A Counting or Accounting?*

 

As a seminary student, I volunteered and interned in the student ministry at a local church. One mission trip took about 100 students and adult leaders to the mountains of Colorado. We helped some churches there while learning and growing together in Christ. We generally did our mission/ministry work in the mornings and had a few hours in the afternoon of free time to hike and explore the mountains around our camp and lodge, then we had a worship and reflection time in the evenings. One particular day there were 25 of us hiking around the top of this mountain. It was beautiful, but we could see a rain storm quickly approaching. We began sprinting down the trail toward the camp, but this storm caught us on the side of the mountain. It was raining buckets of water, the wind was blowing hard enough to make the rain sting, and there may have even been some small hailstones. Some of us found a small ledge to crawl under until the worst had passed. Students and adults talked excitedly about the storm and what we had seen and experienced as the rain turned to a sprinkle and was gone as quickly as it came. We headed, cold and soaking wet, toward camp. As the leaders began to take a mental roll call of the students who came with us, we knew we had them all.  One young lady, however, noticed her friend was struggling to keep up and seemed a little confused, so she let an adult know. The nurse who had hiked with us, instantly recognized that the girl was on the verge of a diabetic coma. The girl had brought a rescue candy bar in case her blood sugar got too low, but in the excitement of the storm, she forgot to eat it and had gotten to the point where she could not even chew it. We had her sit down on a rock as her eyes started to roll back in her head. The quick thinking nurse asked the kids if they had any juice. One kid said, “I do!” The nurse helped the girl get her mouth open and sip the orange juice, all the while, telling her loudly, to “stay with us!,” and “keep drinking!” and “you are going to be okay!” The kids and other adults began to pray. After several scary minutes the girl responded and began to rouse. She was able to get her blood sugar back up and we helped her back down the mountain to the lodge. She was able to enjoy the rest of the week and return home safely. 

 

The writer of Hebrews reminds us that leaders are “those who must give an account” for their flock. When the apostle Peter was talking to the early church leaders, he was reminding them of their role as shepherds who take care of the flock. They are not just sheep counters, they take account of the condition of those in the flock. He says to the leaders, “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve…” (1 Peter 5:2) When I think of a good shepherd, I think of that nurse, who “just happened” to be on that trip as an adult leader, and take that particular hike, and recognized the signs of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and knew what to do, so that the story ended well. God sent her to be the good shepherd representing the Good Shepherd (i.e. Christ) in those moments. There may be friends around us who need someone to notice them struggling physically, emotionally, or spiritually. God may be entrusting us, to help them in some way, not just count them as friends, but give account for their wellbeing.  Be listening for His leading.

 

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!

No Sleep For Your Eyes!*

 I was reminiscing a few days ago with Chad, a co-laborer in Christ. He had joined my adult leadership team in my first ministry out of seminary. I was the student minister, he was a big hearted skilled craftsman, whose faith had recently been radically revived. The church had an exceptional group of kids and an adult leadership group that was fantastic. On our first mission trip, I took these kids to Cordele, Georgia to help a seminary friend, Ira, who was a church planter. His church start was in the government assisted housing neighborhood he had grown up in. The first night of this mission trip, Ira took us to his old neighborhood in our church van towing a trailer and had us park right in the middle of the community. He asked if he could stand on top of the van and borrow our portable sound system to address the crowd. We said, “sure.” We all prayed and he instructed us that when he finished a short sermon we could go meet the neighbors and invite their kids to our Vacation Bible School. But the moment he climbed on top of the van and people began to come outside their apartments to listen, he said the Lord overwhelmed him and he began to prophesy against some of the people in that community. He called them by name and told them to repent. One man in particular, he called by name and told him if he did not repent the Lord would prevent him from sleeping. Ira said, “no sleep will touch your eyes until you turn to the Lord, and repent from your sins.” That man and some others yelled back at Ira, telling him to shut up and go away.  Once my friend came down from the top of the van we sang a hymn and left quickly. Obviously, after that our VBS plans were changed and we wouldn’t be going back to that community. We completed our week helping my friend clean up his rented building, hosting a very small VBS, and helping him host a revival night at his church. Some people came to Christ that revival night, but I never knew what came of those he had prophesied against, until now, 30 years later.  Chad told me that a couple of years after I had returned to Texas to another ministry position that he, by chance, was at a gas station somewhere in Georgia when a man came up to him saying he needed a little money for an alternator for his car so he could get home. He had most of the money but he needed $20 more. Chad helped the man and as they talked and walked to the auto parts store, Chad discovered that the man was from Cordele, GA. Chad told the man he had been to Cordele on a mission trip. The man stopped him and said, did you have a preacher on top of a van with a trailer behind it? Chad said, “yes!” The man said, “that preacher on top of the van told me I wouldn’t sleep until I repented. It was true, I was a drug dealer and a pimp, I was a bad man.” He said, I couldn’t sleep, no matter what I tried. He said he tried lots of alcohol… no sleep! All kinds of pills… no sleep! He became so miserable he tried overdosing, but still no sleep! He said he finally went to the church and repented from his sins and was saved that day. 

