And you will be blessed because ...

"And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you,

for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous"

(Luke 14:14)

Traditionally, our extended families have big meal celebrations for Thanksgiving and Christmas. And as I look over the years the times when we have had friends over, who otherwise would not have had a celebration, were when we were closest to being the kingdom, or rule, of God.

Others, I personally know, have gone further than this. One churched couple I remember would take church guests out to lunch after church. Another couple had two homeless brothers spending part of the winter in their own home. A senior adult lady would go to the grocery store and receive goods that were fixing to be thrown away in order to cook them for both a homeless ministry and to give canned food away to those who required such grace or mercy.

So this week I will keep searching for opportunities to give myself away to those who cannot repay.

And, as always, you are invited by the Lord to do so as well.

Mission, Vision, Visionpath

"Lead me, O LORD, in your rightesousness"
(Psalm 5:8a)

My plans are this week to take the time to shape my own personal and relational 2009 Vision and Visionpath. I began this process in the final quarter of 2008 but, in my own words, it was a 'wild and crazy' quarter packed full of year-end work.

I will begin with what I consider the mission of my life. Honestly, that comes basically from imitating Jesus whose lifestyle is often summarized as teacher, preacher and healer. He taught the 'how-to's" of following God, preached of God's rule, and was a way that God the Father brought all types of healing (physical, emotional, social, relational, spiritual, etc).

Such is my Mission as well: To teach by word and deed ways to follow Jesus, to preach the rule of God, and to be a means of God's healing grace, or mercy.

My overall lifetime Vision is: “Walking with the Lord every day, I will seek to win people over to him, and to teach them how to follow Jesus and win people over to him as well,” so this is still in effect in 2009. In short my personal Vision is "Walk with the Lord every day".

So in the coming days I will, definitely with the help of God the Spirit, be envisioning the 2009 Visionpath that are the ways I will work, in cooperation with God, to make my vision a reality.

And because I believe that God may also speak through God's people my Vision and Visionpath will be presented to the Staff-Parish Relations Commitee (which is the overseeing group of staff in a local United Methodist Church), and our District Superintendent who is our representative of our bishop who discerns where God is sending us.

OK, what are your plans in following God for 2009?

Thanksgiving again ...

God has answered another prayer in my life. And I am thankful to God, to the organizers and administrators, leaders, and volunteers of the Congress on Evangelism, and to the staff and laity at Arlington United Methodist Church (AUMC).

You see, my prayer was for five people from AUMC (including myself) to attend the 2009 Congress on Evangelism at Opryland Hotel in Nashville. The location is only ten miles from AUMC. The Lord called six people, including myself, to attend. My prayer was answered and so I say, "Praise the Lord!"

People get confused about the simple meaning of evangelism for it just means "to tell the good news". So when you are sharing good news (such as being hired on a job, finding a love for your life, having a child, or telling how a headache was relieved) you are an 'evangelist'.

The deeper meaning of being an 'evangelist' is simply telling others the good news of how God helped you find a job, find a love for your life, have a child, or gave you relief to your headache.

For me this morning the good news is the inner peace I was given at the congress on evangelism. For me, my inner assurance from God was simply God telling me in my own words, 'Hey John, you are mine ... that is enough for now.' God gave me that inner peace through the good news of Jesus proclaimed in songs, sermons, conversations, lessons, reflections, and friendships, some of which are long-term and others are just beginning.

Thanks be to God.

Now, how did God help you last week? What is the good news for you to share?

Lighting a lamp ...

How important light is! This morning I experienced it for before the sun had brightened the sky I was working at Panera Bread next to the windows and I did not realize how much I was depending on the external lights over the sidewalk for reading. And then they turned off. Even though I enjoyed being next to the windows I had to move in order to read. It helped me to have that in mind as I read,

‘No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar, but on the lampstand so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light; but if it is not healthy, your body is full of darkness. Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays.’

(Luke 11:33-36)

This reading calls me to my own self-reflection on how well I am allowing the light of God that is full love shine through me.

On this day, I invite you to do so as well.

Reflections on Luke 10 ...

Jesus' followers had gone out under his instruction. They relied on the little they had, allowed their peace/wholeness to rest upon others, ate what was set before them, cured the sick, and said, 'The kingdom (rule) of God has come upon you'.

At that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’

(Luke 10:21-22)

May Jesus, the Son of God, so rejoice with the Holy Spirit and praise God the Father over the work that I do today!

May Jesus so rejoice today over the work you do as well!

The Right Place at the Right Time ...

I read today of the death of a mother named Sarah in Genesis 23. Afterward, her husband named Abraham sent a servant to find an Israelite woman for his son, Isaac, to marry. That is just the way they did it back then. So off Abraham's servant went to the city of Nahor, and when he arrived he stopped at a well for water and prayed that God would send there the lady that he wanted to be Isaac's wife. While there a lady named Rebekah came to the well and she was God's chosen. And so the story ended in marriage (Genesis 24).

Such put my mind on how my wife and I met thirty-six years ago. I was sixteen. My family attended Bordeaux United Methodist Church. My wife to be was singing in the choir. And later I learned that her extended family had three generations in that local church. Our first date was on the tennis court of the local high school there. As teenagers, we were in the United Methodist Youth Fellowship together. Our families got to know each other. And four years later we married -- May 21, 1976.

Even though our experience is quite different from the marriage arrangement with the families of Isaac and Rebekah, the common factor is in the work of God. After Abraham's servant met Rebekah and by her actions God assured him that this was God's chosen mate for Isaac, he said to her family and I say this day of meeting my wife and our marriage:

"... I bowed my head and worshipped the Lord ...

who had led me the right way ..."

(a portion of Genesis 24:48)

When you are thrown out ...

The couple, Abraham and Sarah, are seen as the parents of Israel. And they were right at 100 when their child was born. Sarah had a boy, and because she laughed when an angel-messenger of God told them she would have a child at their age, the angel-messenger said, 'You will name him "Isaac" which, by the way, means "laughter"'!

The birth of Isaac is good, but right now my mind goes to his older half-brother born by Abraham and Sarah's servant named Hagar. You see, in those days it was common for a wife who could not have a child to allow her husband her female servant to conceive so that there will be an heir. So it occured and Hagar gave Abraham an heir called Ishmael.

Later Isaac was born and at that point Sarah put her foot down and said to Abraham, "Get rid of Ishmael". After that God spoke to Abraham in a dream telling him that all would end up fine even with Hagar and Ishmael if he did so. And so Abraham sent them away and so it was written in Genesis:

God was with the boy (Ishmael), and he grew up;

he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow.

He lived in the wilderness of Paran;

and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

(Genesis 21:20-21)

It helps for me to remember Hagar and Ishmael when things don't look so good, and so I invite you to remember Hagar and Ishmael when your times are rough.

God provide for them and so he continues to do so.