Ministry Musings

Prayer Template

2008-12-04T12:36:00.000-08:00

We have a prayer time in our youth group. Bearing in mind that most of our current members are unchurched, this is as much about helping them become comfortable with the whole concept of prayer as about bringing specific needs to God. Sometimes only one or two out of a dozen kids will pray. But they all have needs they're willing to share. This always amazes me: I don't remember having nearly as many fears and anxieties when I was their age.

One thing I notice is that they, and many other people, make prayer much more difficult than it needs to be. Prayer doesn't need to be expressed in lofty, formal language. There are no special phrases you have to use, there are no 'magic words' that grab God's attention. Prayer is just conversation with a friend.

And that brings up the issue of relationship to Him.

The older I get, the more I'm convinced that relationship is everything. Ministry isn't about theology or organizational structure or being theatrical, it's about connecting with people. Stepping outside yourself far enough to meet them where they are.

"... anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6)

Relationship with God is about connecting with Him where He is. The beauty of this is that the Lord made the first move. He came to us in human flesh. He took the trouble to identify with us in our neediness. And He made the greatest overture of freindshp possible by dying the death we deserved on the cross and then rising from the dead in conquest of the most fearsome thing in our experience.

All right, at first it is a bit like having an imaginary friend. You feel a little foolish, talking to someone you can't see. But it's not all that strange. Here I am, writing to you, and I have no idea who you are or when you'll see this or if you'll respond. It's an exercise in faith and hope. Any conversation is, really.

The God of whom the Bible speaks wants to be your friend. He wants to be part of your everyday life. He wants you to just talk to Him, tell Him what's on your mind. Are you fearful or anxious? Are you happy? Are you confused? Have you accomplished something important? Are you feeling overwhelmed? Do you have hopes and dreams you're not sure how to realize? Have you been hurt or rejected? It can be difficult to find a human person who'll listen to these things and understand. But the Lord is always there and ready to hear.

And He doesn't just listen. He acts. He leads us and shapes us in the very act of prayer. Just developing the habit of taking everything we think and feel to Him is a transforming thing.

Don't worry too much about how you pray. Just do it. Do it often.

Prayer List

2008-10-20T05:56:00.000-07:00

The more I think about prayer in this column, the more I come to believe that we need to take it beyond the level of theology. It should be helpful to explore the whys and hows of prayer, but the best way to learn to pray successfully is to do it.

So, what I'm thinking is that I'll open this page up for you to share your needs. An on-line prayer list. And not just the needs., but also the answers when they come, so that everyone's faith can benefit.

Email me at: r_moulton76@yahoo.com with anything you'd like to share and I'll post it.

Please: first names only and only as much detail as we need to pray for a specific need. No personal details that can put someone's privacy in jeopardy.

Just to give you an idea of the content, I'll post the first few...

Jon -- suffering from Lyme disease for 15 years

Bill -- needs a new kidney

Kathy -- recovering from a bad stroke

Carl -- recovering from multiple strokes

Dave -- nerve disorder from chemical exposure during military service

The Election -- give us the government we need and wisdom to the winning candidates

The government -- wisdom to lead us, to make righteous decisions and laws

Iraq and Afghanistan -- peace, stable democratic governments

Our service men and women -- safety, success in establishing liberty, bring them home

Knock 3x

2008-10-13T11:43:00.000-07:00

Okay, sorry. The reference to the old Tony Orlando song came into my brain without warning. It seemed somehow appropriate.

The third and greatest barrier that we have to get through in order to receive what we ask for and seek in prayer is probably ourselves. We are often our own worst enemies.

The epistle of James says that the primary reason we don't have what we need is because we don't ask. Covered that. Then it says that, when we DO ask, we ask for the wrong reasons. We ask to satisfy our own selfish deisres.

This is where a lot of people run into problems. They pray for something they really want. Something they've even convinced themselves they need. And God doesn't come through. Or He takes too long. And, if their prayers aren't answered, well, prayer doesn't work. The next step is usually: there's no one out there listening. God doesn't exist. And they abandon faith entirely.

