It has been an interesting week in Vacation Bible School at Northside. VBS usually stands for Vacation Bible School but when you deal with the human mass of 340 children in one place we have found that it can also stand for Vomit, Blood and Spit. Don't get me wrong; it has been a great week, but when you deal with that many kids you deal with those things too. Fortunately, there have not been too many instances of the body fluids VBS.
There were interesting encounters with kids sharing some unusual insights. Here's one of mine.
Girl: Are you tired?
Me: Well, yes, I am a little tired. Why?
Girl: Because you have these dark things under your eyes. There is a girl in the mall who can fix those though.
Me: Really? Is it free?
Girl: Ummm... no.
Even with dark things under my eyes I have seen a large number of kids turn to follow Christ or deepen their walk. With others, it was planting a seed that God will grow in His time, maybe before the next VBS. I have seen an army of volunteers work together this week to serve children and point them to God - students, adults, senior adults - all came together for a common goal and worked incredibly well together. With workers and children I have sense God at work. The good news is that when VBS is over, He doesn't stop.
For the journey....
Tim
Friday, June 15, 2012
Friday, June 8, 2012
Unreached People
We had the pleasure Wednesday of hosting some Christians workers from Afghanistan. I will be cautious in saying too much about them on the internet. In Afghanistan it is not illegal to be a Christian but it is forbidden to become one or to evangelize. This committed couple have ministered in that part of the world for 28 years. They are trying to reach a people group that has a million people for every Christian worker with their group. As he works as pastor of an international church there (made up of over 15 nationalities) she labors with a relief agency that helps the blind. They told us much about Afghanistan that we did not know. It is a daunting challenge; a truly God sized task.
One thing really surprised me though, that in their 28 years, the number one reason for people converting to Christianity was the lifestyle of committed Christians. They had tried Bible studies, discussion groups, one on one evangelism but the thing that did the most good was living out the love of God and letting the people see it and ask about it. Of course they consistently but cautiously share their faith, but the people there respond to a truly committed Christian life because it is so different from the way everyone else lives.
In this country where photos of a small group of Christians celebrating baptism resulted in national news headlines for a week, requiring every one in the photos to leave the country or be arrested, it is not easy to be or become a Christian. That is why our friends asked us to pray for the future of Afghanistan. The people are tired of war and seek peace. The only solution is the peace of Christ. Their specific request would that there would always be a Christian presence in the country so people could see the message of Christ lived out. I believe God is able to work that out.
Our friends also said what led them there - a desire to reach an unreached people group. They are 2 of 44 know Christian workers who labor to work with a people group of over 40 million in a war torn and difficult environment; yet they were able to tell us about God being at work.
The reality is that every new generation is an unreached people group. As the saying goes,"Christianity is only one generation away from extinction." It has always been that way and certainly is in our day. We must do all we can to win the next generation. We don't face the daunting task of Afghanistan, but we do face a huge task. How can we face it? We will talk more about that Sunday.
For the journey...
Tim
One thing really surprised me though, that in their 28 years, the number one reason for people converting to Christianity was the lifestyle of committed Christians. They had tried Bible studies, discussion groups, one on one evangelism but the thing that did the most good was living out the love of God and letting the people see it and ask about it. Of course they consistently but cautiously share their faith, but the people there respond to a truly committed Christian life because it is so different from the way everyone else lives.
In this country where photos of a small group of Christians celebrating baptism resulted in national news headlines for a week, requiring every one in the photos to leave the country or be arrested, it is not easy to be or become a Christian. That is why our friends asked us to pray for the future of Afghanistan. The people are tired of war and seek peace. The only solution is the peace of Christ. Their specific request would that there would always be a Christian presence in the country so people could see the message of Christ lived out. I believe God is able to work that out.
Our friends also said what led them there - a desire to reach an unreached people group. They are 2 of 44 know Christian workers who labor to work with a people group of over 40 million in a war torn and difficult environment; yet they were able to tell us about God being at work.
The reality is that every new generation is an unreached people group. As the saying goes,"Christianity is only one generation away from extinction." It has always been that way and certainly is in our day. We must do all we can to win the next generation. We don't face the daunting task of Afghanistan, but we do face a huge task. How can we face it? We will talk more about that Sunday.
For the journey...
Tim
Friday, June 1, 2012
Keeping Up Appearances
One person pretends to be rich but has nothing.
Another pretends to be poor but has great wealth.
