Hold on Tight To Your Dreams

I am on track for what I posted a year ago .

(This is modified and updated from what I posted March 1, 2021.)

Challenge # 1: Today, write your own "I have a dream" speech. Where do you see God's will for you in 4 years (March, 2026)?

Challenge #2: What must you do TODAY to begin / continue the path to achieve #1?

What needs to happen by...

...One month from now?

...Six months from now?

...One year from now?

Write it down, then go toward your dream. The journey to a dream makes the dream become reality.

Every step of your journey will be one step closer to perhaps even MORE and even BETTER than your dream now. Each step will be your reality.

Stay on the journey.

Don't expect everyone to be excited for your dream: "Now Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him even more," Genesis 35:7.

It is not their dream, it is yours. Do not be discouraged.

Stay on the path.

Don't expect it to be easy: Joseph's dream led him to rejection, slavery, and prison. Even after all of that, Joseph went through seven years of plenty before his brothers and eventually his entire family would fulfill his dreams. Joseph stayed on the path on which God was leading. You may even have to go alone. But every hard step is one step closer.

Stay on the map.

Don't expect others to remember. "Yet the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him," Genesis 40:23. You need to remember and rehearse it in your heart and remind others who are on the journey with you. Make sure your dream lines up with the Word of God and the Will of God. Years later, Joseph could see that his brothers meant it for evil, but God's Will was for Joseph to stay on the map.

Stay in the moment.

Don't expect it right away. "For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay," Habakkuk 2:3. While Joseph was in Egypt, he married and had children, both would ascend to be tribes of Israel (Ephraim and Manasseh)!

Sometimes God's will happens while you are waiting for God's will to happen. Life is a journey and God will walk with you along the path, not just at the destination. We don't live in the past. We don't live in the future. We live in the moment. Enjoy the scenery along the way.

Stay until the end.

Don't say, "It's too late for me!" God saves the best to last! Remember when Jesus turned the water turning to wine? The master said, "You have saved the best for last!" So does God. " 'And it shall come to pass in the last days,' says God, 'I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh...Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions," Joel 2:28 with Acts 2:17.

For Joseph, he could have given up or worse, given in to bitterness. When his brothers arrived, there was some understandable testing from Joseph, to see if his brothers had changed. But it was not vengeful, as seen in his weeping (Genesis 45:2) and forgiveness (45:5). Joseph stayed to the end to see that God indeed meant it for Good (Genesis 50:20).

Stay the course.

Remember God has put eternity on your heart, and God knows no age nor limitations of time. "He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end," Ecclesiastes 3:11.

Had Joseph not stayed the course, he might not have seen his father again or even his little brother Benjamin. What's more, Joseph's father would have gone down to the grave mourning (Genesis 44:29, 31). What joy there is when we stay the course.

Stay with the dream until it is reality.

Don't doubt God may have placed it on your heart. God speaks through dreams. Who do you THINK put that desire in your heart?? If you walk with the Lord, God put it there! Psalm 34:7 says, "Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart." Sometimes God tells you to reach for the sky, just to stretch you. No journey is "as the crow flies"... sometimes the road will head east, west, and sometimes south, so that it can go eventually go north.

Joseph stayed with the dream, even in death. He had his descendants to carry his bones back to the Promised Land, a dream for his children's children and beyond for more than 400 years. Your dream is the future's legacy. Don't let doubt destroy what faith has founded. This verse, Habakkuk 2:3, bears repeating:

       For the vision is yet for an appointed time;

​​But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.

​​Though it tarries, wait for it;

​​Because it will surely come,

​​It will not tarry.

It is never a failure to follow the Lord God. Prepare, expect, and even count on course adjustments.

You don't need to see the destination to arrive there...

...You...

...just ...

...must ...

...trust...

Stay in the faith.

Finally, look to Jesus for your dreams. "For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ," Galatians 1:12.

Jesus not only knows the way; He is THE Way.

Jesus not only knows what is true; He is THE Truth.

Jesus is not just alive, lively, and living; He is THE Life.

If the journey seems dark, just follow your headlights.

Stay with the Lord.

What Is Teaching?

 

Teaching

“Teaching Them”
TEACHING MINISTER'S DESCRIPTION
“GROWTH THROUGH TEACHING AND DISCIPLESHIP”

 

     1. Develop teaching skills through training opportunities, teaching and discipling others in the class. 

     2. Substitute teach in other classes or in Bible studies elsewhere. 

     3. Encourage others in the class to serve as substitutes and permanent teachers in preschool, children, youth and adult classes. 

     4. Help the teacher in preparation: make copies, set up the class room, obtain teaching aids, and give special reports during class. 

