Last Nevis Post...What a Trip!

Well, we've been back in Knoxville less than a week and life is crazy busy once again.
Ok...I've been told we've made people mad and some have kidded us that we've been gloating. I feel bad if that's happening (we're NOT gloating, just sharing a joyful time with friends!), cause we certainly don't want anyone getting mad!! I pray that you ALL will have the opportunity to BE MARRIED FOR 20 YEARS TO A PERSON SEEKING CHRIST. THAT'S the REAL blessing! The trip was really just a celebration and rekindling of our most important earthy relationship.

Here's a FEW shots of our final two days on Nevis...

This pic was taken on May 12, the day of our 20th anniversary. We decided to eat at Coconut Grove, a restaurant in which we had eaten lunch one day earlier and really liked. We had met the owner, a Frenchman who had also lived in New York before selling all and moving to Nevis 5 years ago (he looks kind of like George Clooney). Awesome fish! Darla had some freshly caught local grouper that was INCREDIBLE! The restaurant's claim-to-fame is that it has the best wine cellar on the Island. But like a couple of nerds, we brought some non-alcoholic sparkling grape juice that they gave Darla at the Baptist Church for Mother's Day! We didn't care and neither did they. We couldn't take it home. It was a great time!


The view of the beach at twilight was so good. The gentle cool breeze was perfect! A quintessential group of wealthy Brits were there. It was so fun listening to them! It could have been a SNL skit! We were cracking up.


Really, for our last two days, we wanted to spend as much time on the beach as we could. So on the 13th that's what we did until lunch when we decided to go back to Peak Haven where we had eaten after our hike to Nevis Peak.

Here I am looking through the telescope.

I know it is funny, but Darla was always wanting to take pictures of the food we were eating. She took this after I had already eaten half of the chicken. IT WAS SOOO GOOD. It was a Nevis favorite: Curry chicken cooked in a stew. The cook's name is Llewellyn. He used to work at the Four Seasons resort. Such a nice and gentle man, and a great cook! Also on the plate are some yellow Nevis-grown sweet potatoes and other local veggies. I wish I could convey how good it was. Darla had a chicken sandwich made with Llewellyn's homemade bread. Mmmmm. And what a view while we ate. We conversed with the owners there too.

Afterward we decided to pop over to a place we had heard about from several sources: Golden Rock, a restored sugar plantation which has been turned into a restaurant and hotel. All I can say is...Wow. Darla and I were sad that we had not come sooner and eaten there. All these pics will perhaps show how excellent this place was. They had restored the original stone buildings and had added some water features and allowed the tropical plants to grow in just the right places.
Their specialty is their lobster sandwich. We had heard about it the whole time we'd been on Nevis but never went to try it. While walking around, one of the servers walked by with one. HUGE! Homemade thick-sliced bread LOADED with chunky lobster salad (yeah, like chicken salad)! Perhaps my only regret for our whole trip! We should have eaten here!! Even some of the rooms are in the remodeled ancient stone structures. I wish the pictures did this place more justice.







This pic is of the most desirable room there, the honeymoon suite, converted from a sugar mill tower. Darla (always curious to see how the inside looks) went up to the front door and nervously cupped her hands around her eyes at the glass to see inside. Assuming no one was there, she started oohing and aahing about how nice it was. I couldn't resist. I spoke loudly, "We're sorry, we didn't know anyone was in there--sorry!" Darla just about swallowed her tongue!! I wish I had a picture of her face! It was great.

Well, the dreaded day finally came when we had to leave Nevis. Here are some shots from the ferry as we departed and went to St. Kitts to fly home. We met a nice couple on the ferry from Boston who are attending seminary at Gordon Conwell. Great folks, and it was good to talk to some Americans.

It was truly sad to say goodbye to a little island we had grown to love, which has such kind people. Nevisians (pronounced Niv-EESH-uns) are almost all helpful and smiling. They speak perfect English and are very proud of their education (highest literacy rate of all western countries), low crime, rich history, and Christian heritage. They are hard-working people who have made their island great.
We boarded the ferry and took pictures all along the 45-minute ride to St. Kitts. We passed a big old freighter, a Carnival cruise ship, and other craft as we approached the port city of Basseterre. It is interesting that frequently while on Nevis, the Nevisians expressed disdain for St. Kitts. One Nevisian called Basseterre "thug city."








How to end...
I can't express how glad I am that we did this together. We'll be paying for the splurge for a while, but it was SOOO worth it. And Nevis couldn't have been better. I'm recharged and ready for another twenty and beyond!

Nevis...Amazing.

There is no way to describe it. God is good to us. Our trip just seems to go from great to even greater. Thanks to all of you who have wished us well. Again, no time to tell details. Here are some shots from the last two days or so.
Yesterday we spent most of the day lounging at the beach. We hung out next door at Nesbit Plantation. We went snorkeling and saw a lot of stuff. There's no way we can bring back the huge conch shells and other treasures we have found. Beautiful fish abound. Don't know if I mentioned it, but Lobsters are everywhere. I've caught
one but lost it swimming back in. They're not easy to catch...and can cut you up if you're not careful. Darla had an awesome lunch on the beach (Mahi Mahi sandwich with a tropical salsa on top, salad, & fries) and we shared a dessert.
A rich chocolate brownie with caramel, nuts, and coconut, served with great vanilla ice cream. Darla's favorite!!



This is what the beach is all about...reading a good book about American Christian history! I also finished a book about Eric Liddel, the Olympic runner about whom they made the movie, "Chariots of Fire." Awesome book. It's called Pure Gold. I highly recommend it.

It was not all paradise, however. Me being the adventuresome type, must push the envelope. I started getting coconuts for eating and drinking the coconut milk. Got a little obsessed with knocking them out of trees and figuring out how to get them open, etc.

Anyway, when Darla and I were leaving the beach to take a shower before dinner, I grabbed a rock bigger than my fist, said to Darla, "Watch out honey, I'm going to get a coconut." I threw it hard at a big coconut about 20 feet off the ground. It hit the coconut square and bounced right off AND RIGHT AT DARLA'S HEAD!! Thankfully she had her visor and sunglasses on which shielded her from the brunt of the blow. I thought she would have a concussion or her head was split open or worse! I couldn't have done that again if I tried all day for a year! She has a little bruise, but nothing serious. Whew! Thank you Lord. Stupid me. She's so patient with my A.D.D.

We went to town to eat and many restaurants were closed (go figure...we're learning that there are certain Nevis cultural ways). We finally found a place we had heard about called Seafood Madness. Sounds totally different than it is. This was actually a very peaceful place, and we had it all to ourselves. I totally splurged and got fresh lobster. UNBELIEVABLE. This was the MEDIUM!

It makes my mouth water just to see the pictures again. It was the best lobster ever. It's my favorite food, and I haven't had it in many years. I savored every bite. Does it seem like we're talking a lot about food?

Today we planned to hike the 3232 ft. Nevis Peak. It's in the center of the Island and is a huge inactive volcano. You can see it wherever you are on Nevis and there is almost ALWAYS a cloud on it. We've only seen the peak cloudless twice the whole time we've been here. I don't know why...something meteorological.

