Living This Life - Part 4

“Freedom”

Paul has spoken in these last chapters of Romans about a life completely devoted to God, devoted to others, and about a life that is well lived in the eyes of society. He then brings home in the last few chapters the importance of freedom and all that freedom entails, which is room to grow and the ability to love. Paul speaks about this throughout both chapters 14 and 15, and they are well worth the read.

A few things stood out to me in these chapters. One is the distinction that Paul makes between those whose faith is weak or strong and how he makes that distinction. I think most of us think that those who have more regulation and restriction on what they will or will not do would have a stronger faith, but Paul actually says the opposite, that those who have less freedom are the ones who are weak. “One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.” (14:2) Yay for eating everything!

This idea of eating meat or only vegetables may seem a bit out there, but it had huge implications for those in Rome at the time. You see, when you bought meat from one of the shambles (discount meat market of the day) you were buying meat that had most likely been sacrificed in some sort of pagan worship. This thought led some to not buy any meat at all because they did not want to be connected to idol worship or support those businesses. While on the other side of the aisle were those who believed that a false god is really no god at all, and so didn’t give it a second thought (cp. 1 Cor. 8). This also took place with the days a person would consider holy for worship, but it is important to understand that both these things were considered by Paul to be “disputable matters, doubtful things or opinions (14:1),” and that he is not talking about the rudiments of our faith or moral issues.

It’s strange how people feel compelled to impose their standards with these kinds of “disputable matters”. It’s not hard to see the same arguments raised about many similar things today in our places of worship. Drinking beer or wine, the music we like or even tattoos are a few things that come to mind and the compulsion to compare and rank ourselves to others happens all too often. It is worth remembering that the person who has more restrictions may actually be weaker in faith.

Now, it may surprise you to know that Paul never says that one view is right regarding these things and that the other is wrong, he does say that one’s faith is weak, but not that they are wrong. And instead of trying to declare who is right or wrong, Paul encourages both to be fully convinced in their own mind. (14:5)

Wow, imagine that; it’s ok to choose and make up your own mind and it can actually be different than someone else’s. HALLELUJAH! That little nugget can set a lot of people free if they give it some thought and let it sink in.

An important part of living this life of faith is to be persuaded with what we believe and the convictions we hold. For that to happen there needs to be communication between us and the Lord we are living for, the freedom to choose is a necessary part of growth and love in any relationship, including our relationship with God. Paul emphasizes the importance of this personal connection when he says, “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” (14:4) Powerful! What business do we have telling the Lord’s servant what to do in these disputable matters? This is why Paul spends the majority of these two chapters explaining why it is more important to love others than try and prove ourselves right when it comes to these things and why freedom must bow it’s knee to love, but then that's the point, only freedom can. Oh, that we would learn.

“Let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way .“ (14:13)

Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. (14:19)

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. (15:7)

Amen.

To think some will read this and miss the point, because all they see is the beer.

Living This Life Part 3

I wrote the last couple of times how living a life as a follower of Christ first begins with that relationship to Him. We then looked at how we not only belong to Him, but we belong to others as well, a community known as the church. Now, this third part of ‘Living This Life’ has to do with how we represent ourselves in the society around us and this seems to be an area in which we often fail to see the importance, until it shows up on the news in an ugly way.

Why This? Why Here?

Romans 13, at a glance, can seem to come from left field as Paul was talking in chapter 12 about …

• “Let love be genuine.” (Vs. 9)
• “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” (Vs. 10)
• “Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.” (Vs. 13)
• “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.” (Vs. 14)
• “Repay no one evil for evil.” (Vs. 17)
• “Never avenge yourselves.” (Vs. 19)
• “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.” (Vs. 20)
• “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Vs.21)

Then all of a sudden in chapter 13 he is talking about submitting to government authorities, paying taxes and not being in debt to anyone except when it comes to love, but really he is only continuing with love and concern for others, but in a very matter-of-fact kind of way. So, why are these things so essential?

