Carols for Chrstmas

"Sing praises to the Lord"
Today at the UMW Christmas Luncheon we had a program about the history of a number of our most loved carols. How can you sing "Joy to the World", "Silent Night", "Good King Wensiel", "O Come All Ye Faithful" and many more and not feel the wonder of the season and of the gift of JESUS. In addition to getting to lead the ladies in all these great songs of Christmas, we had Mrs. Chaulk from the Episcopal Church played the hammered dulcimer.
It was such a pleasure to share in this wonderful advent event!
Rev. Richard

Extravagant Generosity

"But just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us[a]—see that you also excel in this grace of giving." 2 Corinthians 8:7

Bishop Robert Schnase writes about 5 practices of fruitful congregations. The last of those we talked about on Sunday was "Extravagant Generosity." Paul calls us to give ourselves away for the sake of the gospel. We are called to help make the a broken world, whole.
Here are the main points from Sunday's sermon, in an acronym that spells out HELP.
Heed the compassion command of Jesus.
Empty yourself so that you can be filled by the Holy Spirit.
Lift the burdens of others.
Pay the price.

With Thanksgiving coming, it is important to answer this question. "Lord, do I realize that everything I have is a gift from God. I cam with nothing, and I am leaving with nothing, and in between all I have is yours God."
Let's give ourselves away for the sake of the gospel.
Richard

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18

If you read the morning paper, or watch television news, or surf the internet, you know about the worldwide financial crisis that is unfolding all around us. It is complicated, disheartening, confusing and down right scary. In fact, even when some of the actions of different political and financial leaders seem to be helping matters things did not improve. Why?

It can be summed up in one word, fear! Fear has gripped people’s hearts and minds and drained them of almost all hope. And that fear has kept, hope from blooming in the hearts of people all over the world.

Black Bart was a professional thief whose very name struck fear as he terrorized the Wells Fargo stage line. From San Francisco to New York, his name became synonymous with the danger of the frontier. Between 1875 and 1883 he robbed 29 different stagecoach crews. Amazingly, Bart did it all without firing a shot. Because a hood hid his face, no victim ever saw his face. He never took a hostage and was never trailed by a sheriff. Instead, Black Bart used fear to paralyze his victims. His sinister presence was enough to overwhelm the toughest stagecoach guard.

Fear always paralyzes people. It is a tool of the enemy that can keep us from the hope that is ours in the gospel. The scripture reminds us that the perfect love of God drives out fear. In fact the apostle Paul said that we are to worry or be anxious about nothing, even 401ks, a diving stock market, world wide banking and credit problems, and a terrible housing market; but instead we are to pray about everything. The promise is that our fear when it is driven out of our spirits will be replaced by the Holy Spirit and by peace that overcomes even the headlines of our day.

So let me encourage you that, God is in control of our lives, and we need not fear. God is never the one who sends fear into our lives. God stands ready to help us overcome all fear.

In His Peace,

Richard A. Young

What a whirl wind of events have fallen upon our household. All the regular stuff of life, plus now we have our first child engaged. Our oldest daughter, Dorothy is now 9 months from being a Mrs. Even thought this was not unexpected it is still amazing. I am excited and sad all at the same time.
I celebrate the wonderful young woman she has become. And she has great taste in guys. Brian, the love of her life is a great guy, who I like and can't wait to get to spend time with in the future. He is a music minister at a UM Church in Abilene where they both leave. He fits perfectly into our family and that is great!
But it is also hard to see my little girl, preparing to leave and cleave as the book of Genesis puts it. It is the end of our family as it has been and the beginning of a new family for Dorothy and Brian.
I am glad I have a little time to get prayed up and prepared for this new part of the adventure of being a dad!
In Him,
Richard

Life's Changes

This past week I has the joy of helping my 18 year old daughter get ready and go off to College. It was so exciting to see her get all her stuff for her room ready to move half way across the country to start her new life as an adult. I am so very proud of her!

But as the day got closer to put her on the plane in San Antonio, I felt a ache deep in my chest that I could not ignore. No it wasn't indigestion, or sudden heart problems, it was the pain of Change.

I know one of our presidential canidates has made Change the center of his campaign, but I am no so sure I like it? Sometime the day before my dear daughter left on her adventure of new beginnings, I realized my cutie little girl was no longer just mine, and she wasn't little any more. In fact time has marched on, even if I don't like it! And now I have to let her go! She will always be her mother and I's little girl, but not in the way things have been for the first 18 years of her life.


You see there is joy mixed with pain in the midst of change. Even good changes! So in the end I shed quite a few tears and then I laughed and celebrated the lovely young woman I watched climb on that big sliver jet at the airport. I prayed and blessed her and her new life and thanked God for allowing me the great privilege of being her father. I praised God for the miracle that she has become as she follows His will for her life and her future continues to unfold.

Life's changes aren't easy! But God walks with us every step of the way!

In His Grace!
Rev. Richard

Bring On The Barbarians!!

I am reading a little book by Erwin McManus, called "The Barbarian Way." It is a fascinating book about cutting edge worship and spirituality in our postmodern time. I find it exciting and yet very convicting. He talks a great deal about how tame and domesticated our faith has become as Christians and I think he is dead on! "The overwhelming number of us who declare Jesus as Lord have become domesticated, or if you will civilized. We have lost the passion and power of that raw, untamed, and primal faith.

He says that he believes Jesus is being lost in a religion that bears his name. People are being turned off because Christianity has become docile, civilized, safe, self-satisfying, This is a Barbarian life style of laying down our life for Christ! It is a call to love God with all of our heart, mind and strength. It is a call to a path of adventure and mystery and to battle for the souls and hearts of a lost world. McManus says, "We have forgotten that there is a kingdom of darkness stealing the hopes and dreams and souls of a humanity without God. It is time to unleash the barbarian revolt."

Where is God calling us to be part of His Revolt?

Rev.Rich

SURVEY FINDS THAT 70 PERCENT OF AMERICANS BELONGING TO A CHURCH FEEL MANY RELIGIONS CAN LEAD TO ETERNAL LIFE

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life conducted the study. Among the more surprising numbers were that 57% of evangelical church attendees said they believe many religions can lead to eternal life, in conflict with traditional biblical teaching. We have discussed many issues on this blog that should be informed by biblical witness and Spirit-filled thinking. This one stands alone! The uniqueness of Jesus Christ and God’s redemptive act of love revealed in the cross for all of creation is the heart of the biblical message. Jesus Christ is the Gospel. When Philip asked Jesus to “show us the Father,” Jesus response was both unique and exclusive. “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Any one who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’” Jesus’ declaration to Thomas was absolute. “I am the way and truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Now why have I chosen to bet my life on this exclusive worldview?

