What Comes from a Christmas Pageant

We have just completed the annual Victoria Christmas Pageant for the 26th time.  We saw thousands attend, they saw the story of Jesus from birth to death to resurrection.  They also saw a church dedicated to a great work.  Special thanks go to Connie and John for putting this altogether.

There is a lot more that I got see God do that I wanted to tell you about. 
I got to see:
- a young woman who described her religion as "pagan" come ask for a Bible.
- a man who had been overseas defending our country come ask for prayer for all the troubling things he had seen that still haunt him.  There were tears in his eyes.
- a single mom, recovering from divorce, turn her life over to Christ.
- another young woman sought prayer for her husband who is now in jail.
- a girl recovering from the trauma of abuse receive Christ.
- two of our prop crew accept Christ.
- a man who has worked on our janitorial crew accept Christ along with his wife.
- 17 people who told us they accepted Christ as their saviour during pageant.

A man also come by to tell us that last year he received one of the Here's Hope CDs during our pageant.  He was working with a young man from Mexico and teaching him English.  He used the audio copies of the New Testament available on the CD in both English and Spanish to help his young co-worker.  The young man became a Christian because of all of that. He has now returned to Mexico, felt a call to ministry and is studying to be a pastor.

Who knows what we will see next year from seeds sown this year.  Thanks for all of you who sowed and thanks to the Lord of the harvest for using us to His glory.  For the journey...

Why I Spoke to the City Council

Someone stopped me last night to say they saw me on Channel 15 speaking to the Victoria city council at the last meeting.  I told him that yes I did speak to the council and that I would be praying for him to have something more fulfilling in life than watching city council meetings replayed on channel 15.

In all seriousness though, I did have a burden that I wanted to share with the council and it is also something you can be praying about.  On October 17 a young man under the influence of synthetic marijuana disrupted our evening service which happened to be a gathering of area churches for our regional association.  The young man was delusional and paranoid believing that, "God was speaking" to him telling him that his girl friend was "Satan."  His girl friend was also there crying and hysterical about his behavior. (It was pretty exciting for an associational meeting).  Phil Swihart and I dealt with this young man for much of the rest of evening to get him calmed down and back in a place he felt safe.

That was my first awareness of anything about synthetic marijuana.  What I have found since, deeply disturbs me.  It is legally sold here in Victoria at places of business as an incense but used commonly to be smoked like marijuana.  It is a mixture of common herbs sprayed with powerful chemical compounds to give a "high." 

Synthetic marijuana has caused many similar, serious reactions as the young man had in our church.  Though an internet video proclaims it as a safe legal high it is anything but safe.  It has been banned in several states but Texas has not yet acted though many municipalities in Texas  have acted to ban it with in their city.  That is what I was asking the city council to do here in our city.

One council person assured me that it would come up for discussion at the next city council meeting.  Would you join me in prayer for our city leaders as they wrestle with this growing problem and pray for the problem in the people of our city. 

Knowing Your Opportunities

Lifeway Research and the North American Mission Board did a recent survey to find out when Americans are most open to considering matters of faith.  They asked 15,000 people about what times in life they would be most likely to engage in a spiritual dialogue.  Here are the results:

5. After the birth of a baby:  28%

4. After a natural disaster:  34%

3. After a major national crisis (such as 9/11):  38%

2. During the Easter holiday season: 38%

1. During the Christmas holiday season:  47%

In all the hustle and bustle of the season, we need to make sure we are not too busy to see people as open. We could miss some opportunities to witness that Christmas gives.  Pray for someone.  Invite someone.  Engage someone.  You could be a part of changing eternity.

What I Almost Missed

I moved somethings on my desk this week and found an envelope. Now I must admit I am a messy desk person.  I live by a sign I once saw, "A clean desk is a sign of a sick mind."  But as I came across this envelope that had been placed on my desk by someone I did not see and buried inadvertently in my busyness I found a wonderful note marking Clergy Appreciation month.  Yes, that was October and this is the end of November, it was buried well.

I opened the card and found a loving note of appreciation and enough money for me to take my family out for a nice meal.  Wow!  How long had that been there?  How many times had I passed over it, just inches from it but not knowing its blessing.  I was too caught up in other things.

How often are God's blessings like that?  They lay there unopened in our busyness waiting for the moment of our pausing to take care of "lesser things" -  like cleaning my desk a little.  It reminds me of how grateful I am to be where I am, to be the pastor of this church and to have people like you to share my life with. 

