A thought on Meditation

I recently picked up Spiritual Classics - Selected readings for Individuals and Groups on the Twelve Spiritual Disciplines, to assist me with my devotional life. Those of you that know me know that I am a restless soul, and the inward disciplines of meditation and solitude don't come naturally to me. The one I read today is one I want to share with you.

It is from St. Thomas More, and it is a wonderful contemplative, meditative prayer written in the 16th Century:

Give me Thy grace, good Lord
to set the world at nought;

To set my mind fast upon Thee,
and not to hang upon the blast of men’s mouths;

To be content to be solitary,
not to long for worldly company;

Little by little utterly to cast off the world,
and rid my mind of all the business thereof;

Not to long to hear of any worldly things,
but that the hearing of worldly phantasies may be to me unpleasant;

Gladly to be thinking of thee,
piteously to call for thy help;

To lean unto the comfort of thee,
busily to labor to love You;

To know my own vileness and wretchedness,
to be humble and meeken myself under the mighty hand of God;

To bewail my sins passed,
for the purging of them patiently to suffer adversity;

Gladly to bear my purgatory here,
to be joyful of tribulations;

To walk the narrow way that leads to life,
to bear the cross with Christ;

To have the last thing in remembrance,
to have ever before my eye my death that is ever at hand;

To make death no stranger to me,
to foresee and consider the everlasting fire of hell;

To pray for pardon before the Judge come,
to have continually in mind the passion that Christ suffered for me;

For His benefits unceasingly to give Him thanks,
to buy the time again that I before have lost;

To abstain from vain conversations,
to eschew light foolish mirth and gladness;

Recreations not necessary to cut off,
of worldly substance, friends, liberty, life and all, to set the loss as nothing
for the winning of Christ;

To think my greatest enemies my best friends,
for the brethren of Joseph could never have done him so much good
with their love and favor as they did him with their malice and hatred.

Give me the grace so to spend my life,
that when the day of my death shall come,

though I may feel pain in my body,
I may feel comfort in soul;

and with faithful hope in thy mercy,
in due love towards thee
and charity towards the world,

I may, through thy grace,
part hence into thy glory.

Amen.

Pray that prayer and let the Lord work in you with it. I'd love to hear where it takes you

Greatest threat to Marriage?

Read this post and let me know what you think. The author is reacting to a recent publication from our denomination re: Gay marriage.

The author makes a very salient point during all of this discussion over subverting the institution of marriage.

Yes indeed there is a biblical standard for marriage however it does not seem that as human beings let alone the most fundamentalist of Christians that it matters much or that we have set the practical standard that high. It only makes sense to me that Homosexuals would want to take a crack at being married, especially when we don't tend to do any better at it as a whole than society at large. I agree with the letter, the American family is being subverted; not by the efforts of a very small minority, but by the actions of a plank-eyed plurality. The single greatest threat to the sacrament of marriage in America is the rampant and wanton abuse of divorce by heterosexual Christians. The next greatest threat to the sacrament of marriage in America is rampant and wanton abuse of sex in all it's forms by heterosexual Christians.

I'm going to spend some time praying about that thought. I think he is on to something. Not that it means that homosexual marriage is right. But heterosexuals have so devalued marriage that it does seem a bit hypocritical to scream about protecting something we don't really seem to value.

We in the church need to make a concerted effort to show that we value marriage. That may mean that we go to great lengths to keep marriages from falling apart in our congregations. We need a radical type of community where people know each other well enough to sense these things before the wheels come off the train. How that works, I'm not sure. But we do need to end this epidemic of disposable marriage that is rampant in the church.

Lord help us.

When God moves in

Sometimes in the midst of all of our doing, God moves in and does something that just grabs your attention. Our church has had an evangelist here since Saturday for revival services. We've been praying for months for these services and the Lord is honoring our prayers.

