Thoughts on Life and Leading

I am glad to know that last Sunday’s message is sticking with some people. I preached part one of The Nearness: Responding to God’s Presence. The topic is worship and I am trying to increase our awareness of God and how we react to Him.

I guess I got a little pushy when I told the people that if we believed that God was actually with us in our worship experiences, we would not stay home or do other things besides be involved in worship. I actually said, “if we really believed that God is here, we would not come in late or go to sleep during the service or daydream about the Superbowl”. It is nice to know that people are paying attention. I have received several comments this week, people wondering if I was mad or frustrated. I think this results from people not being accustomed to being confronted. My preaching has apparently been out of balance. I need to speak more directly about issues that need to be addressed and corrected.

So, I promise to be nicer tomorrow. By “nice”, I don’t mean I will make everyone feel good about themselves. By “nice”, I mean that I will be careful how I express what is on my heart. I won’t beat people up. I won’t be rude. I will not use the Bible as a club.

But I will speak the truth, will confront when necessary and I will not worry about whose feelings get hurt. Although I will be nice, I will also be direct. Directly nice. How’s that?

Join us tomorrow for part 2 of The Nearness. I plan to continue a deep look into Romans 12:1-2.

It will be a nice experience.

I had a meeting last night with a newer guy in our church. He had sent me an email and hesitantly asked to sit down with me to discuss what was going on in his life. Understand that when this happens, I am generally hoping for something good but prepared for the opposite. Too much of the time, when people want to talk to me personally, things aren’t going very well. (Could give me a complex!)

This guy was so excited to tell me that, in a recent worship service at Maranatha, he had made the decision to give his life to God. He had accepted Christ and his life was in the process of being completely transformed. He was meeting with me to tell me that God was asking him to do some things with his life and he was completely surrendered to the plan of God. He was asking me for direction and advice. He was presenting himself for accountability.

Was I ever glad to hear that! In the middle of a strenuous week, when I wasn’t necessarily seeing a lot of positive results from our efforts, God sends a guy along to, in essence say, “it is working!”.

This is success. This makes us know that we are doing some things right. This inspires us to pick up the pace.

While trying to decompress from a long day yesterday, I watched a little 20/20. They were discussing the increase of people who are struggling with sex addiction. This appears to be a new phenomenon that is growing in our culture, or at least someone decided that it is time to give it a lot of coverage in the media. Of course, Tiger Woods leads the field of the poor souls who can’t control their sexual behavior. But recently some other high-profile people have checked into rehab to get treatment for the problem. Steve Phillips, a former ESPN sportscaster, is the latest “victim”. There is a center in Mississippi that is getting a lot of press, and making a lot of money as the “go-to” place for the stars who are hooked on sex.

I will try to temper my cynicism. The stories that are being featured are about married men who have cheated on their wives several times because of their addiction. My response: give me a break. Guys have had girlfriends for a few thousand years now. Men have been hooked on sex since God created it. There is nothing new about sleeping around. We should be sensitive to the victims of extra-marital sex, but we need to identify who the victims are. A guy who sleeps with anyone other than his wife is not a victim of an addiction, he is an adulterer. The victim is the innocent ones(s).

I am disturbed that our culture is letting these guys off the hook by labeling this sin as an addiction. This seems to be an attempt to say, “It’s not my fault” or “I can’t help myself”. Hey Tiger and Steve, It is your fault and you can help yourself. Honor your wedding vows and respect your wife. You may indeed be addicted. But be a man and deal with it in a mature and responsible way. Keep your pants on until your get home. And treat your wife with honor.

Drug treatment and therapy seems to be helping in some cases. Tiger is out of treatment and is rumored to be back on the PGA tour soon. Steve is on national talk shows saying that he is doing better. (I predict a book written by one, if not both of these guys.) I am thinking of some other treatments that may be equally as effective as drugs and counseling. Mrs. Woods golf club therapy seems to be what got Tiger thinking straight. Steve’s loss of employment worked well to motivate him to stop acting like a hormone-driven teenager. I think if our culture stops propping these guys up and starts letting them suffer as the idiots that they are, behavior will improve. If that doesn’t work, maybe a few minutes alone in a locked room with the husbands, fathers and brothers of the women they violate would help. Sorry for my reversion to caveman methods, but they have been proven to work quite effectively.