     5. Spend time with a teacher to learn teaching methods in order to be better equipped to teach. If you are an experienced teacher, help someone else become a teacher by training them. 

     6. Pray daily for the class teacher and the other teachers in the church. 

     7. Be available to disciple another Christian, especially those new to the Christian faith. 

     As a Teaching Minister, you cultivate class members to serve as teachers, in your class and other classes. “T” Ministers will have the following responsibilities: 

1. Teaching -- Doing the work of a teacher, including the preparation and implementation. 

2. Training -- For those who have not taught, this means participating in a training opportunity offered to help prepare you to serve as a teacher. For those who are teaching already, attend and also encourage prospective teachers to attend these training times. 

3. helping -- Be willing to assist the teacher in various needs, such as making copies, not just for your adult class, but perhaps in preschool, children and/or youth classes. 

4. Discipling -- Take someone who would like a small discipleship group and encourage him or her in their faith. This could be a home Bible study, video ministry, or Discipleship Training at church.

GREEN REPRESENTS THE GROWTH IN OUR TEACHING.

What Is NeedMeeting?

Need-meeting

“Obey everything I have commanded”

Need-Meeting Minister’s Description

“Meeting Needs and Encouraging Missions”

     1. Be on the lookout for ministry activities in which the class may participate. Your goal is to meet the needs of those in and beyond your class. The “N” ministers in times of funerals, sicknesses, pregnancies, or other crises.

      2. To organize and equip the entire class membership for special class projects in meeting needs within and outside the church. 

     3. To identify the various spiritual gifts, personalities, abilities, desires and experiences of class members and match those to meet the various needs. 

     4. To coordinate with other “N” Ministers from other classes in meeting the needs of class members. This will be important when certain needs of your class members are beyond the ability of your class members to meet.

     5. Pray for teacher and other members of the “N” Ministers daily. Pray for all class members, both active and inactive, at least once a week. 

     6. Inform the church office and class teacher of hospitalization or other major crisis among any member of your Sunday School Class. 

     7. Look for and encourage mission opportunities. 

     Look for others to serve with you. “N” ministers are specifically tasked to match members with all POINT ministries. We always want to minister to those in our classes and church, but we also want to meet the needs beyond ourselves and our church to be a blessing to those outside. “N” Ministers have the following responsibilities: 

1. Matching  -- Getting those with a ministry need with those who are able to meet that need. 

2. Ministering -- Ensuring that the needs of those in our church and class have been met. 

3. Missions -- Looking for class activities which would bring the class together for a common goal of nurture and ministry.

RED REPRESENTS CHRIST’S BLOOD IN OUR NEED-MEETING.

What is InReach?

InReach

“Make Disciples Of All Nations”

INREACH MINISTER’S DESCRIPTION

“REACHING ENROLLED CLASS MEMBERS”

     1. Actively participate in class -- an interesting and exciting class makes a good class great and a great class even better!

     2. Greet and welcome members to class. Encourage a warm atmosphere in the class and encourage interaction among all the members. Help make everyone feel comfortable, relaxed, at home and among friends by providing name tags, refreshments, etc.

     3. Work with the teacher to plan a fellowship at least once a quarter.

     4. Contact absent or inactive members, with phone call and/or a card. Tell them something positive...give a scripture, a word of appreciation, and ask for prayer requests. 

     5. With the help of other “I” Ministers, contact all members every week. Visit in the home of each member at least once a year. Let every member know that someone cares for them. 

     6. Inform the church office and class teacher of hospitalization or other major crisis among any member of your Sunday School class. 

     7. Encourage others to work toward being a fellowship of love and concern towards one another. 

     As the InReach Minister, your responsibilities are:             

 1. Cultivate -- foster growth, make friends, encourage others. 

 2. Contact -- get in touch with members via cards, calls, visits. 

 3. Care -- take care of, pay attention to, look after, keep an eye on, be watchful, protect. 

Recognize special days (birthdays, anniversaries) and events in each person’s life through a card, personal note, phone call, or visit. Receiving a note, telephone call, or some other kind of contact can be an important way of involving...or re-involving...a class member. 

Whatever your opportunity for meeting the needs of adults, consider that what you are doing for others you are doing “as unto Christ.” 

OLIVE REPRESENTS BROTHERLY LOVE IN OUR INREACH.

What is OutReach?

OutReach

“Baptizing them in the name …”

OUTREACH Minister’s Description

“Evangelize To The Lost, Enroll the Saved”

    So, after prayer and worship, the first "Point" of ministries in small groups, what is next? Many would think Teaching would be next but actually, reaching out and growing a small group should actually being a big factor and purpose of small groups. 

