Seeing Jesus working in His servants

Here is just an excerpt from a mission team to Chicago: a group of 20 teens led by Jonathon Huffman of West Park Baptist Church in Knoxville TN. (Our son Peter is part of this trip.) Just read this small portion of their week and you'll get an idea of Christ in action:

"What an awe-inspiring day of ministry. Our day ran long but the blessings ran longer. And best of all, students ministered with passion and boldness!

Today's task looked simple and scary. We were to walk the streets of Chicago offering prayer and food to those in need. Our ministry started with spending an hour and a half in the Court House plaza downtown. As people passed by (lawyers, the homeless, policemen, tourists, foreigners), we simply explained that we were in the plaza to pray with anyone who wanted it. For many of us (myself included), this was the most intimidating project of the trip. But as we stepped into the challenge, we found it to be equally rewarding.

Aaron spoke to one woman who was sitting on a bench but didn't say a word in response. She simply reached up and clutched his hand. He asked her name. She said nothing. So Aaron began to pray for her on the spot. When he finished the prayer and opened his eyes, tears were streaming down the woman's face. She never said a word, but her face said everything.

We had many stories similar to that, where God allowed us to enter some deep places of hurt and offer hope. One woman had recently lost a child; another was getting evicted. Another person was struggling with health issues and another, with addiction. At the end of our time there, we had prayed for about 250 people in the plaza. Of course, many said no or didn't listen or just openly rejected any blessing we might offer. But for those who said yes, it was a profound moment, one where maybe for the first time in a long time, or for the first time ever, they allowed God a window into their lives.

From there, we visited a Hindu temple and spoke with those who worship Hare Krshna. Entering their temple was like entering another world. The sights and smells were as foreign to us as India itself. The worshippers there kindly answered our questions about the religion,.. The point of our visit was to breakdown some of our own stereotypes and apprehensions we might have in talking to people of such disparate religious backgrounds.

We then made an unplanned stop at a local bakery for some snacks, but we soon came realize it was in fact a planned stop. God had something for us to do. As we left the bakery, we noticed a man struggling to walk. We offered him a hand but it quickly realized he was on the verge of collapsing. The boys quickly rushed around him and helped him to the curb. We tracked down a car; drove him to his house; and from there, we had to call the fire department to get him up the stairs. Again, the students wowed us. The man’s wife spoke only Spanish, so Michelle became our translator. She spoke with the lady and figured out what she wanted and where they lived.

We were encouraged to see each student helping in the way he or she could.In the evening, we handed out food to the homeless along Lakeshore Drive around Lincoln Park. Stories abounded, but we’ll have to tell you more later. Keep us in your prayers!"

This is the kind of mission work that can change our world. The the Lord for the work of this mission team! Keep up the good ministry work!

Genesis 15:12

"Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror {and} great darkness fell upon him."
"terror" in the Hebrew language is eymah, meaning dread, or horror, like that given by the presence of a king.

The teror of great darkness, according to commentator Matthew Henry tells us that "... children of light do not always walk in the light, but sometimes clouds and darkness are round about them. This great darkness, which brought horror with it, was designed."

The design might be that God is preparing us for harder times, and strengthening us for those times. It may be to help us see the darkness blot out the unnecessary baubles of life so that we might get our eyes back upon Him. It might be that in taking us through the valleys of the shadow of darkness, we can be ready to appreciate the light more.

This is a personal lesson for me right now. My back trouble is such that I must go back again to the doctor on Monday. This will be the fourth time in recent weeks, and the second time I will see a surgeon. It's hard to describe the frustration of having to lie on your back in the middle of the day in order to wait until the pain stops throbbing through your body. I often close my office door and do my mail and phone calls while flat on my back. Sometimes the agony is so great that my skin raises in chills. Last night was yet another bout, and I lay on the floor throughout the evening, staring at the wall.

Yet, in this time of pain, I've had time also to reflect and see how the Lord is causing me to stop and think. Jesus wants to get my attention back. When I was up and around, I tended to put Him in the back seat.