Yes, I realize that women are also guilty of this behavior. But we can’t let athletes and actors and rock stars get by with acting irresponsibly because they are famous. Grow up, guys. Deal with your “addictions”. Accept responsibility for your behavior. Be a man.

Letha and I were in the Austin airport on Wednesday, working our way to the rental car counter. We were walking alongside a young mom with two little girls, one around 5 and the younger around 3. We noticed how cute they were, with their little backpacks in tow. The littlest one was walking along and talking with her sister and asking mom endless questions. Suddenly, mom and older sister slowed down a bit to take a look at something in a store window. Lil sis did not notice and kept walking full speed ahead. It only took a couple of seconds for her to realize that mom was no longer by her side. She panicked and took off running, crying out for “mommy!”. She never looked back, only ran ahead, with terror in her eyes. About this time, mom realized what was going on and started calling the girl’s name. But it was noisy in the airport and the girl did not hear her mother. We tried to help but knew we couldn’t do anything but call to the little girl. She would have none of it. So mom had to run to catch up with her. She caught her in a matter of 20 seconds or so, but not in time to prevent an all-out panic on the part of the little one.

As soon as mom and big sister caught up with her, the little girl said to mom, “why did you leave me?” Mom said, “I didn’t leave you!” The little girl said, “yes you did!”. She cried, her heart was broken, she was scared and she was embarrassed.

And I saw you and me in the little girl. We take our eyes off of God. We run ahead in life. We get scared and panic. And when God collects us again, we blame Him for leaving us.

God hasn’t gone anywhere. “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.” (Isaiah 53:6)

Stop running ahead, and if you can’t, at least hear His voice calling you back.

The last three days, I have been reading through the Old Testament book of Leviticus. This is part of my read-through-the- Bible-in-a-year process. Leviticus is not fun to read. The early parts are a lengthy and graphic description of the sacrificial system that God set in place through Moses. It is all about how the innocent animals will be killed to provide forgiveness of the people of Israel.

I have to say, the descriptions are fairly disgusting. There is too much detail about how the animals die and it seems very cruel. Specific information is giving about how to take the lives of the animals, about what to do with various organs and body parts and too much information about what to do with the blood that is shed. And there is a massive amount of blood. The blood of the animals is sprinkled on the sides of the altars and spread around. Some of it is even applied to the right ear of the priests.
I have read this stuff dozens of times. But it is affecting me this time in a different way.

It seems incredibly cruel and disgusting this time around. It seems harsh and unnecessary. It seems like God is in some way being appeased by the shedding of innocent blood. And it seems like there could have been a better way. It is no surprise that many who read this are turned off. Animal rights activists have to be blown away. Anyone with a heart has to feel bad about the entire process. What a bloody mess!

The bloody mess is exactly the point. These animals were pointing to the way that Christ would be suffering. They represented him, the Lamb of God. His crucifixion was foretold every time one of these animals gave its life. As awful as the animal sacrifices were, Jesus’ death on the cross was many times worse.

We have made the crucifixion too sterile. Mel Gibson told the story well in The Passion of the Christ. But the movie was for entertainment purposes only. Most of us saw it, and cried a few tears. But we don’t go there in our minds very often. We don’t see those images when we pray. We don’t go there during Holy Communion in our worship services. And maybe we are not capable of doing so.

I think that it is necessary to remember that the death of Jesus was very ugly. There was a lot of blood. Too much blood.

Here is the point: it was all my fault. It is because I am a sinner that Jesus had to suffer such an awful death. His blood provided forgiveness for my sin. If I keep that truth in front of me, maybe I won’t take forgiveness so lightly in the future. Thank God for grace!

I can’t wait to get through Leviticus. But as I read it, I will embrace how Christ embraced me.

We just completed 21 days of fasting at Maranatha Church. I am pretty impressed with the results.

We work very hard to see the vision that God gave us come to fulfillment. We are passionate about the mission that He has put into our hearts. Each week, hours and hours are invested in the exploration of how we express our ministry, how we carry out our responsibilities and how we accomplish the task of making disciples (Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20). We are creative in how we communicate our passions. We are diligent in keeping the vision in front of the people. And we are passionate about seeing positive results.

