

Sure enough, that's what we saw on that wonderful sunny Sunday morning. Jed was limping a little, from an ankle sprained while throwing a football around (it had been seriously weakened during a combat mission some weeks before), but he wasn't injured. Furthermore, none of his men were wounded. Praise the Lord for answered prayer!

We had thought we might have to cook Thanksgiving dinner in a hotel room, but the troops were given a four-day pass. So Wednesday around noon, after finishing part of his mandatory re-integration training, Jed piled into the car with us and we drove straight through twelve hours to Annapolis, where we had a wonderful weekend of family and food before Jed had to catch an early airplane back on Sunday morning.

Many people question the war in Iraq, and I'm not going to get into that argument. What I want to focus on is the pride in seeing Jed do what he felt he had to do, and the joy in seeing him return safe and sound. God is faithful and God is good!

It was surely a Thanksgiving to remember, and I pray everyone who reads this has an equally blessed holiday season.

Is Bad Stuff a Punishment for Sins?

2008-11-13T15:55:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago someone wrote me an email asking whether our church believes bad things that happen to us are punishments for sins. I thought other folks might be interested in that question and my answer. So (because it's easier than writing something new), here is my answer. I'd love to hear what you think!

First, you ask “do we believe…?” It’s a rare theological question that can be answered with a sweeping “here’s what Christians believe.” That’s one reason I’m so interested in the other responses. I’ll say upfront that I’m coming from a premise that the Bible is true and a Wesleyan understanding of what it means. In regard to this question, that mainly means I believe God allows humans free will as opposed to predestining everything everyone does.

Rev. Leslie Weatherhead, a pastor in London during the German bombings of WWII, wrote a small book (I think it was called The Will of God) about that question in which he distinguished between God’s perfect will, God’s permissive will, and God’s ultimate will. Basically, he says that because of God’s regard for human free will, God allows some things that he would not prefer (things that people do that are against God’s will are called “sin,” and there is a lot of it), but that ultimately God’s plan unfolds as he desires in the end. In other words, we can mess up our lives and the lives of other people, but we can’t mess up God’s ultimate plan. Rev. 21-22 is going to happen some way, somehow. God is capable of taking our free will choices and weaving them together in such a way that ultimately his final plan works.

That’s the cosmic scale. On an individual level, a lot of the things we experience are the result of what you might call generic human sin, the accumulation of the results of the sinful choices of human beings since Adam and Eve – your “trickle-down effect.” Wars, man-made ecological disasters, etc. are examples of that. Others are the result of the fact that at the Genesis fall, the world was knocked out of kilter (see Romans 8:19-22). In other words, when God created the world, it was good. It didn’t have these destructive hurricanes, earthquakes, etc. And when the earth is restored at the end of time, those things won’t happen either. Same thing with sickness. Jesus healed every sick person who asked him to. There is no sickness in heaven (Rev. 21:4), and Jesus told us to pray that God’s will would be done on earth as it is done in heaven (the Lord’s Prayer). So wherever earth is not like heaven, God’s perfect will is not being done. (And part of our job as Christians is to see that those things are changed as much as possible, through justice ministries or medical research or whatever.)

So the short answer is that the bumper sticker is right: “[Stuff] happens.” In Matt. 5:45 Jesus says, he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Luke 13:1-5 says, 1There were some present at that very time who told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered thus? 3I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. 4Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem? 5I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” (“Likewise” doesn’t refer to the means of death, but that everyone is going to die – repentance doesn’t change physical death but does change the eternal consequences of it, so it’s no longer “likewise.”)

As you point out, there are two ways of looking at it, and I think both are wrong. Fear that God is up there with his lightning bolts cocked, looking for an excuse to fry somebody, is clearly not right. If that was the case, most of us would be pretty singed right now. On the other hand, the idea that if we accept Jesus and try to live right nothing bad will ever happen to us is also clearly not Scriptural. Jesus himself said, In the world you will have tribulation (John 16:33). But he went on to say, But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. I believe if we learn to pay better attention to the nudges, hunches, or intuitions of the Holy Spirit, we can avoid some of that tribulation – we all know of examples when we say, “Something told me not to do that, and I wish I had listened to it.” I believe that “something” is the Holy Spirit. But we can’t miss it all.

Most of the Old Testament examples of punishment threatened for sin were for nations, not individuals. We need to keep that distinction.

And of course there are cases where someone suffers the consequences of their own bad choices, like a person dying of a drug overdose. But I don’t think you can say that is God punishing them for their sins.

On the other hand, there are some specific examples of individuals being punished for their sins in the New Testament, such as Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5, or the death of Herod in Acts 12:23. But these are rare, at critical junctures, and I think we are best not to build a doctrine on them against the weight of the rest of the Biblical evidence.

