Ministry

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2016: Page 82

After a late night of cleaning on page 81, I slept in a little bit but still made it to work by 8 AM to meet the crew that started harvesting timber on the property today.  During the day I took care of needs in the building while also working on the monthly Impact Prayer Ministry newsletter and getting it sent out.  As I was getting ready to leave work, our pest control person showed up so I stayed around while he did his work.  

As I took some time to unwind this evening, I started going through some photos that I had taken over the past few days.  There were quite a few pictures of the osprey that have returned to Potato Creek State Park, including one that at first glance appears to be an osprey with two heads.  While it is obviously just an illusion caused by two osprey sitting close together, it still made me think of the phrase “two heads are better than one.”  While this is a true, and even Biblical, statement in the context of seeking advice and mutual encouragement, the phrase falls completely apart when talking about the church.

The thought of an osprey with two heads soaring in the sky, building a nest, plucking fish from the lake, or accomplishing any other useful task seems rather far-fetched.  Yet how often do we expect a multi-headed church to grow and prosper, giving no thought to who it receives its instructions from?  God describes the church as His body with the head being Jesus Christ.  While most churches that I’m familiar with would claim that Jesus is the head of the church, many operate on a day-to-day basis as if a preacher, an elder, a charismatic personality, an influential group, or some other person or entity is really its head.  Jesus is still given the title but is easily relegated to the role of figurehead as others determine all the decisions while spending little or no time listening to God.

Before we come down too harshly on the church, what about you and I?  Jesus is not only set apart by God to be the head of the church which He bought with His own blood, as individuals we are members of that body still accountable to the same head that the body as a whole must submit to.  The Bible teaches that God has not only knit our physical bodies together, He has carefully fashioned the church out of the individual members that make up the body.  For our physical body to be considered responsive to the head, each part must take its direction from the head.  When a part of the body does its own thing without responding to and submitting to the head, we rightly determine something is not right.  When the individual parts that make up the body of Christ do their own thing without responding to or submitting to Christ, the problem should be just as obvious.  The church is only submissive to Christ as the head to the degree that the individuals within the body are submissive.  When I am more concerned about what people might say or think than I am about what God has said, I am acting as if the body has two heads.  When I start doing that, it isn’t long before I simply choose which head I listen to based on what I want to hear.  

I pray that you and I understand, and live under, the headship of Christ in all things.  I pray that we would listen to the head as we live the part of the church body He has created us to be.  I pray that we would reject the temptation to look to ourselves or others as the head of anything we do.  I pray that our focus on Christ as head of all things would keep His body from appearing to be double-headed and keep us from living as double-minded.

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2016: Page 61

On the road again . . . Today’s page covered a lot of ground while ending up at the same location I started.  🙂  I had the opportunity today to have an Impact Prayer Ministry display at a 5-state regional camp conference in central Indiana.  I left the house around 7:30 this morning and just got back home a little after 9 this evening.  While it was a long day, it was also a good day as I was able to put prayer-based resources into the hands of many camp leaders and have some great conversations about the importance of pursuing God through prayer and His Word.

About mid-morning during my trip, the rain began and continued through much of the day.  It made unloading my display material rather interesting but I managed to get the display set up and keep everything dry.  By the time the vendor fair at the conference was over, the rain was no longer falling as heavy as it had been so I made a short side-trip to Cataract Falls on my way home.  This is billed as the largest waterfall in Indiana and it would have been difficult for me to be that close to it without stopping to take some photographs.  There is a beautiful covered bridge over the river at the head of the falls that adds to the photo opportunities.  While the bridge has had restoration work over the years and is now open only to foot traffic, the current bridge was put into service in 1876!  