Proverbs 13:7 GW
When I read that verse a story that I had read by noted Texas author J. Frank Dobie came to mind. Dobie wrote of a personal experience long years ago when he was visiting a Texas town where a very wealthy rancher lived. He met the rancher in town and noted his shabby appearance. He had a pair of very worn pants on that had a tear in them. The rancher had taken a mesquite torn and used it to close the tear like you might use a pin. It was something of a poor man's solution on this very wealthy man's clothes. Dobie asked the rancher why he didn't go buy some new pants. The rancher's reply was that everyone in this town knew he had money, he did not need to up on any show for anyone.
Time passed and Dobie made a trip to Chicago and near the stock yards there he encountered the same rancher. To Dobie's amazement he had on the same torn pants with the mesquite thorn patch. Dobie asked him why in the world would he wear these pants on a business trip to Chicago? The rancher's reply was that he did not want anyone here to think that he had money.
Though eccentric, there is some wisdom to the old rancher's logic. How much are we influenced by the "must haves" of our day. How did even the term "must have" become a part of our vernacular? We live in a world where we are bombarded with advertising and social pressures to look a certain way, buy certain things and keep up appearances. None of those things change the person we are inside. How often do we "upgrade" just to have the latest things? How much money do we spend and how much debt do we incur for outer things that make no difference to who we are becoming? How much do you and I "pretend." We need a wisdom from God to deal with wealth and to deal with the pressures of this world. The greater reality is there is a wisdom from God that we "must have." Thankfully we have a God who gives. We will talk more on that Sunday.
For the journey....
Tim
Another pretends to be poor but has great wealth.
Proverbs 13:7 GW
When I read that verse a story that I had read by noted Texas author J. Frank Dobie came to mind. Dobie wrote of a personal experience long years ago when he was visiting a Texas town where a very wealthy rancher lived. He met the rancher in town and noted his shabby appearance. He had a pair of very worn pants on that had a tear in them. The rancher had taken a mesquite torn and used it to close the tear like you might use a pin. It was something of a poor man's solution on this very wealthy man's clothes. Dobie asked the rancher why he didn't go buy some new pants. The rancher's reply was that everyone in this town knew he had money, he did not need to up on any show for anyone.
Time passed and Dobie made a trip to Chicago and near the stock yards there he encountered the same rancher. To Dobie's amazement he had on the same torn pants with the mesquite thorn patch. Dobie asked him why in the world would he wear these pants on a business trip to Chicago? The rancher's reply was that he did not want anyone here to think that he had money.
Though eccentric, there is some wisdom to the old rancher's logic. How much are we influenced by the "must haves" of our day. How did even the term "must have" become a part of our vernacular? We live in a world where we are bombarded with advertising and social pressures to look a certain way, buy certain things and keep up appearances. None of those things change the person we are inside. How often do we "upgrade" just to have the latest things? How much money do we spend and how much debt do we incur for outer things that make no difference to who we are becoming? How much do you and I "pretend." We need a wisdom from God to deal with wealth and to deal with the pressures of this world. The greater reality is there is a wisdom from God that we "must have." Thankfully we have a God who gives. We will talk more on that Sunday.
For the journey....
Tim
Monday, May 28, 2012
Remembering
I have had this article saved since I saw it in the Dallas Morning News in 1994. Every time I read it, I am reminded why we have a Memorial Day. Ernie Pyle was a famous World War II journalist who was later killed in combat before the end of the war. Here are, in part, his words worthy of repeat and reading this day...
The Front Lines in Italy - January 10, 1944 - The Death of an Officer - A Dispatch by Ernie Pyle
"In this war I have known a lot of officers who were loved and respected by the soldiers under them. But never have I crossed the trail of any man as beloved as Capt. Henry T. Waskow of Belton, Texas. Capt. Waskow was a company commander in the 36th Division. He had led his company since long before it left the States. He was very young, only in his middle twenties. But he carried in him a sincerity and gentleness that made people want to be guided by him.
'After my own father, he came next," a sergeant told me. 'He always looked after us," a soldier said. 'He'd go to bat for us every time.' 'I've never known him to do anything unfair,' another one said.
I was at the foot of the mule train the night they brought Capt. Waskow's body down. The moon was nearly full at the time and you could see far up the trail... Dead men had been coming down the mountain all evening, lashed on the backs of mules. They came lying belly-down across the wooden pack-saddles, their heads hanging down on the left side of the mule, their stiffened legs sticking out awkwardly from the other side.
The first one came down early in the morning. They slid him down from the mule and stood him on his feet for a moment, while they got a better grip. In the half light he might have been merely a sick man standing there leaning on the others. Then they laid him on the ground in the shadow of the low stone wall along the road. The soldiers who led (the mules) stood there waiting. 'This one is Captain Waskow,' one of them said quietly.