• n no other religion or ideology can I see more clearly the complete face of God. There is a moral integrity that is revealed in Jesus that stands heads above any other. The great Hindu leader Gandhi took much of the moral directives for his movement from the Sermon on the Mount. A Buddhist friend of mine told me that she became a Buddhist because compassion is one of the highest ideals. Jesus is compassion incarnate!
• Jesus is grace incarnate. Many religions understand law and the consequences for the violator. All of us carry some kind of baggage from our inner sense of brokenness. As Jesus said to the woman caught in the act of adultery, “I do not condemn you. Go and live above your brokenness!” He also empowers us to do so.
• Jesus is God’s offer of inclusive reconciliation regardless of race, gender, nationality, and political or cultural ideologies. Jesus transcends all cultures. He is truly the universal savior who transcends any one particular culture or ideology. For example, Hindu religion is encapsulated in Indian culture and Islam is encapsulated in Middle Eastern culture but the movement of Jesus becomes incarnate and distinctive in every culture.
• Jesus values the poor and disfranchised and calls his followers to go into the entire world and proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God through practical and sacrificial works of service. In other words the good news of the gospel is not just about getting people into heaven but the intentions and resources of heaven into the world.
• Jesus as “The Way” does not give any human being the right to judge or determine who gets in or who is out. God alone is judge and the ultimate One who makes those calls!

In God's Grace,

RevRichard

I Just Can't Wait!

Jesus said, "I have eagerly awaited celebrating this Passover with all of you."

Those are the words of Jesus in the gospel of Luke, just before what we call the Last Supper. Jesus knew that beyond this happy and sad time with his disciples lay unbearable suffering and shame at the cross. Unjust beating, a kangaroo court process before Pilate and the Jewish religious leaders, and ultimately death on a Roman cross. So why would Jesus say these words this way? How could anyone be eager to experience all that lay before Jesus.

When I think of eagerly awaiting something, I think about what it was like to be a young boy the week before Christmas. You know what that was like, excitement and anxiety all blended together in to a recipe of Holiday and family joy! Packages to shake and size up, lights and ornaments on the tree and around the house, sweets and other scrumptious foods appearing to tempt and treat each person around. That to me is eagerly awaiting something! And that with all the pain and horror is how Jesus beheld what lay in and beyond that passover feast that is like no other ever in human history.

He eagerly awaited it and still does when we come to the table of communion with Him, because he desires fellowship and intimacy with you and me that much. Even at such an amazing cost He wants to set with us and get to hear and experience the depths of our hopes and dreams, our pain and sins, everything that makes us who and what we are; His brothers and sisters.

It makes me wonder, how much I desire to spend intimate, alone time with him in close fellowship? How much pain do I cause him when I get too busy, or preoccupied with my stuff to set down with him and just be? That is really what the cross is all about, not just salvation but transformation! Something Mr. Wesley called Sanctification!
O Lord Help me to eagerly desire to just "Be" with you!

Yours in Him,
RevRichard

Could It Be Magic?

I just read an amazing story about a United Methodist Church Music director who has won a contest to become the first 'Chief Magic Official' of Disney's magic kingdoms in the United States.
He won out over almost 2000 other persons to become this giver of wonders.

Justin Muchoney says he has had a life long love affair with disney. "The Disney 'magic'––like our faith––can be shared with people in an incredible number of ways, both large and small," he adds. "Each day I strive to understand that everyone I encounter may be in need of a warm smile, a friendly handshake or an ear to listen. Even people I have never met before and may never see again deserve to be treated with the same warmth and respect as my closest friends."

In an e-mail to friends after a recent Anaheim trip to Disney Land, he wrote: "I am constantly reminded about the power of one person to make a positive difference in the life of another. I have the chance to work with and be around some of the most passionate and creative people I’ve ever met, and on each visit, I see them go out of their way to place someone else’s needs above their own or go above and beyond the call of duty to bring a smile to someone’s face.

"This is the magic that I hoped to witness and, in each instance, I realize that it doesn’t have to be contained to a Disney park," he wrote. "Please remember that you have the power to make someone’s day. Today, tomorrow, or all week––why pass up the opportunity to make a difference in the world?"

What an interesting way to get to witness for Jesus! In fact Justin's boss and Pastor at Ingomar United Methodist Church, in Seven Fields, Pa. says he has been able to connect the magic of "When You Wish Upon a Star" with the "Star of Wonder." Rev. Tracy Cox says, "He has the ability to inspire people to reach for their dreams. He connects real life and the magic – and he truly believes that God is the true changer of lives."

Justin's vision is this, "Our churches, based on our belief in Christ, should be places where people see optimism, hope and endless possibilities. Once you’ve seen someone accept Christ, you know that there are no limits on what they can accomplish in life!"

So how about it? When was the last time the magic of our faith touched you? When was the last time the wonder of it all simply spilled out of your heart to someone around you? May be we all need to be part time, "Chief Magic Officials!"

In Magic and Wonder!

Rev Richard (Rick)

AMERICA = FREEDOM

A PRAYER FOR AMERICA

DEAR LORD,

We're still hoping we'll wake up. We're still hoping we'll open a
sleepy eye and think, What a horrible dream.

But we won't, will we, Father? What we saw was not a dream. Planes
did gouge towers. Flames did consume our fortress. People did perish. It was
no dream and, dear Father, we are sad.

There is a ballet dancer who will no longer dance and a doctor who will no longer heal. A church has lost her priest, a classroom is minus a teacher. Cora ran a food pantry. Paige was a counselor and Dana, dearest Father, Dana was only three years old. (Who held her in those final moments?)

We are sad, Father. For as the innocent are buried, our innocence is buried as well. We thought we were safe. Perhaps we should have known better. But we didn't.

And so we come to you. We don't ask you for help; we beg you for it. We don't request it; we implore it. We know what you can do. We've read the accounts. We've pondered the stories and now we plead, Do it again, Lord. Do it again.

Remember Joseph? You rescued him from the pit. You can do the same for us. Do it again, Lord.

Remember the Hebrews in Egypt? You protected their children from the angel of death. We have children, too, Lord. Do it again.

And Sarah? Remember her prayers? You heard them. Joshua? Remember his fears? You inspired him. The women at the tomb? You resurrected their hope. The doubts of Thomas? You took them away. Do it again, Lord. Do it again.

You changed Daniel from a captive into a king's counselor. You took Peter the fisherman and made him Peter an apostle. Because of you, David went from leading sheep to leading armies. Do it again, Lord, for we need counselors today, Lord. We need apostles. We need leaders. Do it again, dear Lord.

Most of all, do again what you did at Calvary. What we saw here on that Tuesday, you saw there on that Friday. Innocence slaughtered. Goodness murdered. Mothers weeping. Evil dancing. Just as the ash fell on our children, the darkness fell on your Son. Just as our towers were shattered, the very Tower of Eternity
was pierced.

And by dusk, heaven's sweetest song was silent, buried behind a rock.

But you did not waver, O Lord. You did not waver. After three days in a dark hole, you rolled the rock and rumbled the earth and turned the darkest Friday into the brightest Sunday. Do it again, Lord. Grant us a September Easter.