As I thought about the day, my mind focused on the enduring nature of God and His overwhelming love.  Whenever I have the opportunity to share with people about the work God is doing in Impact Prayer Ministry, it is a reminder to me of how God will multiply what He gives us when we are willing to use it and share it with the people He wants us to equip and encourage.  Far too often we grasp what we have because it seems so small to us and we’re afraid it isn’t enough for us, let alone enough to share.  Our selfishness not only hurts us, it hurts those that God has desired for us to help.  My experience with the prayer ministry has shown that God’s ability is much like the waterfall I visited today.  As I watched the water cascading over the rocks, it just kept coming with as much force and volume when I left as it had when I arrived.  When I think about God supplying our need according to His riches in glory, I don’t picture a limit to what He has or what He is able to provide.  The only limit I find seems to revolve around how I define and live out the concept of need not only in my life, but more so in the lives of the people I ought to be serving.

As I walked the length of a bridge that has stood since 1876 and read the plaque with its history, it reminded me of the importance of maintenance and restoration.  The bridge has required both to keep it safe, usable, and looking nice.  Our relationship with God requires both as well if we want a spiritual life that is safe, usable, and looks nice.  My work at the conference was all about putting prayer-based resources into the hands of people so they have some tools to help restore and maintain their relationship with God.  Even with that, the tools I have are secondary at best.  They are designed to help people use the primary tools of prayer and God’s Word as the best resources in restoring and maintaining their relationship with God.

I pray that you and I would desire for our relationship with God to grow and be more vibrant each day.  I pray that we would learn to share the things that God gives us — and realize that every good thing we have has been given to us by God.  I pray that even as God has made it possible through Jesus for us to be restored to Himself, that we would be faithful in sharing that restoration with others.

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2016: Page 46

Earthdate: 20160215 — These are the ramblings of one traveler’s journey on earth as he makes his way toward a heavenly home.

Some days I pray more fervently than others that the return of Jesus would be sooner rather than later.  Today is one of those days.  With several inches of snow falling overnight, the day started early to get the snow cleared from the sidewalks and entryways before anyone arrived to pack it down.  I was able to get out of the building a couple times during the day, but here it is over 14 hours since I left home this morning and I’m writing this page at work following a board meeting.

Following the outside work and an investigation of what was going on with a door that I had been left a message about, I spent time with God putting together next week’s prayer guide.  That is probably one of my favorite parts of a week is the time I spend seeking God’s face for direction in choosing a topic to have people be praying about for a week.  Today God led me to the word “instruction”.  It seems that a lot of people like the idea of giving instructions for others to follow but we’re not very fond of taking instruction from others, or even from God.  After the prayer guide was complete, I decided to follow up on an email I received last week from Hope Ministries about some food items they were in need of.  While from my perspective I can’t do a lot, God does expect me to do what I can according to His provision.  After a trip to Sam’s Club and GFS, I had an assortment of things from their list to drop off along with a couple copies of my most recent book.

Once the food was delivered I stopped back by the office to get my list and measurements so I could pick up a few things to try to improve the function of a non-working door.  As I left for lunch, I decided to make a quick trip down to Potato Creek State Park for an afternoon hike in the snow.  It is always good to be out in the stillness of nature where I am surrounded by the creation of God and am more likely to pay attention to His presence.  I always hope to see a bald eagle or two while I’m down there and be able to get some good pictures of them, but was not able to find any of them today.  I did see a few birds darting among the trees and a large flock of geese sitting on the frozen lake but the thing that most caught my eye was a clump of frozen, snow covered, dead seed heads.  I think they caught my eye because today I feel like that.  I look at them and I know they had a purpose and perhaps they even have a future purpose, but it is difficult to imagine their current purpose . . . or is it?  With the absence of the eagles as subjects, these became the focus of some of my photography today.  I marveled at their texture, their durability, and their beauty.  I zoomed in on the intricacies of their creation and was able to worship God for His attention to detail.  I watched as some birds would perch on top of them and while not appearing to get any food from them, it gave them a vantage point to scout out nearby food sources.  The more I looked, the more I came to realize that they not only had a former purpose and likely have a future purpose, they also have a current purpose.

I pray that in the times of mental, physical, and/or spiritual fatigue that you and I face, we would live for the purpose God has created us for in the here and now.  I pray that when we see people who appear to us to have no use, that we would look more closely through the eyes of God to see the purpose not only that He has created them for, but also the purpose for which He has brought them into our life.