So far I’ve been looking at the sins and saying, “Is God going to punish someone for this?” Maybe you are looking at it the other direction: “This bad thing has happened to me, does that mean I’m being punished by God?” Job’s “comforters” used that kind of theology on Job: “Come on, fess up, you must have sinned or God wouldn’t let this happen to you.” God got really mad at them for misrepresenting him like that. If you are aware of sin, confess it, stop doing it, and move on in the knowledge you are cleansed and forgiven (1 John 1:8). If you aren’t aware of sin, don’t worry about it, because the Holy Spirit will let you know if there is something you need to be aware of (John 16:8). James 1:2 says, 2Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you meet various trials. Not, “Get all bent out of shape about why it’s happening.” Roll with it. Stuff happens. What counts with God is how we deal with it.

Ultimately, it comes down to this. If you are afraid that some slip or failure is going to cause God to punish you, or send you to hell, I think the clear answer is Romans 5:8. God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. That’s God’s answer to our sin: not punishment; mercy and atonement and forgiveness. God so wants to avoid punishing us for our sins that he sent his only Son to die so God would be able to forgive us instead of punishing us.

Wow! I really got wound up on that. I get really excited when people actually think about things like this. That’s a sure way to distract me from paperwork, give me a nice juicy theological question. I hope my answer helps. I’ll be interested to see what everyone else says.

Now Is Not the Time to Stop Praying

2008-11-05T09:02:00.004-05:00

A long and arduous campaign is over and the American people have spoken clearly. Many of us have been praying. That is a good thing. But the election is not the end of our need for prayer. It's just a change in focus.

Ever since the beginning of my ministry I have included the president in my Sunday morning pastoral prayer. Twenty-some years ago that president was Ronald Reagan. I remember clearly a dear saint who came to me after church one Sunday and said, "I just don't understand how you can pray for that man!" I don't think that's a particularly helpful, or for that matter, Christian, attitude. For the sake of our country and our world, we need to be praying for everyone who is in a position of power, authority, or influence (see 1 Timothy 2:1-2). And the more power or influence they have, the more they need our prayers to use that power and influence in a way that advances God's kingdom.

Barack Obama may or may not have been your candidate, but he is going to be our president. And considering what our nation and the world face in the next few years, it would be wise to pray that he will turn out to be one of the greatest presidents in history.

How should we pray? The biggest need right now, it seems to me, is to pray for wisdom in the selection of key advisors, Cabinet members, and other administration officials. Then we need to pray that their decisions and actions turn out to be the best possible - even if we initially disagree with them. And we need to pray that President Obama, when he becomes president, will be able to properly handle tests and challenges that may come.

At the same time, we need to continue praying for President Bush, that he have a strong finish, and that our nation's enemies not try to take advantage of what they may perceive as a weak time during the presidential transition. In particular, pray that the incredible record of no successful terrorist attacks on American soil since 9/11 continue.

I want to close with a more personal note. Being a white male who had what I now recognize as a fairly privileged upbringing, I will never fully understand what the election of Barack Obama means to my African-American brothers and sisters. But a few weeks ago I had the privilege of sharing dinner with some African-American clergy colleagues (along with a clergy couple from Zimbabwe). Some of them had grown up in the south during the segregation era. They had been active in the civil rights movement. As we talked of the upcoming election, their grace and faith and sense of hope humbled me. With that fresh in my mind, as I watched Barack Obama and his family walk onto the stage at Grant Park last night, I found that I had tears in my eyes - as I did watching John McCain's eloquent concession speech.

This election was a turning point in history. When history starts turning, it is vital that when it stops, it is pointed in the right direction. The key to that is prayer. Now is not the time to stop praying. It's time to pray even more.

Voting and Christianity

2008-11-04T15:51:00.000-05:00

This is my first attempt at a blog, so please forgive any breaches of etiquette.

Today is election day 2008, a historic day no matter which way it turns out. A lot of people think they know how it will turn out, but nobody is sure. Kind of like the speculations about how things will happen when Jesus comes back. But that's a different topic.

I've had the interesting experience in recent days of being in two crowds of people, both Christian gatherings, both full of people who love God, love the Bible, love the church, love people, and love America. In each of those crowds it was pretty clear that most of the people felt very strongly that God favored one of the two main candidates for president, and they knew which one. But the two groups picked two different candidates as God's favorite.

I believe God cares about who our next president is, and I'm pretty sure which one God wanted me to vote for. But that doesn't necessarily mean that's the one God wants to win.

Some people give you the impression that everyone who knows how to read the Bible or hear from God will vote the same way, and anybody who votes the other way doesn't know how to hear God or understand the Bible. I don't believe that is true. I believe God could tell you to vote for candidate A and me to vote for candidate B, for God's own reasons. Maybe he doesn't want a landslide. At any rate, I don't think it is legitimate to judge a person's spiritual state by their politics.

More important, whatever the outcome, we all have to live with it, and we all have to live with it together. No matter who is in the White House, as Christians we all have to live together in God's house. Jesus said the world will know we are Christians by how we love one another, not by who we voted for.

The bottom line is, Jesus is the savior of the world, not John McCain or Barack Obama or Joe Biden or Sarah Palin. And when the election is over, God calls us all to pray for our new president, whoever that might be. Heaven knows they need it. Heaven knows we need it.