So, (I can hardly believe that I am saying this) but it's been good to endure this.

Egner's comments hit home

"I have no pleasure in you." This was the Lord's stinging rebuke to His people through the prophet Malachi (1:10).

God was angry with their careless, shoddy methods of worship. The animals they brought for sacrifice were not acceptable to Him because they were not the best of the herds and flocks. Instead, they offered stolen, lame, and sick animals (v.13).

While we may not be showing this degree of contempt toward God, sometimes we are too casual in our worship. A friend of mine made this observation about herself:

"When I shop for simple things like soap or butter, I hardly think about it. But when I'm looking for a blouse to match a skirt, I shop very carefully. I go from store to store until I find exactly what I'm looking for." Then she added thoughtfully, "I should pay that same attention when I am worshiping God. But sometimes I approach Him as casually as if I were shopping for a box of Kleenex."

During worship services in our churches, we may fail to give God our full attention. We rush in late. Our thoughts wander. We need to discipline our minds so that we are not focusing on yesterday's cares or tomorrow's responsibilities. When we worship the Lord with all our heart, He will be pleased with us.

—David C. Egner

Sunday night musings

Well, this has been a weekend to remember. In no particular order:

* Julie sat in one of those litle motorized kids' jeeps at WalMart, the ones that run on batteries but they take the batteries out of the floor models, right? - Well, surprise... this particular jeep HAD the batteries installed. As I turned around, she was tearing across the floor with a terrified look in her eye, having her foot on the pedal and not knowing what to do. I grabbed her steering wheel and was pulling for all I was worth while trying to find out where the brake was! (Of course, in her panic, she still had her foot on the gas). I stopped her about three inches from knocking over a floor display of about twenty bikes lined up in a row.

* Peter left on his Chicago mission trip. I took him to Waffle House this morning at five a.m. and we had the honor of paying the tab for a lone military man who was having breakfast. Hey, soldiers get high respect in our household.

* My back flared up. And bad. Back to square one on medication and pain relief. What a way to start a Sunday. I'm going to see that surgeon after all.

* Nicholas called and will be staying at Camp Red Cloud at least through the end of the calendar year! Praise the Lord!

* Our college Bible study was greeted by four new members who came to the study by kayak! I kid you not. They paddled up to our boat slip - oh, I didn't tell you we had a boat slip? Mainly because I don't know where it is myself. It's one of the many joyful surprises we had in purchasing this house. I told the guys at the study that we had to be the first Bible study anywhere who has newcomers arriving by kayak!

* Two universities want to order my nonfiction youth pastor helps book. Our micropublishing company, Doorknob Publishing, is off and running. To God be the glory!

Henry's Quote

“It can not be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

- Patrick Henry

CS Lewis' notes on the argument for a Universal Absolute

Here is a segment of Chapter 1 of CS Lewis' Mere Christianity. I find it a very compelling argument and have presented this to atheists and non-believers whenever I have a chat with them. Read this excerpt and mull over this clear presentation for an Absolute rather than a leaderless relativistic belief. This presentation is clear and down-to-earth, leading the way to the Creator (the italics are mine):

Every one has heard people quarrelling. Sometimes it sounds funny and sometimes it sounds merely unpleasant; but however it sounds, I believe we can learn something very important from listening to the kind of things they say. They say things like this:

"How'd you like it if anyone did the same to you?"

-"That's my seat, I was there first"

-"Leave him alone, he isn't doing you any harm"

- "Why should you shove in first?"

-"Give me a bit of your orange, I gave you a bit of mine"

-"Come on, you promised."