Our current expression of mission fulfillment looks like this:
God has called us to change lives by connecting people with Jesus Christ.
This is expressed by utilizing three strategic terms:
GROW: spiritual growth – getting closer to God, increasing our commitment to Christ, move toward Christlikeness.
CONNECT- increasing the number and quality of our relationships with others. Experiencing true unity in God’s Spirit.
SERVE: using our talents, gifts and abilities to minister to others and to honor God.
We feel that if people will make advancements in each of these three areas, we will all win. But much of the time, we feel as though we are not seeing the results that we would hope for. Sometimes it feels like we are spinning our wheels.

Over the last 21 days, some things have changed.

Rather than a bunch of meetings to strategize about ministry, instead of trying to talk people into committing to Christ and His church, we actually did some incredible ministry. Honestly, we were a little too busy getting the work done to spend too much time talking about it.

Here is basically what happened:
The earthquake in Haiti was like the sounding of a battle cry for the people of our church. They went to work, they gave, they volunteered, they prayed. While that was going on, we observed some amazing things: people were expressing spiritual growth – people were working side by side with others, meeting new friends and getting closer to old friends – and people were giving selflessly of their resources and time. You got it: GROW – CONNECT – SERVE! It looks like God utilized a crisis to mobilize us. And results are that we are seeing, first-hand, mission accomplishment!

In addition, our worship services have taken on a new level of intensity and purpose – pretty exciting!

I believe that the timing of the fast was crucial. We have been launched into a season of fruitfulness. The foundation of prayer and fasting prepared us for this season.

In the future, I have no intentions of working less or taking the ministry less seriously. I do, however, intend on keeping the focus of our church on seeking God first. That way the results are up to Him rather than me.

They say that a sign of a mature preacher/teacher is to not “over present”, or attempt to offer more in one lesson that can be received and digested by the average listener. If this is true, I guess I am just a “punk” preacher. I pretty much continually have more material on a Sunday than can possibly be presented or received.

So I will give you the basics of what I am teaching tomorrow, because I am pretty sure that I won’t get through it.

We are concluding our series, “A Batter Year“, tomorrow’s theme is “Better Destinations”.

3 leading questions:
-Where are you headed?
-What are you hoping for?
-How do you get there?

Series texts:
Hebrews 6:9b “We are confident that you are meant for better things…“
I Peter 1: 3 “Now we live with great expectation.”

Today’s text:
John 6:16-21 When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, 17 where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. 18 A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. 19 When they had rowed three or three and a half miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were terrified. 20 But he said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.” 21 Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading. (NIV)

1. What we can expect (in life)
John 6:18 “A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough.”

Life will be very challenging and sometimes difficult, but we hold on to hope.

G. K. Chesterton said, “There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow.”

Expectation is the operation of our faith!
Hebrews 11:1 (NLT) “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”

2. Jesus approaches
John 6:19 “they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water.”

We should not be surprised:
-That He appeared: John 14:18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
-Or that He walked on the water: Job 9:8 “He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.”

3. Take him into the boat
John 6:20 “he said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.” 21 Then they were willing to take him into the boat.”

We may expect that the storm would now be over…
Lloyd John Ogilvie, “Sometimes the Lord rides out the storm with us and other times He calms the restless sea around us. Most of all, He calms the storm inside us in our deepest inner soul.”

3 reason why some won’t/don’t let Jesus into the boat:
They don’t know He wants to (no one ever told them).
They are self-sufficient.
They are angry about the storm.

My most compassionate answer: get over it and let Jesus steer your life!

4. Desired destination
John 6:21 “immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.”

Where do you want to go?
You realize that it won’t be easy getting there, right?
We desperately need Jesus on board if we are going to get where we want to go.
If we are going to ha A Better Year, He is the only way!

For further study:
Psalms 107:23-31

I have heard from one too many sources this week “concerns” over all the activity surrounding Haiti and the relief efforts going on there. Everything from “we have homeless people here, too”, to “we should help our country first”, to “why does it take a major disaster before people get involved?”

Enough.