This whole line of thought is based on a faulty assumption: that prayer is some kind of 'magical' thing by which I get God to give me what I want. Prayer is a way to manipulate God.

That's not Christianity, its shamanism. It's absurd to think that we can make God do what we want. If any one of us could, that would make us the god(s). It's role reversal and it doesn't work.

But if prayer is about relationship, the whole focus changes. Yes, we can ask for what we want, but we should not be surprised if our Father shakes His (figurative) head and says no. No more candy. Spinach is what you need and you're not getting up from the table until you eat it.

The objective in prayer is rather to discover what God wants for us and to ask for that. Just like the child who'd rather have chocolate than spinach, we don't at first want to ask for it, much less ask for a second helping. But somewhere along the line, the child grows up. He has to pay his own dental bills and the gym fees to burn off all those candy calories. He discovers why his father limited the sweets. And if, in the process of growing up he has also matured in character, he opts for the veggies instead of dessert.

In discovering what God wants for us we learn His values. We discover Him as a person. And we become more like Him. And we see our desires from His much wider perspective.

Jesus said that if anyone wanted to follow Him, he should deny himself, take up his cross and (actively) follow. We balk at the denial part (and never get to the cross), especially if our experience of the church is one of rules and regulations governing all the things Christians aren't supposed to do. I've been there. But I've come to believe that the whole self-denial thing is less about some rule that says, 'No, I can't have that.' and more about exchanging an infantile set of desires for adult ones. And it's about learning to trust that God knows what I need and won't forget me.

Knocking on the barrier of self-centeredness is one of the most difficult things believers have to do. Sometimes, with persistent temptations and desires, only the brute force approach works; all you can do is 'Just say no' to yourself. Some people never get past that. But whenever we do get past ourselves in prayer, whole new vistas are open to us. We begin to think as God thinks. We begin to love what He loves.

And when you and God are on the same wavelength, miraculous things happen.

Knock, Knock

2008-10-13T11:19:00.000-07:00

Still talking about Matthew 7:7 and the need sometimes to 'knock' when we pray.

Last time, I said there were at least 3 types of barriers that can prevent us from receiving what we're asking for and seeking. And I said that sometimes that barrier can be people outside the church.

There is a fairly vocal group of people who oppose what evangelical Christians believe and stand for. Some of them are liberal 'Christians' who more properly fall into the group we discussed last time. It's not, however, that they don't know what their spiritual gifts are or fail to exercise them, but rather that they have a completely different idea of what the gospel is. Hence the quotes around the word Christian. They are part of the overall church as an organization, but they seem to have missed the point. Then there are others who oppose us because they are of different faiths. Or no faith at all, as we understand it.

But, here in America, most of our opposition doesn't seem to be conscious or intentional. It comes from people who are ignorant of the gospel. People who are ambivalent about it. People who are distracted by life and never seem to consider the deeper questions because they are so involved in other things. It is passive opposition, but a barrier nonetheless.

This opposition exists in part because of our failure to evangelize effectively. But before we share our faith, there must come prayer. Prayer that comes from a deep longing for others to know Christ and the peace and empowerment of His grace. How many of us feel that longing? How many of us lose sleep over friends and family who don't believe? Are our lives so cluttered with our own desires and comforts that we hardly think of them? I believe they are. It's a battle I fight every day.

At the risk of sounding archaic, there are spiritual forces at work behind the scenes. Forces that distract us from prayer and witness. Forces that draw attention away from Christ when He is presented. Forces that make people think they're too busy to have time for God. Forces that draw people into other, cultic religious beliefs. Forces that provide the distractions. They are forces of culture, of attitudes. But overall, I don't know what to call them except demonic.