We thank you, dear Father, for these hours of unity. Disaster has done what discussion could not. Doctrinal fences have fallen. Republicans are standing with Democrats. Skin colors have been covered by the ash of burning buildings. We thank you for these hours of unity.

And we thank you for these hours of prayer. The Enemy sought to bring us to our knees and succeeded. He had no idea, however, that we would kneel before you. And he has no idea what you can do.

Let your mercy be upon our President, Vice President, and their families. Grant to those who lead us wisdom beyond their years and experience. Have mercy upon the souls who have departed and the wounded who remain. Give us grace that we might forgive and faith that we might believe.

And look kindly upon your church. For two thousand years you've used her to heal a hurting world.

Do it again, Lord. Do it again.

Through Christ, Amen.

As written by Max Lucado for America Prays, a national prayer vigil held Saturday, September 14, 2001.
Permission to copy not only granted but encouraged.

VBS FUN!

PLAY TIME!!!

"If a country is governed wisely...
People enjoy their food, take pleasure in being with their families,
spend weekends working in their gardens,
delight in the doings of the neighborhood."
- Tao Te Ching

This week at Vacation Bible School I have had the joy of leading kids from 4 years old all the way up to adults in outdoor and indoor games. We have had a blast with things like water, balls, balloons, coke bottles, pool noodles, blindfolds, Mentos candy, newspapers, Toilet Paper, beachballs and hair dryers to name just a few. In a word we have gotten to know each other and Jesus better by "PLAYING." For some adults and maybe even a fews kids, play is almost a lost art. But is something our spirit needs to thrive in today's to busy, crazy world.

In today's world, even for we Christians the stress is always there to be a success!
Listen to Lorraine, an independent businesswoman, as she speaks about the cost of a "Successful" life: "You have to give up something to be a success in business. There's not tome for everything. Me, I have very little time for my spiritual life. I don't have a civic life. And I do very little with friendships--anything that doesn't have to do with business. I don't have time to cultivate relationships that aren't profitable." In Wayne Miller's book I am reading entitled "Sabbath," he says, "The problem for most of us is not simply that we work too much, the problem is that we are working for the wrong reward. We reward the fruits of our labor and the sweat of our brow with money, goods, and services." We need to seek a balance he says between money and stuff and time. Especially time to just PLAY. You know, things like, take a walk int he park, grab a nap, play with your kids or grandkids, read a good book, dance, dig in the dirt, cook, visit with friends, play a game just for fun, paint, sing, meditate, journel, or just look deeply into the eyes of someone for whom you care deeply.

After all what really matters? What is success in God's eyes?

Whata' Play?

In Him,
Rev.Richard

The Messiah Changes Lives!

This week I was reading a article about the life of George Fredrick Handel.
For much of his life he wrote Italian music as a German-English composer. He ran an opera hours that became unpopular and failed. Suffering from overwork and exhaustion, in 1737 Handel had a stroke and became paralyzed. Money problems soon followed, and just as all hope seemed gone someone sent him a libretto, in English, drawn from the bible, about the Savior, the suffering servant of all whose stripes make us whole.
Something about those texts energized him, they gave him heart and purpose once again. Day and night he worked, forgetting to eat or sleep. One friend visited Handel as he was setting the music to the words, "He was despised and and rejected of men," and found him sobbing deeply. After composing the Hallelujah chorus, Handel wrote the words of St. Paul in his journal, paraphrased from 2 Corinthians. "Whether I was in my body or out of my body as I wrote it, I know not. God knows!"
This exhausted and beaten man, completed the entire Messiah in three short weeks! How could this happen? What literally, Got into him?
Without a doubt it was the power of the Holy Spirit working through the words of scripture that moved the heart of Handel in amazing ways. Listen to what other great composers had to say:

Frans Joseph Hayden - When he heard the Hallelujah Chorus "wept like a child."
Mozart - "Handel understands effect better than any of us - when he chooses, he strikes like a thunderbolt."
Beethoven - "Handel is the greatest composer that ever lived....I would uncover my head and kneel down at his tomb."

You see Handel's real Messiah heard the cries of a broken German composer-musician, as he lay sick, broken and pennyless and lost. He took a sick old man and made him holy and redeemed.
This was not just another work of music, but a transformation of the man.
Maybe the Messiah wants to take the jumbled, tangled mess of our daily living and bring it all together with the unpredictable workings of the Holy Spirit and create another masterpiece in us!

Hallelujah, Hallelujah!

Rev. Richard

Cheering for the HOME Team!

This last week I had the privilege of attending my 18 year old Daughter's High School Graduation. It was an exciting time to see Kristin walk across the stage ranked 8th out of 550 students. We were not the only family that was thrilled to see our offspring get a diploma. The stands at the football stadium were full of people who arrived an hour early to support the young persons of their families.

One of the frustrations of this evenings festivities, was that the sound system was so ineffective that you could not hear anything that was being said by almost any of the various speakers on the graduation program. This made the whole event seem even longer than the almost 3 hours we sere there.

But it was fun to watch families, wait sometimes 2 or more hours till there young boy or girl stepped up to get there diploma, and when they did, what a celebration!

Cheers, handmade signs, giant balloons, screams,, yells, fireworks and especially air horns were used to announce that Jessie, or Amber or whoever had arrived. In many cases 2o or more family and friends would stand or jump up and down and yell the name of their graduate.

I thought how if I were a kid down on that field it would make me feel to have such a wild party break out on my behalf! I would know how loved and cared for I was. I would have to feel pride and excitement at my shared accomplishments. I would be filled with joy that so many persons were cheering for me. I was reminded of the words of the writer of Hebrews that reminds us that we are running the race of life and their are a "Cloud of Witnesses" who are watching and cheering us on so that we can stick with it to the end.

As I sat in the stands with a couple of thousand other parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends of the graduating Class of 2008 of Del Rio High School, I felt great pride and joy for my daughter and for another 540 or so young persons. And I hope and prayed that at other times in their lives they would hear and feel the cheering and shouting and the pure glee that God our heavenly Father has for each of them.

In Jesus,
RevRick

PRAYER REALLY WORKS!!

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - It seemed like an almost literal answer to their prayers. When two New Zealand pilots ran out of fuel in a microlight airplane they offered prayers and were able to make an emergency landing in a field — coming to rest right next to a sign reading, "Jesus is Lord."

Grant Stubbs and Owen Wilson, both from the town of Blenheim on the country's South Island, were flying up the sloping valley of Pelorus Sound when the engine spluttered, coughed and died.

"My friend and I are both Christians so our immediate reaction in a life-threatening situation was to ask for God's help," Stubbs told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

He said he prayed during the ill-fated flight Sunday that the tiny craft would get over the top of a ridge and that they would find a landing site that was not too steep — or in the nearby sea.

Wilson said that the pair would have been in deep trouble if the fuel had run out five minutes earlier.

"If it had to run out, that was the place to be," he said. "There was an instantaneous answer to prayer as we crossed the ridge and there was an airfield — I didn't know it existed till then."