We had been told that it was very difficult and VERY dangerous to go without a guide. Stories of people who have been lost abound. Interestingly, when we tell locals we're hiking the peak, they respond with emotion. "Whoa...you're crazy!" kinds of responses. But you know me...it's there...we've got to hike it. Poor Darla. She's been dreading this the whole time.
We booked a guide (great guy, his name is Sheldon) and met him this morning at 9:45.

Let me tell you: I've hiked most of the hardest trails in the Smokies. This was SO hard. Over half of it was crawling STRAIGHT up on all fours, pulling on ropes over mud, tree roots, and slick rocks through the thickest jungle you can imagine! Darla is one of the toughest women I know. She wasn't feeling well for the first (less difficult) half because we ate a big breakfast before coming. But she sucked it up and made it! The whole time I was thinking about how sorry I was to get her into this.

This is one of the many flowers we saw on the way called "Bird of Paradise." The flora is amazing--like a big botanical garden--huge ferns, vines, trees that are nothing if not exotic. There were NO bugs, and Sheldon told us there were no dangerous animals of any kind (no snakes on the island due to the many mongooses...er...mongeese...you know). As to hunting, Sheldon said, "Open season, all the time." He told of an old guy he knows that kills and eats monkeys. There are small wild hogs, two different kinds of doves (one big, one little) but nothing dangerous.

Here is a typical part of the trail, in this case a hole in the mud, rocks, and roots that Darla is crawling through. What doesn't show here is that this is STRAIGHT up (most was like climbing a ladder), and behind us is a drop of about 50 feet into the dark jungle!

The views on the way up were astounding. We were blessed to have less cloud cover until the very top.

I can't overstate how difficult this was. My arms are sore as I write for pulling myself up with the many ropes necessary to climb this trail.
Sheldon, our guide, was young and talkative. He had a lot of opinions about religion and many questions. We found out much insider Nevisian stuff that was really interesting. He was brilliant and engaging. Not to mention athletic. He climbed the whole thing in Reebok tennis sneakers.
We were beaten up and covered with sweat and mud when we finally got to the top. Drew would have absolutely LOVED a challenge like this. He would have been in heaven.

And of course...it was covered in a cloud. The only other disappointing thing is that we couldn't see into the crater (did I say this is a volcano?). Here we are faking a smile, acting like we're ready for more. Truth is, it was in many ways harder and more dangerous to get back down the mountain. I fell twice, Darla fell a few times and has some bruises to show for it. We were filthy we we got done.


When we were almost to the bottom, Sheldon showed me some red-orange fruits that he called "cherries." Not like ours, but they were so sweet and juicy and sooo good. The redder the better...the orange ones tasted like hot pepper/tomato mixed. I ate many of them. Tasted a little like red raspberries to me. I wish my kids could have been here. They love to eat berries we find while hiking. Aren't these beautiful? They're shaped like tiny pumpkins.



After hiking we ate at a little place called Peak Haven where the trail starts/ends. It was really good. I had a curry chicken stew that was spicy. It was a colloquial dish--that's what I love more than anything, trying the native food. Darla had a grilled chicken sandwich that was on some great homemade bread. We got salads, Thick yellow sweet-potato fries, some kind of orange squash. All delicious! The people were so nice and courteous. We spoke with each of them and thanked them for such a lovely experience. And the view...the pictures don't do it justice.
While eating we talked about how people who take cruises or all-inclusive resort vacations to the caribbean never get to experience the REAL Caribbean like we have on this trip. I wouldn't have changed a thing.

We were soooo tired. But the view...magnificent. Check out the seat of Darla's pants in this picture. I'm telling you...we were battle-scarred.


Finally...what kept Darla going...the HOT TUB. We stayed in it until the sun went down. Another beautiful sunset with an incredible 360-degree view.


Hard to believe there's just two more days.

Thanks God for a great trip so far!

There is simply too much to put into words. Maybe later. Right now I'll just share a few pics of our 20th anniversary trip.
Here's a shot toward the west from our beach:

This next shot is through the front door of a restaurant called the Galley Pot.

It's a cool little place owned and operated by a British couple. GREAT food. The guy used to be a fisherman. It looks out on St. Kitts. That's the mountainous island in the background.


This is a few steps from "our beach" looking in the other direction (east). A little rain shower was on its way and God gave us this incredible double rainbow. Believe me, the picture doesn't do it justice! Darla had just been lying in this hammock.


You can see her feet in a picture she took a few minutes before the shower popped up. Is this like some commercial or what?! The breeze makes the temperature perfect. Heaven's got to be a little like this! I'm having a hard time thinking of how it could be better.

This is Darla on Lover's Beach. It's a truly unspoiled piece of paradise. We had to go fourwheelin' through a little jungle to get here. Darla just about killed me! She was worried we would get stuck with night falling, miles away from help. Come to think of it...hmmm. Oh well, this is an ADVENTURE!

Here's me in front of the little Suzuki Vitara that's ours for the time we're here. Darla's taking this picture from Lover's Beach, close to where she's standing above. You can get a little feel for what we came through to get here! Awesome.

There's lots of cool stuff for the history buff in Nevis. Alexander Hamilton, one of the most important of our founding fathers was born and spent his childhood here.
This is me standing in front of his birthplace. I didn't know he was born an illegitimate child. Because of this, he shared in experiencing some of the injustices of the slaves from the "plantocracy."
There are also lots of old ruins of churches and sugar plantations. Really cool.
I WILL be incorporating some of what I've learned in our upcoming discovery group about American Christian history.
To the right is St. James Anglican Church, one of the churches we attended Sunday. Looks like a ruin from the outside, but let me tell you, it is a thriving church. The inside is like new. All the members descend from former slaves. These people love Jesus. Darla and I were the only white folks in this packed out crowd. They received us like family. This is one of the oldest continually meeting churches in the Western Hemisphere.

One trivial piece of history is this volcanic hot sulphur spring that the early English sailors believed would cure anything. It is DADGUM HOT!
It comes out of the ground at about 115 degrees! Darla coundn't get in past her ankles. I suffered greatly but made it all the way in. Some people have more ailments than others! I'm not posting the face I was making as I tippy-toed in the water. Sunburn made it worse!

We're about half-way finished. Wow it's gone fast. I'll try to post more later. Thanks to all for the well-wishes. This has already been a trip of a lifetime. Darla and I needed this getaway. God is rejuvenating us physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We are growing closer than ever. He has blessed me so much with a wife like Darla.

In Miami. About to board the plane for St. Kitts. Found out you've got to pay extra for any food you eat on the plane. Gonna find a snack to take along.

Darla & I are in the airport about to board the plane to Miami! I've never had a Quizno's bacon & egg sandwich before. It was great.

The Great Adventure: Caribbean, Here We Come!