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2016: Page 43

While all pages of this journey of life are technically the same length, some just feel longer than others.  In an attempt to avoid being at work seven days a week, Fridays usually find me working both ends of the day and often through the middle as well.  I was greeted by a pleasant surprise as I headed out the door a little before six this morning . . . there was no fresh snow on the ground, the temperature had risen to 16 from the 4 degrees it was when I went to bed, and there was no frost to scrape off my windshield.  Sometimes it doesn’t take a lot to brighten a day.  🙂  While there was no snow to clear from the sidewalks, yesterday’s snow meant that the floors inside needed extra attention this morning so I was doing good to have the building ready by eight today.  

Once the building was ready for the day, I began to reflect on the conversations that took place a couple of weeks ago at the Christian Camp Leaders’ Conference about devotional material for summer camp staff.  While my 31-day devotionals went over well with the camp leaders, it seemed like there was a need or desire for something a little different.  As I was spending time praying and considering this, a flicker showed up outside my window to help himself to some seeds from the sumac heads.  He seemed to take only what he needed and when he had his fill he moved on.  Out of that came the idea to sort through the weekly prayer guides I have written over the past few years and see if I could come up with an assortment to serve as outlines for daily devotions with a working title for the series being, “Devotions for Those Who Serve”.  I quickly came up with 13 different prayer guides that I could easily use the daily prayer points from as the foundations for some devotional thoughts and questions without it becoming cumbersome or too lengthy for a daily staff devotion time.  

From there, the thoughts began to lay out in book format that could become a daily devotional guide for 13 weeks with a new topic every week and a new point of that week’s topic each day.  Then I remembered the flicker taking just what was needed and realized that very few, if any, camps had summer staff on site for 13 weeks any more.  What if I took each week’s topic and made a series of short 16 – 20 page booklets that included the devotional thoughts and questions I planned for the book as well as some space for journaling?  By creating a separate booklet for each topic, camps, or anyone else for that matter, could choose just what was needed in both time span and topical content.  This would also allow the series to grow at a more moderate pace by simply adding another booklet to the collection as God gives resources and direction.  As I began to consider that possibility, the thought hit me — who said it had to be one or the other?  Perhaps both formats have merit for different purposes.  Anyhow, it is one of those ideas that has been planted in my mind and is a part of today’s page.  What God wants to do with it, if anything, is yet to be seen.  So I continue to pray and listen with a confidence that God will provide clear direction as He already knows if this idea has any usefulness for His kingdom.

In the midst of all of that process in my mind, a group of guys met at the church and we went out for lunch together for an enjoyable time of fellowship.  It was a welcome break from the day and I pray an encouragement to all who participated.  Once the building cleared out for the day, it was time to start getting it ready for the weekend.  Cleaning in the quietness and preparing the building for our Sunday worship gathering is a great opportunity to spend time in prayer and listening.  Usually in the middle of the cleaning tasks I take a break to let the floor scrubber recharge.  This gives me time to sit for a while or, in tonight’s case, do some writing.

While today’s page isn’t fully lived yet, I’ll wrap up the writing of it so I can finish my work and head for home.  I’ll leave with a photo of the flicker who taught me today that having what is needed really is enough.

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2016: Page 41

The snow had begun falling at the end of page 40 and the forecast was calling for significant accumulation so I planned on an early start to page 41 in order to get the inside and outside work done before the start of school.  I was up a little after five and sure enough there was snow on the ground and it continued to fall.  As I got ready for the day I kept an eye on the local news listing for a possible delay or closing.  Finally it came — two hour delay, so back to bed for an extra hour of rest before needing to go in to work.  I arrived at work to a fresh canvas of white snow covering everything.  The snow was deep enough that it was time to break out the snowblower for some serious walk clearing.  There is something strangely peaceful about hearing the sound of the snowblower and watching the arc of snow that showers from the chute to the ground leaving behind a snow-free sidewalk.  After making my way completely around the building to clear all the walks and entryways, I find out the two hour delay had been changed to being closed for the day.  Oh well, I guess the snow needed moved sometime and sleep can be overrated.  🙂