We have, I believe, the power to knock on that door, to batter down that barrier. To battle against the 'spiritual powers in high places' that deter us from a single focus on Christ. To combat the forces that prevent others from really hearing the gospel and responding to it. We have that power and privilege in prayer. And if we do not do so, if we focus on the obvious and selfish, we have missed something important that may be hampering our own spirtual growth and effectiveness.

You might think that battling things -- forces, beings, attitudes -- we can't see is more properly God's job rather than ours. But believers have been called and chosen and sanctified to be a part of what He is doing. God can surely do everything Himself, but He doesn't want to. He wants us to participate. What parent doesn't love it when a child works alongside him or her, learning to do what the parent does? God loves it too. That's why He created us in His image and made us His children.

I firmly believe that in Christ, we have the power to command these spiritual forces, to break their hold on others and remove the opposition. Destroy the barrier. Try it. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised and enormously blessed.

Knocking

2008-10-13T10:05:00.000-07:00

After a (too) long hiatus, let's return to the subject of prayer.

In Matthew 7:7, Jesus tells us to ask (and keep on asking), to seek (and keep on seeking) and to knock -- and keep on knocking. The use of 3 different verbs here is intriguing. It tells us something about the nature of prayer.

Asking is the most passive part of prayer. It is conversational: 'Father, I need..." This is the most common type of praying. It requires the least investment of time and effort. As noted before, we are conditioned to think that we should only have to ask for something once. We are actually annoyed if we have to ask again. Just think of how you feel if you get a new cashier at your favorite fast food restaurant and he/she has trouble getting your order right.

Seems to me that, if we ask God repeatedly for something and don't get it, that ought to a clue that there is something missing in our prayers. By definition, it can't be that there is something missing in God, although that's the conclusion too many people come to when the Lord doesn't respond immediately. Maybe it should tell us that it's time to move on to the next level and seek whatever's missing.

When we seek, we can sometimes come up against a barrier. A closed door. Then it's time to start knocking. If we keep on banging on the door, Jesus says it WILL be opened for us.

There are at least 3 kinds of barriers.

First, there is the barrier of other people. People outside the church may put up opposition to our receiving what we need from God. More on that later. The fact is, this type of barrier seems to be most common with people IN the church.

The church is supposed to be a community of people who support and encourage one another. A community of individuals, each equipped by the Holy Spirit with gifts which, exercised in concert, make the church a complete, fully functional, effective body -- the Body of Christ. But for various reasons, too many people don't know what their gifts are or don't exercise them. They have something from God that they don't share with the rest of us. This cripples the whole body.

If we are up against this barrier and knocking, the first thing we need to do is ask the Lord to enlighten. Ask Him to show them their gifts and their place in the scheme of the Body We also need to ask Him to motivate them. The greatest blessings of my life have not come from sitting by and passively receiving things from God, but through the privilege of exercising my gifts and serving the Lord and His church. Using our gifts isn't just work. It isn't a distraction from personal things that are more important. It is fulfillment. It is finding what we were born for and doing it.

Then we need to seek this enlightenment and motivation. We do this, not in prayer per se, but by becoming involved with our brothers and sisters. By helping them discover their gifts and encouraging them to use them. Our actions can be prayers too.

There's more to say, but I'll let you chew on this for a bit and save it for next time. As always, your comments are more than appreciated.

AWOL

2008-10-13T09:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry to have been absent for so long. Things have been busy and, somehow, I misplaced my login. But now, I'm baaaack...

Off the general topic of prayer that I was following initially, an interesting thing happened in church yesterday. My 4-year old grandson (step-grandson, technically, but I never think of him that way) was in church for the 2nd time. The children sit thru the first part of the service until the children's sermon and then are dismissed down to the vestry of Sunday School.

We've been tinkering with the amount of time they spend upstairs in the main service. The object is to keep families together as much as possible and to expose the kids to corporate worship without overloading them with things they don't understand. It can be a delicate balance. Yesterday, the kids sat through the collect, the first hymn and our monthly praise and worship segment before being dismissed.