There is a current story in the news that I believe makes the importance of these points very clear. A woman named Laura Silsby and a number of American missionaries were recently arrested while illegally taking 33 children out of Haiti into the Dominican Republic, apparently to start an orphanage. Now with the earthquake tragedy that has struck Haiti, the thought of rescuing children and starting an orphanage sounds like a noble thing to do, but add into the mix that Laura has a history of failing to pay her debts, has at least eight civil lawsuits and fourteen unpaid wage claims against her plus now the recognition that she did not go through proper channels to take these children. Well, whatever her intent may or may not have been, everything about her is now suspect.

Unfortunately, it’s easier to see just how important our conduct and character in life can be; from the bad examples than the good, because really, who cares how well you know the scriptures, how much you pray or how spiritual you claim to be if you take advantage of people and act like a jerk? That may seem like a harsh way of looking at this subject in chapter 13, but I really believe it is at the heart of what Paul is trying to convey.

It’s also worth remembering that in Acts 18 Luke wrote that Claudius (Caesar) ordered the Jews to leave Rome. We don’t know for what reason, but odds are that things were not good between the Roman government and this group of people. Now Paul is writing this letter only 5 years later to those Christians (Jew and gentile), who once again are in Rome. You can imagine the scrutiny these followers of Christ (most of them Jews) were under and why it was so important that they didn’t obstruct the faith that they shared with self-centered conduct.

I love J.B. Phillips’ translation of 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 that brings even more clarity to this. Paul writes: “Be busy with your own affairs and do your work yourselves. The result will be a reputation for honesty in the world outside and an honorable independence.”

What does it mean to be spiritual? Is it studying your Bible or honestly paying your taxes? Is it praying for hours or making sure you are not indebted to anyone? Is it in saying the right words or living the right life? Well, both would be best but Paul, in Romans chapter 13, wants us to understand the value in living a life that will honor the faith that we believe and how we display that faith in our society.

James writes, “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” – James 1:26-27 ( NIV )

So, don’t stop helping Orphans, just make sure your conduct doesn’t get in the way.

Living This Life Part 2

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. Romans 12:3-5 ( NIV )

I wrote last time about how the first step in living this life as a follower of Jesus begins with our relationship to God and how Jesus gave us a tremendous example of what that relationship looks like. Paul, in extreme language, described it as a ‘living sacrifice.’ Many people stop at this point either because it’s more than they want to step into, or because they

think that God is all they need and as long as they are good with God, then they’re good to go. Even in some of the songs we sing, this mentality is reinforced. We sing, “All I need is You” or “You are my everything.” I understand the poetic beauty and resonance of these words, and even love to sing them, but to think that we only need God and nothing else is just not accurate, even as Paul states in these verses. We who are many, form one body, and we belong to one another. What Paul is describing here is the church.

Church

The word ‘Church’ is one that stirs up a wide range of thoughts and emotions. For some good, others bad and for many, I believe, misunderstood. When the word ‘Church’ is mentioned in scripture, it does not mean a place or a building where you go to worship; it is referring to the people who follow Christ all over the world. They ARE the church, Christ’s body, as Paul states, active in this world. And it’s

important to realize that we were designed by God for this community and that it’s an important and necessary part of living this life.

In the Beginning

In Genesis, at the very beginning, God had created paradise and placed Adam in the middle of the garden. They walked in perfect relationship with each other before the fall and God at this time said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” (Genesis 2) Who else would dare to say “it is not good” in a situation where it is just you and God in perfect harmony? But God saw that there was still a need in Adam, the need not for more of God, but for someone else.

Now, when God created Eve, He didn’t just create a companion for Adam, He created family and larger still, He created community. The implications go much further than just the two of them. We can still see the gravity towards community in life all around us. We see it at sporting events as we wear our team colors and give high fives to the people around us we’ve never met as our team scores, at concerts or parties. Some will even be beaten half to death just so they can be accepted as a member of a particular gang. And though some of our choices aren’t always healthy, they are confirming what God saw there in the beginning, the need to be with others.

Jesus brought depth to this, and again (or should I say of course) in an extreme way. There was a crowd sitting around Jesus and someone said, “Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.” Jesus replied, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” Then he looked at those around him and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:32-35 NLT). Jesus just took the closest circle that we have (family), and made it a whole lot bigger. Paul continues here in Romans with the attitude we should have toward each other, not thinking too highly of ourselves, recognizing our differences, as well as our dependency. Even as has been said, “If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go with others.”