While I won’t defend what anyone else is doing, I will set the record straight on the activities of Maranatha Church.

We are headlong into earthquake relief – no apologies. God said we should do it and we are. But know that we also help people in America. In fact, a much larger percentage of our budget goes to work for people in the good ole’ USA than abroad. I’m not sure if this is good stewardship with God’s money. The truth is, we see much less return on the money invested in people in the States. By less return, I am talking about disciples made. The stats don’t even compare. It takes many more resources to win a person to Christ in the US than in third-world countries. But we continue to plant economic seeds in our home country, nonetheless.

I would like to know where we get the idea that we should help ourselves before we help others. Where is that written? A very misguided interpretation of Galatians 6:10 may be the culprit: “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” This verse is not referring to nations, it is referring to believers in Christ. So possibly, we should first assist those within our community of faith – no problems there. But the idea of putting Americans above others is not supported in Scripture. It is, however, arrogant and quite possibly racist.

For those who wish to find fault with people who are helping now, in this time of disaster, rather than helping at other times – well you won’t find an audience with me. The fact is, we have been helping all along. For many years. To the tune of thousands of dollars for decades. We are not bandwagon jumpers. We are not simply responding to CNN or Anderson Cooper. We have been, and will continue to minister “to the least of these…”, as Jesus instructs.

So if you would like to complain about our recent involvement with Haiti, my question is, what are you doing? What have you done for the homeless or the orphans or the widows or the needy in the US or anywhere else? How much are you giving to take care of others? What percentage of your income are you giving away? My guess is: not much. If you were, you wouldn’t have time to complain about others.

So go ahead and grouch about relief efforts. I am done listening to you. There are some earthquake victims that need my time.

Wow, that was therapeutic. Glad I got that off my chest!

I want to give a quick summary of the incredible volunteers who are serving during our help for Haiti project. We have had up to 100 different people be involved in one way or another in collecting and packing survival supplies. We are loading a 40 foot trailer which will be shipped to Port au Prince via World Harvest Mission. People have been working for nearly two weeks now. The progress is phenomenal. I would estimate that the trailer is 2/3 full at this point! We are hoping for more supplies, more donations of cash and more volunteers to wrap up this project within a week.

Specifically, last night, we had a diverse group working:
A young mom with a 22 month old baby – the baby also worked, putting cans in the boxes!
A 67 year old man and his wife who were on vacation from up North. They worked for hours and went straight to the airport from here to fly home.
Several member of Emerge Youth Group came and worked like crazy.
One woman and her little boy worked all day and most of the night, her husband joined them after working a ten hour shift at his job.
A professional baseball player worked.
A man with addiction issues helped.
A man with special needs helped.
People who have been at Maranatha Church their entire lives helped, people who have been at the church for a couple of weeks helped.
A grandmother worked most of the day, then in the evening she brought her young teen grandson by to work for “an hour”. Three hours later, after he had loaded hundreds of boxes on the trailer, they went home.

These are just a few examples of the kinds of people that are making a difference in Haiti. They have caught the vision and are running with it. God is using them.

If you are near Palm Beach Gardens and have some spare hours that you can give, we are on again for Wednesday, beginning around 1:00 and going until we are finished. If we don’t finish, Emerge has again committed to work that night, beginning at 7:00.

If you live out of the area, we could really use more financial contributions. You can check out all the details on wecanshareit.org (our outreach website).

Thanks so much! God bless you and God bless the people of Haiti!

The recent operation of God’s Spirit among the people of Maranatha has been remarkable. Various people have been utilized by God in various ways. The movement and expression has been tender and deep. Many messages from God have come through the words spoken and actions taken. What is taking place is Biblically accurate and as the Spirit directs. It is pretty exciting!

I believe that this activity is the result of our sincere seeking of God as we progress through our 21 day fast.

Just in the past few weeks, I have personally witnessed the gift of prophecy in a worship service, the gift of mercy in our Haiti outreach efforts, a word of knowledge shared by one man with another, the gift of faith (regarding a financial miracle that took place at our church – probably the gift of generosity at work!), and words of wisdom that God gave through me while preaching. This is just the stuff that I have seen! This activity is ongoing and appears to be increasing.

