Praying through Pain

Chuck was a hard working, self-made man in the oil business.  He was not much in church because of his work. He had had a praying mother and had a praying wife.  When I really got to know him, he did not have much else.  Chuck's company, that he had built from the ground up, had been "taken over" by some men who had been investors.

I would go visit Chuck, a World War II veteran, in his declining health.  Someone had briefed me on the loss of his company and what a shame it was.  I did not have to ask him about it, he told me.  As I was about to leave after one of my first visits with him in his home, I asked him about prayer, "How can I pray for you?" was my question.  His answer floored me.

"You can pray with me about the guys who stole my company," he said.  I settled in to hear the story and mentally shifted from 'I am about to leave' to 'I'm going to be here a while.'  I asked, "So how do you pray for them?"  Chuck replied, "Forgive me my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me."  That was not the response I was expecting. 

He went on to tell the story, but mainly how he had found comfort in daily praying the Lord's Prayer and that one line about asking for and giving forgiveness how that phrase had changed his life.  "I have to pray to forgive them every day," he said, "because I think about it everyday.  And every day God takes the hurt away."

After I prayed with Chuck and was driving back to my church, I hit me that Chuck probably did not know a lot about the Bible but he knew that prayer. He probably has gotten more mileage and more good out of those simple words than anyone I have met.  He found a way to pray though the pain.  God was healing him emotionally and spiritually even as he struggled physically.

God's power to use our prayer in dealing with our pain is amazingly simple, if we are simple enough to keep praying through it.  Chuck taught me a lesson about prayer and pain that I am still trying to learn.  Maybe you are too.  This Sunday, let's come work on it together as we look at David's prayer in his pain in Psalm 55.  Let's keep praying and keep on overcoming the pain.

for the journey...

Tim

Everlasting Love, Eternal Prayers

This week I lost a cousin and her husband, Margaret and Frank Hendrix,  in a tragic accident.  A blown tire in an oncoming truck only took an instant to cause the collision that ended their lives, but they live on in a better place with their Lord.

There was a very nice article written about their lives in the local paper.  My cousin, Margaret Ann (as a cousin I have the right to use her first and middle name just as she had the right to call me Timmy) was a long time elementary teacher here in Victoria.  The paper interviewed several former students about her life and her impact.  In the article, one former student related the following encounter she had with Margaret Ann long after her elementary years that led Margaret to pray with her former pupil.

"I was going through a divorce at the time, and it  had been a bad day for me," she said.  "I was trying hard not to cry, but she gave me a hug, told me to let it out, and as I cried, [Margaret] prayed over me.  I can't put into words what that single act of kindness meant to me."

Long after we are gone, what will remain at work in this world?  The love we showed and the prayers we prayed.  How and who we loved remain because people and love are eternal (1 Corinthians 13:13).  The prayers we prayed also outlive us because they touch the eternal.

The day they died was a pretty normal - until the accident.  The day Margaret prayed with her student was pretty normal for her as well - that is the kind of person she was.  Yet both of those days now are now marked in eternity; one in tragedy, one in kindness. 

On normal days, we do eternal things.  We love people who live eternally.  We offer prayers that live on in eternity too.  We may never see those moments coming or even recognize them when we are gone but they come none the less.

Today and everyday, we can love and we can pray and we can touch eternity?  How have you done something eternal this week?  Join me Sunday as we talk about the places in life where, "All we can do is pray."  We will find those are not moments of powerless but of touching eternity.

for the journey...

Tim

 

Did You Mean to Pray That?

When we started this series on the Lord's Prayer, we found a group of videos about prayer we either used, decided not to use or could not fit in the time we have.  I have simply given you the link today to a YouTube that we could not find a time to put in a service but it is well worth the time it will take to watch it.  We will conclude our series this week.  I hope you will watch this before you come.  See you Sunday.

For the journey...

Tim


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLVzV9n69UY

Kingdom Come

One of our members was at an ATM machine this week, as he walked away he spoke to the stranger waiting his turn at the machine.  They exchanged pleasantries then the man asked the Northsider, "I'm new in town, can you recommend a church for me to try?"

The Northsider happens to be one of our folks who has committed to the 4XFour Challenge to invite people to church in 2014.  He had been in prayer for those efforts.  Here a complete stranger basically does everything but sign his 4XFour commitment card for him.

