Take Two

I am exceedingly glad the month of August is over. It was brutal. First let me explain this picture. Today, on a day where no one works, I had a 2:30 PM meeting north of Toledo. Note, there is a Canadian flag. The meeting was held an hour from the Ambassador Bridge. And this whole month has been like this. (Editor’s note: Go to Sister Elms’ blog and see her pictures from PEI and Nova Scotia. They are breath taking. I’m not kidding, go now). I am tired. In a normal month, I bill around 12o hours (try to account for every minute of your day and see how fun that is). This month I billed 160.4. Ergo, I am looking forward to the three-day weekend.

Next week, this blog will be coming from the Big Apple. That’s right, I’m heading back to New York city on Tuesday and will be back on Saturday. To whet your appetite, I’m staying here and have dinner reservations here, here, and here. I’m also having coffee Thursday with Denelle from Collideoscope so good times all the way around. Have a great weekend!

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=rPNnIFH6_RU]

Oh yes, it’s that time again.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=cyheJ480LYA]

I poached this from Becky. A tremendous dramatization of the mercy and grace of God.

Sorry for the lack of posting.  I am buried in a huge case I’m working on.  See, it’s not all trips and fine dining (although it will be next week).  Hopefully some new thoughts this afternoon.

Here are two great quotes I found while perusing the web today:

“Sometimes, the most spiritual thing you can do is sleep.”, Rick Warren

“Diet food is what you eat while you’re waiting for the steaks to cook.”, Julia Child

Brilliant.

How do you like that?

From the Washington Post, who knew this was more than an isolated tradition?

It’s Saturday and I don’t usually post on the weekend but I’ve been thinking a lot about the church and its relevance. Specifically, are we relevant. This was sparked by this post over at Collideoscope discussing the merits of a song/video that’s getting quite a bit of play on YouTube right now. I won’t offer my thoughts on the song, that’s covered pretty well in their post and the comment I read, but allow me to offer some thoughts.

We Apostolics are very ethnocentric (for lack of a better word). Specifically our movement has been focused inward for decades to the point that we can be far more concerned with impressing our brother than reaching the lost. We’re not unique. I’m a nurse and this group is famously self centered. Ask us and we’ll tell you that the world revolves around things that non-nurses never think about. The same with lawyers, accountants, teachers, and every other field. We exist inside an echo chamber. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the magazines in your house (the Herald, the Forward, Perspectives, etc.). Nothing wrong with these fine publications (I read them all myself) but it is largely the church talking to the church. Look at who your friends are and who you spend time with. Is it all church folks? Do you know who your neighbors are? More important, do they know who (and what) you are? Does your church all look like you or are there folks at different points in their journey with Christ? Perhaps they still deal with things you laid aside long ago or never had to deal with because you grew up in church. Does Jesus love them anyway? Do you?

Here’s my point- being a Christian is far more than how you look, dress, and where you do or don’t go and what you do or don’t watch. These are all important but the basis of being a Christian is having a relationship with the Christ. For the past two years (and some would say 30 years) our organization has been polarized over the issue of television. I’m not going to go into a dissertation on that right now or even share my personal opinion but I have to ask myself is this really the most important issue at this time in history for the church? I ask this because as we fight internally and bicker incessantly people are still hurting and looking for a Savior. I have received emails and letters and magazine articles and I keep wondering if this is really the most important issue in front of the church right now. Sure, it resonates within the echo chamber but to people outside our little organization does it really matter?

The church has got to be relevant. If not, we are like the factory that makes the best buggy whips in the world- an excellent producer of a soon to be obsolete product.

Sorry folks, it’s 93 degrees and my office is not getting cool. I would love to give you an insightful post but it’s not going to happen. Working all day today and into the morning plus I have a wedding to do tomorrow evening and I am assisting with my friend’s anniversary service on Sunday.

Congrats go out to my friend Gene Holley and his wife and family on their pastoral anniversary. I’m sure they’re getting ready for their services even as I type this post.

Blessings to all. I’ll be back on Monday.

Mark 9:23-24
23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
24 And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief .
KJV

While driving to and from Cincinnati yesterday, Becky and I had an interesting conversation about faith. Let me add my definition of faith here to start with. Faith is not believing God for a specific answer. Faith is placing the answer in God’s hands and trusting Him to do what is His will. So with that premise, here we go.

Becky was talking about how Tiffany’s death had rattled her and she was having a really hard time praying for healing and believing that God would heal. After all, God didn’t heal Tiffany in spite of the prayers of literally hundreds of people including some who are really heavy hitters with God (present company excepted {of course}). I explained that I went through the same thing six years ago with my mom. After she died, my pastor put me in the pulpit for what seemed like every week. I had no great revelation and was candidly not real thrilled with God at that point. Yet he kept having me preach under the premise that if I didn’t get “back in the saddle” I wouldn’t. In the end, as always, he was right. However, I still struggle with praying with folks for healing. These experiences don’t go away just because you get your mojo back in the pulpit.

So here’s my point. I don’t need to feel like God is going to miraculously heal someone to pray for them. God honors the effort. Truthfully, at times I am really just going through the motions but the motions are in obedience to the Word of God and that will always be honored. As one of my favorite preachers says, sometimes you just have to fake it ’til you make it. I do what the Bible says even if I don’t feel it because I know God is faithful (even when we don’t feel it). Like the father in the verses above, God I really am trying to believe but help push me across the finish line. Emotions are fickle. God honors action.