Last night we anointed people for healing. You know my disdain for the charlatans of the world who are out there duping people for money with their healing act. But I witnessed with my own eyes a man awaiting knee surgery lose the pain and gain the ability to jump up and down, when he could not walk without pain prior to that. I also witnessed a woman who was barely able to sit up be healed and was bouncing around the sanctuary after the service. I know both of these people and believe that what they are feeling is real.

Thank you Lord for bursting in on our lives when we need it. It is awesome to watch.

This bears repeating

I am not so vain as to try to repeat myself because I am so brilliant (we all know that is not true). Rather, I know that some of you out there are going through a very rough patch in the body of Christ. I grieve with you for the hurt that is in you, and pray with you that God will redeem the situation and build his kingdom from it. To that end, I encourage you, if you are in this category, to read this post and meditate on the thought that it contains.

I know it is painful right now, but God is a big God and he can and will protect his church, including all of the members of the body of Christ.

Take heart, pray hard, and trust God. Lean on the truth of the words God spoke to Joshua “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995, S. Jos 1:9

My prayers go with you.

Pray for this church

I recently returned from 2 weeks on campus at Nazarene Theological Seminary for my next round of module classes. I'm nearly 1/2 done. Woo Hoo! While I was there the Lord impressed upon me the need to pray for each other, especially for those who are already in ministry. So I asked my classmates to share any requests that they may have with me and I would post them here.

Jeremy Smallwood is one of my classmates and he is on staff at the Selinsgrove Church of the Nazarene in Pennsylvania. He asked that we pray for the following:

Pray for our witness to students from Susquehanna University, who are returning and beginning classes this week. Ministry to transient college students is hard, but we have an obligation to them due to our close proximity. Pray for God to give wisdom to the pastoral staff and church participants in taking advantage of opportunities to reach out.

Will you join me in praying for Jeremy, his congregation and his mission field? They have a tough assignment, but one that God can see them through. Our prayers will provide them with power, guidance and a clear field as they advance the kingdom of God.

Restore to me the joy

Psalm 51:12 - Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

My heart aches at times for the struggles I see in the world, and in the church. I see the hurt caused by unforgiveness, hatred, evil, laziness and so many other things, and it begins to weigh on me. This is my prayer as I am in the 2nd week of 8.5 hours per day of classes at NTS.

"Restore to me the joy of my salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me."

Sometimes in all of the stuff of life the joy of our salvation gets buried in the avalanche of daily living. The closeness we felt to the one who rescued us from the mire seems so long ago as we grind out our daily lives.

Today, I simply ask you to join me in asking God to restore to me the joy of your salvation. Take me back to the place where I first fell in love with you and let me dwell there for a while. Then give me a spirit to go join the fray again.

Come Lord Jesus, Come.

Sharing the hurt

One of the things I love about coming to Nazarene Theological Seminary is the emphasis that is placed on the shared sense of Christian community. The seminary community shares its hurts and triumphs deeply, and I get a sense of that when I am on campus for my 2 week stints.

I recently became aware of a great deal of hurt being shared by my friends within the church. It pains me to see it happen, because it damages the body of Christ and hurts the witness of the church when ugliness spills out into the community. But I understand how it happens, and I grieve for those who are hurting.

Saying "I'm praying for you" can seem so perfunctory, but it is also very powerful. When we bring our grief to the Throne of Grace and throw ourselves on the mercy of God. And when we powerfully intercede on behalf of those who are hurting, we build the kind of community the church is supposed to be. It is to be a glimpse of heaven on earth. It isn't Heaven, but it is supposed to provide us with a taste of what is to come.

So I do that. I pray for my hurting friends. I pray for the Bride of Christ who doesn't need her reputation sullied again. I pray that God will redeem the situation and bring good from pain. But I wish that we didn't have to keep doing this. Some day that will come. It's just not today.

My Ode to the Detroit Lions

Click on the clip and listen. The chorus says it all.