The whole idea started before Darla and I were married. We had both just realized that God wanted us to be together for the rest of our lives. One Saturday in May of 1989, I took her canoeing down the Holston River. She brought a picnic basket with food and THE BIGGEST MAGAZINE I HAD EVER SEEN. It was a wedding magazine. You’ve seen them—they’re full of pictures of bridal gowns and...ideas for honeymoon destinations. I had probably seen one of those colossal magazines before—on the shelf in the isle of a grocery store or something—but I had never looked through one before that day. Honestly, it was intimidating. I thought we were just going to have a relaxing lunch when she pulled out that mammoth thing! She had dog-eared pages and circled the pictures of dresses she liked. In all honesty, I didn’t really care about her dress (couldn’t say that then, of course). I was thinking about how much the magazine must have cost. The only pages that appealed to me were the ones with the exotic vacation spots. Cancun, Hawaii, Aruba, the Mediterranean, Copacabana, they all seemed so exciting...and EXPENSIVE! And then I made a typical mistake for me. “If you could go anywhere on our honeymoon, where would you go?” I asked Darla. As soon as the question came out of my mouth I grimaced. “What are you thinking?” I thought to myself. “You won’t be able to go anywhere shown in this magazine, so why even entertain the idea? So stupid!” But it was too late. Always the “speak-before-thinking” extrovert, I had let the cat out of the bag. Without a moment of hesitation she replied, “I’ve always dreamed of going to the Caribbean.”

The Caribbean. I knew there was no way. I was just hoping to scrape up enough money to get to Florida (that’s where we ended up going—my mom let me use her frequent-flyer miles and rental car discount, and my dad had a friend who had a beach condo on Treasure Island near St. Petersburg—it really was a great honeymoon).

I tried to recover. “Maybe one day,” I said without conviction. You see, I was going to be a pastor (read: poor). “I hope you don’t get your hopes up.”

“I won’t,” she said with conviction. “Anywhere will be great!”

At that moment, I made a decision. I thought, “One day I will take Darla to the Caribbean.”

But you know how life is. We got married the day after I graduated college. At the time I made $12,000 per year as a student minister and put Darla through her senior year of college. Then our roles reversed. We spent all we had saved to move to Wake Forest, NC and pay tuition for me to get my Master’s degree. I worked and went to school until Darla finally found a job as a teacher and worked all the way up until time to give birth to Drew (just after I graduated). At that time I had just become the pastor of a small church and we didn’t own a home. We moved after a couple of years to Johnson City, bought our first home and had Duncan, our second child (I then made about $30,000 per year). Then we moved to Knoxville to the newly formed Providence Church. Needless to say, it was not a great move from a financial perspective!! To make money matters worse, Dara came along shortly thereafter...unexpectedly (and we had no maternity insurance)! At the same time, our old cars started falling apart. We replaced 3 or 4 transmissions (at the tune of $1200-$1500 each) over a period of about a year-and-a-half. It was a real low point (financially speaking). I depleted all our savings and even went into credit card debt for the first (and only) time in my life.

God was gracious. Through some miraculous happenings (you think I’m exaggerating—but I’m not!), we made it out of debt and got back on our fiscal feet. And through it all we never stopped tithing.

[OK, I’ll give you one example of a miracle: My dad was playing in a golf tournament that had a hole-in-one prize of a new truck. He was joking around with the guys in the foursome that he was going to get it...and he DID! He told me later that as soon as it went in the hole, he knew God intended it for me and Darla. We were able to trade it in on a barely used Chrysler minivan! Incredible!]

Anyway...that was about the time of our 10th anniversary. We had been blessed, but I had nothing to spend to give my wonderful wife and awesome mom-of-three a good gift, let alone a great trip. She really had kept her promise to stay with me “for poorer.” Right then I decided I would start saving—secretly—for our 20th anniversary. So every time I did a funeral or a wedding or got an unexpected gift, I would hide it in an envelope I had taped under a drawer in my desk. NOT a good idea. Long story short, when I had saved about $1500, it was stolen by some people who cleaned our church. THANKFULLY the cleaning service they worked for had insurance that replaced it (after we videoed them stealing more money). Having learned my lesson, I opened a savings account in a different bank (this was hard to keep secret from Darla—and I felt guilty for hiding it from her!). I finally saved about $3000. Not a lot, but enough to do something.

I gave it to Darla this Christmas. We had recently seen the movie “Up.” If you’ve seen it, you know it is about an old man who had met his wife when they were kids. They had always dreamed of taking an “adventure” together, traveling to a remote part of the world. Then, life happened. They had to keep breaking the piggy bank—their adventure fund—and never got to do anything. As older adults the wife got sick and eventually died. Since childhood she had saved an “Our Adventure” scrapbook that would one day hold the pictures and tales of their trip. After her death, the old man decided to do the adventure in her honor. I’ll not spoil the movie for you in case you haven’t seen it (it really is good).

In the spirit of the movie, I made an “Our Adventure” scrap book with some pictures of me and Darla in our younger years. I bought a HUGE suitcase. In the suitcase I put a bunch of little gifts related to our trip. I got a Caribbean travel book, flip flops, sunglasses, suntan lotion, etc. Just for fun I bought a $50 gift certificate for a tanning salon! She opened it first and couldn’t figure it out thinking I had lost my mind!! It was so fun to see her puzzled face as she kept opening the gifts. At the very last she opened a card in which I put the bank statement with the amount I had saved.

It was awesome. We’ve been planning the trip ever since. We’re going to the Caribbean island of Nevis. I’m sure I’ll have much to say about it later!!

Bottom line is this: I’m incredibly blessed with a faithful, godly wife who is great at everything she does. She cannot know how much I love, appreciate, and respect her. She doesn’t think so highly of herself. I think that’s commendable. But I do. I am blessed. I only wish I could do more for her. She totally deserves it.

Incidentally, when we were married in 1990, our favorite song was “The Great Adventure” by Stephen Curtis Chapman. Our life together has definitely been that. I know it will continue to be!

When a child outgrows you

My son, Drew, is getting big. When I give him a hug, it surprises me how much he's grown. He's fifteen. He's driving with his learner's permit, and is getting better each time. I'm sure he thinks I'm on him about stuff all the time, I just want him to be a godly man. I'm really proud of him. I love that he loves God and people. I want him to be a better man than me. Seems that is happening. Thank you God.

Got an email from Josué, the pastor of Central Church Barra in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. That's the mission church God used us to plant about six years ago. Seems they've grown. A lot. And they're still growing! Josué emailed me that they're bigger than we are now! They're supporting 11 missionaries of their own around the world and just donated money to Haiti...just like us! I love this. I desire nothing more than for God to help us plant more churches, locally and globally, who will outgrow us!

Thank you God.

Of Birthdays and Brokenness

I turned 43 last week. Weird how getting old affects a guy. Yesterday I was 29 with two little kids. Now I’ve got three in double-digits. Yesterday I was running triathlons, weighed 180 lbs. and was often mistaken for a college student. Now, 15 lbs. and a few surgeries later, the significantly fewer [and more gray] hairs give my age away. I’m not cool anymore, and what really tells me I’m getting old is that I’m starting to really not care if I’m cool or not. This is, I am now understanding, why old men have hair sticking out of their noses and wear white calf-high socks with black hushpuppies. It is about comfort, not about what others think!

Yesterday (actually over 13 years ago) I came to Providence Church, a 59-attendee church (kids and all!) that met in Cedar Bluff Middle School. Today, we’re a bit larger and we’re still having a great time seeing people come to Jesus and grow in grace. I’ve made so many good friends, experienced some hurts, made many mistakes, and grown wiser and more in love with Jesus. It is funny how much I’ve changed what I think about some things and how I’ve become steeled in what I think about others. I’ve seen kids in our church grow up and have kids of their own. I’ve laughed...a lot. I tend to cry...more with every year.