A note about Praise and Worship as we currently do it. We add this segment on the second Sunday of each month and I lead it, with my wife when she's not working and with other musicians when they're available. It's a 3-song set and two of the songs are contemporary, but I try to incorporate one older worship song or hymn that our congregation (aging, as are most rural Methodist congregations) is more likely to be familiar with.

Anyway, yesterday, my grandson and his parents came to the house after church. He and I played for a while, but after he'd expended some energy, we were sitting in the living room and he said something about the music he'd heard in church. He wanted to hear one of the songs again. Being new to church and only 4, he of course didn't know the name of the song, so my daughter and I sang our way thru all 4 that he had heard.

I expected that he would have liked either of the contemporary songs: 'Shout to the Lord' or 'Above All'. Nope. He wanted to hear the hymn, 'Draw Me Nearer'. We sang the first verse for him 3x accapela, then I pulled out my guitar and the lyrics and sang it all the way thru.

Okay, that was long-winded. But it told me something and reinforced my thinking on some others.

The first thing it told me was that you can't predict what will appeal or speak to the people in the congregation -- especially little kids. As a worship leader, I try to do that. I try to pick songs that are likely to communicate and involve my audience in support of the overall thrust of a particular service. I try to pick songs that will reinforce each other relative to a certain theme. I have no idea what it was about that hymn that captured his attention over the other songs. I doubt that he understood the words so it was probably something about the meter or the tune. Whatever. It's something he'll remember. It's an avenue for the Spirit into his young life. Praise God!

It also reemphasized to me the role of music in worship. I've always appreciated it, having been a Christian musician since I was in high school. Music -- especially music that we sing together -- has a power to convey ideas, concepts and emotion that the spoken word often does not. And now I find that music -- even the 'old stuff' -- speaks even to little children.

So, here's what I want to say...

If you're a Christian musician, don't be afraid to be a little eclectic, to maybe go outside your comfort zone as far as the type and style of music you play. You'll be a better musician for broadening your scope and only God knows who will be touched by it.

If you're a parent or a grandparent, sing with your kids. Even if you don't have much musical talent. At the very least, get some CDs of Christian music and play them in the quieter times. (And don't be afraid to sing along even if you can't carry a tune in a dump truck.) It's a very special and blessed experience when one of those songs takes root in the mind of a child.

Blessings, brothers and sisters.

Focus

2007-03-30T09:47:00.000-07:00

I’M LOOKING AT WHAT I WROTE LAST TIME. About seeking. And it occurs to me – not for the first time – that I’m not very good at taking my own advice.

I look at what I spend my time seeking…
-- a better income (I’m self-employed).
-- entertainment (I love movies and there are several TV shows I hate to miss).
-- sexual gratification. Let’s be honest. We are bombarded with sexual imagery even if we don’t go looking for it. I’m happily and faithfully married, but I seem to have the same drives I had when I was 16.
-- Things: like a new car, better computers (they’re tools of the trade, after all). I can hardly go through my email without seeing two or three things I wish I could afford. Then, I’m a musician of sorts, so there’s always some new instrument or piece of gear I wish I had. Being a homeowner provides a whole list of Things I’d like to acquire. The list seems endless.
-- Spiritual Things: these are easier to excuse. I’d like my son and my best friend to be healed. I’d like to see something dramatic in the way of revival for our youth group and our church. I’d like to have more impact for my ministry efforts. I’d like to have more of the gifts of the Spirit. But it’s all still ‘stuff’, even if it is stuff from God.

It’s amazing how much time and energy seeking these things requires. It’s amazing how easily any one of them can distract me from what’s really important. It’s sad – pathetic, even – how little time there is left to seek the Lord Himself.

I suspect I’m not very different from anyone else. There are so many things to desire that our focus is split. Shattered is more like it.

Matthew 6:22 is one of those verses that I think has more impact and relevance in the King James.

“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.”

Both the NIV and NASB translate ‘single’ as ‘good’ and that makes sense in modern English. If your eyes are good, you can see where you’re going.