People say things like that every day, educated people as well as uneducated, and children as well as grown-ups. Now what interests me about all these remarks is that the man who makes them is not merely saying that the other man's behaviour does not happen to please him. He is appealing to some kind of standard of behaviour which he expects the other man to know about. And the other man very seldom replies: "To hell with your standard." Nearly always he tries to make out that what he has been doing does not really go against the standard, or that if it does there is some special excuse. He pretends there is some special reason in this particular case why the person who took the seat first should not keep it, or that things were quite different when he was given the bit of orange, or that something has turned up which lets him off keeping his promise. It looks, in fact, very much as if both parties had in mind some kind of Law or Rule of fair play or decent behaviour or morality or whatever you like to call it, about which they really agreed.And they have. If they had not, they might, of course, fight like animals,but they could not quarrel in the human sense of the word. Quarrelling means trying to show that the other man is in the wrong. And there would be nosense in trying to do that unless you and he had some sort of agreement as to what Right and Wrong are; just as there would be no sense in saying that a footballer had committed a foul unless there was some agreement about the rules of football.

- CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, chap 1

Freedom

1 Peter 2:15-16
For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. {Act} as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but {use it} as bondslaves of God.

My son Peter and I had a good talk last night after the college Bible study. We were talking about the freedom that graduating Christian high school students have. When they get that diploma, they feel a rush of emotion; they are finally free!

Free to be considered an adult in many ways.

Many ways.

But I told Peter that what puzzles me is what many Christian teens feel is the true exercise of that freedom.

(I will cite you examples of those who have crossed my path in these many years of youth ministry, so you won't think I'm just spouting off.)

- "Freedom" to go to an NC 17 movie

-"Freedom" to start buying lottery tickets

- "Freedom" for unrestricted premarital sex

-"Freedom" to imbibe in alcohol

- "Freedom" to ignore or belittle the very parents who have raised them

I'm not going to do finger-wagging; the Holy Spirit gives the necessary conviction to the Christian. It's just... I guess I'm puzzled. The word "free" is eleutheros and it truly means becoming unrestrained, but it means in the freedom from the Law and the freedom to enjoy life... and still honor God.

Forgive me personal take on this, but since it's my blog, I'll tell you how I enjoyed this freedom when I "let the chains go" of graduation from the same.

- I had the freedom to jump in my car and tour the United States and visit other churches - from Georgia to South Dakota to California - and see how other people worshiped. I spent time in churches as big as 5,000 and as small as 12. I went to rescue missions and saw heartfelt and open worship. I visited inner city churches, suburban churches, and rural storefronts to see people enjoy a special reserved time with Jesus and each other. That freedom to visit was like another college course. I'm going to write a book about those two years on the road.

- I had the freedom to look at temptation and see how real Jesus was to me. When I had no earthly peers to monitor my activity as I was on the road, I grew in my walk with Jesus. Is He really my best friend? Is He real in my life? When I was on the road, anywhere from Nevada to New York, I faced a lot of personal crossroads, and that's when I saw my walk with Jesus strengthen.

- I had the freedomn to test my faith and God's grace at the same time. You see, at the age of 21 I made a vow to the Lord that I would travel aroud the USA and speak to any church, school, or group that would have me, and I would never ask for money. Not at all. If the Lord wanted me to continue, the money would be there. I cannot tell you how many times enough dollars were pushed into my hand at the last minute so that I could make it to the next meeting place in the next state in order to minister. God gave me an epic answer in showing His faithfulness.

That's what I feel that the experience of freedom did for me.

And somehow alcohol or a lottery ticket will never come near the joy I experienced in that freedom I knew. And still know today.

reflections on a Saturday night

I am thankful not only for the relief that my ailment was not cancer, but also for the supporting prayers of so many Christians.

Sunday night is just about my favorite time of the week.

I look forward to being with my good college and high school friends tomorrow evening here at the Zockoll household. I think what I enjoy most is the open-hearted desire to actually dig into the Scripture and see what God is revealing to us all.

Tomorrow night at 6 pm we look at the ways a person can identify a cult, and I'll be showing some actual cults... and the very sad consequences of those who followed them.