Was this ATM encounter a coincidence?  Our member did not think so.  We read at the beginning of our 40 Days to Easter devotional Draw the Circle that, "If you pray to God regularly, irregular things will happen on a regular basis."  Jesus told us to be praying that his kingdom would come, should we be surprised if the opportunities for the Kingdom come and knock on our door?

But what does it mean for the kingdom to come?  How can we see it?  We will delve into that a little more thoroughly Sunday, but the signs of the kingdom coming are not always in the easy, instant opportunities. The signs are sometimes in the places of obedience where it is tough or in the places of gradual transformation over the long haul of a lifetime.

I have seen the kingdom coming recently in a group of couples working on their marriages together and being transformed by a single verse of scripture that seemed to speak to every one of us in a unique but profound way.

I have seen signs of the kingdom in the new homeless ministry that is at work through our church - planting a garden and sharing the gospel in one of the toughest neighborhoods in our city.

I have seen more evidence of the kingdom coming as our Search Team works to bring a new Worship and Music Pastor to our church. 

When Jesus taught us to pray, the first request he taught us to ask was that God's kingdom would come and his will would be done.  We should not be surprised when we see it.  We should be surprised if we don't see it.  Are you seeing it?  Come join us Sunday and we will pray and search it out together.

for the journey...

Tim

10/23/83

Why do I remember that date?  It happens to be the day 30 years ago when 241 U. S. Marines died when a truck bomb struck their barracks at the airport in Beirut, Lebanon.  A tragic event, but there is also another connection with that day.  On October 23, 1983 I was with a group of Middle Eastern - mainly Lebanese - international students on a Christian retreat in New Mexico.

I was working at the Baptist Student Ministry at Texas Tech at the time and one of my responsibilities was to work with International students.  The event was big enough that the camp director came and told us. 

The news devastating to them.  They were more upset than we Americans were.  I was baffled.  When I asked one of the students to explain their reaction, he said, "After this day, there will be no more Lebanon.  Not like I know it."  It turns out he was right.  The United States and other peace keeping nations pulled out of Lebanon and the bloody civil war they were supposed to try and stop, surged out of control.  The Lebanon that has emerged is said to be nothing like the Lebanon these young men called home.

These students, Christian and Muslim, knew that everything had changed for them.  I wonder how many of them had to return home?  If they did, how many were sucked into the conflict?  How many of them died in it?

I look back on that day and see how huge a day that was for them, how little I really understood it and how poorly I was prepared to handle a crisis like that.  As I reflected on that day, I was reminded that though I can do nothing about the past, I can still pray.  Pray for those students, now grown and thirty years older - if they are still alive.  I can also pray for myself, that I will be ready to minister to people, even when I cannot fully grasp their pain or understand their plight.

We too often think of prayer as a last resort.  On that day it was - and on this day it is - the most powerful thing we can do.

for the journey...

Tim

Paint Hate

Today the front page of our local newspaper had a picture and an article on how the local Islamic Center had been vandalized.  Someone had spray painted "H8" on the wall of the center.  Things like that are never pleasant to deal with.  I know, someone has spray painted our church building too but not with those two symbols and not during a special season.  Attention was drawn to the fact that it is Ramadan (July 9 - August 7) the most holy time of year for Muslims.  It makes the vandalism more significant.

Vandalism is never right nor is it ever productive.  Prayer, however, can be.  In light of what has happened let me give you a special challenge as a way to deal the tensions of our day.  Would you join me in praying for Muslims for the rest of Ramadan.  We have done this in other formats before but let me ask you to join me by simply going to www.30-days.net and using the prayer guide there.  If you have a problem making that connection, if you will contact me directly, by email at timwilliams@nbcvictoria.org I will be glad to get you a guide.

Let me also ask you to be in prayer for Sunday, July 21 as we will host special friends who are Christian workers in a closed Muslim country.  They will be sharing there lives and work with us.  They have been with us before so many of you know who I am talking about.  For security reasons, I will not say more.  But I will say that for Christians, Ramadan should be a time for prayer not hate.

For the journey...

Tim

A New Journey

This morning I began a journey with millions of Muslims.  Though I will be walking through Ramadan with them, I will not be walking the same way.   I began a 30 day prayer journey for Muslims during their holy month of Ramadan.

When I think of Muslims, I think of them differently than I did just a year ago; God now brings specific people to mind - my Muslim neighbor who no longer practices Islam but still counts himself as a Muslim.  I think of a young man who grew up in our church and converted to Islam.  And I think of Ata.