One of the hardest things about ministry is how people come and go. Some people I have loved have hurt me deeply. It’s something I think about every day. I’m sure it is why many pastors burn out and/or move around so much. Staying in the same town for many years means frequently facing people (who don’t like you) and their gossip. The pain can be overwhelming. Every pastor feels betrayed from time to time. If they don’t run, they can respond in other wrong ways: become bitter, combative, or calloused, or even feel defeated and depressed. I tend to fight the latter. I tend to fret over mistakes I’ve made and missed opportunities. Sometimes I even ponder whether it is worth the pain to tell people the truth (of course, I know it is). Dwelling on hurt isn’t good, but it is certainly not good to just pack it away and not deal with it. I choose to deal with it by prayer, and by writing thoughts down (like I’m doing now). It also helps to have people close to me who care enough to listen.

I am blessed that both of my parents are still alive. My mom sent me an encouraging text at the very minute I was born (43 years earlier) to say “happy birthday.” It reminded me that God had a reason to bring me in to this world. All I want to do is fulfill his purpose for me. What frustrates me is how I far I have to go. I fight with my flesh, the world, and the Devil, who all conspire to render me less useful. I know my primary objective in life is to bring glory to God and make disciples, beginning with my responsibilities as a husband and father. After that I am called to be a pastor of the flock called Providence Church. These are enormous responsibilities, for which I feel entirely inadequate. There are times I fight feelings of failure. Indeed I have failed in many ways.

My dad gave me a birthday call, too. On his way back from a coaches’ convention in Georgia, he stopped by and spent the night. We looked at old pictures and stayed up late talking. He had many encouraging words to say. I went to bed feeling blessed that I was given such a godly heritage and great foundation. God has given this to me and I don’t want to squander it. I am so undeserving, yet so thankful for God’s grace upon which I must depend. The same God who orchestrated all these blessings past that I could not control, commands the future. My only logical response is twofold: to yield—that is, to be broken before the One who is sovereign, ask him to use me, and to make me usable; and to love—desire him with all my heart and worship him with my efforts and actions without regard for selfish gain.

“One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 3:13-14

A Man Called Patrick

A few years ago, I wrote a little article about the real St. Patrick, one of my favorite holiday heroes. Here it is.

When most people in our country think of St. Patrick’s Day, they think of wearing green, shamrocks, and leprechauns with pots of gold at the end of a rainbow. If you ask someone who St. Patrick really was, you will probably get answers that mention an old Irish saint chasing the snakes away from the “Emerald Isle.” The problem is none of this is true! The only vestiges of truth that remain popularly known are these: a beloved man named Patricius (we’ll call him by his better-known name, Patrick) died on March 17th in Ireland sometime between 465 and 493 A.D. (the year is disputed). But there is much more. Who is the real Patrick?

Imagine the horror of seeing your hometown destroyed and being taken captive by cruel raiders and sold as a slave to a foreign land. This is precisely what happened to 16-year-old Patrick, the son of a British Roman civil magistrate in west Britain around 430 AD.

In the fall 1998 edition of Christian History magazine, Mary Cagney describes his six-years of slavery as follows:

Patrick was sold to a cruel warrior chief, whose opponents' heads sat atop sharp poles around his palisade in Northern Ireland. While Patrick minded his master's pigs in the nearby hills, he lived like an animal himself, enduring long bouts of hunger and thirst. Worst of all, he was isolated from other human beings for months at a time. Early missionaries to Britain had left a legacy of Christianity that young Patrick was exposed to and took with him into captivity. He had been a nominal Christian to this point; he now turned to the Christian God of his fathers for comfort.

God had gotten this teenager’s attention. According to David L. Brown, Ph.D. in his 1999 article, The Real Patrick: Missionary to Ireland,

Patrick had ignored the Lord up to this point in his life. But things were different now, very different. He began to remember some things that his preacher grandfather had told him. The despair of slavery and the solitude of his occupation compelled him to remember his Christian upbringing and his need of the Lord. He writes in his confession, "I was about sixteen but did not know the true God, but in a strange land, the Lord opened my unbelieving eyes, and I was converted." Patrick came to know Christ as his personal Savior and was freed from his slavery to sin. Patrick grew in the Lord. "His devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ brought upon him a nickname, ‘Holy-Boy" from his fellow slaves. Through the years, he learned to pray whether he was working or resting." It is evident by his own testimony he learned to practice 1 Thessalonians 5:17 which says, Pray without ceasing. He says this in his Confession: "After I came to Ireland, every day I had to tend sheep, and many times a day I prayed. The Love of God and His fear came to me more and more, and my faith was strengthened. And my spirit was moved so that in a single day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many in the night, and this even when I was staying in the woods and on the mountains; I used to get up and pray before daylight, through snow, through frost, through rain, and I felt no harm, and there was no sloth in me…because the spirit within me was then fervent."

Later, Patrick even told the Lord that he would give his life to ministry if he ever regained his freedom. After serving his godless master faithfully, Patrick sensed that the time to make a break had come. He escaped and traveled 200 miles on foot over treacherous, unknown territory to the coast, and boarded a ship of traders headed for Gaul (modern France). When the Celtic mariners arrived, they were disappointed to only find devastation. Goths or Vandals had so decimated the land that no food or buyers of their goods were to be found in the once vibrant area. Here Patrick got his first recorded opportunity to share his newly revived faith with someone. Cagney, quoting Patrick’s autobiography, reports the conversation went something like this:

"

What have you to say for yourself, Christian?" the ship's captain taunted. "You boast that your God is all powerful. We're starving to death, and we may not survive to see another soul."

Patrick answered confidently. "Nothing is impossible to God. Turn to him and he will send us food for our journey."

At that moment, a herd of pigs appeared, "seeming to block our path." Though Patrick instantly became "well regarded in their eyes," his companions offered their new-found food in sacrifice to their pagan gods.

Patrick did not partake.

Historians believe that after training for ministry for a time in the South of France, Patrick headed home where he found his family and resumed his life. But God kept bringing the Irish—those miserable, superstitious, pagan Celts—to Patrick’s mind. Once Patrick even had a dream of a man from Ireland calling and pleading, “Help us!” Patrick wrote, “I was deeply moved in heart,” and he made the decision to leave his beloved Britain for Ireland, but this time he was taken captive by God’s desire for the lost. "I dwell among gentiles," he wrote, "in the midst of pagan barbarians, worshipers of idols, and of unclean things."

Patrick explained that the false gods that the people of Ireland worshipped and feared were actually evil demons, and he beckoned them to place their faith in Christ. Things began slowly but Patrick was determined. He faced opposition on many fronts, and his life was frequently in danger. Cagney writes,

Predictably, Patrick faced the most opposition from the druids, who practiced magic, were skilled in secular learning (especially law and history) and advised Irish kings. Biographies of the saint are replete with stories of druids who "wished to kill holy Patrick."

"Daily I expect murder, fraud or captivity," Patrick wrote, "but I fear none of these things because of the promises of heaven. I have cast myself into the hands of God almighty who rules everywhere."

Indeed, Patrick almost delighted in taking risks for the gospel. "I must take this decision disregarding risks involved and make known the gifts of God and his everlasting consolation. Neither must we fear any such risk in faithfully preaching God's name boldly in every place, so that even after my death, a spiritual legacy may be left for my brethren and my children."