    And what should an OutReach minister do? The following is the beginning of a check list that those who feel "outreach and evangelism" is their primary function in the group.

    Just as Prayer is a good thing, shown with a thumbs up" sign, the OutReach ministry is reminded to us when we use our index finger to point beyond our church, outside. 

    1. Greet and welcome Sunday School guests, introducing them to the class and teacher. Be sure the guest card is completely filled out, including phone number and your class’ name on the form. Go the extra mile to make the guest feel welcome. 

    2. Make a goal that no guest goes more than a week without a contact.

    3. Send guests a card the first week. Check to see they have an in-home visit within two weeks. Cookie deliverers contact guests on Sunday afternoons. If not, be sure an “O” Minister visits or calls them within the first week.

     4. Lead the class to participate in visitation at least once a month.

     5. On a periodic basis, have someone give a report to the class encouraging members to go through evangelism training.

     6. Lead class members to visit, cultivate, and enroll lost or unchurched prospects assigned to the class.

     7. Invite people to Sunday School during the worship service. It's simple. Just introduce yourself, remember their name, and jot down their phone number. Then call them and invite them to class.

     As an OutReach Minister, enroll people to be in your class and evangelize those who are not. “O” Ministers will:

  1.  Know -- Know the spiritual condition and salvation experience of your fellow class members.

  2.  Show -- Share your salvation testimony with the class.

  3.  Go -- Be ready to share the plan of salvation at any time. Use a marked New Testament, a witnessing tract, a napkin to draw on.

  4.  Grow -- Take an evangelism course, be willing to lead an evangelism course and encourage others to learn how to share their faith.

  5.  Sow -- Announce upcoming opportunities and needs for evangelism and outreach such as evangelism classes or remind about the importance of reaching out to others.

GOLD REPRESENTS ETERNAL LIFE IN OUR OUTREACH.

So, What is Prayer in the POINT Education Ministry

  I know it says somewhere on this page that I am new to blogging, but this has been going on for nearly ten years now. This is not your typical blog, because I (so far) don't make any money off of it and I hope you don't see any pop-up advertising. 

  But after all these years, I have never apparently written an in-depth article or series of articles on what is my magnus opus in education ministry, and that is the P.O.I.N.T. ministry. 

  So, at long last, in part because of my article in the FBC Killeen newsletter, this is how I believe every Adult Sunday School (or LifeGroup, or Small Group, whatever you may call it) should be structured for ministry. 

What Is The Point?

 POINT stands for PRAYER, OUTREACH, INREACH, NEED-MEETING, and TEACHING. Every adult class member is requested to be a part of the POINT ministry, under the direction of the POINT Coordinators.   

 Read carefully the description of each ministry and ask God to lead you into one area in which you can serve. Remember, each ministry opportunity is what Christ commanded us to do.

 The “point” ministry strategy is found repeatedly in the New Testament, including the Great Commission: Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV). 

  It is also found in the early church, specifically in Acts 2:42, 44-47

⁴²And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine ^(Teaching) and fellowship ^(Inreach), in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. ^{(Prayer) 
44}Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, 
⁴⁵and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. ^{(Need-meeting) 
46}So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 
⁴⁷praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. ^(OUTREACH)

 Acts 2:42,44-47

Prayer

“All authority has been given to me…and I am with you always.”
Prayer Minister’s Description
“INTERCEDING TO GOD FOR YOUR CLASS”

     1. Offer up prayers for various needs of the Sunday School class members.

     2. Keep a prayer journal, remembering to write down class prayer requests and to pray for them throughout the week.

     3. Recruit others to serve with you as Prayer Ministers.

     4. Have each member of the “P” Team to be available for some class members to call with prayer requests, updates, and answers. 

     5. Pray for teacher and the other “P” Team Ministers of the class daily and all members, both active and inactive, at least once a week.

     6. Inform the church office and class teacher of hospitalization or other major crisis of any member of your Sunday School Class. 

     7. Have activities which encourage prayer in class and throughout the week. Activities could be come to prayer times, bring devotionals or book excerpts on prayer, or have selected Scriptures to be read or prayed during class. Have class to sing worship songs. 

     As a Prayer Team Member, help your fellow class members to make prayer a natural part of their Christian lives. The “P” Team will encourage the following:

     1. Personal Prayer -- encouraging the class to have personal times of prayer throughout the week.

     2. Corporate Prayer -- encouraging the class to pray as a group through innovative activities.

     3. Personal Worship -- prompting the class to worship God in spirit and in truth on their own.

     4. Corporate Worship -- prompting members to worship God publicly, such as in worship service, class times and fellowships.