What I love most about this experience – no one among us is receiving any credit. The gifts are operating through people who are humble and not seeking acclaim. We are not making a show of it and these gifts are being offered and exercised in simplicity and purity. God is being honored and the church is being built up. Fruit is being born (which is a churchy way of saying that we have proof that God is working among us), lives are being changed and God is receiving the glory.

What I dislike most about this: Because there is not as much drama and theatrics as some may prefer, a few people are missing the movement of the Spirit. Due to the common opinion that the Holy Spirit is flashy and loud and boisterous, there are a few people who think the Spirit is nowhere near us. They are waiting for some arrogant display of super-spirituality, and when it doesn’t happen, they think the Spirit is missing. Some demand that God behave in ways that they have seen on television or at other worship services. Therefore, when He speaks in a way that they are not accustomed to, or in a way that is different from what they can predict, they attribute the movement to some other source. Or they miss what the Spirit is doing altogether.

The Spirit of God is not about hype. He is not limited to our preconceived ideas. If we have spiritual tunnel vision, we will miss Him.

People of Maranatha: don’t be looking for a superstar prophet to come and declare some grandiose Word from God. Instead, open your spiritual ears and hear what God is saying to us – on a regular basis – about His desires for us. Don’t expect God to move among us the way that you have seen in the past. Instead, look to scripture. Our worship style will not be patterned after other churches or denominations. We are patterned after the Bible. We are committed to understand what the Bible teaches about the operation of the gifts of the Spirit and are humbly pursuing the fulfillment of that in our church. The Spirit of God is free to do whatever He wants, whenever He wants, however He wants.

If you would like to take a closer look at scripture as it addressed the work of the Spirit in people, check out I Corinthians 12, 13 and 14, as well as various additional New Testament writings.

This is a picture I took last summer while on a day trip to Hutchinson Island. I was doing a little surf fishing and photog.

I recall that day as an especially peace-filled day when I was keenly aware of God’s love. Not sure why that day was different than most but it was. God was good that day.

God is good.
This statement is unaffected by any changes that come.
This truth has always been true and it remains true forever.
No matter the crisis, the surprises, the changes, God remains good.
When I feel it (God’s goodness) He is good and when I don’t feel it, He is good.
His love to us is not impacted by our emotions or feelings or moods.
It is also not affected by our failures and sin and tendency toward evil.
Even when things are very bad in the world, and they are, God is very good.
God is good – all the time.

“You are good and do only good.” Psalms 119:68 (NLT)

I am reminded this week of the haunting lyrics of Delirious on their CD, Kingdom of Comfort. Especially appropriate in our response to Haiti. Check it out:

lyrics:
Save me save me
From the kingdom of comfort where I am king
From my unhealthy lust of material things

I built myself a happy home
In my palace on my own
My castle falling in the sand
Pull me out, please grab my hand
I just forgot where I came from

Save me save me
From the kingdom of comfort where I am king
From my unhealthy lust of material things

I rob myself of innocence
With the poison of indifference
I buy my stuff at any cost
A couple of clicks and I pay the price
Coz what I gain is someone else’s loss

Save me save me
From the kingdom of comfort where I am king
From my unhealthy lust of material things

Save me save me
From the kingdom of comfort where I am king
To this kingdom of heaven where you are king

This appears a bit like a daily news report:

This has already been and will continue to be an interesting week for us. We have been wrapped up in our efforts to help Haiti (if you are getting tired of hearing about this, you may want to try a different blog). Things are going well, we are collecting lots of food and medical supplies to put in a 40 foot long container and ship to Haiti. Our volunteers are outrageous! Over 40 people signed up to help and 25 have worked already this week. This is one huge project and we would appreciate everyone helping us to spread the word. By the way, non-perishable food is really needed, and in huge quantities. If you do not live near Maranatha Church, you may send a tax-deductible gift. This money will be used to buy supplies. A $50 donation will buy 50 pounds of rice AND beans. For specific details check: wecanshareit.org.

I am preparing for a great opportunity to do some leadership training at another church this week. My friend, Clayton Watson, is the Lead Pastor at The Sanctuary church in DeLand, Florida. He asked me several months ago to come up and take his leaders through a leadership development process. We hope to meet with about 60-80 people. It is an honor to be trusted enough to be asked to invest in local leaders. Thanks, Clay.

