Making Power Available

It seems this week I have had a passage of scripture stuck in my thought process.  I have had a couple of conversations about this same idea.  As I was preparing for my message for last Sunday, I read James 5:16.  Probably the most well known part of the verse goes something like this:  ”The effective fervent prayer of the righteous makes much power available.”  Many of us use this passage when we really have an urgent need & are very passionate about God doing something for us.  If  you jump back to the sentence before, found in the same verse, you will find these words:  ”Confess your faults to one another that you may be healed.”  If you link those two thoughts together you will notice that it is not about you praying to get yourself through something, it is about us being open & honest with one another & us taking those areas we really struggle with seriously in prayer & helping each other to overcome in those areas by asking God to show up in them. Truly being brothers & sisters, because a brother is born fro adversity.

The next time you find yourself really struggling with a fault, with a sin, with a weakness, I challenge you to not cover it up, not skirt by it, don’t think you can handle it, find another Christian who you know will take it seriously, take it to the Lord & help you to overcome it.  I just had a brother, whose job requires him to be gone alot from home & asked me if I would help him by keeping him accountable in some areas of weakness.  I don’t know if he knows it or not he just tapped into a power source that will help him overcome.  Not be cause he asked ME to keep him accountable, because I’m nothing, but because he chose to take the scriptural method of dealing with his weakness & as we pray together concerning this area os weakness, I believe healing & wholeness will come because God will make much power available to tackle them.

A Moment of Spiritual Awareness

Today my family & I were gathered around the dinner table. As we ate my wife & daughters began to describe a message they had heard on the radio of a chapel service from a christian university nearby. They described that the guest pastor who was sharing in that chapel service had said how impassioned he was to reach his neighbors. He described how at times it was difficult to just be there & love them, but how it was way worth it. It was way worth it especially after he said 14, that’s right 14 neighboring families were now attending his church & serving Jesus.

As we sat there, I began to think of my neighbors, my community, & the fact that many of them hurt, are lost & need Jesus. Suddenly, I found my eyes filling with tears & my heart beginning to break.

There are times you find yourself just “going through the motions” but sometimes its robotic & you have no emotions to motivate your motion.

I want always to have a passion for the things that God is passionate about. Sometimes its just not there. My prayer is that today we would all see those around us & become passionate about touching there life in such a way that we leave a mark.

Ode to My Grandma

I know its been a long time since i’ve left you anything to consider. For serveral weeks this spring we were contending with the cancer that afflicted my grandmother. That is what I would like to talk to you about. I have told several people about it. Many of you prayed & for that I & my family are grateful. Many of you have expressed your condolences as well, we are appreciative of that, too. 

Everything happend so quickly it is hard to believe that the picture of her you see was taken on March 21 of this year.   She seemed to be healthyenough to be here for sometime to come. My grandmother passed away on May 18th shortly after 9am. 

About 4  weeks earlier my Dad & I were sitting in the hospital with her as we were waiting for her to be transfered to “The James Cancer Research Hospital” at The Ohio State University. That evening she let us know, in no uncertain terms, that if it came to it she was ready go & she wanted no tubes, no machines. She was ready to see Jesus & My grandfather who had passed away almost 33 years earlier, as well as my aunt, her daughter who had passed 2 years earlier. She was not “amped up”, & really not concerned in the least. She was at complete peace, If God healed her on this side she was ok with that & if her healing came in the form of a “homegoing” she was ok with that. I watched as her eyes filled with tears as she talked about her readiness, not tears of fear & worry but tears of joy & expectation.

On the morning of May 18, we were all gathered together, My wife &I, My Dad & Mom, One of my cousins, His sister & her husband. We had recieved the infamous phone call, “if you want to see her before she goes, you had better get here.” We spent the night near & with her as her body declared that it had had enough.