Eventually God used Patrick to bring a king, Loiguire, to faith in Christ who intended to kill the young missionary. The different accounts of this confrontation are rife with legend, so much so that it is difficult to ascertain fact from fiction. Nonetheless the King was dramatically converted, and Patrick made it a central part of his strategy to convert the one hundred or so kings first so that their subjects would hopefully follow. This tactic proved to be extremely effective.

It is understandable that slavery was an evil against which Patrick would battle tirelessly. According to Cagney,

[Patrick] was, in fact, the first Christian to speak out strongly against the practice. Scholars agree he is the genuine author of a letter excommunicating a British tyrant, Coroticus, who had carried off some of Patrick's converts into slavery.

"Ravenous wolves have gulped down the Lord's own flock which was flourishing in Ireland," he wrote, "and the whole church cries out and laments for its sons and daughters." He called Coroticus's deed "wicked, so horrible, so unutterable," and told him to repent and to free the converts.

It remains unknown if he was successful in freeing Coroticus's slaves, but within his lifetime (or shortly thereafter), Patrick ended the entire Irish slave trade.

Even though he was not considered a man of great learning, Patrick is also known for his insistence on sound biblical doctrine. Dr. Neil Chadwick writes,

Because of his deep faith in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Patrick made this doctrine a center piece of his instruction. To help explain the mystery of the ‘Trinity’ he used the simple three-leaf shamrock to illustrate the three persons in one God.

Most historians agree that he taught a “grace alone through faith alone” salvation, unlike that which was developing in the Roman Christianity of the European continent at that time.
Patrick boldly proclaimed Christ in Ireland for about 30 years. And talk about impact! Roy D. Warren, Jr. in his book, Patrick of Ireland: The Untold Story wrote, "he planted over 200 churches and had over 100,000 truly saved converts." Patrick writes in his autobiography,

I am greatly a debtor to God, who has bestowed his grace so largely upon me, that multitudes were born again to God through me…Hence, the Irish, who had never had the knowledge of God and worshipped only idols and unclean things, have lately become the people of the Lord, and are called the sons of God.

Patrick loved the Lord and constantly trained new Believers to follow the Great Commission. In addition to planting churches, he built scores of monasteries, schools, orphanages, and other institutions for instructing people in the faith, and established hundreds of pastors and leaders. Many of these institutions still exist.

We should learn from the cultural impact that God instrumented through Patrick. Brown writes, “While the Roman Empire and occupied lands were going from peace to chaos, the land of Ireland was going from chaos to peace under the ministry of Patrick.”

So on this St. Patrick’s Day, tell someone about the real Patrick. And consider this: God wants to raise up some Patricks today. He is looking for those who are willing to lay aside the comforts of this life to find more contentment in being greatly used by God.

Why our prayers fail?

So I've been contemplating why Christians' prayers sometimes seem to fall short. While praying this morning it occurred to me that we tend to pray too little, too small, and too weak.

We pray too little:
We simply don’t pray enough. William P. Wilson, M.D., 
Professor Emeritus at Duke Medical Center and Director of the Institute of Christian Growth found that “the average churchgoer in the US prays one minute a day. The average pastor prays three minutes a day.” That’s really bad, and really telling. Perhaps that’s why sermons are so weak and so few people respond. Perhaps that’s why so many pastors succumb to temptation and become a public scandal, shaming the name of Christ. Perhaps that’s a reason our churches are so empty and powerless. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell the difference between Christians and their unbelieving neighbors. When we don’t pray intentionally and consistently we are, in effect, displaying one or more of the following attitudes: I don’t need God, God doesn’t listen, or God can’t change things. All of these are lies! When I take time to pray, I spend time with the One who loves me and happens to run the entire universe. He has asked me to pray. I need him. By praying, if nothing else, I acknowledge my dependence on him and prove my belief that he hears me. If that were all my prayers accomplished, it would be enough. But of course, that is not all. My prayers move God to action.

We pray too small:
We tend to pray for less significant things. “Let me have a good day.” “Keep my kids safe.” “Let me get a raise.” “Let me have a new car.” “Help me to feel better.” “Let the food we are about to eat go to the nourishment of our bodies.” “Give me a good night’s sleep.” Come on folks! It’s not that these things are not important, but can’t we do better than that?
I have been around many Christians, some of them were people I would call exceptionally godly (of course, these are people who would never call themselves that!). These people tend to pray for BIG things. They ask for God to awaken thousands to the truth of the Gospel and for God to change our culture. They pray for God to use their time, bodies, resources, intellect, etc. for the sake of his glory in this world. They ask for God to raise up godly men and women with passion for his church and his word. They pray for God to change the hearts of people in government. They pray that their kids will love Christ with all their hearts, souls, minds and strength, and bring their friends to Christ; and for their schools to be impacted for Christ’s sake. They pray for God to bless them financially so that they can give generously to their church and people in need. They pray for God to stop the advancement of Islam and other false religions through the power of Christ, and set ablaze the church against whom "the gates of hell cannot prevail." They pray that God will let them suffer any negative thing (sickness, sorrow, persecution, poverty) as one joyfully sharing in the sufferings of Christ for their own growth and the sake of his glory. That’s praying BIG. God is big. He likes for us to pray for big things.

We pray too weak:
Our prayers sometimes lack assurance and passion. We can come across like this: “Lord, thank you for this day. If it is according to your will, please be with John Doe while he is feeling bad and please help our church do what you’ve called us to do. And I pray that I will not face difficulties today.” When we pray weakly, not with conviction expecting results, we waste our time and a great opportunity! We are told to “boldly approach the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16) and to pray expectantly. Jesus made this crystal clear in Luke 11:5-8

And he said to them, "Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; and he will answer from within, 'Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything'? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs.

It is the rude urgency of the friend wanting the loaves that moves the groggy sleeper to action. Christ (who is not a groggy sleeper, by the way) is telling the story so that we will show urgency in our prayers! He follows his parable with this (Luke 11:9-13):

And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

We have a Father who wants us to have...not just good gifts...but the Holy Spirit when we ask! Therefore, a strong prayer will be bold, and will “remind” God (or, more accurately, remind the one praying) of the promises he has made in his Word. It will be passionate and specific; pleading and intense.

I want to pray often. I want to pray big. I want to pray strong.

When you DON'T feel like it...

The pastor of my home church, Dr. Richard Emmert, was a man of prayer. He went on a trip to South Korea and saw how God was transforming that nation. He witnessed first hand how the Korean Christians prayed and knew that was the key. It changed him. He came back challenging and leading our church to pray. Our church experienced an awakening—and it is still doing well today. He said much about prayer. Among many other great quotes that I still remember, this one came to my mind today:

“Pray when you feel like it...pray when you don’t feel like it...pray UNTIL you feel like it.”

This morning this was fulfilled in my prayer time.

I had some dental work done yesterday afternoon. After the local anesthesia wore off my whole jaw was throbbing with pain and I had a huge headache. I didn’t sleep well. My alarm went off at 5 am and I did not want to get up. I took 2 ibuprofen and dragged myself to the church to pray. Honestly, I struggled. I didn’t feel like praying. I asked God to help me. I remembered in Matthew 26 when Jesus told Peter and the disciples to pray with him in the garden the night he was betrayed. He soon found them asleep. “Could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray...” He prayed again and saw that they had fallen asleep—again! I bet they would have been wide-awake had they known what was about to happen!