We lost one of the founding members of our church this week. 91 year old Vonice Pinder passed away and her memorial service is on Saturday. This woman truly was a pioneer and our church owes a debt of gratitude to her and her family. They had enough foresight to start a church in Northern Palm Beach County when there really wasn’t much going on around here – way back in 1967. Thanks in part to their vision, we are a thriving church today. Vonice, enjoy heaven!

I lost a former brother-in-law this week. My sister’s former husband passed away, unexpectedly, in his sleep. I haven’t been around him for many years, but when I was a little kid, he was a pretty major influence in my life. He was a good man, lived a rough life, but gave his life to Christ before his passing. My prayers are with his family, especially my three nieces; Dana, Daneen and Dawna. I love you guys!

Our fast continues. We are part of the worldwide effort know as The Awakening. This is day 10 of 21 and the reports are very encouraging. I believe that our percentage of involvement is excellent and people are sincere in their efforts to grow close to God. Good things are bound to happen.

And that’s today’s news. Join us again at 10 for live updates, weather and sports!

I feel as though I don’t have as much of a right to share sentiments about Dr. King as many. But honestly, my life has been impacted in an immense way because of his work. I was only 9 years old when he was assassinated, but I remember it vividly. I was growing up in a racist neighborhood in South St. Louis. There were no African Americans in our neighborhood, in our schools or, for goodness sake, in our churches. I remember kids calling him by inappropriate names. I recall them making jokes about his death. And I remember my sophomore year of high school when the concept of forced busing was introduced to our school. It was literally a riot.

Had Dr. King not lived and worked on this earth, I am afraid that we may still be facing some of these ugly issues in our country. In reality, we still do face these issues, but thanks to heroes like Martin Luther King, there is improvement.

I personally saw Dr. King’s murderer. When in college I visited Brushy Mountain State Penetentiary in Tennesse. One of the guards pointed him out to us, across the prison yard. One man who changed history. Our lives were changed.

The video included is Dr. King last speech, the night before his death.

Maranatha’s relief effort to help the earthquake victims of Haiti is in full swing. We have partnered with World Harvest Mission which runs an orphanage in Port-au-Prince. The center is located strategically right next to the airport which will serve our efforts incredibly well. Tomorrow morning, a 40 foot container will be placed in a prominent position on Maranatha’s campus and we will start loading all of the awesome items that have already come in. As soon as the container is full, it is on its way!~

Take a look at this press coverage we received.

We have discovered some pretty awesome details about the orphanage. We have supported this group in the past. The name of the orphanage is New Life Childrens Home and the founder is Miriam Frederick. Miriam attended our church until she went to work in Haiti. One of our Elder’s, A.T. Lowery, helped construct the orphanage many years ago. Now we get to again work hand-in-hand with these awesome people who are placed by God to make a real difference. I see this as God opening a huge door for us so that we can be used by Him to help desperately needy people.

If you want to help:
Bring new clothes, shoes and various other usable items by our campus or to another drop off site.
On Sunday, we will have a special prayer for victims of the quake. Please join us.
Some are giving financial support to this project. Details on how to do that are found on wecanshareit.org.
Please send this as a link to anyone in Palm Beach County who may be interested in helping.

God bless the people of Haiti and God bless you for helping them!

Well it didn’t take me long. Day 5 of a 21 day fast and today, I blew it. As you may know, the item that I am doing without is sleep. I have chosen to get up one hour earlier every morning so that I can spend time with God. This is my effort to recalibrate my walk with God. I am realigning myself with Him and His will. Various people are fasting various things (food, television, caffeine…). This is what I feel that God has directed me toward.

This morning, when my alarm went off (I set my iphone next to my pillow so that I do not wake up Letha), I just really struggled to get up. I made it up and went downstairs. When I sat on the couch to read my Bible, I could not focus. I was so sleepy. So I just laid my head back for a minute – and you know what happened.

I had done fine up to this point. My only temptation all week was to go to bed earlier each night to catch up on sleep, but that would have defeated the purpose of the fast. But this morning, I unintentionally broke my fast.