     The ultimate goal of a Prayer Minister is to glorify God, not the prayers or even the answers to those prayers, and certainly not to glorify the prayer ministers. This delicate balance can be achieved through true humility which comes from the ACTS of Prayer: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Seeking (for self and others).

BLUE REPRESENTS HEAVEN IN OUR PRAYERS.

93 years ago, MLK

 Today we mark the birth of Martin Luther King Jr., born January 15, 1929.

This speech reminds us MLK believed in God, Jesus Christ, Love, justice, and the freedoms we have as Americans, founded in our Constitution, embodied in democracy, and enshrined in our laws.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Address to First Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) Mass Meeting, at Holt Street Baptist Church 

5 December 1955
Montgomery, Alabama

 

My friends, we are certainly very happy to see each of you out this evening. We are here this evening for serious business. [Audience:] (Yes) We are here in a general sense because first and foremost we are American citizens (That's right), and we are determined to apply our citizenship to the fullness of its meaning. (Yeah. That's right) We are here also because of our love for democracy (Yes), because of our deep-seated belief that democracy transformed from thin paper to thick action (Yes) is the greatest form of government on earth. (That's right)

 

But we are here in a specific sense because of the bus situation in Montgomery. (Yes) We are here because we are determined to get the situation corrected. This situation is not at all new. The problem has existed over endless years. (That's right) For many years now, Negroes in Montgomery and so many other areas have been inflicted with the paralysis of crippling fear (Yes) on buses in our community. (That's right) On so many occasions, Negroes have been intimidated and humiliated and oppressed because of the sheer fact that they were Negroes. (That's right) I don't have time this evening to go into the history of these numerous cases. Many of them now are lost in the thick fog of oblivion (Yes), but at least one stands before us now with glaring dimensions. (yes)

Just the other day, just last Thursday to be exact, one of the finest citizens in Montgomery--(Amen) not one of the finest Negro citizens (That's right), but one of the finest citizens in Montgomery--was taken from a bus (Yes) and carried to jail and arrested (Yes) because she refused to get up to give her seat to a white person. (yes, that's right) Now the press would have us believe that she refused to leave a reserved section for Negroes (Yes), but I want you to know this evening that there is no reserved section. (All right) The law has never been clarified at that point. (Hell no) Now I think I speak with legal authority--not that I have any legal authority, but I think I speak with legal authority behind me--(All right) that the law, the ordinance, the city ordinance has never been totally clarified. (That's right)

 

Mrs. Rosa Parks is a fine person. (Well,) And, since it had to happen, I'm happy that it happened to a person like Mrs. Parks, (Yes) for nobody can doubt the boundless outreach of her integrity. (Sure enough) Nobody can doubt the height of her character (Yes), nobody can doubt the depth of her Christian commitment and devotion to the teachings of Jesus. (All right) And I'm happy, since it had to happen, it happened to a person that nobody can call a disturbing factor in the community. (All right) Mrs. Parks is a fine Christian person, unassuming, and yet there is integrity and character there. And just because she refused to get up, she was arrested. 

 

And you know, my friends, there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression. [sustained applause] There comes a time, my friends, when people get tired of being plunged across the abyss of humiliation, where they experience the bleakness of nagging despair. (Keep talking) There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life's July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November. (that's right) [applause] There comes a time. (Yes sir teach) [applause continues]

 

We are here, we are here this evening because we are tired now. (Yes) [applause] And I want to say that we are not here advocating violence. (No) We have never done that. (Repeat that, repeat that) [applause] I want it to be known throughout Montgomery and throughout this nation (Well) that we are Christian people. (Yes) [applause] We believe in the Christian religion. We believe in the teachings of Jesus. (Well) The only weapon that we have in our hands this evening is the weapon of protest. (Yes) [applause] That's all. 

 

And certainly, certainly, this is the glory of America, with all of its faults. (Yeah) This is the glory of our democracy. If we were incarcerated behind the iron curtains of a Communistic nation, we couldn't do this. If we were dropped in the dungeon of a totalitarian regime, we couldn't do this. (All right) But the great glory of American democracy is the right to protest for right. (That's right) [applause] My friends, don't let anybody make us feel that we are to be compared in our actions with the Ku Klux Klan or with the White Citizens Council. [applause] There will be no crosses burned at any bus stops in Montgomery. (Well, that's right) There will be no white persons pulled out of their homes and taken out on some distant road and lynched for not cooperating. [applause] There will be nobody among us who will stand up and defy the Constitution of this nation. [applause] We only assemble here because of our desire to see right exist. [applause] My friends, I want it to be known that we're going to work with grim and bold determination to gain justice on the buses in this city. [applause]