After Wilson glided the powerless craft to a landing on the grassy strip, the pair noticed they were beside a 20-foot-tall sign that read, "Jesus is Lord — The Bible."

"When we saw that, we started laughing," Stubbs said.

Nearby residents provided them with gas to fly the home-built plane back to base.

Navigating Rough Seas

Isaiah 49 : 8-16a

Larry Crabb has written a book called Moving Through Your Problems Toward Finding God. In the foreword the author writes, I have come to a place in my life where I need to know God better or I won't make it. Life at times has a way of throwing me into such blinding confusion and severe pain that I lose all hope. Joy is gone. Nothing encourages me ... The rhetoric we're all used to -- " just trust the Lord, pray more, get counseling, follow God's plan more carefully" -- must give way to the reality of finding God.


Dr. Crabb goes on to say that we don't feel we can trust God. "We thank him for opening up a parking place in a crowded lot, but we cannot trust him with our souls" (page 95). Perhaps you can relate to these words of Dr. Crabb.


Seven and a half centuries before Christ, or about 2,700 years ago, there was another writer who was trying to speak to a people thrown into "blinding confusion and severe pain," a whole people for whom all hope was lost, joy was gone, a people for whom nothing seemed to provide encouragement.


These people were the Israelites who had been exiled from their homeland, Palestine, by the Babylonians. Can you imagine being tossed out of your hometown and forced to live in a state hundreds of miles away? The favorite places to go to relax, just a memory. Your home which was so carefully built and landscaped destroyed by an invading enemy ...


It was in the midst of this hopelessness, in the midst of exile in Babylon that Isaiah wrote this hope-filled chapter. "Thus says the Lord: In a time of favor I have answered you, on a day of salvation I have helped you ..." (Isaiah 49:8).


This was quite a word of promise at a time when those in exile were saying, "The Lord has forsaken us, our Lord has forgotten us."


Is that not the feeling of many today? I talked with someone recently who said she knew few people who were really happy. Problems seem to be everywhere.


In his wonderful little book, Your God Is Too Small, J.B. Phillips writes, To some people the mental image of God is a kind of blur of disappointments. "Here ... is One whom I trusted, but He let me down." The rest of their lives is consequently shadowed by this letdown. Thenceforth there can be no mention of God, Church, religion, or even parson, without starting the whole process of association with its melancholy conclusion: God is a Disappointment. (p. 48)


On our final evening together at a confirmation class retreat a few years ago, we spent a good deal of time dealing with the feelings of disappointment over God's "poor handling" of the world. It is a lot like a country song I have heard on the way to take my children to school, the singer goes on about earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, gangs murders, and other disheartening things and says, where was God, “O He must be busy!” Surely there were Israelites in exile in Babylon who had given up on this God who didn't seem to care for them, who seemed to have forgotten them.


My dear friends, the feeling of being forgotten by God has been a feeling which everyone through the centuries has known, when things were at their worst. The saints called it "the dark night of the soul." Even our Lord cried out from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" This was not the last word, but it was a very real feeling in that moment, for sure.


The question is how do we travel the white waters of loneliness and despair, of feeling forgotten by God, when no AAA reveals a detour, a better road?


Isaiah writes with great flair and confidence in verse 11 of chapter 49 that the Lord would turn all mountains into roads. That is, the very things that appear to be obstacles would end up being helpful roads to aid us in our journey.


I suspect the greatest lie that has been both preached and believed is that to become a Christian, to be a disciple of Jesus, is to have a piece of plastic in one's hip pocket that can be shown in hospital, doctor's office, bedroom, living room, place of work and place of stress that staves off death, pain and uncertainty. Just show the card! "Here, see! I'm a Christian. I get to go through without pain."


Nowhere in the Bible or in the teachings of Jesus is such drivel taught. Rather we learn through Jesus that the key to successful and joyful living is a close relationship with the God of the universe and our neighbors. And that only comes through a conscious decision to spend our lives seeking to know God, with Jesus as our guide.


Loneliness is a real feeling that Jesus felt and we feel. But it is a feeling, not a description of God's location or lack of existence.


If you want a crazy, fun, deep, moving, spiritually enriching novel to read, find The River Why, by David James Duncan. Your pleasure in reading it may be heightened if you like to fish, but anyone whose heart is beating will be enriched by it.


At one point toward the end of the book the main character, Gus, is in a conversation with Nick, an older man who had been making fishing rods and tying flies with him for some months in his little cabin in a remote part of Oregon. Just before Nick moves away, Gus gets up the nerve to ask Nick about the scar on one of his palms. In front of a warm fire Nick tell his story.


He served on a mine sweeper in the North Sea during WWII. He told Gus about how much he hated the chaplain who was always spouting off pious words of faith to him. Nick couldn't be less interested in such stuff. He then told of encountering a huge storm which tossed the relatively little ship like a cork on a pond. After a sleepless night of being tossed about, Nick got up for duty just as dawn was breaking. They had steered a course into the lee of the Norwegian mountains to wait out the storm. Suddenly, about a mile off the coast they hit a floating mine, blowing the front of the hull away and sinking the ship with most of its crew in minutes.


Nick ended up in the water, more or less in shock and soon numb from the cold water. To make the long and gripping story short, a big trawler eventually appeared and after taking on a number of the survivors, Nick saw a man with a short stubby fishing pole cast his line out past him. He could see the line but he couldn't feel it, nor could he grasp it, for there was no feeling in his hands.


As the line was being reeled in, the bobber moved by him and he tried to enfold his body around it, but could not hold on. Then he saw it, a five-inch, heavy gauge hook. The ship was pulling away and it was his last chance. As best as he could he held the point of the hook against his palm, waiting for the line to come taut ... it did, and mercifully he soon blacked out as he was literally reeled into the boat.


Gus found out where the scar on Nick's hand came from, a scar that was the remaining evidence of how he was hauled to safety. And for Nick, that experience changed his life. Listen to his final words to Gus: It isn't that it would have been so bad for me to drown ... what scares me, what makes me happy, is what I'd have died believin' then, compared to what I'll die believin' now ... I don't know how to put it. I'm still not religious, never will be. But since this hook pierced me the world hasn't been the same. I just didn't know anything, nothing at all, till God let me watch that line run away from me, my hands all powerless an' cold. You're young, Gus. I don't know if you've been to that place beyond help or hope. But I was there, on the sea that day. And I was sent the help unlooked for, an' it came in the shape of a hook. An' nothin' will ever be the way it was before that day, not for me it won't ...


It seems that, for reasons none of us can understand, the waves of despair and loneliness, of being forgotten, often become the course to our connection with God. But often we have to make some tough decisions in the midst of our despair, trusting that God will honor the risks and the pain. Only you know what those risks are for you. For Nick it was facing pain in his hand, and it left a scar.


For Jesus it was facing death on a cross, and that, too, left wounds in his palms and feet and side. Yet out of such trust in God's faithfulness came our salvation.