Wait, I have a valid excuse. No really. I slept very little last night. I had real trouble going to sleep in the first place. All of the issues with the Haiti earthquake and our efforts to help these poor people was on my mind. So I did a couple of hours of tossing and turning before going to sleep. But it gets worse. In the middle of the night, I had these terrible pains in my head that I think is a sinus infection. I was wide awake instantly and the pain persisted for several minutes. Sleep escaped me most of the night. So valid excuse or not, this morning, I lost the battle.

Is God mad at me today?

I am not discouraged.
I am back on the wagon today!
I am finding out that many of the people who are fasting are also having significant challenges to their fasting. We are in this together.

There is something that I am considering today. It is the “spirit” of the fast as opposed to the “law” of the fast. We don’t hear this talked about much but it can be very easy to become legalistic about a fast and miss the point of the fast. I don’t think that God cares as much about what we eat or don’t eat. I think He cares about the intent of our hearts and our submission to His Spirit. The “law” of the fast says that we have no margin for human weakness. The law says that if we mess up, God is upset. I think that this removes the working of God’s grace in our lives. The “spirit” of the fast says that nothing we can do physically can assure God’s blessings but we are passionate about pursuing Him. The intent is to release our total lives to Him. If/when we “fall off the wagon”, God is not angry. He understands that we are made of dust and He wants us to go on. He applies His grace, we remotivate ourselves and we continue on the journey.

Listen, if you are fasting from food and you get sick, God probably won’t mind if you eat something. He gets no glory from your illness. If you blow it with your fast, or even if you didn’t even start a fast, it is not too late. It is not about starving yourself or being miserable for 21 days. It is about a heart totally surrendered to God.

By the way, God is good and He provided my extra hour with Him already today.

I am climbing back on the wagon today. Want to join me?

A disaster of enormous proportions happened in Haiti yesterday. At this point, officials believe that more than 100,000 people may have perished in the earthquake. Prepare yourselves to be bombarded with this news for the next several days. The major news networks will fill air time with gruesome video clips and heartbreaking stories. Facebook and blog sites and Twitter are full of posts about praying for the people of Haiti. Many humanitarian organizations are hard at work gathering support. We are actively engaged in our own efforts. Please take a look at wecanshareit.org for details. I am glad that Maranatha is on the front end of offering practical help to these desperate people.

There are a plethora of things about this whole situation that are troubling. The loss of life is staggering. The level of human suffering is unimaginable. On a philosophical note, one must wonder why those who are so far down must be brought down even further. The poorest country in the Western hemisphere is ill-equipped to deal with such tragedy. Obviously, no country is strong enough to thrive through such a crisis. But considering that most of the people of Haiti live in shacks, endured four hurricanes two years ago and are malnourished as a nation, they were already in a very weakened condition. Consider that 80% of Haitians live under the poverty level and 50% are illiterate. While we would wish this tragedy on no one, Haiti is probably the worst place for it to happen. It is reasonable to assume that the country will never recover.

The heart of the world should be breaking.

Pray for these people and do something. Your little may not change a nation but it can help one family.

First, a quick update and thanks for the prayers for my little niece, Leigha. She just came out of the heart surgery and seems to be doing well. They are monitoring her closely to make sure that everything will be OK.

now for the post:
I spent most of my life feeling guilty about my praying. Not because I didn’t pray but because a lot of what I heard in church was about how bad I was at it. No matter what I did, it wasn’t enough. This was reinforced at home. I remember once when I was a kid, my family got together to pray. We did this fairly often. Usually I just daydreamed until everybody finished, but this time I got inspired and thought I would really get into it. I prayed and prayed. And apparently, in my focus on prayer, I forgot to hold perfectly still. I fidgeted and moved around while I was kneeling at my parent’s bedside (I was all of 8 years old). I was feeling pretty good about the whole experience until, the moment we said “amen”, my dad ripped me for obviously not praying. There is no way I could have been praying while squirming around so much. I couldn’t make him believe me. Talk about demoralizing!

I feel better about my prayer life now. I still don’t spend all the time that I should, but I have gotten a lot better. I don’t guilt trip myself into needing to pray a certain amount of time every day. And I don’t even observe a specified time of day to pray. Instead, I do a lot more of the 1 Thessalonians 5:17 thing: “Always keep on praying”. I find that I need to pray a lot during most days in order to stay on track. I recognize the need to keep improving.