And we are not wrong; we are not wrong in what we are doing. (Well) If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. (Yes sir) [applause] If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong. (Yes) [applause] If we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong. (That's right) [applause] If we are wrong, Jesus of Nazareth was merely a utopian dreamer that never came down to Earth. (Yes) [applause] If we are wrong, justice is a lie (Yes), love has no meaning. [applause] And we are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs down like water (Yes), [applause] and righteousness like a mighty stream. (Keep talking) [Applause]

 

I want to say that in all of our actions, we must stick together. (That's right) [applause] Unity is the great need of the hour (Well, that's right), and if we are united we can get many of the things that we not only desire but which we justly deserve. (Yeah) And don't let anybody frighten you. (Yeah) We are not afraid of what we are doing (Oh no), because we are doing it within the law. (All right) There is never a time in our American democracy that we must ever think we are wrong when we protest. (Yes, sir) We reserve that right. When labor all over this nation came to see that it would be trampled over by capitalistic power, it was nothing wrong with labor getting together and organizing and protesting for its rights. (That's right) We, the disinherited of this land, we who have been oppressed so long, are tired of going through the long night of captivity. And now we are reaching out for the daybreak of freedom and justice and equality. [applause]

 

May I say to you, my friends, as I come to a close, and just giving some idea of why we are assembled here, that we must keep--and I want to stress this, in all of our doings, in all of our deliberations here this evening and all of the week and while, --whatever we do--, we must keep God in the forefront. (Yeah) Let us be Christian in all of our actions. (That's right) But I want to tell you this evening that it is not enough for us to talk about love, love is one of the pivotal points of the Christian faith. There is another side called justice. And justice is really love in calculation. (All right) Justice is love correcting that which revolts against love. (Well) 

 

The Almighty God himself is not only, not the God just standing out saying through Hosea, "I love you, Israel." He's also the God that stands up before the nations and said: "Be still and know that I'm God (Yeah), that if you don't obey me I will break the backbone of your power (Yeah) and slap you out of the orbits of your international and national relationships." (That's right) Standing beside love is always justice, and we are only using the tools of justice. Not only are we using the tools of persuasion, but we've come to see that we've got to use the tools of coercion. Not only is this thing a process of education, but it is also a process of legislation. (Yeah) [applause]

 

And as we stand and sit here this evening and as we prepare ourselves for what lies ahead, let us go out with the grim and bold determination that we are going to stick together. [applause] We are going to work together. [applause] Right here in Montgomery, when the history books are written in the future (Yes), somebody will have to say, "There lived a race of people (Well), a black people (Yes sir), 'fleecy locks and black complexion' (Yes), a people who had the moral courage to stand up for their rights. [applause] And thereby they injected a new meaning into the veins of history and of civilization." And we're going to do that. God grant that we will do it before it is too late. (Oh yeah) As we proceed with our program, let us think of these things. (Yes) [applause]

Advent, Promise of Coming

First Promise Kept at the First Coming. 

            Christ’s first advent was the greatest to date “promise made, promised kept” that God fulfilled.

John the Baptist, in his moments of despair, asked Jesus, “Are You the Expected One, or should we look for another?” When imprisoned, the baptizer’s hopes were discouraged but not entirely dashed. He knew that if Jesus was not the promised one, that He could expect another because God is and was and forever will be faithful and true.

            As far back as Genesis 3:15, the Bible teaches that a seed of a woman (literally “sperm” or "seed" in both Greek and Hebrew) would crush the head of Satan. That curse against Satan was literally fulfilled in the virgin birth of Christ, the only literal seed of a woman ever recorded.

Another 3:15 passage, Galatians 3:15, also teaches about the seed (singular) of man being the promise made long ago being fulfilled. “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made… the covenant was confirmed before by God in Christ, and it does not nullify the promise. If the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise.”

The promise was also made to Sarah, “The word of promise…Sarah will have a son.” (see Romans 9:9). Paul preached in Acts 13:23 that Jesus was the promised Son of God and Seed of David who would become the Savior of Israel and of the world. “From this man’s seed, according to the promise, raised up for Israel a Savior, Jesus.”

Isaiah’s promise in Isaiah 1:9 was reiterated in Romans 9:29 that the Seed of the Lord of Sabaoth would come to save the world.

A Second Promise Kept: The Holy Spirit.

Another Promise Kept. Perhaps the second greatest Promise that God has made and Kept came 50 days after the Resurrection. When the Holy Spirit came down, it was the down payment of the Promise of a future Advent.

“Wait for the Promise of the Father” Jesus said in Acts 1:4. “I will send the Promise,” He had previously stated in Luke 24:49.