Anyway, I kept fighting—sometimes frustrated that I couldn’t stay focused. I asked God to help me pray. He did. All of a sudden it seemed the clouds cleared and I met with God! My heart revived and I know God heard me. He helped me know what to pray. And I heard him. I walked out refreshed and renewed! Thank you Father.

“Pray when you feel like it...pray when you don’t feel like it...pray UNTIL you feel like it.”

Now I get it.

A little guidance for praying

I’ve been praying in the mornings. Not for the show, but because I want God to move. It has been incredible. Some others have come to the church to pray too. Some have said they want to come but can't for scheduling reasons (work, taking kids to school, etc.). A couple of people have asked if they could have a copy of the Morning Prayer guide to which I’ve referred. Instead of the popular ACTS method (Adoration-Confession-Thanksgiving-Supplication) which is good, I’ve found Jesus’ model prayer is more helpful for me to get things going. I've been using the following and the time flies!

MORNING PRAYER
October 19-November 26 Mondays-Thursdays
Nothing fancy. No music. No preaching. No requests. Just prayer.
Come any time between 6-8 AM. Pray however long you want.

5 Aspects of an Effective Prayer according to Jesus in Luke 11:2-4

“Father,”
1. Acknowledge your privileged position with Him: He is your Father.

"hallowed be your name,"
2. Affirm His “Awesomeness.”

"your kingdom come."
3. Align your priorities with His: The Kingdom is first.

"Give us each day our daily bread."
4. Ask Him to provide for your needs.

5. Address sin:
"Forgive us our sins," Confess your sins to God.

"for we also forgive everyone who sins against us." Forgive others’ sins.

"And lead us not into temptation." Ask God to guide you away from sin.

Some ideas for your prayers:
For God to have mercy on our nation:
•Spiritual awakening- that he would cause many thousands to be saved, changing our culture, turning back the moral decline.
•Leaders
 President Obama
 Congress in general
 Our Senators: Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker
 Our US House Representative: John Duncan, Jr.
 Supreme Court Justices
 State and local leaders
Pray God will give them wisdom to do what’s right & best for our nation. Pray they will not give in to corruption or dishonesty, or act out of self-interest. Pray they will seek to know God and his will. Pray they will not spend unnecessarily. Pray that God will remove those who lead wrongly.
•Military personnel serving in Iraq and Afghanistan
For God to have mercy on people you know:
•For those who do not know Christ- that God will draw them to himself, that God will open doors for you to lead them to him.
•Christians you know who are in sin, not growing or struggling spiritually.
•For the spiritual well being of your family.
For God to have mercy on the church:
•For Providence specifically:
 That we are true to God’s word and sensitive to his will.
 That we are effective in reaching the lost AND growing believers.
 That our people find meaningful relationships with each other.
 That God will help us impact the world through our missions efforts and planting churches.
 That God will give the elders and staff wisdom to lead.
 That God will protect us from division, error, and scandal.
 That God will provide financially through the giving of his people.
 That God will raise up people to lead and volunteer.
•For the Church in general:
 That the drift toward moral relativism & radical tolerance is reversed.
 That God’s people would love and obey God’s word.
 That we would not be divided, but unite in spreading the gospel.

Motivations for Prayer

(Note: I just read over this and perceived that it comes off like I’m trying to sound “Mr. Spiritual.” Please don’t read that. Truthfully, I’ve been under conviction for many months about my prayer life. It has not been what it needs to be. I’ve been going through the motions, sometimes rushing through prayer after reading the Word in my daily devotional time. This discipline is good for me, and my hope is that somehow it will encourage you!)

The first week that I prayed at the church from 6-8 AM from Monday until Thursday really was great. I have absolutely NO regrets—in fact, it has made a difference in my life. You’ve got to understand that I’m not naturally a morning person. I start early because I need to, not because I want to. My brain typically starts hitting on all cylinders around 10 AM and I tend to get really productive toward the end of the day. All my adult life I’ve asked God to help me be a morning person—and I envy those who naturally are!

So I say all that to say this: Thursday of last week, I struggled during the morning prayer time. I “fought” for the first 15-30 minutes. I’m not sure why. My thoughts were unsettled and I chased rabbits everywhere in my mind. I worked through the Lord’s Prayer as a model outline to “cover the bases” (I’ll try to blog on that method later). I finally “broke through” and had some really good heart communication with God for the next hour before becoming a little groggy. Note to self: I was up late Wednesday night—don’t need to do that again! So I took a break and walked out to get a drink of water. Then I was good for the last 15 minutes.

Since Thursday, I’ve been reflecting on my motivation. I’m determined not to let this become an empty discipline or a legalism. I’m not waking up this early for NOTHING!!

So I’m asking myself the question: WHY SHOULD I BE MOTIVATED TO PRAY? I’ve thought of a few things that might actually motivate Christians, and I think they are both historically and biblically sound, too!

Motivation #1: FEAR.
People tend to pray when they are scared. Some fear for personal loss: afraid they will fail a test, lose their job, have to sell their home; or worse, afraid they will lose a child or spouse. Some see the news and become afraid for our nation. Closer to home, we SHOULD fear what we see happening to our kids when they are enticed by the world. When we read the Bible (particularly books like Amos), we should fear God’s judgment of the lost, the wayward church, or ourselves because of sin! I’m not sure fear is a bad thing-in fact, I’m pretty sure this is a very GOOD thing. Sometimes God uses fear to drive us to pray.

Motivation #2: OPPORTUNITY.
If God is really moved by our prayers and actually acts in response to them, we are CRAZY not to pray. Millions of people lay down billions of dollars to play the lottery hoping they get wealthy, when they know their chances of winning are next to impossible! We, however, as God’s children, have the ear of Almighty God, who is the all-powerful, Maker of the universe and beyond! There’s nothing he can’t do and nothing he doesn’t own. And we have been told that he hears and responds to our prayers!

Motivation #3: INTIMACY.
When I pray, I commune with God and spend time in his presence. In other words, I hang out with HIM and talk to HIM! One big concern I have of our technological/informational age is the way it crowds out the simple, quiet time with God. God said, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psal. 46:10). This is the opposite of our tendency today. We need our iPod blaring in our earbuds at all times we’re not engaged with people. We need to keep up with all 999 “friends” on facebook. We need to answer the constant stream of emails and watch youtube videos. We need to spend hours in front of our flat-screen HDTVs watching news, sports, comedy, and hundreds more channels that we pay hundreds each month to see! Sure, our enemy lures and tempts us with some of the content of the many different media to which we expose our minds. But more than the content, it is the time away from God that is just as hurtful. If the enemy can keep us distracted...occupied...busy, he’s got us. But when I put away the distractions and spend time alone communicating with God, I know him more and better. When I pray I “hear” from God’s heart. Not new extra-biblical revelation, but meditation concerning what I know about God—things I’ve learned about him in his Word—I understand him more. I sense his holiness. I feel his pleasure and his presence. When I know him more, my love for him grows.