I can think of several very good reasons to get good at praying. Here are a few:

God likes to hear from you.
God talks to you when you talk to Him.
You find God’s will when you talk to Him.
You gain strength, wisdom and courage when you pray.
It is easier to forgive others when you pray.
Humility is a by-product of prayer.
Prayer removes the stuff from your life that doesn’t belong and replaces it with the stuff that does belong.
Things happen as a result of prayer that will not happen any other way.
The rest of the spiritual disciplines (Bible reading, fasting, worship, solitude…) come easier when you pray.
When you pray, God lets you in on the secret of heaven.
And last and certainly least…Time spent praying is better than time spent on facebook!

I would appreciate prayers for my little 5 month old niece that is undergoing serious heart surgery on Tuesday morning. Leigha Rose was born with some malfunctions and the doctors are hopeful that she can live a healthy life if the issues are corrected now. She is in St. Louis. Thanks for the prayer for her and for her parents, Jake and Kayla.

Our daughter Jessica is with us this week. She and her husband Josh are in the States for a few weeks taking a break from their missionary work in Guatemala. We are having a good time just hanging out and sharing life for a few days. They go back to Casa Shalom on Saturday. Also keep them in your prayers.

I have been going to the gym the last few weeks. I am in “training mode” for a trip that Jessica and I plan to make this Spring. We plan to hike the Inca Trail in Peru. Due to the length of the hike and especially the high altitude, I need to get into shape. I don’t enjoy the gym, I really dislike hundreds of sweaty people congregated in one underventilated room, but I need the workout.

I started my 21 day fast this week. The item of choice for me to give up is sleep, one hour per day. I am setting my alarm to wake up early and spending much-needed time with God. This is my spiritual-recalibration. I hope to realign myself with God. It is so easy to get sidetracked. Consider joining me on the journey.

I referred back to my post on December 18 regarding some personal goals that I have set for the new year. Of the three that I mentioned, one is currently being addressed (Rosetta Stone Spanish). The other two are still on the docket; the plan is to get to them within a few weeks. So far, so good for 2010.

Happy Monday and have a great week.

Rick

As I am finalizing my message for tomorrow, this is one of those times that I wish I could just say nice, comforting things to the people. They have had a tough year and are in need of some encouragement. We are starting a new series that we are calling, “A Better Year”. I thought this theme would be fairly interesting to people considering 2009 stunk for most people. After all, who is not interested in improving the world and our lives?

If we form our opinions from what we are hearing and reading in popular media, we will be conflicted. Some are guessing for better times, some say we are in for more of the bad stuff. The human spirit is generally gifted with a sense of optimism: we are hoping for the best. But sometimes it just feels like a cosmic crapshoot where we hope the dice rolls in our favor for a change.

How can I, with a straight face and in good conscience say, we are in for “A Better Year”?

I have always despised it when preachers say things that people want to hear, just to get a positive reaction or to be liked. I have no plans to tell the people tomorrow that, “everything is going to be fine, just relax”. I value credibility too much to do that. And I know that, unless God has something up His sleeve that I don’t know about, I am going to be here for a while facing the people that I speak to tomorrow.

All of this considered, still I do have a sense that we are in for a better future.
But my sense of positivism is based on a few conditions:

If we learn from our past mistakes and correct our behavior, things will get better.
If we stop complaining about how bad things are and embrace the things that God is teaching us, things will get better.
If we become content in whatever our circumstances, if we learn what truly is important in life, things will get better.
If we stop waiting for our situation to improve and start improving ourselves, things will get better.
If we are willing to do the necessary spiritual consecration, things will get better.

Conversely, if we do not change anything, things will not get better.

Help me pray for those souls who will show up at church tomorrow expecting to be let off the hook. I wonder if some of them will look at our graphic (it does kind of look like the cover of the latest best-selling book written by some handsome young pastor in Texas) and think: IT’S ALL GOOD! I can’t do that. But I do plan to live out 1 Peter 3:14-15 “…in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” (TNIV)

I am going to tell everybody why we have hope. And things will get better.