Simon Peter and those in the upper room experienced the fulfillment of that Second Promise kept. The Holy Spirit which Jesus Himself received was poured out on them all in Acts chapter 2. “The Promise of the Holy Spirit is being poured out today and this is what you now see and hear,” Peter preached in Acts 2:33, “the Promise is for you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

Peter never stopped being in awe of those two promises kept. From a dank and dungy Roman prison cell, the aged fisherman was not bitter. Not disillusioned. No fist shook toward heaven, despite the scars on his back, seeing the cruel death of his best friend James, and perhaps having survivor’s guilt when his own life was spared.

No, from the prison cell Simon wrote these words of encouragement.

The Third Promise Will Be Kept: Jesus is Coming Again!

“God has given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, and also escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

Promise made, Peter Proclaimed, and Promise Kept. Four more times the imprisoned apostle used the word promise, finishing up with this defiantly faithful and unquenchable fiery man of God preached through his pen which echoes in our Scripture readings to this day.

“In keeping with His Promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.”

And then as a nod to fellow prisoner in Rome, the Apostle Paul, Peter wrote “and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation which also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you.”

The Silence Is Broken!

    This Saturday and Sunday, Rief Kessler has asked me to take on the role of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, in the Christmas Cantata.

    A monologue of a man who was struck mute for nine months? I did not think this would be a very big role! However, my part is AFTER he gets his voice back and as I have practiced it, it is about a ten-minute monologue.

    At first, I was a little worried. I had recited the 17^th chapter of John a few years ago at Easter, and that was a challenge, but at least that was Scripture and a passage with which I was very familiar. I wondered if my memory would retain the almost 1,000-word script, marvelously written by Rief Kessler.

    Getting into the role of the aged father of the “greatest man who was ever born to a woman” (as Jesus called John the Baptist) really got me to thinking. What did Zechariah ponder all this time while he was silent?

    Many theologians (Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Elisabeth Elliot, Richard Foster, and Martyn Lloyd-Jones) have written about the “spiritual discipline” or “spiritual exercise” of silence. On my bookshelf, I have a book entitled Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald S. Whitney, a professor of biblical spirituality and associate dean at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Whitney states in chapter 10 that there are biblical reasons for silence and solitude, including:

• to follow Jesus’s example,
• to minimize distractions in prayer,
• to express worship and faith, to seek restoration, wisdom, and the will of the Lord,
• to learn to control the tongue,

    For me, the most profound reason for the discipline of silence is found under Whitney’s section on “To Regain a Spiritual Perspective”. He cites Billy Graham, A.W. Tozer, Sarah Pierpont (whose silence attracted Jonathan Edwards to propose marriage to her), C.H. Spurgeon, and Susanna Wesley among great leaders who gained great spiritual insights after being in silent solitude.

    He begins this section on regaining a spiritual perspective with Zechariah. Having been disciplined by the Lord, the priest from the order of Abijah climaxes his prophecy with these insightful words of wisdom, gleaned from nine months of silence (see Luke 1:76-79, NLT):

“And you, my little son, will be called the prophet of the Most High, because you will prepare the way for the Lord. You will tell his people how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins. Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace.”

    The angel Gabriel tells Zechariah that he and his wife will have great joy and gladness. That is how I will play this man of God. And by coming, I believe you too will find the Thrill of Hope.

Blessings in Him!

 

He left us, to test us.

Have you ever felt God has withdrawn from you? Maybe He has. 

There’s a small verse almost hidden in 2^nd Chronicles 32:31 that packs a powerful punch for those who feel abandoned by God.

“God withdrew from him (Hezekiah), in order to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart.”

God had blessed Hezekiah, perhaps as much as all kings except for David and Solomon. 

God had turned back Hezekiah’s enemy, the king of Assyria, despite his deliciously wicked taunts against Hezekiah and the bewildering triumphs over other countries, including Judah’s rebellious rival, the nation of Israel.

God proved the healing of Hezekiah from a near fatal sickness by using a holy time machine, turning the sun’s relentlessly advancing shadow backward by ten steps, a feat never to be repeated even to this day (2^nd Kings 20: 1-11, 2^nd Chronicles 32:24).

God does all these things, and then God tests Hezekiah? Near the end of his life? I mean, come on, now! God abandoned and left desolated the good and great King Hezekiah of Judah?

Why?

Why is it that we can feel so close to God, and then suffer the “Elijah depression”, as seen in 1^st Kings 19:9-18?

Could it be that we have come to take God for granted, or even worse, think that somehow His blessings are the results of how good we are, rather than how good He is?