Motivation #4: PLEASURE.
This one is linked to the previous. It does not take long in prayer before my priorities and tastes begin to change. When I am saturated in the world, I find myself longing for the things of the world. When I am in the presence of God I begin to see the world as it really is: shallow...stale...hollow...unsatisfying. Not so God’s presence. As Paul said, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
” (Rom. 11:33), and David:
“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable” (Psalm 145:3).
When we pray, Not only do we begin to realize the vastness of God’s infinite attributes—we actually begin to take some of them on. We walk in his peace. We act in confidence. We show his meekness and gentleness. We start “dressing” like our Father. Again quoting Paul, “as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive...as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts... And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.... And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col. 3:12-17).
It is FRUSTRATING to be a Christian who continues to fail to become more like Christ, and EXHILERATING to be one who continues to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18). The Christian who spends time with Christ has a distinct advantage of increasingly bearing Christ’s identity.

Motivation #5: POWERLESSNESS.
“Prayer is an unspoken confession of our utter dependence upon God. Prayerlessness is an unbroken testimony of our dependence upon the flesh” (R. Sprinkle). Truth is, I can do nothing on my own. I can’t even do what’s right when I try. I can’t insure my own safety, let alone that of my wife and kids! I am so feeble and helpless. So many things are out of my control. My health, the future, virtually everything! I certainly can’t change anyone else. I can’t do anything about our country. It’s depressing when I think about it. The only thing I can do is to ask my Father to act. He CAN do ANYTHING. In fact, he “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20). If I can’t do anything...and he can do everything...I am insane if I don’t pray.

Motivation #6: OBEDIENCE.
God has asked that we pray, and told us that he would act when we do. Here are just a few of the passages in the Bible that encourage us to pray:

Matthew 7:7-11
7"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
9"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Luke 18:1
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

Ephesians 6:18
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

1 Timothy 2:1-8
1First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. 7For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
8I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling

Colossians 4:2
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

1 Thessalonians 5:17
Pray continually;

Philippians 4:6
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

James 5
13Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
17Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

1 Peter 3:12
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer

1 Peter 4:7
The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.

I want you to know that the last few mornings’ prayer time have been incredible! The time has FLOWN by. I’ve actually been shocked when I looked at my watch and saw it was past 8:00! I hope this encourages you to pray.

Amos...Drives Me to Pray

Studying Amos has been great. If for no one else, for me. I am amazed at how much Israel in Amos’ day resembles America, and how much the religious scene then bears likeness to ours. Then to hear Amos pronounce God’s coming judgment to them gets really close to home. I know we live in another time after the coming of Christ and the cross, and live in the age of grace. And that’s the big difference: when one rejects God today, he is rejecting God's law AND his grace. As the writer of Hebrews said it, “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation” (2:3)? The answer is...we won’t.

This is not good news. My heart breaks when I think about the millions of people drinking the world’s Kool-Aid, blindly on their way to eternal judgment. Some of them live around me. Their kids go to school and play soccer with mine. Some are my friends. Some are related to me. And they seem as if they have no clue. Not only this, but the “great salvation” that they are neglecting actually brings them what they are really looking for in the world’s counterfeits: Contentment. Happiness. Fulfillment. Love. Peace. Joy. Things the world rarely delivers, and never on a permanent basis. But it is so hard to convince them of this truth. Especially when the world, aided by our fallen flesh and the Enemy, preaches so persuasively that gaining more stuff...having more sex...looking more hip...etc. are all more important than having...GOD!

Therefore, many of us just quit trying to share the Good News. We see the enormity of the task and are overwhelmed. Indeed some of us do well (or so we think) to fight off the allure of the world ourselves as we occasionally lose skirmishes with our own flesh. Then Satan takes advantage and “guilts” us into silence. What are we to do?

Like Amos, we are to cry out to God. He is the only one who can help. He helps by strengthening us, his children. God has the power to trump whatever influence he has allowed the world and demonic forces to employ, by drawing people to himself. HE IS ABLE TO CHANGE THE GAME.

That is the only logical conclusion: I must ask him to. I MUST PRAY. Especially when he tells me that he, Almighty, Sovereign God somehow utilizes the prayers of his people to make things happen. It is a stunning thought—the Omnipotent, Omniscient, Eternal, Infinite God is actually moved by the prayers of mere men to accomplish his perfect, predetermined plan.

Whoa! I gotta catch my breath.

Umm...why then do I not pray?

Well, I’m going to. I’m committing myself. I’ve always believed that you schedule what’s important to you. Right now, as I write, I can’t think of anything else more important. I laid it out there publicly Sunday...I can talk about praying, but actually doing it is a completely different thing. So I need a little structure for the sake of accountability, that is, if I’m serious.

I’m going to open up the church every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday until Thanksgiving from 6:00 til 8:00 AM to pray. You’re welcome to come join me if you want. I’ve already started, in fact. There have been a few others who have come, too, but I’m really not looking to see who comes (or if anyone else comes at all). This is simply what God wants me to do.

This isn't for show. Jesus said that when you pray, go in your room in secret, not like the hypocrites who want all to see. He said that then “your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matt. 6:6). I guess that’s the thing I’ve struggled with the most about coming out with this, or for that matter, even posting this blog. I don’t want any attention for me. I’m not trying to look spiritual. I do, however, want God to move. And maybe it is ok to be like Paul in this sense: he said, “Be imitators of me, as I follow Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). I think pastors should lead the way. Interpreting Scripture with Scripture, we see that Jesus didn't always pray in secret. He prayed with his disciples and in public. He taught his disciples how to pray. So did Paul. Corporate prayer is commanded throughout the Bible and is frequently practiced by the church in the book of Acts. So I say, If it helps you to pray with me and others, I invite you to come. Whether you come to the church or not...I ask you to pray.

Déjà Vu: Sox are Through.

Ok, indulge me a little hyperbolic sports drama.

It's been almost a week and I'm still not over it. The Red Sox are done for the season. I'm experiencing this subtle underlying disappointment. It occurred to me yesterday that I used to feel like this all the time! This is only the third time in the last seven years that Boston has not played in the American League Championship Series. But as most baseball fans know, this level of success has not always been the norm for the Sox.

I've been a Sox fan since the late 1970s. Until 2004, I felt like I was the only one in Knoxville! Here's how it happened: Like most other East Tennessee kids who were not Braves fans, I liked the Big Red Machine—the Cincinnati Reds. Bench, Rose, Morgan, Pérez, Concepción, Griffey, Foster, all led by Sparky Anderson—those guys were great. A really cool style among teenagers back then was to wear one of those fake plastic batting helmets. I wanted one and couldn’t find one anywhere. Some of my friends got theirs at Six Flags in Georgia for $6. Soon thereafter, I went with my church youth group to Six Flags determined to buy one for myself with $6 I had saved. All day, I walked the whole park seeking one of those Reds helmets, to no avail. The Reds were so popular! Finally, at the end of the day, I decided to just buy a helmet of another team. At that time, the Red Sox helmets were red with a navy blue bill, and looked really cool. Pointing to one, I asked the vendor, “What’s the team with the B?” “Boston Red Sox” was the answer (I should have known, they had played the Reds in the 1975 World Series). I bought one. While walking across Six Flags, people kept giving me the “thumbs up” sign saying, “Go Sox!” That was cool. So I started keeping up with them. I started collecting baseball cards and collected all the Sox cards. I fell in love with Rick “the Rooster” Burleson, Carlton Fisk, Jim Rice, Carl “Yaz” Yastrzemski, Butch Hobson, Dwight Evans, George Scott...I can remember them like it was yesterday.