The Realians

Scientologists

Jim Jones' cult

Aum (the poison gas attack in Japan)

Applewhite and the Heaven's Gate cult

Temple of Set

Anton LaVey's Church of Satan

Matthew 24

•4 Jesus told them, "Don't let anyone mislead you.
•5 For many will come in my name, saying, `I am the Messiah.' They will lead many astray.

Why don't...

... more people appreciate the writings of James Thurber? The man's writings were some of the funniest stories I've ever read. Same goes for a now-obscure writer named Robert Benchley.

...we have an Opera Day festival, where everyone can attend an opera in their home town? For that matter, why does a ticket for a decent opera ticket cost more than my car? Can any run-of-the-mill guy like myself have a chance of getting a ticket?

...people learn decent manners in doing business? I never cease to be amazed at the belief that rudeness equals power which equals an advantage.

...we have a church service where you simply walk in, open your Bible and get right into a good full-hour to 90 minutes of intensive study (with some good Greek and Hebrew explanations)without any other parts of a program . No fifty-minute preliminaries of announcements and (please don't get me wrong) endless choruses of music. Just a good solid Bible study and no-frills teaching. Show me a church like that and I'll be asking for directions.

Revelation 21:4

I can recall the deep pain of leaving our dear friends in Knoxville at West Park Baptist Church after my five years in the youth pastorate. Jill and I knew the Lord was moving me on to a publishing ministry, but the grief we undertook in leaving our close friends was almost unbearable. I can honestly say that I don't know if I have ever cried so much. The following day after our farewell party, my chest was sore from sobbing.

That was ponos - pain, and it is the word used in Revelation 21:4, telling us that when we get to Heaven, that pain will cease. It will be over.

When many of us think of the word "pain" as used in Revelation 21:4, we think of the physical hurt of arthritis, cancer, or injury. This word goes much deeper than that. The definition in the Greek intimates "intense trouble," or even a "deep longing," the kind, I believe that comes from yearning for something out of reach.

The ponos that hurts me most deeply is the pain of loss, especially the loss of friendship. I think of Dan and Katie Moorehead, in whose wedding I was most proud to be a participant back in 1981, and how much I just enjoyed talking and being with these wonderful people. I can recall being on the road, traveling as an itinerant speaker around the United States when I was single, and giving them a phone call or visit once in a while just to be able to enjoy their voices or presence.

Dan and Katie visited here in Knoxville about a year ago and recently sent a card with their picture (alongside their wonderful family), and I told me wife that if it were in my power to do so, would move their whole family to our neighborhood just so we all could be together once again. The ponos of separation from friends like this hurts me more than a physical injury.

It will not be so in Heaven. I will get to be with friends and family once again, no matter where - (Somerset, England; Hershey PA; Hollister CA; Phoenix AZ etc) - and we will never suffer ponos again, because the One who assures us of comfort and joy - Jesus Himself - will be overseeing the grand reunion.

Nachah - (Hebrew) - "lead, guide forth or back"

Psa 139:24 -
And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.

I am at a crossroads, Lord with so many different paths to take. I am totally unstable in making a decision on my own. I plead with you, Lord, to take hold and guide where You wil have me to go. Open the doors wide so that we know it is in the way You safely point. Open the doors loudly so that we know it is Your sound we follow. Open it in the way only You can, with Your strength so that we truly know that this is a God thing we are experiencing.

And in all things I will praise Your name.

With the years I have left on this earth, let me point all successes and joys toward You, so that everyone will know that ultimate happiness comes from You.

Request Your Prayers

These last two weeks have been increasingly difficult to me. The pain was so much that I had to leave work on Friday and go to a nearby medical clinic. I've not been back to work since then. My back hurts so bad that I cannot sit for more than a few minutes. Initial tests by doctors believe that I have an intestinal tear (absess and/or infection are not ruled out).

Preliminary tests ruled out cancer, thank the Lord.

I am scheduled to go to Fort Sanders Hospital on Friday for further tests. Please pray. The pain is almost continual, even with pain medication.