As they removed the oxygen she had been recieving, we watched as she began to fade. My Dad looked at my mom & said “we need to sing something”. Mom was unable to fill dad’s request. We sat for a few minutes & I, too, thought that would be appropriate. I began to lead out in “Amazing Grace”.  Each of us took turns singing as the one before would become emotional & unable to finish. As we sang every verse, there was an amazing peace that filled that hospital room. This is one of the top 5 spiritual experiences of my life, for sure. As we sang “Praise God, Praise God, Praise God….” & finished the song, I Looked to my grandmother & said “Grandma, we love you.” She then took one last breathe & woke up on the side of the equation we all are waiting for. Face to face with Jesus, Reunited with a husband she hadn’t seen in 33 years, & a daughter she hadn’t had a conversation with in 2. I have to say to even talk about gives me goosebumps & causes tears to well up in my eyes. I am so looking forward to the day I can ask about that reunion!

Christ truly gives us hope & peace beyond the scope of this life & current circumstances. I watched as docs & nurses were “amazed” at the “grace” in which my grandmother fought this fight. We miss her but we know where she is & whose she is, so our sorrow is not with out hope, in fact it is filled with much joy & peace.

The Children of God

I awakened this morning with a theme running around on the inside of me. what was that theme? It is actually a piece of scripture found in 1 John 3. It says, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God!” Let that sink in for a minute. Think about it. How amazing His love must be that you & even I could be a part of His family. I know me pretty well & the fact that he takes me as I am loves me, accepts me, forgives me & uses me, is an incredilbe thought. I give him plenty of reason, probably daily not to do any of these things.

To further clarify let me use the lyrics of a song that this scripture propagated me to sing( silently, of course so no one else could hear,because it would embarass its composer) . It is song by Steven Curtis
Chapman, simply entitled “Children of God”.

Who are the treasured and the prized?
Who is the apple of God’s eye?
Who is?
We are, we are, we are

Who are the ones who bear His name?
Who are the children He has claimed as His?
We are, we are, we are

The ones God has sent His son to rescue
And now He calls us His own

We are the children of God
We are the children of God
We are the sons and the daughters
Almighty God is our Father

We are the children of God
We are the children of God
How can we keep from singing?
We are the children of God

May this thought today cause an eruption inside of you of gratitude & love for our amazing Father who loves us.
How Can we keep from singing?!

Walking in your calling makes all the difference

As I told you in my last post My grandmother is fighting a bout with cancer. It has been a long week. They at first thought it might be ovarian cancer, but now the doctors are leaning toward lymphoma. We are waiting for a conclusive report. Please continue to pray for her.

One thing i have noticed, that when you are walking in your calling it makes all the difference on your outlook & the effect it has on the people around you.

Take for instance, our Doctor, (our family doctor & my grandma’s primary physician) Dr. Beam, he is definitely walking in his calling, it is apparent & obvious by the way he handles himself, the joy with which he does what he does, & the effect it has on his patients. My family has experienced the benefit of that calling for many years, & My grandmother goes on & on how amazing it is that God put she & Dr. Beam together as she began to fight this fight.

I have watched for several days now as many people are working, many times doing the same tasks, but it is obvious which ones are walking in their calling & which ones are just doing a job. I could talk not only of Dr. Beam, but a nurse named Amy, a another Dr. named Christy, several PCA’s who are all obviously walking in a calling. There are others we have seen that are just merely doing a job.

I know all of us struggle with what we are called to do. I know I have & still do at times. When you are confident you are doing what you were created to do it changes things immensely. When you are doing what you are called to do & know you are doing what you are called to do it brings peace & blessing to you & those that calling causes you to interact with & serve. When you are merely doing a job that is when frustration sets in & the people you are called to interact with, help & serve will not get the full benefit of what your calling requires & themselves may be come frustrated.

One last thing, when we speak of calling we are not just talking about ministry opportunities. Ministry opportunities will present themselves if we are carrying out our calling. So find the calling, the thing God created you for & do it & I will guarantee you that ministry will happen in what ever vocation your calling leads you into.