(This is my favorite player Rick Burleson in that cool red batting helmet!)

In high school I got to visit Boston and saw a few Sox games in Fenway. Then I was hooked. It was magic. I also got to see them play in Texas, Atlanta, and Baltimore. Like all true Sox fans, a tragic moment in my life was when the ball went through Bill Buckner’s legs in 1986. I’ll never forget it. I found out later that he is a Christian. I actually got to meet Buckner in 1999. I introduced him at an FCA banquet (I had forgiven him and said nothing of his infamy).

Point is, through all those years, I always got myself worked up that this was to be a championship year. And it never was. In fact, most years we didn’t even get to the playoffs.

That’s why I’m experiencing déjà vu. I’ve been here before. Left feeling empty after the one team I have stood by through good years and bad failed to get past the wildcard series. It’s the team I have loved irrationally and emotionally who play a sport I was never really good at but that I respect and enjoy watching. I really thought they would do it! All my shirts, hats, and jerseys are now useless to me (not really) until next April! That's sports!

Mmm. Brunswick Stew.

I first had Brunswick Stew when a friend in seminary took me to shoot sporting clays at a family home place in southern Virginia. We had it for lunch. He was kind of apologizing for not having something else to offer. I was like, “Are you kidding? This stuff is great!” It's a little different looking, but is hearty with a mild and distinctive taste. I didn’t have it again for a few years until I was on a deer-hunting trip near Columbus, GA and ate at a BBQ place called “Country’s.” They served Brunswick Stew as an appetizer then and it reminded me of how good it was. I’ve had it a couple of times since, but none of them evoked the "wow that’s good!" response like the Virginia-style Brunswick Stew I had at first.

So when the first little cool-snap happened last week I got it on the brain. I found many recipes online and combined a couple that looked good. AWESOME. It made WAY too much (I fed it to our family, the church staff, and a bunch of pastors), so I reduced it and tweaked it a little. I made it again this morning and just finished THREE BOWLS. I’m telling you, I can’t get enough. It’s like the perfect meal for a cool rainy fall day!

A couple of the staff asked about the recipe, so here it is:

Brunswick Stew (Virginia style)
Ready in: 3-5 hrs Serves 9 people

Ingredients:
4 chicken breast halves
1 small strip fatback
½ of a medium onion (chopped)
2 stalks celery (finely chopped)
½ large bag frozen sweet corn (shoe peg or white)
½ bags frozen butter beans
1 large can whole tomatoes, pureed
5 medium/large potatoes, diced
½ 40 oz. bag okra (use about 20 oz)
½ cup ketchup
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
½ stick butter
1 tablespoon vinegar
¼ cup BBQ sauce (I used KC Masterpiece orig.)
1 bay leaf
2 teaspoons salt (more if desired)
½ teaspoon pepper (more if desired)

Directions:
In a large stock pot, cover chicken with water and cook until tender. Remove chicken from stock and, when it's cool enough to handle, pull chicken apart, removing all the gristle or fat.

Return chicken pieces to pot with remaining stock. Add fatback, celery and onions, and simmer until tender. Add the diced potatoes, corn and butter beans, and simmer an additional 20 minutes.

Finally, add okra, ketchup, brown sugar, bbq sauce, Worcestershire sauce, butter, bayleaf, and vinegar. Cover and simmer two hours. Remove bayleaf and fatback before serving. Serve with cornbread!

You're going to doubt me while you're combining everything. Don't. It is really good!

Facebook: Friend or Foe?

The latest craze of our information age is the emergence of social networking sites. Several are notable, but Facebook is particularly popular and has caught on even with folks who are otherwise adverse to technology. I succumbed to the pressure to join a long time ago. In all honesty I was dragged to it kicking and screaming, but signed up for the sake of becoming all things to all men that by ALL MEANS I might save some. I’m sure some will think I am trying to sound super-spiritual, but it is the truth. I think it is important for Christians—especially pastors—to be on the front end of effective new ways to communicate to and influence others.

It is crazy to me how many people I have “reconnected” with on Facebook. People from every school I attended (Elementary to Seminary); people from every church of which I was a part as a member, on staff, or as pastor; family members; people I played or coached with—over 800 of them and growing! It is crazy! But I’ve got to get some things off my chest:

Like any other form of communication, there is the potential for both good and bad on Facebook. It’s cool to see how folks are doing and to have another way to encourage people. It’s cool to be able to keep up with my high school son’s friends and interests. There is much potential for creating virtual community and informing/uniting people for/against certain causes. That’s all cool. But wow, there are some things that are really hard for me. Like, I can’t spend much time on it without seeing pictures of people who claim to be Christians in all kinds of potentially compromising positions. You know what I’m saying. There’s the skimpy clothing and the “aren’t I cool” poses, and, perhaps more conspicuous than anything, the pics of folks drinking alcohol. I don’t know what it is. Does everyone take pictures when they go to a drinking party or a bar? What is it about the “look at me, I drink” pictures of themselves that people like—and publish for the world to see? Is that really what you want people to know about you? Really? Forget for a moment the very real biblical issues. What about the message being sent to the many kids who are on Facebook? Kids who are impressionable, who could see someone they know or who attend their church drinking as a justifying factor to try drinking for themselves. Do we just ignore the damage alcohol does to people’s lives? I know it first hand. Call me an old fogy (I’ve blogged before on Christians and drinking so I’ll resist).

One of the hardest things for me is the way people gossip and spread falsehood for all the world to see. Or maybe not gossip, maybe just saying things that are hurtful about their church. One couple that had been a part of our church for about a year and then disappeared posted how our church was the coldest place they had ever been and how they were never talked to and nobody wanted to be their friend, etc. The bad thing is that many of us know this couple and had made MANY attempts to befriend them—some felt that they had BECOME friends (ouch!). But what are we to do? Get into an argument on someone’s “wall,” calling out the wrongness of their perception? Of course not. People sometimes get hurt and lash out. People make mistakes. Once I heard Bill O’Reilly say that with the Internet, if you make a mistake, you do it for the entire world to see. I’m afraid that’s true.

I think Facebook attracts a lot of people who just like to know what people are doing. Is this the definition of a busybody? A nosey person? Or just someone who enjoys socializing with others? Maybe some of each, I don’t know. Truth is, I simply don’t have time for it. That sounds kind of heartless doesn’t it? I rarely get to check up on others or update my “status” because I’ve rarely got time to just mess around by myself on the internet, and I’m not sure I really want people knowing what I’m doing all the time. Life is too busy. I’m a dad of three busy kids who have to be places and who need me in their lives. I’m a husband (not that Darla always NEEDS me, but she does have honey-do lists for me!). I’m also a pastor. I don’t think I need to describe the busyness of THAT job. I barely find the time to blog. What makes blogging hard is I feel I need to cover something with some degree of conclusive thoroughness and I write way too much. Sounds like my sermons!! When I do have extra time, the last thing I want to do is to be disappointed by seeing someone I care about glorying over a beer! Ahhh...Facebook. It’s a love-hate thing for me.

Ok, I’m quitting. Not facebook, just this blog post. I do feel a little better having vented!