This holiday season I am going to try to slow down and savor the blessings that abound and the people that I am blessed with.  Oh, and I will clean my desk more often.

Happy Thanksgiving!

For the journey...

A Note I Keep in My Bible

Tuesday I did a funeral for a dear lady, Jeanne Bowman.  Jeanne has been a big influence on my life and ministry.  She was a person who knew how to get things done.  When a prison nursing home opened in the town we lived in, people were upset, many of those men held there had AIDS.  Jeanne found a way to begin a ministry to them by shopping for their needs with the meager funds they had left.  Most of the men there were terminal.  Jeanne witnessed to them and sat by them in their last days, often when there was no family to be found.

Jeanne had known her own losses, having to bury 2 of her six children. Her second son to die was murdered.  The killer(s) have never been arrested.  I wrote her a note after her son's death and mentioned Psalm 37.  Here is text of the note she sent me back:

Dear Tim,
Thanks for the note and your continued prayers - you know how much they mean.  I read Psalm 37 in the King James Bible and it is both comforting and promising.  Having friends and pastors praying for me has helped sustain my faith in God.  The older I get the deeper my faith in God becomes.  Do you remember the song Lewis Staggs (an older man in the church there) used to sing "The Longer I Serve Him?"  That is how I feel.  I can't find it in my heart to forgive the people who killed Robert, but I am working on it!  Thank you again.    Love, Jeanne

I pull that note out from time to time because I need that perspective on life.  Even in the hurts and the pains of this world, serving God can make life grow 'sweeter' as the song she refers to says.  I am grateful for having someone like that in my life.  I am grateful for the transparency of her saying she is not yet able to forgive her son's killers but I am also thankful for the faith to say in the face of such pain, with God's help, 'I'm working on it!'  For that kind of person, with that kind of faith, I am thankful that I knew her.  I am grateful she was in my life. I need to learn from her.

For the journey...

Where it is Tough to be a Christian

Where on earth is it toughest to live as a Christian?  Iran comes to many people's minds.  Last year, there were 85 documented cases of Christians being arrested for their faith.  Many reported being mistreated in jail.  Most have been released but are now under constant surveillance.  They face court cases that are still pending and fear is building among the Christian community in Iran about what may be coming next.

Iranian forces are watching Christians closely because there is a growth in the numbers of believers who come from a Muslim background.  Churches are being monitored by the secret police, some churches have even stopped meeting openly.  There are constant reports of Christians being abused physically and facing discrimination because of their faith.

What can you do?  You can pray.  You can pray for those still behind bars and two leaders who have just been released after 9 months in prison.  They are Maryam Rostampour and Marzieh Amirizadeh.

What can we do?  We can gather to pray.  This Sunday we will be joining Christians world-wide to pray for the persecuted church.  As tough as it is in Iran, there is one place that experts say is far worse.  Find out this Sunday as we join to pray.

Ministry: Results or Effectiveness?

Pastor Bill Wilson's church is in a tough part of New York City. Wilson has been stabbed twice, shot at and had a member of his staff killed but still the church ministers on.

A lady from Puerto Rico came to know Christ through the ministry of the church and asked Wilson through an interpreter for a place to serve.  He assigned her to their bus ministry and told her to ride a different church bus each week and show love to the children as they ride to and from the church.  She said OK.

She would get on the bus, look for the worst looking kid, set the child in her lap and repeat a phrase she had learned in English, "I love you and Jesus loves you."  After a few times of doing this she came back to Pastor Wilson and said she wanted to stay on one bus with one particular boy who seemed troubled.  The pastor said OK. 

One day as the bus got close to the boy's home, he turned to the lady and said, "I love you, too."  He got of the bus and left her in stunned amazement.  Those were the only words he had ever said to her.  That happened at 2:30 pm.

At 6:30 pm that night, the boy's lifeless body was found in a garbage bag under a fire escape.  His mother had flown into a rage and beaten him to death and hid his body there. 

Some of the last words he heard were, "I love you and Jesus loves you."  On the last day of his tragic life he told her "I love you too."

The bus riding lady, who could not speak much English, had not produced great results in any statistical way but she had been very effective.  Sometimes there is a big difference between producing measurable results and doing something that is truly effective. 

Jesus never asked his disciples to produce any results.  He simply asked them to be obedient and from that He would make them effective. What do you evaluate your life and your ministry by - results or effectiveness?  We will take a look at this Sunday.

For the journey...