“Hezekiah did not repay (God) according to the favor shown him, for his heart was lifted up… Hezekiah had very great riches and honor. And he made himself treasuries … storehouses … and stalls. Moreover, he provided cities for himself, and possessions… Hezekiah prospered in all his works.”

God left him to test him, but NOT to show God what was in the king’s heart.

God left him to test him to show HEZEKIAH himself that even though the king was passing the grades of the day, he was actually failing the test of eternity.

O, America! O, American churches!! O, American pastors, and all we with our treasures laid up for ourselves, do we not see that we are not rich toward God? Of course God has left us, to TEST us.

“But I’m not prosperous,” you say?

It wasn’t the prosperity that caused God’s test. It was the pride.

God doesn’t give a reservoir of water for your possessions, but when pride drowns everything else out of your heart to the level that there is no room for God, then, yes, He’ll leave you. Alone. By yourself. In an ocean of “possessions” that only possess you.

To test you.

Tell me now, just how long has it taken you to notice that God has left?

Your trinkets may not be of silver or gold, but they glittered and darted in your heart. O, but didn’t they TWINKLE in your eyes? Those itty bitty things suddenly pushed out the God of the universe! Those things you loved the most caused the One Who loves you most, to leave you to the uttermost.

“Psst. Hey!”

“What?” you answer.

“Shh. Shh. 

Do you want a cheat sheet 

for the test you’ve been failing?”

“Yeah! Sure!” you say.
“What’s the answer to Number 1?”

“Humble yourselves
in the sight of the Lord,
and He will lift you up.”

James 4:10

C.J. Mahaney said in his book Humility: True Greatness, “Pride is when sinful human beings aspire to the status and position of God and refuse to acknowledge their dependence upon Him.”

“Psst. Hey.
Want another cheat sheet?”

“Yeah,” you whisper back,
“What’s the answer to number 2?”

“He has shown you,
O man,
what is good and
what does the Lord require of you,
But to do justly,
and to love mercy,
and to walk humbly
with Your God."

Micah 6:8

Andrew Murray’s “cheat sheet”, found in his book Humility: The Journey Toward Holiness, has an “answer” to passing God’s test when we feel we have been left all alone.

“Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you. The only humility that is REALLY ours is not that which we try to show before God… but that which we carry with us, and carry out, in our ordinary conduct.

“The insignificances of daily life are the importances and the tests of eternity, because they prove what really is the spirit that possesses us.”

Keep reading that last sentence over and over ... 

... until …

“Ah, Father! There You Are! Welcome Back! Thank you for returning. I’ve been missing You!”

Just camping out in our tents

     Not only is today the first full day of fall (yay!), but this week also celebrates Sukkot or Feasts of Tabernacles September 20-27 on the Jewish calendar. It was a feast that Jesus, Paul, and the early church celebrated.

    Chapter 23 of Leviticus ends with explaining the Feast of Tabernacles, which memorializes the 40 years of wandering before entering the Promised Land. However, there is also a New Testament fulfillment as we look forward to putting aside our earthly “tabernacles” of our physical bodies.

    In 2 Peter 1:13-14, Peter refers to our bodies as a tabernacle (or tent). “Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent (tabernacle, KJV), to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.” (NKJV)

    The Apostle John also used the verb form of this word when he explained that Jesus, the Word, “tabernacled” among us. “And the Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us,” (Revised English Version). John again used tabernacles to look forward in Revelation 7:15, 21:3, when God will “tabernacle” or dwell with humanity.

    Paul also carries forward this analogy in 2 Corinthians 5:1-5, comparing our earthly tent to an eternal house:

    “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ² For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, ³ if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. ⁴ For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. ⁵ Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

    The point? Twice in the last week, I’ve spoken with unbelievers who question God’s goodness because of the world’s badness. COVID, hurricanes in the Gulf, earthquakes in Haiti, fires in California, none of these are surprises to God. But as Rick Warren says on Day 6 of The Purpose Driven Life, “Life on earth is a temporary assignment.”  

    Or as Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

    This is not our home, we are aliens, pilgrims, strangers. We are just camping out in our tents, waiting for our house to be built!

The ANSWER that Never Goes Away

    I saw Darren smoking a cigarette in front of his RV late Friday night. I greeted him by name, "Hey, Darren!" and he greeted me by name, “Hello, Tim!”.

    “I just wanted to show off that I remembered your name, Darren,” I said, remembering his name after meeting him early that morning. He smiled and followed me barefoot to my trailer. Within seconds, he told me what I would have soon surmised.

    He was drunk.

    He also soon surmised that I was a minister and began to tell me another thing I already knew: the importance of remembering people’s names, one of my many Achilles' heels!