But the KJV gives it a somewhat different meaning. If your eye is ‘single’ doesn’t have to do with being physically one-eyed, but rather, with being focused. Compare this with what the writer of Hebrews says in 12:2 –

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…”

As Christians, nothing less than Jesus Himself is our objective. If we allow ourselves to be distracted, if we take our eyes off the goal even for a second, we falter. I falter.

This is, I think, not only my problem, but the general problem of the entire Church in the post-Christian West. We have a sort of spiritual ADD where we are constantly being pulled this way and that. We want God, but we also want what everyone else has, what our society with its massive culture of consumerism tells us we can’t live without.

My prayer, first of all for myself, and then for all of you, my brothers and sisters, is that we will take steps to develop a ‘single eye’, a focus on Jesus Christ that cannot be broken.

Ask, then Seek

2007-03-30T09:04:00.000-07:00

We are looking at Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 7:7) -- “Ask, and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened for you.”

Last time, we discussed the verb “to ask” and concluded that asking requires making contact, it requires the admission of some need or desire, and also the admission that the person asked may have what we need or desire. Some level of relationship is created every time we ask for something. God wants us to ask because it begins or continues that relationship.

Jesus tells us to seek, and again, this is a verb of continuing action. Seek and keep on seeking.

Seeking adds a different dimension to prayer. When we ask for something, we are conditioned by experience to ask for it once. We are, in fact, irritated when we have to ask a second time. Seeking, however, requires and investment of time, effort and determination.

The verb implies that what we want may not be obvious or easily found. That getting what we want is not necessarily going to be immediate. It’s entirely possible that we don’t know exactly what we’re looking for. Seeking prayer may be brief, but it can never be casual. It is part of a larger effort to find something enormously important.

Seeking always has an object: In prayer, that object is always God: God’s mind, God’s will and purpose. God Himself. We may think that what we want is the resolution of a specific and immediate problem or the supply of a specific need, but ultimately, that resolution is only to be found in the PERSON of God, not in an isolated thing or event.

Seeking requires an openness to learn – we search for something because we don’t know where it is or how it is to be obtained. Perhaps one of the reasons we don’t seek in prayer is because we’re more than a little afraid. The path to what we want may not be an easy one. It may not lead us where we expect to go. It may require of us an effort we don’t want to make. It may take us out of our familiar comfort zone. And what we find may not be precisely what we expect.

But that is the great adventure of prayer – the traveling of paths less worn, the experience of blessings we hadn’t dreamed of in the ‘detours’, the revelation of things about ourselves that we hadn’t known, the discovery of depths we hadn’t imagined. Seeking prayer IS an adventure. It is not for the spiritually timid.

But anything worth doing is worth the effort.

Again, Jesus is very positive here: seek and you WILL find. You will find God Himself. Provided you invest yourself in the effort.

“…you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:12-13)

And there is a caveat, found in Isaiah 55:6 –“Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.”

I don’t know when it will be, but there WILL be a time when God cannot be found. When you will no longer have the opportunity to seek. Certainly, if we have not made the effort to find Him before death, we will not be able to correct that oversight afterwards. Or perhaps, if we put it off too long, we will become like Pharaoh. You may remember that God hardened his heart, confirmed his resistance and let him live with the consequences.

There is only one thing that is worth actively seeking in this life: an intimate knowledge of the Lord. Without that, nothing else matters. If we waste our lives seeking things that don’t satisfy our deepest longings, we will have nothing when we stand before Him in eternity. We just need to push away the garbage and do it.

God Answers

2007-02-16T10:35:00.000-08:00

Sorry to be absent for so long. Had a little computer problem requiring some new parts. But now that I'm back, let's continue looking at prayer...

* * * * * * *

We have established that the God of the Bible WANTS us to pray. Psalm 65:2 tells us that He is listening for prayer and that we are moved to reach out to Him.