Two of our core values @ CT, relate to this, “Every Beleiver Can Minister” & “Worship is a Lifestyle”. You can worship God by being the best sales associate God created you to be or the best doctor, or nurse, or mechanic, etc.  & you will be ministering as a believer as you carry that out.

Joy in Serving

It has been a truly different week. I am currently sitting in the Hospital attending to the needs of my grandmother. About 4 weeks ago she was hit with a case of acute bronchitis. She has always been a very healthy woman, but she never could seem to recover. After some testing they believe she has some sort of cancer & currently we are waiting for some definite results. I know something is really wrong, because over the last four weeks she has grown weaker & weaker. Please pray for her. We are currently awaiting a transfer to the James Cancer Research Hospital at The Ohio State University.

I was just sitting here thinking about what a privilege it is to be here to serve someone who is need, but not only someone who is need, but someone who has served you more throughour life than you have them. It is very hard to watch some of the things that are going on with her. The weakness coming from someone who has always been very strong. At the same time it is very much a joy to be able to help her with what ever needs she may have.

All too often, we over look the opportunity to serve, & to serve those who have paved a way before us has got to be one of the truly greatest joys on this planet. It is great to be able to give back.

Along these lines, let me say that I saw something at the hospital that didn’t sit right with me when I saw it. There is a sign near the emergency room that read something like, “Emergency CUSTOMER parking”. It would seem that possibly the hospital has lost sight of the fact that the people that are coming & going through their doors are not just people who help pay their paychecks, but people who are in need.

I think at times we all go through seasons where we forget that the people in our lives are nto their for our use they are there most of the time for our service. If we look at them in that light we will truly have a Christ-like perspective. Remember Jesus’ words, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.” Today find away to serve someone, anyone.

What’s The Vision?

I have been asked recently what my vision is. What is next for ministry? For me? For CT? I guess I could go into a whole discourse about strategy & program, events, curriculum, etc. But I guess the simplest thing to say is the only thing I know.
First: We WIN. Each person who considers themselves a part of CT sees themselves as vital to this purpose. Their friends, their family members, their co-workers, etc. are never going to come to know Christ unless they personally do something about it.
Second, We DISCIPLE. Once we have reached our friends family, etc, that is not the end of the story.   We continue to participate in their development & growth as a Christian.
Lastly, We SEND. We find as we are carrying out the other two things, that God gives us opportunity to do greater things. Jesus when saying good bye to his disciples, who would become apostles (“sent ones”) He tells them that he wants their influence to increase. “you Shall be MY witnesses, in Jerusalem(your immediate neighborhood), Judea ( your region), Samaria(expand your reach even further) & to the uttermost parts of the earth(your world).  GO GLOBAL. 

One of our core values at CT is “Every Believer Can Minister” .  Maybe that should be changed to “Every Believer SHOULD Minister”.  I guess part of myVision or what I see & pray Church Triumphant being & doing  in the future, our goal, could be encapsulated into a similar phrase to those two I just mentioned “Every Believer IS Ministering.”

An Amazing Weekend

Being involved in minstry usually means that most weekends are a blur. You wake up Friday morning & the next thing you know it’s Monday & you are left wondering “where’d the weekend go?”

This past weekend will be one I’ll remember for sometime to come. Some of our dear friends of Church Triumphant, Mickey & Barbara Robinson, came and ministered at our church.

Mickey has a true prophetic gift. 14 years ago last week, Pulled Rachel & I, up right in the middle of preaching a message & gave us something God had given him & that has turned out to be a true word. In fact, I wonder if it had not been for that service on March 26, 1995 if I would be doing what I’m doing now. That night changed my life.

I think this past Sunday will be another of those life changing days. We had two services of incredible worship thanks to our worship team. You guys truly Rock! We heard an incredible message from Mickey.  If you haven’t heard it you should go to www.churcht.org & go to the sermons page. He also spoke to us that God had called our church to be a “City of Refuge”. How exciting!  It was amazing that as we were praying Sunday morning I believed God wanted to breathe on us, as Jesus did His disciples & that is exactly what Mickey preached on.