The biblical prophet, Jeremiah, tells us that true prophets of God are known by their prophecies coming true (Jer. 28:9). And when God is speaking to Ezekiel, He tells him: “As for you, son of man, your people are talking together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, saying to each other, ‘Come and hear the message that has come from the LORD.’ My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to hear your words, but they do not put them into practice. Their mouths speak of love, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice. “When all this comes true—and it surely will—then they will know that a prophet has been among them.” (Ezekiel 33:30–33) Wow, I hope we are never the ones who come just to hear good music or a gifted communicator, but never listen to God’s reminders of how we are to treat Him and other people if we really love them, then end up on the wrong end of God’s prophecy.  God loves us too much to let us stay in sin, so He is gracious to pursue us and give us grace when we repent. 

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!

Camp Ba-Yo-Ca Grace in Weakness!*

In late elementary school I was on a camping trip with some R.A.’s (Royal Ambassadors, kinda like the Baptist version of boy scouts). We were all excited and going to an overnight camp at Camp Ba-Yo-Ca (a clever 1958 name for Ba-ptist Yo-uth Ca-mp). Interestingly, this sounded to me a little like Kum ba ya, an old Gullah song, made popular at youth camps in the 1950’s and 60’s. The camp was in the East Tennessee mountains and had old fashioned bunk cabins and a lake (which a cousin ended up in somehow in her sleeping bag on a Girls In Action or GA’s trip on another occasion). It also had a fire pit!!! These are boy magnets for poking with a flaming stick, making s’mores, and heating rocks! This all in spite of the adults warning that “If you play in the fire, you will wet the bed!” We arrived late afternoon on Friday so the Dad leaders could get off work to come lead the camp. As the evening progressed with dinner and games and Bible Study, I started feeling pretty lousy. I had an earache, my throat hurt, my head hurt. I was miserable, but I was determined to make it through.  Our new pastor had driven the hour and a half to come lead a Bible Study at the fireside and I knew there would be fun hikes and games the next day. One of the Dads saw me fading fast when I couldn’t even make a s’more. He found a phone in the cafeteria to call my Mom (this was back in the day of only landlines, nearly 4 decades before cell phones). By this time I was chilling with fever spikes, so my friend’s Dad drove me home.  I was so disappointed at first, but relieved to know I could sleep in my own bed, get some TLC from my Mom, and medicine from my Doctor, who also happened to be my Dad, who was on call and not able to go to the camp.  Sometimes, regardless of our determination, we just can’t make it through… we need God’s mercy, grace and provision. If we could do everything by sheer determination of our will, we may think we have no need for God, that we can do it all ourselves. Sometimes God entrusts us with more than we can handle on our own, so we can stay better connected with Him. He is always God-with-us, but we sometimes need to be reminded Who we belong to. 

 

The Apostle Paul was a very determined and driven religious man. He was a scholar,  “a Pharisee descended from Pharisees,”(Acts 23:6)  and a fierce defender of what he thought was right. Today, he would be considered a type A personality.  He had endured many hardships and survived shipwrecks, and beatings. He had first encountered Christ in a very dramatic way and seen amazing things in the heavenly realms. He could have become arrogant because of all he had experienced and accomplished. But God knows our tendencies… to take credit for His work when He entrusts us with exceptional experiences, so, sometimes He also has to entrust us with challenges to keep us in right relationship with Him.  Paul, as he wrestles with his own arrogance, says to those in the early church, “Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:6–10) So, the next time God entrusts us with a great experience and He also entrusts us with a failure, in spite of our fierce determination, we need to remember that in our weakness, Christ’s power rests on us. Christ can be exalted when we are humbled. He assures us “my grace is sufficient for you…” 

 

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!