The men in the road seemed reluctant to leave. They stood around and gradually one by one I could sense them moving close to Capt. Waskow's body. Not so much to look, I think, as to say something in finality to him, and to themselves. I stood close by and I could hear."
[Pyle then explained how two soldiers came by and simply cursed and walked away].
"Another man came; he was an officer. The man looked down into the dead captain's face and then he spoke directly to him, as though he were alive. He said, 'I'm sorry old man.' Then a soldier came and stood beside the officer and bent over, and he too spoke to his dead captain, not a whisper but awfully tenderly and said, 'I sure am sorry sir.'
Then the first man squatted down and he reached down and took the dead hand and he sat there for a full five minutes, holding the dead hand in his own and looking intently into the dead face and he never uttered a sound all the time he sat there.
And finally he put the hand down and then he reached up and gently straightened the points of the captain's shirt collar and then he sort of rearranged the edges of his uniform around the wound. And then he got up and walked away down the road in the moonlight, all alone..."
This Memorial Day we have this and much, much more to gratefully remember.
For the journey...
Tim
The Front Lines in Italy - January 10, 1944 - The Death of an Officer - A Dispatch by Ernie Pyle
"In this war I have known a lot of officers who were loved and respected by the soldiers under them. But never have I crossed the trail of any man as beloved as Capt. Henry T. Waskow of Belton, Texas. Capt. Waskow was a company commander in the 36th Division. He had led his company since long before it left the States. He was very young, only in his middle twenties. But he carried in him a sincerity and gentleness that made people want to be guided by him.
'After my own father, he came next," a sergeant told me. 'He always looked after us," a soldier said. 'He'd go to bat for us every time.' 'I've never known him to do anything unfair,' another one said.
I was at the foot of the mule train the night they brought Capt. Waskow's body down. The moon was nearly full at the time and you could see far up the trail... Dead men had been coming down the mountain all evening, lashed on the backs of mules. They came lying belly-down across the wooden pack-saddles, their heads hanging down on the left side of the mule, their stiffened legs sticking out awkwardly from the other side.
The first one came down early in the morning. They slid him down from the mule and stood him on his feet for a moment, while they got a better grip. In the half light he might have been merely a sick man standing there leaning on the others. Then they laid him on the ground in the shadow of the low stone wall along the road. The soldiers who led (the mules) stood there waiting. 'This one is Captain Waskow,' one of them said quietly.
The men in the road seemed reluctant to leave. They stood around and gradually one by one I could sense them moving close to Capt. Waskow's body. Not so much to look, I think, as to say something in finality to him, and to themselves. I stood close by and I could hear."
[Pyle then explained how two soldiers came by and simply cursed and walked away].
"Another man came; he was an officer. The man looked down into the dead captain's face and then he spoke directly to him, as though he were alive. He said, 'I'm sorry old man.' Then a soldier came and stood beside the officer and bent over, and he too spoke to his dead captain, not a whisper but awfully tenderly and said, 'I sure am sorry sir.'
Then the first man squatted down and he reached down and took the dead hand and he sat there for a full five minutes, holding the dead hand in his own and looking intently into the dead face and he never uttered a sound all the time he sat there.
And finally he put the hand down and then he reached up and gently straightened the points of the captain's shirt collar and then he sort of rearranged the edges of his uniform around the wound. And then he got up and walked away down the road in the moonlight, all alone..."
This Memorial Day we have this and much, much more to gratefully remember.
For the journey...
Tim
Friday, May 25, 2012
Moving Boundaries
"Do not move and ancient boundary stone set up by your forefathers." Proverbs 22:28
When I came across that verse this week I began to ask how to apply that today. There are not many ancient boundary stones in our time. Property lines are pretty well drawn here in Texas. It is interesting what did come to my mind about this verse though.
A memory of a day in Houston with my mother as she was being treated at M D Anderson came to me. We had gone over to a relatives home for the evening before returning to the hospital and more treatment the next day. We discussed how it would be good for my mother to watch a funny movie to lighten the day, but what to watch? I do not remember how we came to the conclusion to try "Oh Brother Where Art Thou." Maybe because that movie has a rural, depression era setting and my mother was a child of the depression and rural settings. Regardless, it wasn't long into the movie that we saw this was not a good idea. For one, my mother did not find it funny. For another thing, it all hit us that there were a lot of curse words in that movie; more than any of us who had seen it previously remembered. But somehow watching a movie with your mother makes you catch words that had just slipped by before.