Remember Isaiah's words in chapter 49, the fifteenth and sixteenth verses? He said, "Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands ..."


One of the ways students in school remind themselves of the assignment for the coming week is to write it on their hands! Impossible to forget. Perhaps this is the image to take with you: a loving God taking pen in hand and writing on the almighty palm your every need.


With that confidence we all can navigate the rough waters of despair, of feeling forgotten, putting our hand in the hand of the one who will never leave us or forsake us, for we are inscribed on the palm of God.

Confirming our Faith!

Yesterday was an amazing day at FUMC Del Rio! The choir piece with the brass accompaniment was wonderful! The sermon on the Trinity was, I hope empowering! But the highlight was the confirmation of 7 of our confirmands and 4 other persons joining our church family. It is always a humbling experience to walk through the confirmation classes and to see young persons whose hearts are yearning to know God and to follow God take some of their first steps in a personal relationship with Jesus.
An added blessing was having the last of our 5 wonderful children in this class of confirmands, Angela Young. Sitting aside my pastor's mantle, and taking up the hat of a proud dad, I am so proud of her and her walk with Jesus. Sometimes, I am truly amazed at depth of her faith and love for our Lord!
All and All it was a great day to be part of the family of God in Del Rio!

In Him,
RevRichard

Where is Your Promise Land?

I am currently reading a book written by Sunday Adelaja the founder of Embassy of God Church in Kyiv, Ukraine. It is entitled "Church Shift!"

In the chapter I am reading now by this Nigerian Pastor of a mega church in Europe talks about how to find your Promise land? Your place or cause God is calling you to be in ministry. He says your promise land is that place where you love and pain intersect. That is your passion and your anger or frustration over an injustice or problem.

Here are his steps to identify your promise land:
1. What do you love and enjoy doing? Sometimes what we call a hobby is really our calling.

2. What do you have a passon for? What sets you on fire and consumes you with zeal?

3. What makes you angry and frustrated? What problems can you not get out of your head? You may be called to confront those problems with your talents and time.

God can help you find your promise land and give you a ministry that will make a difference in the Kingdom.

So where is your promise land?

Seek and Ye shall find, If you dare!

Rev.Rick

Mom's and Penecost!!

Yesterday was a strange mixture of Mother's Day and Pentecost in worship. I thought in many ways they fit each other. I mean Mom's in many ways model God's love for us. If that were not so then why would the scriptures talk about God being like a mother hen watching over her chicks, and God being El Shaddi, the hebrew image for a nursing mother.

Let me share a sister in Christ's blog that I think says what I was feeling during both worship services yesterday as we celebrated Moms and the filling of the Holy Spirit.

T
oday there was this odd mixture of Mother's Day and Pentecost at church. The Children's Sermon was mostly Mother's Day-ish, with a Holy Spirit kind of twist at the end. The sermon was more Pentecost-ish, with a mother kind of twist at the beginning. The children were handing out flowers to moms as they left the sanctuary. The colors in the sanctuary were red. And every mom I met in the hallway said, "Happy Mother's Day!"... and I kept thinking, would they be offended if I replied, "Happy Pentecost!"?

Because the truth is that I couldn't do what I do as a mom if it weren't for a constant refilling of the Holy Spirit in my being. Mothers are expected to act a lot like God (I sort of got this from the children's sermon) - we are suppose to be always caring, always available, always putting others in front of ourselves, dying daily for the sake of our family, and doing so with a smile on our face, beaming with love that radiates into the whole house, filling it with warmth. Who can do that all the time? I NEED things like a fresh experience of Pentecost to enable me to do what I do at home. I would far rather find that at church than a pat on the back if I had to choose.

Sadly, I don't think many moms notice this, and the pat on the back sure feels good when the back is sore from a long year of constant and often overlooked service. Mother's Day IS important. But I think we do a disservice to mothers when we fail to give them what they need most - a fresh inpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Rev. Richard
PEACE!!

Empowered

Empowered

Acts 2 : 1-21
Pentecost

A family driving a large camper pulled up in front of the church just as the pastor started toward home. Desiring to be friendly, the pastor introduced himself and expressed his admiration for the camper. The man of the family told him rather proudly: "This camper sleeps eight people." Then he asked: "What is the capacity of your church, Pastor?" The beleaguered pastor replied rather glumly, "Oh, it sleeps about eighty."

It is embarrassing sometimes how little the modern day church resembles the church that first Pentecost when the Spirit came. The sound of a windstorm, tongues of fire, disciples speaking in different languages, thousands being added to the church and lots of excitement. Excitement everywhere.


We're more like a small town I heard about. A traveler stopped at a gas station in the town to buy gasoline. He asked if there was a place close by to get something to eat. The attendant answered, "No, there's just the cafe down the road and it closes at 6 o'clock."


"What do you folks do around here for excitement?" the motorist asked.


"Well," the attendant said, " ˜round here, folks don't get excited."

Such could be said of many churches. They are an indication that we have forgotten what the church is really about. If we go back to the Day of Pentecost, the day the church was born, we will see that God gave us the church to satisfy one of the great hungers of our time ” EMPOWERMENT.

Have you heard that word before? It is a current buzz word in our society. Everyone nowadays wants to be empowered. We want to feel that we have control over our lives. We want to feel we can take charge of our destinies. We want to know we can follow the dreams of our hearts. But many of us feel powerless. Some of us are held back by our lack of initiative. Others of us are held back by a deprived environment. Others by barriers in our society. Still, we hunger to believe we can pull ourselves out of the muck and the mire of a disappointing and dismal situation. And the church is the place where true empowerment takes place.

Can’t we see that that is what Pentecost is about, empow erment? A handful of farmers, fishermen, tax-collectors and housewives became so empowered that they turned the Roman empire upside down. That's quite an accomplishment. It may very well be the greatest single act of empowerment in recorded history. How did they do it?

The answer is quite obvious. And, if we study their example and pattern our lives after it, we will become empowered too.

IN THE FIRST PLACE, THEY OPENED THEMSELVES TO THE SPIRIT OF THE LIVING GOD. That is always the first step in any momentous victory. It is to place ourselves in God's hands.

Neil T. Anderson, in his book VICTORY OVER DARKNESS, tells a thrilling story about a little girl born with major health problems which left her crippled. She had a large, wonderful Christian family. But while her brothers and sisters enjoyed running and playing outside, she was confined to braces.


"Will I ever be able to run and play like the other children?" she asked her parents.


"Honey, you only have to believe," they responded. "If you believe, God through the Spirit will make it happen."


She took her parents' counsel to heart and began to believe that God could heal her. She practiced walking without her braces with the aid of her brothers and sisters. On her twelfth birthday, she surprised her parents and her doctors by removing her braces and walking around the doctor's office unassisted. She never wore the braces again.