This love for others was Jesus’ mark and example and His disciples became known because of it. The world saw how Jesus’ followers lived and called them, “Christians”. Today we call ourselves Christians and the world sees how we live and calls us hypocrites, because what they see so many times doesn’t match who Christ is.

I believe that our communities of worship would not be able to contain all the people that would come if we loved and cared for them as we should. It was how Jesus said people would know that we are His followers, by our love for one another. The importance of being connected to others is a vital part of living this life. Loving God includes loving others (1 John 3).

After all …we are the church.

Living This Life Part 1

Living This Life Part 1
The following is taken from a 4-part series I taught entitled, “Living This Life”, from the last 4 chapters of the epistle to the Romans.

Living This Life Pt. 1

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. – Romans 12:1-2 ( NIV)

I think a lot of us, at one time or another, have wanted to know what the will of God is and in just a few sentences Paul tells us how we can prove what His good, pleasing and perfect will is.

In View of God’s Mercy

Paul’s first step to connecting with God’s will begins in the light of God’s mercy. Our actions, if not connected to the heart and love of God, will end up being a religious regiment of do’s and don’ts that quickly lose sight of why we do what we do. So it is in this awareness of mercy shown to us that we move forward.

As Living Sacrifices

This language is intense, especially if you can imagine a time and place where animal sacrifices were common occurrences. Jesus often used extreme language like this as well. He would say things like, “pick up your cross and follow me” or “whoever finds his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” The intensity of how he spoke at times even turned people away (John 6).

People have different thoughts about what it means to be a Christian. To some, being a Christian is a matter of exclusion. I’m not a Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist so I must be Christian.

Others focus on the negative things they have seen or heard, like the televangelist who always wants money or Uncle Jim who just got out of rehab and feels the need at thanksgiving to tell the family the “good news” that they are all going to hell. Their perception is based on a few incidents and not on Christendom as a whole. And to others Christianity is about patterning their lives after the principles of Jesus (who is a great person to pattern your life after!). But this frame of thought doesn’t need to embrace the significance of Jesus death on the cross, the resurrection or even His claims to divinity. These people are simply following the principles Jesus taught, caring for the poor and outcast and in all sincerity trying to live a good and wholesome life. And again, those are all good things. But I believe Jesus gave us an example through His life of what it really meant to be “Christian”; after all the word means, “little Christ”. In Jesus’ life we see a dependence on God to a degree that seems foreign to us (well at least it does to me). He said things like, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing” or “I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it.” (John 5 & 12). I really believe that Jesus revealed what our lives are supposed to look like. And I believe that He is also the best clue as to what a living sacrifice looks like: a life yielded to God, in relationship with God, directed by God. God leads, we move, we hear His voice, then speak, we are touched by Him and reach out in love to others. This kind of life IS a spiritual act of worship.

Conform / Transform

I have heard people talk about “not being conformed to this world” and talk about things like the kinds of clothes people wear, movies they watch or music they listen to. I think to myself, “Are you serious?” On the top of God’s list of what’s important to change in our lives is our fashion, the movies we watch and our taste in music? Do the same standards apply to those in Africa or the Philippines as they do to us in the western cultures? What about tattoos? Are they conforming or transforming?

Once again I think we can be much too superficial in the way we look at these things. I believe the contrast is really between the spiritual and the material. We are to walk by faith, not by sight. We can only serve one master. One is God, who is Spirit; the other is money or what is material. If we live by the Spirit, we will not gratify the sinful desires of our flesh. The world is what we see and what is temporal; our minds are renewed when we set our eyes on the things above and on what are unseen and eternal. Not whether or not our clothes or hair are acceptable to certain religious standards.

If we would live in the constant light of God’s mercies (which are new every morning), be as mindful as Jesus was to the Father, aware that without him we can do nothing (even as Jesus said that apart from His Father He could do nothing) and walk in the reality of this Spirit-led life, then I think we would have no problem wondering what the will of God is, for we would find ourselves ALIVE in it.

To be a living sacrifice (or follower of Christ) may cost you everything you have, but in exchange you will gain everything your soul needs and craves.

Dirt, Sandals & Holiness

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. - Exodus 3:5-6 ( NIV )

As I read this scripture recently I asked the question, “Why take off the sandals?” What is it about “holy ground” and sandals that doesn’t work for God?