It dawned on me this week as that verse from Proverbs and that movie with my mom memory collided - here was a modern application to "a boundary stone set up by your forefathers." While I was growing up my parents often turned off a TV show if they heard cursing in it. There wasn't a big lecture or discussion, it just went off or the TV was turned to something else. Now we were all adults when we watched that movie in Houston but that did not matter. It wasn't just that my mother did not want her children to hear cursing, it was that there was a stand she had taken about supporting or watching things like that. It was not worth it to her. There were better things to do. A boundary stone had been set in my parent's lives. They were not letting it move. In my adult years, it had been moved, but by whom and when? What else had I grown accepting of and deaf toward? How many other things had I become desensitized to without being aware of it? Was I better off? I have thought about those questions often this week. The answer to the last question is clear, "No, I am not better off." I think my parents were. They had a clear boundary stone and they did not allow it to be moved. There is much to be said for that.
You and I live in a day in which the ancient boundary stones in society's moral code get pushed back every day in the name of entertainment and pushing the artistic "envelope." There are those out there who actively want those stones moved in society and labor purposely to do just that. It is not just about cursing. It has to do with what is right and what is wrong and trying to blur that line. I have to ask myself, "How much have I accommodated them in my own life?" I once heard a challenging question in a sermon, "What ideas are using you to spread themselves?" That is something I need wisdom to carefully, prayerfully ponder. Perhaps I am not alone.
For the journey...
Tim
When I came across that verse this week I began to ask how to apply that today. There are not many ancient boundary stones in our time. Property lines are pretty well drawn here in Texas. It is interesting what did come to my mind about this verse though.
A memory of a day in Houston with my mother as she was being treated at M D Anderson came to me. We had gone over to a relatives home for the evening before returning to the hospital and more treatment the next day. We discussed how it would be good for my mother to watch a funny movie to lighten the day, but what to watch? I do not remember how we came to the conclusion to try "Oh Brother Where Art Thou." Maybe because that movie has a rural, depression era setting and my mother was a child of the depression and rural settings. Regardless, it wasn't long into the movie that we saw this was not a good idea. For one, my mother did not find it funny. For another thing, it all hit us that there were a lot of curse words in that movie; more than any of us who had seen it previously remembered. But somehow watching a movie with your mother makes you catch words that had just slipped by before.
It dawned on me this week as that verse from Proverbs and that movie with my mom memory collided - here was a modern application to "a boundary stone set up by your forefathers." While I was growing up my parents often turned off a TV show if they heard cursing in it. There wasn't a big lecture or discussion, it just went off or the TV was turned to something else. Now we were all adults when we watched that movie in Houston but that did not matter. It wasn't just that my mother did not want her children to hear cursing, it was that there was a stand she had taken about supporting or watching things like that. It was not worth it to her. There were better things to do. A boundary stone had been set in my parent's lives. They were not letting it move. In my adult years, it had been moved, but by whom and when? What else had I grown accepting of and deaf toward? How many other things had I become desensitized to without being aware of it? Was I better off? I have thought about those questions often this week. The answer to the last question is clear, "No, I am not better off." I think my parents were. They had a clear boundary stone and they did not allow it to be moved. There is much to be said for that.
You and I live in a day in which the ancient boundary stones in society's moral code get pushed back every day in the name of entertainment and pushing the artistic "envelope." There are those out there who actively want those stones moved in society and labor purposely to do just that. It is not just about cursing. It has to do with what is right and what is wrong and trying to blur that line. I have to ask myself, "How much have I accommodated them in my own life?" I once heard a challenging question in a sermon, "What ideas are using you to spread themselves?" That is something I need wisdom to carefully, prayerfully ponder. Perhaps I am not alone.
For the journey...
Tim
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Pleasing Proverbs
So how is this Proverbs Project thing working out for you? I hope well. I must confess it has not been what I expected for myself. I had read through Proverbs in a very focused way in preparation for this effort but now that we have entered into it and I am reading through Proverbs again I have struggled finding the same "focus" I had in preparation. We have been running here and there for graduations, moving and mission trips and I was not getting out of this what I had wanted. I was not really hearing these Proverbs in a deeper way like I had expected.
So, I confessed that and prayed for more focus and then in Proverbs 15:8 a little word hit me. The word is "pleases." That verse says this, "The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases him." I became aware that I was very concerned about all this Proverbs Project pleasing me and had spent very little thought or effort on what pleases God. So that became my focus and it is amazing what a difference it makes when we live to please God and not ourselves. I began to ask myself, "What would be pleasing to the Lord?" It is amazingly simple yet profound.
