Who Are The Needy?

Three things are on my mind today that burden me.

One is a family I heard about through an e-mail. They have been kicked out of their appartment and today the dad lost his job. He just did not go to work. It is a situation I want to examine for myself but I am not sure what God wants me to do to help.

The other is a high maintenance church member who is in constant need of stroking. She is playing the no one has called me game after missing church a few times.

Finally I am concerned about Grover, the son of Ed and Luz Aungon who is in the hospital in the Philippines and in critical condition. He is very young. Has a liver disease.

What can I do?

I prayed for Grover. I visited the family and am still evaluating. I will probably call the lady on my way to a hospital visit.

That is my part. The rest is up to God and to others.

I Stole A Paper On Christmas Morning

I went to the local convenience store to get a paper but they were not open. However, the paper person had placed three stacks of new Daily Oklahoman's with their precious cargo of day after Christmas sale circulars near the door. There they were. New. Ready for sale but no one there to receive my $.50. So I took one. Yes, I stole the newspaper on the day of the birth of Jesus and I am a minister of the gospel. Now I do plan to take the money to them later in the day when they open. I stole the bad news on the day set asside to celebrate the good news.

Others tried to steal the good news soon after that time. Herod had all baby boys killed forcing Jesus' parents to take him to Egypt for a while. Then the scribes, pharasees and saducees were on a witch hunt to rid the world of such a fraud as Jesus. Finally He was nailed to a Roman cross and that was it. So, there you go. The story is over.

Not so fast. In three days he got a wake up call from God almighty and busted out of the grave and graveclothes to walk again with his disciples. He is alive. That is good news.

So I stole a paper on Christmas morning. The news was not so good but the sale circulars opened up new avenues for finding more things to buy to make my life more easy and fun. Now that is a good consumer and American thing to do.

I will get to the convenience store sometime today. Beleive me.

I'm Back

Well I guess I am getting introspective today. So I am back after several months. It is Christmas and we are having a big time with my grandaughter, son-in-law, son and daughter. My other daughter and her fiancee will be here tomorrow. I am cooking and watching videos and eating too much for a guy on a diet. I need to work out and probably will in a few minutes.

I am focused about three things today.

I am focused on my church and the tough decisions that will be made in the next few months. We are finally being confronted with the reality I knew when I first came to SLBC. We are a big ship with a limited crew and the crew is dying. My roll is to instill vision and at the same time lead the church to make the tough decisions that will involve people that we love. We have had the greatest year evangelistically yet the hardest year in breaking with the past. We are destined to have an even greater year in 2009. We are going to focus on prayer and Sunday school. I will work with staff on a prospect list, prayer focus week in January and staff prayer meetings.

Second I am also focused on my personal frame of mind and physical stamina. This is something I usuall don't address but I will. I am pleased with progress made in the last three months and I will continue. I have lost 22 lbs and have consistently ran or walked three miles a day. I am going to get the cholestoral down by February 15.

My frame of mind is another story. Christmas is a hard time for me and I have had some things happen in my extended family that have been really challenging. I am trying to not let it hinder what I do. It is hard to separate. However, I have a choice. I am not a victim.

Third, I am focused on sermon direction for January and my challenging opportunity to speak at a church on Exodus. I plan to be prayerful in the next two weeks and take a look at the scripture for what God wants to say to us in these days. It will happen.

There are some things that are out of my controll but of those things that are within my controll I plan to do three things:

1. Keep in mind that my main goal is to get closer to people not to win the argument.

2. Award myself for being successful in personal disciplines and keep my mind focused on the good things.

3. Get into the scripture and pray that the Holy Spirit will direct my thinking as I prepare. I will do this for an hour a day between now and Sunday.

So here I go. I am thinking out loud. It is fun and pregnant with great encouragement.

Dreaming

Forward thinking, strategic planning, vision making, goal setting and dreaming are all very important to church, business, family and personhood. However, most plans, dreams, visions and goals fall short of their ultimate fulfillment in life. At least that has been my experience. I had a dream of having $100,000 in endowmen in my church by the end of this year but it is only $65,000 and from only a few donors. There are approximately 12 people in the church who have taken this vision seriously enough to make consistent gifts.

I have a dream, vision, direction from God that I need to be involved in reaching spanish speaking people in our area. We attempted to start a church last year and both times we failed to get it off the ground. We have no hispanic people from our community coming here except children and youth on Wednesdays. I have challenged people to consider assisting a sister church in outreach and so far the well is empty, except for me.

I have a dream of being able myself to give back to my church more than they pay me and my vision was to do it all myself through the stock market and my "savy" investing skills. This year I have lost money and the bottom is not out of the market yet. I was going to fix it and realize my goals through buying a percentage ownership in companies or securing some debt instrument. I used some of the same techniques of the past but that wisdom did not work in these days. I am lost as to what to do.

I have a dream of guideing students to become pastors, missionaries and that SLBC can be a mission sending organization. I want students to become active in ministry while they are still students. I want student leaders. I want them to do more than just study about missions. I want them to put on a mission sweat. I want them to burn leather. I want them to engage people in christian conversations. We have none, so far.

Some of these dreams could still be fulfilled but not in my time. They may happen. They may not happen. So what do I do? I keep dreaming. I keep thinking strategically. I keep leading. I keep stretching myself and my church. I keep going. I press on.