Taking one’s shoes off is still a custom in the east and no Brahmin enters a pagoda or Muslim a mosque, without first taking off his shoes. The purpose, from what I’ve read, is so they do not to defile the place of worship with dirt. But what we find here in Exodus is quite a different scenario because Moses is in the desert with nothing but dirt or sand everywhere! So what’s with the sandals?

At a glance, God telling Moses, “Do not come any closer” can translate in our minds to God wanting to be distant from Moses, but if that’s the case why would He then ask him to take his sandals off? Wouldn’t that actually bring him closer to the ground that is holy and not further away? Could it be that part of what God actually wanted was for Moses to be closer in some way, perhaps to touch Moses with His holiness with nothing, not even a sandal between them?

It’s wonderful the change that takes place in Moses’ life from this point. Here we read that he falls to the ground and hides his face, afraid to look at God. But time passes and in a later encounter we read that instead of hiding, Moses actually wants more than anything to see the very face of God, but is denied because no one can see God and live (Exodus 33), which may be part of why God told him not to come any closer the first time.

Now, everything I’ve read seems to agree that the ground itself was not holy, but became that way because of God’s presence. When God “left”, the place went back to being just plain ol’ desert. I know there have been times in my life where the place I stood seemed to change from that of something ordinary, to one that was holy… to a dimension where the invisible presence of God touched me in a very tangible way. It has happened in buildings during times of teaching or singing, in my truck while praying, outside a school dorm in Swansea, Wales and each time it has left me

wishing I could stay in that moment forever. I believe that may be what happened to Naaman in 2 Kings 5 and why he took the dirt from Israel where he was healed of his leprosy back to Syria, trying to take a piece of that “holy” place back with him; why Jacob built a monument of rocks after his dream, saying “surely God was in this place and I did not know it”; why Peter (though misguided) wanted to build the tabernacles on the mount where Jesus was transfigured, each of them wanting something tangible as a reminder of what had taken place.

Maybe what God was doing with Moses here was drawing him into a relationship with nothing between them allowing His holiness to touch and forever change Moses’ life. And this holiness instead of pushing Moses away changed him from a man who was afraid to look at God, to a man who wanted to see God more than anything else.

I hope that if we ever find ourselves in a place confronted with God’s holiness, we will refrain from turning away or putting a guard up, but will instead… take our sandals off.

Be with us

How often have we heard someone pray “Lord be with me?” Or maybe we’ve prayed that ourselves. My guess is that most who pray something along this line really don’t believe that God is not there, so what do we mean? I think it is something along the lines of this… ‘God, in all the ways that I can perceive you, I just don’t right now.’ This may be a simple explanation, but I believe it captures the sentiment. That is why when something happens that opens our awareness to God’s presence it’s usually a pretty powerful thing.

I have shared this story at Genesis, as well as with some family and friends here and there, but was informed that I have not written about it and thought it worth telling again.

My son, Samuel, is in the Marine Corps and was stationed at Camp Lejeune, in North Carolina. Some months ago, he set sail for the Persian Gulf. He is part of a traveling battalion with three ships and thousands of personnel which is basically a traveling military base on the go. Because of the nature of their service, he is unable to tell us where he is going, only where he’s been. In fact, in many cases he himself doesn’t know where they are going.

It has been difficult for Samuel and his wife, Dominique, (who’s in the Army and stationed in Hawaii). The amount of time that they have been able to see each other in the past year could be counted on one hand, which only adds to any difficult adjustments of marriage. As Samuel headed to the gulf he was able to stop in Spain, Greece and a number of other places that made me a bit envious, but he finally made his way to a base in Kuwait. Dominique, on the other hand, was on her way to Iraq by plane some months after Samuel set sail.

The base in Kuwait is a training facility for the Marines, the Army, and the Navy. It houses thousands of military personnel who are constantly being brought in and deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan or other areas in the region. After moving from the aircraft carrier to the base on land, Samuel made his way to the mess hall to get something to eat with some of his buddies. As he was walking through the huge mess hall (seats about 2,000) something caught his attention. He thought for a brief moment before turning to take a second look that this was not possible, but knew he had to look anyway. As he turned around, standing there before him was Dominique, his wife. They were both stunned and embraced. Realizing where she was and that she is not supposed to show this much public affection, she said that she should go and went back to her table. As Samuel was about to walk away, he turned back and thought, ‘forget this!’ and ran back over to her and continued embracing his wife. I sooo wish I had a video of this encounter.