Elsewhere, the Word of God repeatedly urges us to come to Him, to engage ourselves in a relationship in which He can give us what we need. The things beyond the necessities of survival. Matthew 7:7 is one of those urgings…

“Ask, and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened for you.”

All the verbs here – ask, seek, knock – are verbs of continuing action. Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. Continuing action is necessary because God is not simply a impersonal blessing dispensing machine. We don’t just put our money in the slot, make our selection and out pops what we need, end of transaction. God is less interested in meeting a specific need than in establishing an ongoing, eternal relationship. He wants us to know Him, to understand Him the best we can. He wants us to share His viewpoint, His values and priorities. He wants us to become like Him.

Ask
There is something implied in this verse, which is later stated in James 4:2 -- we do not have because we do not ask… God. All too often, it’s just that simple. If we would ask, He would give us what we desire. If we would seek, we would find. If we would just knock on the door, we would be admitted. For whatever reasons, we neglect doing these things.

The fact is, God WANTS to send blessings -- as part of the process of growing up spiritually. He wants to give us what we need and more. But simply we can’t have them without also entering into a deep relationship with Him. And that relationship begins with asking, seeking and knocking.

Asking anyone for anything requires relationship. First, we have to make contact. You can’t get something – that shirt you see in the catalog, for example – unless you make some kind of contact with J.C. Penney.

Asking anyone for anything requires an admission of need or desire. We are not at all uncomfortable telling our mechanic that there’s something wrong with our car or calling a service professional for the washing machine or the computer. Why are we so reluctant to admit to God that He has something we need?

The admission of need is made to someone whom we believe HAS what we need. The mechanic or service professional has (we trust) the skills and tools to fix what’s broken. When something is broken or missing in our lives, God is the FIRST person to ask.

There is nothing equivocal about Jesus’ promise here. Ask and you WILL receive. But the things we need from God often do not come automatically, just as and when we want them. Action is needed on our part: participation in the process. God works WITH us, not just FOR us.

So… let’s BE part of the process of blessing. Let’s work with God in prayer. Let’s ask, confident that we will receive God’s best.

“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy, and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)

Why Do We Pray?

2007-01-14T13:28:00.000-08:00

I've recently taken over leading our Thursday evening prayer meeting. (We're having a great time, by the way.) And, since this includes a devotional each week, I'd like to share with you whatever insights the Lord is giving me...

* * * * * * *

I suspect that most people pray at one time or another, even people who have no formal faith. Even people who, most of the time, consider themselves agnostics or even atheists.

We pray because we believe – or because we want to believe. We want to believe in some Higher Power; a Being with awareness and intelligence. A Being with compassion. A Being with influence, with power to affect our circumstances.

Why do we want to believe? Because we feel some need. Most often, it’s some physical need: health, finances, the presence of some threat. It may be an emotional need for relationship with someone who truly cares and understands us. It may be an intellectual need, a desire for something to help make sense of the world, a desire to find the meaning and purpose of our lives.

Whatever the need, it arises from the fact that there are many things in life that are
beyond our influence and control, beyond our understanding. Belief gives us a framework for dealing with these things. And the hope of resolution – salvation.

Over all this, there is the biblical assertion that we were made for relationship with God. Psalm 65:2 says – “O, You who hear prayer, to You all men will come.” We can draw two conclusions from these thoughts.

First, God is listening. He wants to hear from us. Whether He responds to our prayers in the way we expect is beside the point. He desires contact, dialogue and relationship. Why else create beings in His own image, capable of appreciating and emulating His nature?

Second, apart from any specific need or desire, we need to be in contact with God. We were designed and created for this relationship. We are incomplete and unfulfilled without it. This need alone moves us to prayer so that “all men will come” to Him at some time.

So let’s talk to God. Often. He is waiting to hear from us.

Youth Group Games

2007-01-05T10:41:00.000-08:00

If you've read the ministry overiview, you know that we host our church youth group in our home. Which means we don't have a lot of space, especially in winter or on rainy days when outdoor activities aren't practical.