What is my motivation for these things I ask myself. Am I trying to build a kingdom? Am I trying to gain success for personal fulfillment? Am I seeking a name for myself? Am I trying to look good in the eyes of other? I don't know. Sometimes I have to say that these may be my motivations. However, most of the time they are not. Most of the time my motivation is Kingdom. I want the Kingdom to grow, for more people to know Jesus and for people to have happy and fulfilled lives. I want to see people change. I want to do a good job. I want to fulfill my calling. That is it.

So that is the dream. It is God's dream for me. I am going to stick to it.

Capitol Hill Redskin

I am a redskin, a mighty mighty redskin. Yes I am. Well, so goes the cheer in the olden days, the 60's. I am surprised that they have not changed the name by now because redskin is not politically correct.


The shirt made it to the philippines on our mission trip recently. The indian got many stares from the locals.


High school was a different time yet it was a time when ideas were being formed about life. I was glad that Laurie and I got to speak in two high schools in the philippines. I hope we left some kind of an impression.


I just recently watched the movie Forest Gump. I have watched it several times. It is one of my favorite. His famous "momma said" statements are true to life. He was a man who kept his promise because his momma said to always keep a promise. He opened a shrimp business for his friend Bubba because he promised.


While in the Philippines I remember a promise I made to Jesus when I was 16. It was a promise to be a preacher of the gospel. It is a promise I plan to keep for the rest of my life. I want to be better in my latter years than I was in my early years. I was a student of Capitol Hill when I preached my first sermon. I also had a nursing home ministry at 17 and was leading worship in a small church in Oklahoma City at 16. I have never regretted a minute of that. It was formative for my ministry today.


I am now back home. Yes ministering to the area where I went to school. I cannot wait for see you at the pole. I cannot wait for revival. I cannot wait to seek to reach the hispanic community in two weeks. I cannot wait for the cottage prayer meetings.


I guess once a redskin always a redskin.

Don't Be Anxious

Jesus reminded us not to be anxious. If I can take things one day at a time I can make it. However if I am anxious I am unable to be focused. Right now I am listening to myself preach on tape. I am listening to one of my sermons from the road to recovery series I preached in June and July. It is one of my favorite series. It probably helped me more than anything I have done in a long time. It is a sermon about focusing on what to do today.

I am learning that willpower is not the way my life should work. My life should work with God's power. No "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Focus on what I want not on what I don't want. Don't think about the negative but the positive. Focus on the fruit of the spirit. Focus not on what you have been but on what you can become. Every day should be a time of refocusing my life. I am doing that right now.

Something bad on T.V. you don't just say I am going to close my eyes and not watch this you must change the channel to watching something better for you.

Feelings are fickle. They are like the back tires of a front wheel drive tire. Two front tires are thinking and doing. They dictate the back tires of feelings and body function. You controll things in your life by thinking and doing. It begins with doing something. Let the doing or the action lead you. If you are guided by the spirit you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

So there is no need to be anxious. Focus on people who will help.

We Are Home

We made it home and are in a time of transition (jet lag) whatever it is called. I worked yesterday and am preparing for work today. Laurie just left. We are both wide awake at 4 a.m. and are trying to get our bodies into the right time zone. I know it will happen.

Today I get to go to a pastors conference, see my senior adults at Jolly Elders and will try to make some visits. I will also work on catching up on e-mail. There are a few fires that developed but that is to be expected with people. I also have an article to write and need to make a few phone calls to some key leaders.

The experience in the Philippines was greater than we expected. The best thing about it is that we knew that we were supposed to be there. It was God's will for us at this time.

Negative experences related to customer service issues we had with the credit card company as we tried to purchase a copy machine for CRI Philippines. The machine was not bought. We will have to wire the money.

Then there was this ticket agent in LAX for Frontier Airlines who decided to chide us for being in the wrong line preparing for a 6 a.m. flight on Sunday. I was not in the mood and we had a discussion. I have sent a complaint. I just wish all things could go smoothly. They were understaffed but that was not my problem. Usually I am pretty tollerant but this was more than I could take. We had been there since 4:30 a.m. It was a jungle. I wish I could always respond without too much emotion. I am still working on that but it is a lifetime work in progress I guess.

Home is reality. Grass was not mowed because the mower would not start. Lauries bushes she had just planted looked like sage brush. They were dead. The mileage on my honda indicated that it is time to change my oil and I just decided a few months ago to change my own oil to give the saving to missions. It is raining here and mowing even if the mower would start is not possible. So we have to wait with tall grass. That is an annoyance. We still have a bathroom that needs trim work finished and I have a shower that needs new washers in the faucet.

And for church, we are seeking to change the paradigm from preserving the past to confronting the future and engaging the culture. It is a battle. It is the new wineskins to replace the old. Buildings and things relating to them have killed more churches than any doctrinal dispute. We have a battle but I think we have the resources in people to meet the challenge. We are seeking to look through the windshield rather than the rear view mirror. It is all about people.

Also I came home to the death of one of our most special ladies. Pauline White (the General) died yesterday morning. Her funeral is Thursday. This has been coming for a few months but none of us are ready for it. I also discovered that another of our ladies died while I was gone. Life and death happens.

Well where do I go from here? I go to work today. I am leaving after posting this. I will go there and face whatever comes to me. It is a choice I am making today. God is in charge and he has gifted and trained me for a time as this. I will study for Sunday. I will make some calls, receive some calls, send and receive some e-mail. I will pray. I will seek to share Jesus. I will walk with Him. I will focus on the broad picture no matter how much people will try to force me to focus on trivia. I will focus on reaching new people. I will focus on ministering to those who need me most. I will delegate to others so I am free to do what is my duty today. God send laborers to the harvest today. In Jesus name, Amen.