Even though they had different schedules that kept them from being together as much as they would have liked, they were able to spend about a week together on that base and both felt it a miracle that they even saw each other at all. I love these kinds of stories, because the odds of them happening at all are so staggering. Combine that with those who were praying for these two and their marriage, it really encourages one’s faith that God does have His hand in our lives and that He really is with us!

Strange Indeed

Strange Indeed

Okay, here it goes. My son Jordan has been working on a boat out in Louisiana. The boat had a problem with the water and sewer pipes and so the guys had to get off the ship while repairs were being made. The company put them up in a nice hotel while the repairs were being made and one evening quite a few of the guys were down in the hotel restaurant lounge area, hanging out while doing laundry and getting something to eat. While they were there a guy was hanging out around them who spoke broken English mixed with Spanish. This man was singing, pestering the guys and just being a bit obnoxious.

As the night went on the guys all went up to their rooms and Jordan was the last one (figures) waiting for his laundry to be done. This man then came straight up to Jordan grabbed him firmly by the shoulders and told him that he needed to get his stuff and get up to his room right away or that Jordan would die. He then kissed Jordan on his forehead.

Well this kind of freaked Jordan out, so he got his stuff and headed up to his room. He used his key card, unlocked the door and stepped inside the room. As he walked in the room stepping out of the shadows and already in his room was this guy!! The one down in the hotel dinning lounge!!! Jordan froze in fear as this guy walked passed him and out of the room saying, “do not leave this room!”

After the man left Jordan called the hotel desk and told them that there was a guy in his room, but no one saw him again that night. Later that evening the other member from the crew came back to the hotel room and when Jordan told him the story his response was, “welcome to New Orleans” there have been no further incidences.

I’m still processing all of this and am relaying this from Jordan to Corinne to me. I will talk to my son about this more later. I probably should of waited before posting anything on Facebook and getting all the interest, but I was pretty freaked out myself with the story and have been wondering, how did this guy get into Jordan’s room without a key and how would he know which room was Jordan’s in the first place? Was this a warning for protection? Or is this a part of some of the dark stuff that happens down in New Orleans?

Anyway, as you remember, please keep Jordan in your prayers.

For Love

We recently finished going through the book of Acts and one of the things that I really enjoyed from that book was reading the transformation of Paul’s life. When he comes into the picture he is zealous to stop this sect (later known as Christians), to the extent that he approved of them brutally being killed, but toward the end we see him giving his life for the same Jesus that he once opposed so violently, moving from a religious zealot to a man willing to give his life for others (Acts 21).

So what changed and motivated Paul? Well, obviously God, but sometimes I think we can make things more complicated than they really need to be when we introduce God into the conversation. For example, if I asked if you could pick something up and not pick it up at the same time, you would say, “that’s nonsense” and rightly so, because those two things are mutually exclusive. But when you ask, “Can GOD make a rock so heavy that he can’t pick it up?” somehow, now it becomes “deep” when really, it is still just nonsense. I think we can do the same thing when trying to understand and explain what transformed Paul.

People are motivated by a variety of things. We do things for attention, money, vengeance or power, but nothing moves us as compellingly as when we do things for love. Recently, Corinne and I took a trip to visit our son Samuel before he was deployed to the gulf. It was yet another reminder of how vulnerable we are to love and how willing we are to do things that in any other circumstances just wouldn’t make sense, until you factor in love. Why would we choose to take time off work, spend money on plane tickets to Jacksonville, North Carolina, rent a room at a much less than luxurious Ramada Inn and hang out at a Marine base instead of going somewhere along the coast, or New York? It was because we love our son. In fact, even in looking back I really couldn’t imagine going anywhere else in the world than to see my son. That time with him still fills my eyes with tears and my heart with joy.