Her next goal was to play basketball. The coach only agreed to let her play as a means of getting her older sister on the team. She was given an outdated uniform, but she was allowed to work out with the other players. One day she approached the coach and promised him if he would give her an extra 10 minutes of coaching each day, she would give him a world class athlete. He laughed, but seeing she was serious, half-heartedly agreed. Before long her determination paid off. She was one of the team's best players.

Her team went to the state basketball championships. One of the referees noticed her exceptional ability. He asked if she had ever run track. She hadn't. He encouraged her to try it. So after the basketball season she went out for track. She began winning races and earned a berth in the state championships.


At the age of 16, she was one of the best young runners in the country. She went to the Olympics in Australia and won a bronze medal for anchoring the 400meter relay team. Four years later in Rome she won the 100-meter dash, the 200meter dash and anchored the winning 400-meter relay team ” all in world-record times. Wilma Rudolph capped the year by receiving the prestigious Sullivan Award as the most outstanding amateur athlete in America. Her faith and hard work had paid off. (1)


In a sense, that is what Pentecost is about. People opened themselves to God's Spirit and God's Spirit empowered them to do things they never dreamed possible. That is what the church is about. It is to preach faith. It is to remind us that all things are possible to those who believe. It is to declare with St. Paul, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." It is to encourage us to open ourselves to God's Holy Spirit and let God do miraculous things with our lives. That's the first secret of the church on the Day of Pentecost ” they were empowered by God's Spirit. But they did not stop there.

THEY WERE ALSO EMPOWERED BY THEIR ASSOCIATION WITH ONE ANOTHER. They ate together, they prayed together, they sang together, they had all things in common. They built each other up in the faith. That's the way the Christian community was designed to regenerate itself. We are to build one another up, encourage one another. There is power in such encouragement.

A study was done by psychologist Dr. Henry H. Goddard, on energy levels in children. He used an instrument he called the "ergograph." How he ever got some children to stand still long enough to connect them to the machine is a mystery. But he did, and his findings are fascinating. He found that when tired children are given a word of praise or commendation, the ergograph shows an immediate upward surge of new energy. When the children are criticized and discouraged, the ergograph shows their physical energy take a sudden nosedive. (2) My guess is that those results could be duplicated in adults. When we are praised our energy levels go up. When we are criticized our energy levels go down.


What, then, is one of the most helpful roles that we can play in one another's lives as Christ's body? It is to praise one another, encourage one another, pray for one another. That is energizing, enabling, empowering.

Chuck Swindoll says that in the Marines he was taught you should dig a hole big enough for two when preparing for combat. There's nothing quite like fighting a battle all alone. There's something strengthening about having a buddy with you that keeps you from panic. We all need someone to lean on. We all need another's show of support.


Professional speaker Joe Larson once said, "My friends didn't believe that I could become a successful speaker. So I did something about it. I went out and found me some new friends!" There's some wisdom there. Many of us can think of times when encouragement from a friend made all the difference in the world. Especially when that friend was a person of deep spirituality.

A Harvard University professor once sought an interview with Phillips Brooks, the beloved preacher of another generation who wrote “O Little Town Of Bethlehem.” The professor had a serious problem and needed help. He spent an hour with Phillips Brooks and came out a changed man. Later it dawned on him that he had forgotten to ask Brooks about his problem! He says, however, "I did not care; I had found out that what I needed was not the solution of a special problem, but the contagion of triumphant spirit." (3)


I like that phrase ” "the contagion of triumphant spirit." A triumphant spirit is contagious. That was the spirit with which Simon Peter stood up to address that large throng on the day of Pentecost. Three thousand souls were added to the church that day. And daily more souls were added by the contagious spirit of the community of faith which was the church. That's the kind of contagious spirit I dream for First United Methodist church Of Del Rio! There's is no limit to what we might accomplish if we were empowered by God’s Spirit and empowered by one another.

FINALLY, THE CHURCH ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST WAS EMPOWERED BY THEIR WILLINGNESS TO SERVE OTHERS. If they had kept the Good News to themselves, their excitement would have withered quickly.


Leighton Ford, in his book THE CHRISTIAN PERSUADER, tells about the time his little girl, Debbie Jean, was lost. His wife had left Debbie Jean and her four-year-old brother with Leighton while she went to the store. Suddenly Debbie Jean was gone. A neighbor's child saw her heading toward her school which was only a few hundred yards away. They looked at the school, and no Debbie Jean. While his wife checked the shopping center across the street, Leighton Ford went to the principal and they looked through the class rooms. There was no sign of her. Panic gripped his heart; he remembered stories about men picking up little girls. He wondered if he ought to call the police. He walked up and down the road calling her name.

Half an hour later when he had all but reached the end of his rope, the little girl came around the corner of the school smiling. The explanation was simple but hard to take. She had gone to the candy store just beyond the school, met a friend, and had gone on to her friend's home a half mile away.


Later (after the thunder and lightning and tears were over), Leighton Ford reflected on the incident. During the nearly two hours that Debbie Jean was missing, nothing else mattered. In his study were books to be read, letters to be answered, articles to be written, planning to be done. But all that was forgotten. He could think of only one thing ” his lost little girl. He had only one prayer and he prayed it a thousand times: "Oh God, help me to find her." (4)

May I say to you that the church of Jesus Christ will never be what God intends it to be until we have that kind of passion for reaching out to the world outside these walls. When we have the passion that the early church had for introducing boys and girls, men and women, to the Man from Galilee, we will discover a power we never dreamed possible. Offering Christ Today For Tomorrow Program. Start New Churches and Reach the lost for Christ!


Pentecost is about empowerment ” a small group of folks turned the world upside down. May we, like they, be empowered by God's Spirit, by our life as the community of faith, and by our love of a world for which Christ died.

Remember the Sabbath!!

Someone was sitting by the side of the road when a man on horseback came racing past. The horse thundered along, tearing up the roadway. The bystander hollered, "Hey, where you going so fast?" The horseman hollered as he flew past, "I don't know. Ask the horse!"

I don't know about you, but I know that horse. The one that keeps me running from this appointment to that, from one visit to another, from preparation of sermon to another, from one meeting to another, from one staff meeting to another and the list goes on. It is so easy to race along the road of ministry and life so fast you can miss what really matters.

I was reading this week that the root word for "Sabbath" literally means "to stop!" But what happens if we are afraid to stop, because our busyness is a masking of an inner emptiness that we aren't sure we can face. But yet God says, remember to keep the Sabbath holy! It isn't an option, it is a commandment for wholeness.

Barbara Brown Taylor, the theologian says, "The simplest definition of an addiction is anything we use to fill the empty place inside of us that belongs to God alone." So the question for those of who are rushing about, "What addiction am I feeding out of my fear, and not stopping to be with God?" The surprise is that if we can really stop, then God will fill the void in us not with stuff that will not satisfy, but with the fullness of grace. But first we have to stop and get off the horse and be present with God!

In Him,
RevRichard

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." Hebrews 12:1

This last Saturday I had the joy of attending the 125 birthday of my home church, Devine First United Methodist. Not only was I there, but so were 4 other pastors who serve in the Southwest Texas Annual Conference. My pastor during my Jr. High & High School days was also present.