Ata was the bus driver we had when we toured Israel.  I trusted Ata with my life and I would do it again.  I watched him drive that big tour bus down narrow streets, through incredible traffic and down one if the steepest, most winding and no doubt dangerous roads in Galilee (you could see the wrecked vehicles that did not make it down below on this breath taking road).  He did it all incredibly.

Ata is not just any Muslim, he once was the one of the men who voiced the "calls to prayer" from the towers of mosques in Jerusalem.  I was told, his rich deep voice is still heard in recordings as he read the Koran - for those recordings he is somewhat of a celebrity.  Ata drove me and our group to the most important sites for Christians in Israel.  He heard our stories, he understood the guide's explanation, he heard the Bible read as we moved from one place to another.  I pray that it all sinks in somehow and he can see Jesus not just as a prophet recognized by Islam but as the savior of all mankind and specifically his savior.  I know that Ata will be praying and fasting during Ramadan and I will be praying for him - that all this exposure to Christians and to the Bible would not harden him to the gospel but soften him to it.

I will remember his impeccably pressed dress shirts that he wore each day, I' ll remember how he made sure there was always bottled water for us and I will remember that he called me (and all the other men) "Brother."  He seemed to have a genuine concern for us beyond his job.  So it is easy now for me to pray for Muslims because I will think of Ata, who is a true servant, and I will pray that he becomes a servant of Christ.

This Sunday, I will ask you to join me in praying through Ramadan.  Maybe you don't have someone specific to pray for, the prayer guide we have available will help with that.  Or maybe you can join me in praying for Ata.

for the journey...

Tim

Reaping and Sowing in Prayer

Many of you have spent much time recently praying for Caleb Jentsch as he recovers from his traumatic brain injury.  The results have been remarkable.  Keep up the good work.  What you may not know is that this fall Caleb was strategic in praying for another college student who had a head injury.

Caleb served as a counselor at a camp for incoming freshmen this summer.  Students are assigned to a small group at the camp and the counselors keep tabs on them through the freshmen year.  One student in Caleb's small group that he got especially close to was Pierce.  Right before school started Pierce was injured in a skateboarding accident and had a severe head injury.  When Caleb got the call from Pierce's dad, Pierce was near death.  Caleb organized a prayer meeting for Pierce at his home to pray through the night, over 40 students came.  Here are Caleb's words from a letter that he sent out before his skiing accident.

"As everyone was praying I just stopped and realized that in that moment Father was receiving glory by us just meeting with him.  It was such a powerful and beautiful time of just meeting with the Lord...About 4 hours later, I received another call from Pierce's Dad saying that the bleeding in Pierce's brain was coming to a stop and he was progressing...The power of prayer works.  I told everyone at my house and we were all in awe of Father."

Pierce made a remarkable recovery and had an incredibly successful rehab.  He is in classes this spring semester.  When Pierce heard of Caleb's accident, he and his father flew to Denver to pray for and visit Caleb.  Pierce was one of the over 300 students who met in a prayer meeting for Caleb this past Monday at the Baptist Student Center at Texas A&M.  What an incredible irony?  Can it even be called that?

The Bible is clear that we will reap what we sow.  Is that true in prayer as well?  If we have prayed, led people to pray and then stand in need of prayer, do we reap some of what we have sown in prayer?  It sure seems so.  God is receiving glory in this and as Caleb wrote, "The power of prayer works."

For the journey...

Tim

Praying for Japan - Part 2

In may last post I mentioned hearing from our two summer missionaries to Japan and their thoughts on how to pray.  Here are Caleb Jentsch' words -

Some ways y'all can be praying for Japan are:
1) Pray for the missionaries that are over there right now that they would be safe.
2) Pray that the Japanese will realize that hey need the Lord and that their hearts will be open.
3) Pray for the believing Japaneses Christians that they will continue to grow closer to the Father and be able to share who He is with the people of Japan.  The impact they have sharing in their own country is so much more effective.

I  also mentioned the Baptist General Convention of Texas has sent funds  ($25,000).  One of the great things about being connected with an organization like this is the ability to respond quickly.  Becasue you have given to Northside and because Northside cooperates with the BGCT, you have already helped to send those funds to this disaster.

Texas Baptist Men have now sent a team to Tokyo.  Disaster relief veterans John LaNoue and Gary Smith along with Yutaka Takarada, pastor of a Japanese Baptist Church  in the Dallas area have joined videographer Rex Campbell.  You can find out more ways to pray and read daily updates from this team at

www.texasbaptists.org/disaster

For the journey....