Back to Paul; imagine trying your whole life to please God, thinking that by being good you could earn his approval but never being sure when enough was enough. I mean how good do you have to be to please God? But for all Paul’s zeal, it did not lead to a close relationship to God; instead it only led him to madness. Imagine now what it would be like to discover that the God you had been searching to find was actually searching for you! That instead of you having to reach God, He was in fact reaching for you because He loved you. Paul later would write that even if he could prophesy--had all knowledge, understood all mysteries, had faith to move mountains, gave all he had to the poor or his body to be burned--but did not have love, it would profit him nothing. You see the same thing that moves us to sacrifice for others is what moved Paul to later live a life of selfless sacrifice. It was for love.

I don’t think we really need to look for something extraordinary that moved the great apostle Paul to live the life he lived. We need only to look at what moves us so deeply. And it shouldn’t surprise us either that to change our lives God is not depending on us following a list of regulations or to pray for a certain amount of time every day, but instead has banked everything on love, asking that we would, Love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind. (Matt. 22:38)

Aptly, Jesus’ brother Jude, who later became a follower, would write and encourage us, “To keep ourselves in the love of God” Jude 21

I think that’s good advice.

God Golf and Going Forward

I don’t really play golf, but I have actually gone to the driving range a couple of times to try and improve what little game I have. As I would stand there slicing away through a bucket of golf balls, every now and then I would connect, hit that one ball that would not only go far, but go straight as well! It’s as if all cylinders are firing on that one swing. Maybe the car analogy explains a lot about my golf game, but that one swing is what made me want to buy another bucket of balls just for the chance to connect one more time. Well, life has felt a lot like that lately; a lot of slices, hardships, but every now and then that connect that makes me want to keep on going.

A few weeks ago I got caught up in a situation that I won’t go into, but it really turned me upside down and instead of looking forward and keeping my eye on the ball, I got stuck in the past with this internal battle that kept aggravating me and kept my mind spiraling in circles. That same week, Corinne and I also found out that our daughter-in-law lost the baby she was carrying. As I shared with most of you, we are grateful she is ok, but have a silent sorrow that surfaces at times and are heartbroken thinking of them both going through this alone.

Through these two situations some great things took place. With regards to the first incident, I was on the verge of sending out a rather blasting email affirming my frustrations, justifying my positions and basically declaring war on the event. Fortunately, a few close to me took time and spoke peace into my life so instead of me escalating the situation, they helped me walk away and regain my vision for myself and what is taking place at Genesis. The same was true regarding my son, Samuel, and Dominique and the loss of the baby. Although Corinne and I were not the ones really hurting, we were overwhelmed by the love and care from our friends, the phone calls, emails, and even an invitation to fly Corinne out to Hawaii so she could see Dominique. This opened my eyes once again to see what it means to be willing to step into people’s lives, to take the time to laugh when they laugh and cry when they cry, to care and to be a real friend.

The scriptures really came to life at this time as well as we are going through the book of Acts. Our last few gatherings have been like spiritual symphonies, there has been a real response to the things we’ve learned in worship, service and in growing closer to the God we believe in and live for.

A few weeks back when all these things were happening, we were looking at what it meant to be a “Christian” (little Christ) as they were first called in Antioch. When we began I had everyone write down on a piece of paper what came to mind when they think of the name Jesus Christ. In a few words, describe who He has been to you. After my talk in Acts 11 we had a responsive time in worship as I also read all the things that we thought of when we hear the name of Jesus. Words like loving, kind, patient, always there for me, forgiving, my best friend, etc. With all these thoughts about who He was to us was also the realization that this is who we are to be to others as we imitate the Lord and bear His name as Christians.

Through these events I have been charged, rejuvenated, and quickened by God’s Spirit and those around me. It has been an incredible lift and I am absolutely ecstatic to be where I am at this place in my life. Let’s get another bucket; I’m ready to start swinging.

Sad news

A few months ago I shared about my son Samuel and our daughter in law Dominique expecting a baby. I have sad news, this morning she had a miscarriage and lost the baby. We are heartbroken for her and Samuel and would ask that you remember them in prayer as she is by herself stationed in Hawaii and he in North Carolina.

We have confidence in God’s ability to work for the good in this situation, but really wish we could be with them and just hold them in our arms right now.

Thanks for the prayerful support,

Sam