    “People use different parts of their brains,” he said, “to remember their own names and to say the names of other people. You have to not say your own name when you meet people and are trying to remember theirs. That should be very important to you in your ‘business’.”

    I winced.

    My uncle Don one time said he liked getting old because he could finally use his age for all of his shortcomings and I am definitely using my geriatric years to excuse what I’ve suffered all my life: a poor memory.

    We stood in the cool September air, even after I had been gone from my own RV for 14 hours, yes, on my “day off". I was tired and knew from experience that our discussion would soon get around to “religion”, a familiar topic especially for non-church-goers and especially when they’ve imbibed.

    I listened.

    He was my age and a Marine. You never say “former Marine”, something I learned the following day at a funeral of another Marine. If he hadn’t been leaving on Sunday, I know we would have become friends, even though he was big, brawly, and brash. He bemoaned religion, the military, the government, and finally, my favorite subject, God.

    “If there is a God, why is there so much of … this?” he waved his huge hands to the dark sky, obviously referring to the places of uttermost tragic circumstances to where he’s traveled. We had been standing and talking for what seemed like an hour, but it was undoubtedly due to my readiness to go to bed.

    But you know me.

    I asked him to come sit down at my picnic bench in front of my RV, but his bare feet couldn’t bear the rocks, something only now as I write this do I find amusing that this tough Marine also apparently has an Achilles’ heel … or maybe like me a touch of plantar fasciitis. I even offered to go get him my Adidas flip flops, but no. So, we stood. He talked. He asked. I listened.

    He’s been to Somalia. He’d been to (you name it, he'd been there). He’d seen suffering. Sometimes I wonder if people look at ministers and think of them as hothouse flowers, living in Ivory Towers. And perhaps we are; but even ministers, and especially ministers, see a lot of evil, hear a lot of things. You don’t have to be a Marine or a paramedic to know the evils and tragedies of the world. And yet we still believe in God.

    Philip Yancey began a great writing career with books dealing with suffering. Where is God When It Hurts? was later repackaged in another book entitled The Question that Never Goes Away. In between he even wrote a book called Disappointment with God. I stopped reading him, even though his writing ability and wit exceeds my favorite go-to writer, Max Lucado, simply because his books and his tragedy depress me.

    When Yancey was an infant, church members suggested that his father, who was stricken with polio, to go off life support, praying in faith that God would heal him. God did not, and his father died. Yancey at one time lost his faith in God and at times in his writing, he seemingly has not regained it all back.

    We all experience tragedies, and so has Darren, at least from afar. The Marine told me of his life, how he retired at 52 and has been travelling the country in his RV with his wife. He wouldn’t trade his life for anyone.

    He stood looking at me. He had just asked me how I could explain the answer to the question that never goes away while he’s standing there drunk with no shoes on in the middle of the evening after my 14-hour long day.

    I said, “You know that’s why I’ve been listening to you all this time. You know I’d love to tell you…”

    He smiles broadly, interrupting me, not even knowing possibly what I said, leans over and gives me a big hug, “I know you would. Good night, Tim,” and walks back to his RV.

    I smiled too as he walked away. Witnessing with a person who is intoxicated has not been my forte, no matter how kind of a drunk they are. I felt a little like Jesus and the man whom we call the rich, young ruler: “Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him…”

    I have no idea about the Marine’s soul, but the following day I read the eulogy of a Marine, who died at age 86 after a life well lived, whose faith was strong to the very end. I wished that kind of testimony for my almost-friend Darren who taught me the value of remembering names.

    After the funeral, I went and got a copy of my book, The Gospel of John, One Day at a Time and put a copy of the 23rd psalm from the funeral on page 58, a devotional entitled, “Why Is There Evil in the World?”

    I’m no Philip Yancey, but there’s a link at the bottom of this post to see what I wrote several years ago.

    On Sunday morning, I was as sick as a dog, so much so that I missed church, but between kneeling at the porcelain altar, I trotted a copy of the book to Darren. Who knows, I may be the only Philip Yancey that Darren will ever read.

    I told him I had just did a funeral of a Marine the day before (the words sounded a little more ominous than I intended as they came out of my mouth), and wanted to thank him for his service. Darren left that morning to resume his wonderful life of retirement, disbelieving in God who allows suffering in the world, rather than believing in a God who allows him to live his wonderful life of retirement.

    His empty lot at the RV park will soon be replaced by another traveler. It reminds me of the plot of ground or water where Darren’s body or ashes will some day be deposited.

    I pray for the Darrens who need to believe because of God’s goodness, rather than disbelieve because of the world’s tragedies.

    The Gospel of John, One Day at a Time: John 9. Days 20-21 (johnoneday.blogspot.com)