One of my favorite movies is "Chariots of Fire" based in part on the real life of runner and missionary Eric Lyddle. In my favorite scene, Eric is training for the Olympics but his sister is troubled that his running is taking away his focus from God's work. Eric takes his sister on a walk and explains to her his reasoning and his motive, "God made me fast and when I run I feel His pleasure."
What greater thing in life can we find than to feel God's pleasure? I don't know how this Proverbs Project is working out for you but know that if you are seeking God's wisdom for your life, you are running where you can feel His pleasure. Keep going.
For the journey...
Tim
So, I confessed that and prayed for more focus and then in Proverbs 15:8 a little word hit me. The word is "pleases." That verse says this, "The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases him." I became aware that I was very concerned about all this Proverbs Project pleasing me and had spent very little thought or effort on what pleases God. So that became my focus and it is amazing what a difference it makes when we live to please God and not ourselves. I began to ask myself, "What would be pleasing to the Lord?" It is amazingly simple yet profound.
One of my favorite movies is "Chariots of Fire" based in part on the real life of runner and missionary Eric Lyddle. In my favorite scene, Eric is training for the Olympics but his sister is troubled that his running is taking away his focus from God's work. Eric takes his sister on a walk and explains to her his reasoning and his motive, "God made me fast and when I run I feel His pleasure."
What greater thing in life can we find than to feel God's pleasure? I don't know how this Proverbs Project is working out for you but know that if you are seeking God's wisdom for your life, you are running where you can feel His pleasure. Keep going.
For the journey...
Tim
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Dewberry Proverbs
One of the things that my mother passed on to me was a love of dewberry jelly. She was good at making it, I was good at eating it. Now for those of you who are not wise to the ways of dewberries - a dewberry is a wild berry, smaller than but similar to a blackberry, that grows on a thorny vine along the fence lines and out of the way places of south Texas. They are rare, fleeting, difficult to pick but wonderful when prepared right; much like the best things in life.
We are right at the end of dewberry season. Judith and I were able to make one brief trip to pick berries after our return from Israel. While picking berries I thought about our Proverbs Project and some dewberry wisdom began to take shape in proverbs form. Here are a few proverbs (along with commentary)...
One person can pick a dewberry vine and find berries;
another person can come along behind them and find what they missed.
(No one sees it all, we all see a part of reality and we miss other parts that perhaps others will see. We need others to see everything).
Sweet and rare things often grow among thorns.
(When you look back on life, don't you see some valuable lessons learned from some pretty prickly places you had to go through)?
A man's pasture may have many berries,
but a sluggard says they are too much trouble to pick.
(The best things in life are not easy. That is why they are the best things).
To pick dewberries you must stoop down; dewberries do not grow in "safe" places.
(To get things done with integrity you must be humble and be willing to stoop low in some places. You also must be aware there are snakes out there too. That is the way life is in this fallen world).
You can take dew berries from the vine, but the vine will leave its marks.
(No one can pick dewberries without getting scratched a little. Any thing in life worth doing will also leave a few scratches on you too but in the end it is worth it).
If a man finds a wife who picks dewberries and knows how to make them into jelly, he should brag on her at the city gates...or in his blog.
(My wife made four jars of jelly and we still have enough for a pie. I am a blessed man).
Happy Mother's Day weekend.
For the journey...
Tim
We are right at the end of dewberry season. Judith and I were able to make one brief trip to pick berries after our return from Israel. While picking berries I thought about our Proverbs Project and some dewberry wisdom began to take shape in proverbs form. Here are a few proverbs (along with commentary)...
One person can pick a dewberry vine and find berries;
another person can come along behind them and find what they missed.
(No one sees it all, we all see a part of reality and we miss other parts that perhaps others will see. We need others to see everything).
Sweet and rare things often grow among thorns.
(When you look back on life, don't you see some valuable lessons learned from some pretty prickly places you had to go through)?
A man's pasture may have many berries,
but a sluggard says they are too much trouble to pick.
(The best things in life are not easy. That is why they are the best things).
To pick dewberries you must stoop down; dewberries do not grow in "safe" places.
(To get things done with integrity you must be humble and be willing to stoop low in some places. You also must be aware there are snakes out there too. That is the way life is in this fallen world).
You can take dew berries from the vine, but the vine will leave its marks.
(No one can pick dewberries without getting scratched a little. Any thing in life worth doing will also leave a few scratches on you too but in the end it is worth it).
If a man finds a wife who picks dewberries and knows how to make them into jelly, he should brag on her at the city gates...or in his blog.
(My wife made four jars of jelly and we still have enough for a pie. I am a blessed man).
Happy Mother's Day weekend.
For the journey...
Tim
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