The organizers, had displays of old photos of church folks and activities going back many many years. I found myself in many of them. I was a skinny, freckled faced kid with long hair. I saw pictures of my Mom and Dad who have gone on to be with Jesus. I also got to visit with about 15 former members of our UMYF group and our 2 youth group leaders.

It was amazing to relive old memories, and to renew friendships and to get in touch with many of the roots of my faith and my call to ministry. When you look into the eyes of the persons who lead you to Christ, and taught you how to pray and worship, and open scripture to you in the 4th grade in Sunday School, it is a powerful movement of God's Holy Spirit. The great cloud of witnesses surround us all the time. I was visiting with my former youth leader, who is in her 70's. She told me that she and her husband, my pastor growing up and my mentor as a minister of the gospel pray for me and my family and our ministry 2 times each day. I was humbled, encouraged, awed, blown away, and empowered all at the same time!

I guess in many ways you can go home again, so that we can run the race that is set before us!

I am praising God for my saints!

Rev. Rick

General Conference Wrap-up

Over the course of the 2008 General Conference that just finished it's work in Ft. Worth these four goals were adopted for the next 4 years of our church.

• Developing principled Christian leaders;
• Creating new places for new people by starting new congregations and renewing existing ones;
• Engaging in ministries with the poor; and
• Improving global health, especially attacking the killer diseases of poverty.

In addition many many different things were addressed.
* the churches stance on things like Abortion, Homosexuality, Global warming, Aids, Immigration, Torture, and Many Different types of Justice issues.
* The churches Mission statement was changed, "The mission of the church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world."
* The membership vows of The United Methodist Church do not include witness, an integral part of laity’s role from earliest Methodism, in members’ participation in the church’s life. Because congregations repeat these vows along with new members, a pledge to “witness” will remind members to be witnesses in the community. This change to our Membership vows will help us to live out the "Great Commission" give to us by Jesus.
* The GC choice to reduce by one the number of Bishops in each US Jurisdiction so that the saved funds could be used to help bring Episcopal leadership to place like Africa and Asia were the Church's growth has happen so quickly that no money was available for needed leadership.
* Delegates voted to have a new United Methodist Hymnal presented to the next General Conference in 2012.
* Voted to study and present a plan to steamline the path to Ordained Ministry in 2012.
* Voted to restructure the Church so that we are a more Global church.

This is no where near all of the information about what our GC did over the last week and 1/2.
If you want more info chick on this link GC08.

In Jesus,
RevRick

General Conference ?s

(South Georgia Area Bishop Michael Watson presides)


Last night I watched the live feed from the General Conference proceeding. It was better than any reality TV show. The debate was powerful, as the issues of leadership and use of episcopal funds to provide leadership to fast growing central conferences in Africa, Philippines and other places around the world.

It was exciting to see the passion persons from different parts of the world and from different theological points of view, had for spreading the gospel and for the need for justice as well. In the end, we US Methodists


were called upon to give up 1 Bishop per Jurisdiction across the church, by 2012. That means that in the next 4 years the shape of our conference and almost all annual conferences in the United States will be changing. This will not be easy, change never is! I do believe that we will emerge stronger and that the Central Conferences will continue to see the Spirit move and bring souls in for the Kingdom.

One other thing, was very clear, for all of Mr. Wesley's organization we Methodical Methodist sometimes are bound by our abundance of structure. As one young adult delegate put it on the floor last night, "I call on our generation to change our way of doing things so that we can follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, NOW, Not 4 Years from NOW!"

Most of the time our bureaucracy works well, we do things well and in order, but sometimes we need to be able to be less like and corporation and more like a rapid reactionary force for God.

Whatever my opinions of different decisions, so far at General Conference, I have been proud to be called a United Methodist. We are becoming, Thank God, more of a Global Church for Jesus Christ our Lord!

Blessings!
RevRichard

Wait Upon the Lord!

"Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;" Psalms 37:7a

The purposes of God often develop slowly because His grand designs are never hurried. The great New England preacher Phillips Brooks was noted for his poise and quiet manner. At times, however, even he suffered moments of frustration and irritability. One day a friend saw him feverishly pacing the floor like a caged lion. "What's the trouble, Mr. brooks?" he asked.

"The trouble is that I'm in a hurry, but God isn't!" Haven't we felt the same way many times?

Yesterday all of my daily devotional readings were on the need for patience in our walk with Christ. Sometimes I feeling like a friend of mine who prayed, "God I want patience and I want it right now!" I know that often I need to slow down and learn to wait on God. I struggle to just be and not to continue to do and do and do.

What about you, how hard is it to wait on the Lord?

RevRichard

Sneaky Evangelism

Here is Sunday's Sermon

RevYoung

Acts 17 : 22-31
Easter 6

Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.

Therefore the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: God who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all, by raising Him from the dead."

And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, "We will hear you again on this matter." So Paul departed from them. However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

George Whitefield once said,

"I’m willing to go to prison for you,

I’m willing to go to death with you,

But I’m not willing to go to heaven without you!"

Not everyone likes or agrees with the Apostle Paul, but few discount his magnificent mind and his passion to make Christ known. He was a man for all seasons and cleverly planned his strategy for the most effectiveness.

This master communicator, guided by the Holy Spirit, had preached in Philippi, Thessalonica, Beroea, and now, before he goes on to Corinth, he makes a stop in Athens. Athens was a city "full of idols," with a whole regiment of altars to unknown gods. Paul stopped at one of these altars and began to preach. Let us learn some lessons in sneaky evangelism from this master.

Begin Where the People Are (verses 22-23)

Paul, with his unique audience in mind, begins where they are. He takes a known to present an unknown to them. "Men of Athens," he began, "I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To an unknown God.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you."

He began by getting their attention, and then was off-and-running with the eloquent oratory and skill for which he is so well-known. Paul had drunk deeply of the well of salvation, had become addicted to the Water of Life, and his passion for Christ had made him a peddler of the same "spiritual high" which he had experienced. This kind of passion for others is not learned, nor shamed into us, nor programmed into us, nor even educated into us; it is simply impossible for one who has found Jesus as Savior and realized the riches of that "find" to be silent. We become "spiritual arsonists," intentionally and deliberately setting people on fire for God!

People are won for Christ, primarily, by someone speaking to them about Christ and the Church. Charles Wesley wrote a hymn entitled, "O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing My Great Redeemer’s Praise." A thousand tongues would be fine (maybe), but we would be glad to settle for just one! If every tongue of every Christian would be dedicated, sanctified, and consecrated to tell the Gospel story, we would soon set the world aflame!

There are multitudes of ways for evangelism to take place. Methods are as varied as are the witnesses; some are naturally better than others. Someone found fault with D. L. Moody’s methods of evangelism. He responded, "I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it!" The worst we can do is to do nothing at all.