Overstaying your welcome

If you haven't followed the sad saga of Kwame Kilpatrick, you can review it at the Detroit Free Press Website. In the past few weeks the sitting mayor has been in court, been in Canada in violation of his bond, been in jail, on a tether, off a tether and back on a tether. He has been a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, and today was uninvited by the Obama camp.



It's just sad that he is so narcissistic as to stay in office in the face of 10, count them, 10 felony counts for perjury, obstruction of justice and assault. This all goes back to using taxpayer money to buy the silence of unlawfully fired police officers who discovered that the mayor was having an affair and allegedly perjured himself during that trial.

It's just sad that he is putting the City and state through all of this. If he was an honorable person, he would resign and not use taxpayer funds for his defense. The city is cash-strapped as it is, and this doesn't help.

We need to pray for those in authority. This is a disaster.

Back to the Stone Age

It seems that no matter what we do energy-wise, we are doomed. Let's just face it. We need to go back to a pre-industrial revolution lifestyle so that no one can damage the planet or be damaged by any of the modern technology that we are so dependent on.

To wit, I've listed some of the problems with the current and future sources of energy that are being bantered about.

Wind turbines chop up birds and cause medical problems. So much for the "clean, renewable" source of energy. Not to mention that they are unattractive.

Ethanol raises food prices and is inefficient. There goes the Iowa farmer subsidy program. Thank goodness the presidential candidates won't be back there handing out our money for a fuel that is less efficient than gasoline. And I don't see large amounts of acreage dedicated to switchgrass.

Drilling for oil on our coasts would be a catastrophe. So much so that Nancy Pelosi won't even allow the House of Representatives to vote on the issue. Just discussing it would cause harm.

Nuclear Power is fraught with peril. Didn't we all see The China Syndrome? And what to do with the waste since Harry Reid won't allow the Yucca Mountain containment facility to be built.

Hydroelectric power destroys fish habitat. Salmon can't migrate past those massive dams.

Coal causes global warming. And we know Al Gore and his private jet are running around showing his movie and Nobel prize to remind us of that.

Solar power technology is not there yet. Presumably because Big Oil has the secret formula locked away with the 100 mpg carburetor somewhere in their vault.

My advice to you all is to go buy some land and livestock, and begin reading the Little House on the Prairie books for advice on how to live. If the politicians get their way, we will all need to step into our "Way Back Machine" and dramatically reduce our energy usage. Learn to cook over a wood fire and use all-natural materials. The 21st century is calling.

Come Lord Jesus, Come.

Too much sex on TV?

Duh. But it's the wrong kind of sex, according to a recent study. It seems that a majority of the sex and innuendo so prevalent on television is extramarital or kinky, not sex between married partners. I'm not prone to conspiracy theories, so I don't think this is some grand Hollywood conspiracy to destroy the country. But I do think it is indicative of the morality of Hollywood, where marriage is a disposable item and the hook-up culture is all the rage in the tabloids.

I'm grateful for the parental controls on DirecTV. At least I can somewhat control what programs my kids watch. Commercials are another matter, and there are plenty of suggestive and racy commercials out there as well.

It's tough raising kids in this environment. It really is.

Fodder for a political season

Go to the World Clock and look at any number of statistics that are fodder for all sides of the political discussion. The Malaria number bothers me because it is preventable, but the weapon of choice is illegal. The people who contract it do so only because of their geography and socio-economic condition, not any behavior of their own.

Comments are always welcome.

This is satire

Warning: If you are a reader of The New Yorker, a member of the mainstream media or the Obama campaign (roughly the same thing), or are not very bright, the following video clip is satire of a non-political nature. For the rest of you, enjoy, chuckle and let it challenge you.

Share some thoughts if it prompts any. I've loved Donald Miller's books, and wouldn't mind hearing him speak.

Help is still needed

I realize that the media has gone into "All Obama, All the Time" mode as the Democratic nominee goes on his world tour, but there is still a great need for help in Iowa from the flooding last month.