Then in the evening Mickey brought all the church leadership forward & prayed words of encouragement & affirmation over us. We even had a couple of healings take place that evening!!! It was truly awesome!!! Thank you Jesus & thank you Mickey for being a servant to Jesus.

One of the things I felt is really important from this weekend is that as we had spent time praying  at three different meetings, & even during my own prayer time that my heart was drawn to pray intensely for our nation.  Early Sunday morning had awakened with that on my mind.  I felt the Lord dealing with my about starting a prayer & fasting campaign that would take us from today through the National Day of Prayer.  Really a month (31 days) of directed targeted prayer for our country.  I received a couple of emails today of people telling me that God had already been dealing with them about fasting as well.  Even Mickey & Barbara felt this weekend they were to start a fast.   The scriptures say that if God’s people will humble themselves, turn from their carnal & wicked ways, pray & seek His face, He will “hear from heaven & heal their land.”  I believe that  He means what he says.  So I expect Him to do just that.

Community Sunday

It’s Friday night and I’m really anticipating & excited about this Sunday.  I pray with a handful of other pastors every week.  My pastor had started praying with these men many years ago.  It has been both an honor & a privilege to pray with & get to know each one better.  I truly respect each of them.  It is really awesome to be able to join together & just be men following the same savior.  We have Baptists, Anglicans, Non-Denom/Charismatic, Pentecostal, etc..  Also we have sort of an ethnic mix, as well so it is really awesome to see all the normal barriers come down & all of us share & pray with one another. 

The reason I am so excited is that we decided to take our praying & sharing together a step farther.  We plan to share this bond with our congregations by doing a “pulpit swap”.  Every month this year when there are 5 Sundays, on that 5th Sunday, instead of we sharing from our own pulpit to our congregation, we will be at another pastor’s church sharing with that congregation. 

The Bible says that when brothers are unified that is a place where God not only gives blessing but Commands it!  So I believe this is just one  step closer to walking in that comanded blessing.  Our hope is that our congregations would be able to by the example we lead walk more closely with other congregations & instead of the world seeing many churches working in, with & for our community that they would see that there is truly only one church, though it may meet in many different locations!  Jesus prayer was that we would be One as he and the Father were one.  So I will be sharing at the church of a brother & he will be sharing with the congregation I call home.  How awesome!  We will be doing a small part to answer the prayer of Jesus!

Happy Birthday Aric!!

The Four BEst Kids in The World!!!

March 20- It’s been a year since our fourth & final child, Aric was born.  He’s the smallest one in the picture, in case your wondering. 

What a difference a year makes.  It is so awesome to think of all the changes he has experienced since arriving.  Today he tried to stand up all by himself.  Boy was he proud & excited!  Even if it was only half a second!  I’m so proud of him!  He tries to talk to you.  Those are the cutest grunts I’ve ever heard!  He has cute little curls growing around each ear!  They look like wings.  Those things may not seem like a big deal to you but they are a big deal to me as his dad.  You may not know it but that little fella had rough start & we’re so glad he has progressed the way he has.

I suppose that must be what it is like for God when He sees us making strides, be them ever so small.  Others may look at those strides & say, “so what?  What’s the big deal?”   To our father all of those little steps are huge. 

He has been be side us when we were not doing so well.  He was there when we could barely acheive anything.  He hung in there with us holding us as we cried when there was no explicit reason for crying.  He was there when we were in pain & hurting.  He was there when feeding us was a challenge. Because he has seen us, as infantile as we can be, when we progress, His heart leaps.  The Bible says He takes pleasure in the prosperity of His servants.  He is especailly happy when He sees more of the reflection of His son in us.  After all, Romans 8, tells us that he predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. 

Everytime we take a step toward becoming more like Jesus, even small steps, Our father in heaven beams from ear to ear!!!  Make it your goal to find some way today to make your Father smile. 

Happy Birthday Aric!!! Your Daddy is Proud of You!!