Throughout the morning the lake-effect snow squalls would come and go so I tried to keep up with them to keep the snow from accumulating back on the cleared walks.  In between trips outside, I worked on some writing and research as well as cleaning the building so it is already done to save me some time tomorrow.  The view from my office was beautiful throughout the day as the snow fell and hung in the trees.  It made me think of the beauty we gain when God clothes us in Christ.  We have an inherent beauty about us because we have been created by the Almighty in His image.  However, the sin that we allow to take up residence in our life begins to tarnish that beauty the moment we begin to entertain sinful thoughts.  The longer we linger in those thoughts, the more likely it is that we give in to the thing that tempts us.   Before long, the bright glistening creation we were made to be has become dull and gray — stained by the pollution of sin.  It is when we confess our sins to God in repentance that He not only forgives our sin but cleanses us from all of the unrighteousness that has stained us.  We are restored in His sight to the beauty that He created us to have.

I pray that you and I live with the beauty God has created us to have.  I pray that we seek, and allow, Him to wash us whiter than snow from all of our transgressions.

As I considered the beauty of the snow, I was reminded of a 2008 conference where I first began to use a camera to capture images of the beauty of God’s creation as a part of my personal worship of God.  This photo of a columbine blossom is from that first “unstructured worship” assignment which opened my mind further to the incredible nature of God through His creativity.

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2016: Page 34

Earthdate: 20160203 — These are the ramblings of one traveler’s journey on earth as he makes his way toward a heavenly home.

A quiet start to the morning as I found out after I got to work that school was on a two-hour delay and I could have slept in a bit.  This allowed me a completely quiet atmosphere in which to clean and pray.  I had some inquiries out about several opportunities to represent Impact Prayer Ministry at conferences and group gatherings, so the quiet time to talk and listen to God about these was very much appreciated.  As I got the building ready and took out trash, the sun began to make its way up over the back tree line while the waning crescent moon still hung in the early morning sky.  The scene was crying out for a few photos to be taken so I happily obliged.  

As I sat at my desk to enjoy a cup of coffee, the cardinals gathered in the trees outside my office window.  As they would fly back and forth and chase each other from the preferred feeding spots, occasionally they would fly straight at my window then swoop upward just before impact.  A I watched them, it became apparent that they were coming up to the building to use the guttering as a birdbath and drinking source.  Some day I may figure out the right settings or proper equipment to photograph them in flight.  Right now all my attempts either miss them completely or are just a blur of red.

As the morning progressed, I had a couple of computer tech issues to work on in the building with one of them taking a big block of time without ever getting it to work correctly.  As I worked on other things, God began to weave together the opportunities that I had been praying about.  By the time the work day ended I had received confirmation from the Michigan Christian Convention about my setting up a display there, I had reached an agreement with the Association of College Ministries to represent Impact Prayer Ministry at their National Student Conference, and I had received and filled out an application/agreement to have a display at the Christian Camp and Conference Association Super Sectional Conference Event being held in Indiana.  My purpose in each of these events is to put copies of the prayer-based resources of Impact Prayer Ministry into the hands of people who want to grow in their relationship with God through prayer.

When these ministry opportunities come up, sometimes I am tempted to look at my resources and forecast what is possible and what isn’t.  While Jesus does talk about counting the cost of being a disciple so that we are prepared to both pay the cost of full surrender and finish the journey, he also calls us to live a life of trust and faith.  While I can’t do what He doesn’t provide for, I also know that I must be obedient to doing what He calls me to do while trusting Him to provide the necessary resources to do so.  Right now my financial resources allowed me to register for these conferences but there isn’t much left at the moment to pay for books and resources to be printed and distributed.  But, as I often tell people at conferences and conventions, that is not my problem.  The resources belong to God, and I believe He has called me to freely share them at these conferences, so He is the one I go to when I run out.  

Just as there are times the weather forecast is wrong, there are many times when my forecast of what God wants to provide completely misses the mark.  I pray that you and I learn to live obediently to the will and call of God in our life as we trust Him to supply all of our need according to His riches in glory.