So... here's the question: anybody have any ideas about youth group games that don't require a gymnasium?

FYI: I'm already searching EGAD and have found a few.

Ministry Overview

2007-01-04T06:38:00.000-08:00

Bob and his wife, Sue, have been involved in lay ministry together since 1975 and separately for a number of years before that. Based on the absolute authority of the Bible, their work focuses on leading people to faith in and a transforming relationship with Jesus Christ and discipling those who accept Him as Lord and Savior.

Currently, working under the auspices of the Warren (NH) United Methodist Church, their ministry is principally along two lines…

Youth Ministry
Since 1999, Bob and Sue have sponsored North Country FevaH (‘fever’ with a Yankee accent!) for teenagers grade 7 and up. The group draws kids from multiple denominations as well as those with no church background from communities within a radius of 30 miles. FevaH meets in their home for Bible study, prayer, meals, games and supervised social time. The group is also involved in missions, supporting an Ethiopian child through Compassion International, performing service projects for the local food pantry and meals program and fundraising for the local crisis pregnancy center. In 2006, two members of the group went on a 10-day missions trip to Haiti.

Music
Bob and Sue were both performing Christian musicians when they met in 1974 and combined their ministry to churches and coffeehouses around New England. Although their travel schedule was cut back by other (youth) work and the raising of their two children, they continue to provide worship music for the Warren church and take engagements whenever possible. They are working on recording their first album.

Background
Sue is a trustee of their home church and a communion steward. Bob is a certified lay speaker in the New Hampshire District, New England Conference of the United Methodist Church and a member of both the Youth Council and Ministry Team for the district. A Christian broadcaster for 18 years, Bob was the announcer and producer for the syndicated radio programs, Trinity Pulpit and Shalom. He also served as the ‘interim’ lay pastor for a small Baptist church for 6-and-a-half years. Together, they led the junior high ministry at First Presbyterian Church in Quincy, MA for several years before moving to New Hampshire.

Donations
Donations are gratefully accepted for the support of these ministries.

Although their work is under the auspices of the Warren church, it is funded independently of the church budget. As such, donations are not tax deductible for the giver and are subject to income tax, so no single donation should be above the amount of $20.00. All receipts will be tithed upon and the after-tax amount will be used entirely for support of FevaH and the music ministry.

Checks should be made out to “Robert Moulton” and sent to
POB 141, Wentworth, NH 03282

Donations can also be made via PayPal to: rmnc@adelphia.net

Epiphany

2007-01-02T14:56:00.000-08:00

Well, it's not quite Epiphany yet... but the Matthew story (2:1-11) is so often included in Christmas celebrations. Besides that, our youth group is studying Proverbs and this seemed to fit our Christmas devotion.

The NIV calls them 'Magi', but we know them better as the (KJV) 'wise men', or the 'three kings' of the carol. Scholars, learned men, influential and powerful, if not actual princes of their kingdoms.

They were from the east -- Babylon and/or Persia -- modern Iraq and Iran. These are the regions in which astrology was developed, the forerunner of astronomy. If they weren't 'scientists' in the modern sense, they nonetheless watched and interpreted the stars.

Because of successive conquests, beginning with Assyria conquering the northern kingdom of Israel and then Babylon taking Judah, Jewish thought and teaching was introduced to the scholars. So they were aware of the prophecies concerning the Messiah.

Taken together, these things caused them to organize a caravan and travel to find the Christ child, to worship Him with costly gifts.

A few years back, it was common to see bumper stickers reading "Wise men still seek Him". Perhaps that's trite now, but it's still true. Proverbs repeatedly reminds us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. True wisdom will always lead us to God.

Sadly, in 21st century America, we seem to have developed a focus on knowledge rather than wisdom. We teach math and science, we teach language and history -- but we exclude the religious and moral framework for understanding these things. We learn facts, but not how to think about them. Religion aside, our children aren't even taught logic. Even that ancient discipline would show us the limitations of the 'facts' our children are being taught. That WE were taught.