Paul was very wise in his approach. If you are going to catch fish, deer, quail, or people, it is sometimes best to "Sneak up on ‘em." This is certainly not to say we are going to be dishonest, manipulative, or misrepresentative at any time, but it is to say we are going to be aware that a lot of folks are "running-scared" of religion; they are leery of the "hard-sell" that has turned them off and are rightly suspicious of people whose motives are to "get ‘em" so they can carve another notch in their Gospel Gun of converts.

Communication, at best, is not easy. Two men went into a restaurant and saw that there were three vegetables on the menu from which to choose. The waitress said to them, "Just tell me which one of the three you don’t want, it will be a lot easier that way." One fellow said, "I don’t want any rutabagas," but rutabagas weren’t even on the menu. She said, "Look, mister, you can’t not want something we haven’t got, you’ve gotta not want something we have!"

Paul started where his hearers were. Jesus told us to be "wise as serpents and harmless as doves." We manage the "harmless as doves" part fairly well, but our "wisdom" is often astoundingly lacking.

The one who is witnessing must follow Christ closely if he/she expects to be heard. Nietzsche was not unfair when he said, "You will have to look more redeemed if I am to believe in your Redeemer." Laurence Houseman said, "A saint is one who makes goodness attractive." Do we enhance the Gospel we represent, or bring a reproach upon it?

Paul didn’t begin by using a sledgehammer of verbal accusations to those he addressed. He might have said, "Shame on you, Athenians, for having so many gods," or "How can you possibly worship an ‘unknown’ God?" or "You claim to be philosophers and don’t know who God really is! Where are your brains?!" NO! Rather, he started with them.

If those to whom we witness do not know God the Father as revealed in Christ, we do not and should not criticize or assault their intelligence. We might do well to start by talking about "their" gods. There are all kinds of gods today. Just because something seems real, doesn’t mean it is. Non-Christians have a wide range of gods. It might be a rock group. It may be a media personality. It could be a star like the late Elvis Presley. He was a god to thousands who still bow before the shrine of his grave at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee. Or consider the god of Transcendental Meditation, or the followers of Mysticism, or the Eastern religions. Some thirty-two million Americans express a belief in astrology and let a dead, burned-out star in outer space decide their destiny. Or others make gods of their children, grandchildren, money, business, wife, husband, car, house, golf game, or sex. Probably the most popular god of our time is named SELF. Why not talk about "their" gods first, not critically, not judgmentally, not with a holier-than-thou attitude, but with honest interest? Paul did exactly that. He said, "I see that you are very religious, I’ve considered your objects of worship."

Talk About God (verses 24-28)

Then Paul, having identified with his audience, subtly began to talk about the true God, not their god, not just any god, but GOD! Note that he is still finding common ground for agreement. Everyone needs a god. An atheist said to a man who was witnessing to him, "I don’t believe in God." The man wisely said, "Tell me about the god you don’t believe in. Maybe I don’t believe in him either!"

Paul started at the beginning, with God as Creator, the Source of all life. He told how God guided history and is the One on Whom all life depends. We live "in Him" and "we are His offspring," meaning we don’t even take a breath without his giving it to us. He found contact with the people on the grounds of our common humanity.

Then Paul proceeded to instruct that God is the center of the physical and spiritual universe. If somehow, someway, we could "sneak up on ‘em" with the wondrous knowledge that all their soul’s needs are met in God, we would do people so much good. The soul needs God as the earth needs the sun. Because the earth has the sun, it can grow forests and gardens and flowers; it can create rivers and seas; it can live. Without the sun, our planet would be as barren as a life without love and as blind as midnight. But our earth does not need the sun as much as our world needs God. God is all the hope our world has. He is Creator, Sustainer, Light, Health, Intelligence, Inspiration, Joy, Salvation. Take God out of the world and life is dead and hope becomes the despair of eternal darkness. Everything dies if God dies, even love, for God is love. If we lose God, we have lost it all!

Humankind can no more abandon God and live than safely abandon air. Our life is tied up in him. Paul said, "In Him we live and move and have our being!"

Paul began with God, the God-Creator, breath, life, and asserted that God’s centrality is the reason for our very existence.

We need to let people know that it makes a difference whether or not they have the RIGHT God. Any old god won’t do! Who really is your God? Whatever is FIRST is God. If you put your faith and hope and confidence in anything or anybody other than the one true God of the Bible, you will have NO God on the Judgment Day, but you will have a Judge.

The next step, of course, was that Paul asked the Athenians to turn away from their old gods to the God who gave them life. Couldn’t we be that wise, too? Let’s ask people to "Try God."

Then Come Right Out and Say It! (verses 30-31)

We must finally come right out and say it! We must make truth clear. There is a community in Washington state which is located on a river, downstream from a large timber-cutting project. The logs are floated down the river to their destination, which is the saw mill below. It became the practice for the people to fish the logs out of the water, saw off the ends that had the company name printed on them, and build houses and buildings for themselves from them. The local minister heard about this practice and became very upset, and the following Sunday he preached a sermon with the title, "Thou shalt not steal." At the conclusion of the service, as the people filed out the door, they all told him what a fine sermon it was, so he knew they had missed the point. The next Sunday he preached on the subject, "Thou shalt not cut the ends off of other people’s logs," and they got the point! (Of course, that preacher had to move to another church, but they got the point!)

When we rid ourselves of being embarrassed, of apology, of unnecessary theological jargon, when we dispense with irrelevant concepts, when we have made truth plain, then we must be direct in calling for a decision, a choice, a call to repentance. People are dying for a clear word from God. We must not make them wade through a veritable morass of trappings that only hide the Gospel.

There comes a time in the Christian witness when we must speak boldly and plainly of sin, of the need for confession and repentance, of Christ and his death and resurrection, and take the risk of being switched off by the participants in the dialogue.



It is a stupendous claim that Christians make: "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." It would be a lot easier to suggest that Christ is only one way among many to God, that he offers truth just as other leaders offer truth about God. But Paul couldn’t do that, and I can’t either! This is not my choice but his. I cannot put Christ on the throne of my heart as one Lord among many other gods, I can only say that I am his, that I belong, body and soul, in life and in death, not to myself, but to Jesus Christ!

Some Believed! (verse 34)

Resistance to the Gospel comes in many ways. In Philippi, they put Paul in jail. In Thessalonica, there was an uproar with political overtones. In Beroea, an angry crowd was the reason the Christians sent him on a ship to safety. Here in Athens, the resistance was of the sort with which we are all familiar - they ridiculed him. The Athenian reaction of bland toleration, of ridicule, of calling him "this babbler," is not easy to take, but it can never douse the flaming zeal of the Christian who carries a desperation for the souls of men and women to win them for Jesus Christ as Savior.

Paul was not a failure at Athens. God never allows any witness to be lost. Nothing we do for him is in vain. "But some men joined him and believed,

Flordia training for life guards, while a man drown.

When we all stand before God in the Great Day, will anyone point to you and say, "I am a Christian because of him/her?"