This photo is one I took of the moon this morning while most of the schools in the entire area were under a delay due to a forecasted dense fog advisory.  I guess either the forecast was wrong or God had a purpose in holding back the fog in the area I happened to be in. 🙂

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Refugees Among Us

I’ve avoided writing this post because I know I don’t understand all of the complexities of the specific refugee crisis currently fueling much public debate and I seriously doubt that many of those debating it online have much greater understanding than I do.  I’m not writing to take sides because you really don’t need to know my opinion on Syrian refugees any more than I need to know yours.  In my opinion, the bigger question, regardless of which side of the current debate you want to claim, is what are you doing to be Christ to the refugees that are often conveniently ignored?  I think of the refugees who are trying to escape a life of addiction. The refugees trying to be free from a life filled with domestic violence.  The refugees who have served time and need help to keep them from returning to a life of crime.  The refugees of poverty, homelessness, fear, disease, loss, rejection, and/or a mind that’s not functioning as perhaps it once did.  Yes, there are many within our midst who are living as refugees from some traumatic event in their life . . and no, I’m not trying to diminish the trouble and horror faced by refugees from war-torn countries . . . I guess what I’m trying to say is that I believe the actions that you and I take toward the “hidden” refugees in our own cities probably have a lot more to say about our real heart toward refugees than any of our shouting ever will.

So, if you’ve made it this far in the post without deleting it, blocking me, or writing an angry response, here is a list taken from the Hope Ministries website of items that they have need of as they minister to people of my community who are seeking refuge from situations that I haven’t experienced.  I’m guessing most organizations serving in similar ways have a similar list of needs.  I know where God is calling me to start. As you pray, what is He calling you to do?

List from Hope Ministries – South Bend of items needed:

Tampons and pads
Baby wipes
Shaving cream
Men’s t-shirts (Med, LG, XL)
Umbrellas
Band-Aid
Toothpaste
Denture adhesive
Panty Liners
Household cleaning supplies (dish soap, antibacterial cleaners, mops, brooms, etc)
Toilet paper
Ibuprofen and pain relievers
Kleenex
Ear plugs
Transpo Bus 2-Ride Passes
Bath towels
Clean pillows
Bike locks
Adult bikes in good condition
Shampoo and conditioner
Large sizes of diapers and pull-ups (size 4 and up)
Paper towels
Alarm clocks
Body wash
Unscented lotion
New socks for adults
Large sizes of women’s bras
New underwear for men (Med-Large)
Maxi pads
African American haircare products
Boxes of cereal
Sugar
#10 cans of pudding, fruit and chilli beans
Walmart gift cards (for prescription co-pays)
Coffee
Deodorant
Powdered laundry detergent
Shaving razors

In prayer,
Tom

Seeking the LOST!
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Seeking the LOST!

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
Luke 19:10 (NIV)

I’ve been preaching a sermon series through the book of Luke with a focus of looking at the life and teachings of Christ to see how we ought to live as Christians.  Tonight we reached chapter 15 which contains the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost (prodigal) son.  As I looked at this chapter, I was reminded of the importance that seeking and saving the lost is to Jesus.  

I’m guessing that most, if not all, of those reading this would agree about the importance of the lost to Jesus.  The bigger question for those of us wearing the name Christian is if the lost are that important to us.  I’m afraid far too often we are more concerned with seeking people just like us than we are about seeking the lost — if we even think about seeking anyone!  

So, what do the lost look like that Jesus would be seeking . . . and because of that, we ought to be seeking as well?  I share the following outline as a starting point in our work of seeking the LOST!

  • Seek the Lonely

  • Seek the Objectified

  • Seek the Sinner

  • Seek the Tired

I am confident that no one would have to look very far to find a person that is in each of those categories . . . we may just need to look in the mirror!  As we realize that these describe people who Jesus came to seek, we must make it a priority of our life to seek them as well.  To live like Christ means we must also seek like Christ.  To seek like Christ means that we must seek the LOST that are all around us with the message of hope through the good news of Jesus.

In prayer,
Tom