Proverbs 9:9 -- 'Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning.'

The first attribute of a wise person is that he understands the limitations of his knowledge and wisdom. He is open to learning. He wants to know more and to integrate it into his thinking about the world.

The second attribute of a wise person is righteousness: he has good moral standing before God. God is the foundation stone of his thinking, and all knowledge and wisdom lead back to Him.

Even those of us who are long out of the classroom still have the opportunity to learn, to become wiser, every day. Let's make some effort to think about what we learn in the context about what we know of God -- His existence, His loving and just nature. If we do, every new scrap of knowledge will bring us closer to Him and prompt us to worship... just like the Magi.

Vulnerable

2006-12-21T19:42:00.000-08:00

Luke 2:15-16 – “When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in a manger.”
Matthew 2:16 – “When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under…”

Have you ever noticed that vulnerability provokes one of two principle reactions?

There is what I like to call the ‘Ooh-ah” reaction. You see it a lot with new babies. Everybody wants to see, to hold, to rock and make funny noises. It is, I think, an innate parental response for most people. But it’s not reserved for newborns. Our hearts go out to anyone who is exposed and defenseless: the poor, the physically and mentally challenged, the victims of war and famine, disease and disaster. Americans are famous for their compassion. And I’m sure the shepherds did their share of oohing and aahing over the baby Jesus, the fact that He was the long-awaited Messiah aside.

Then there is the reaction of the bully. He finds weakness despicable. She looks for ways to take advantage of it. The bully mentality sees an invitation for violence, an outlet for rage, an opportunity to make him- or herself seem powerful in comparison. The difference between the schoolyard bully and Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein and Herod is only a matter of degree.

What strikes me most about these stories of Jesus’ birth, however, is that, knowing how people would react, He nonetheless chose to make Himself vulnerable. In order to give us the choice of faith, He put Himself entirely at our mercy. From the very day of His conception – the shame of pregnancy out of wedlock might well have driven a proper Jewish girl like Mary to suicide –He put His life in our hands.

What does it say about the love of God, that He would enter our world clothed in our flesh and live with the possibility of death at our hands for every day of thirty-some years? And death was what He received from us in the end. His openness and honesty, His holiness and goodness shamed too many of us, we couldn’t stand to see ourselves exposed and made vulnerable too. So, we sent Him to the cross.

Except, of course, that wasn’t the end. It was barely the beginning.

Risen from the grave, and now enthroned beside His Father, Jesus’ life is still in our hands, in a sense. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit He can continue to live and act in this world – through us. What I wonder, what I ask myself every day, is: will I show compassion and let Him live or will I be a bully and condemn Him to the tomb yet again so that I can follow my selfish desires and pretend that I’m in control?

Have a really joyous celebration of Jesus' birthday!

Introduction

2006-12-21T19:20:00.000-08:00

THE FIRST POST:

Welcome to the great experiment.

This blog will be an attempt to share my thoughts about Scripture, the life of faith and the ups and downs of lay ministry with other believers in Jesus Christ. The aim is to strengthen my brothers and sisters wherever they may be, in whatever denomination, so that we will all be better able to live for our Lord and bring Him the honor and recognition He deserves. I hope you'll find some encouraging stuff here.

I will warn you up front, the content here will be highly evangelical and conservativem occasionally charismatic. If this isn't your viewpoint, that's fine, but don't post here looking to start an argument. Argumentative, insulting and hateful posts will be deleted and the posters barred.

Also, I'm fully aware that there are differences of doctrine, practice and opinion between the various branches of the Christian Church. There are probably some things about which we'll disagree. I'm okay with that -- I'm still in the process of working out my faith and my understanding of it and I don't pretend to be the authority. Disagreement is fine, even instructive, but if you've got a chip on your shoulder, please find someplace else to express it. The goal here is to enhance the unity of the Spirit, not to magnify our divisions.

That said, the Lord bless you, sisters and brothers. I hope to hear from you very soon.