If you are part of a church, your denomination probably has a system for you to contribute through. If not, the American Red Cross and Salvation Army have opportunities.

Here is a clip from the Church of the Nazarene about the human impact of the flooding.

Thoughts in my mailbox today

I subscribe to Soul Care, a free daily email from the Church of the Nazarene Office of Clergy Development. Each day I receive an email with a scripture, Wisdom from Fellow Pilgrims, and a prayer.

Here is what I received today:

Be Encouraged by God’s Word May all the gifts and benefits that come from God our Father, and the Master, Jesus Christ, be yours. — 1 Corinthians 1:3, MSG Wisdom from Fellow Pilgrims Tomorrow God isn't going to ask What did you dream? What did you think? What did you plan? What did you preach? He's going to ask What did you do? — Michel Quoist Pray Together with Us Father God, Help me discover ministries in interruptions patience in frustrations trust in uncertainties Your presence in loneliness.

— Neil B. Wiseman

I was challenged by the "What did you do?" section first. What have I done? I think that is always a good introspective question to ask. It's often sobering, but worthwhile.

Patience in frustrations is an area of grace the Lord is working on with me. I'm not a patient man, but God is moving there, despite me.

I just thought you might benefit from seeing those

I need deliverance

Pray for me please. I am in the throes of a terribly abusive relationship, and I do not know how to end it. I've tried, trust me, I have tried, but I can't break free of this. Please pray for me.

Who is my abuser, you ask?

The Detroit Lions.

I can't stop watching them. I'm reading preseason stories even before training camp begins. In my lifetime, the Lions have been a horrendous team. The one year they won their only playoff game since Mr. Ford bought the team in 1963, I was in South Dakota. They have been an unending source of disappointment and heartache, punctuated by moments of competence and hope, only to be dashed on the rocks of reality. Even the great Barry Sanders and coach Bobby Ross quit because they couldn't handle the losing. Yet I continue to give them my attention and affection, and they give me bupkus in return.

Watch the clip below to see a synopsis of their recent futility.

To quote Brokeback Mountain: "I wish I knew how to quit you."



Pray for me please. I'm tempted to get rid of my television, but then I'd just listen on the radio.

Our Theology of Creation Care

The care of the environment has become a front-burner public issue the last few years with all of the Global Warming hoopla, oil prices rising, hurricanes and other events that seem to grasp the attention of the public and those folks in Washington, D.C.

This article has an interesting take on Creation Care from an evangelical viewpoint. I'll try to address it more completely later, but I wanted to throw it out there for you to chew on.

It's in my neighborhood as well

If you thought Michael Vick's arrest and conviction brought this issue to a halt, you were sadly mistaken. Just yesterday the Wayne County (Michigan) Sheriff's Department raided a dog fighting ring and netted $27,000 while arresting 53 individuals. I still don't get the appeal of dog fighting, but I know it exists in my neighborhood.

Here is another story from last week in Ypsilanti, which is just a little north and west of where I live.

I know there is a lot of injustice in the world, but this is so unnecessary. To think that we would watch animals destroy each other for our gambling amusement. It's hard to think charitable things about the people who do this. Yet we are called by God to pray for them. Join me in that please.

I feel her pain

Read this story and shake your head. The government and the Red Cross seem a wee bit overprotective here. Like this lady, I had a false positive test for something and after repeated tests by my doctor and 14 years of time passing, I am still permanently barred from donating blood.

It seems that they would have some sort of process that would allow me back into the system when repeated tests indicate that I have never had the disease in question. But that isn't how bureaucracies work I guess.

I hope no one dies because of a shortage of blood donors. Because the error-plagued system we have is sidelining people.

What on earth?

It isn't often that I am speechless, but watching this left my jaw hanging open. I cannot even imagine an entire television show of this. Here is a link to some info about this guy.