Monday, July 28, 2014

GRACE AND PEACE

I’m a backpacker.  I took my first backpacking trip with my sons, then ages eight and ten, and have not missed taking at least one trip every year since.  My sons loved our yearly adventures, which continued into their college years.  Now they have children of their own to pass on a love for the outdoors.  For several years I went out alone, and more recently I started taking out my grandchildren.  This year I will take my oldest daughter and her oldest son on the Appalachian Trail (AT) to Mount Rogers in southwest Virginia.  Early in the fall I will take out five men from Hope House, an inner city ministry, to southern Pennsylvania on a “beginners” section of the AT.
            I love the solitude that I experience while backpacking solo.  Although I camp at shelters on the AT, and millions of people use the trail each year, most of my days are spent alone - just me and Jesus.  We’ve shared the beauty of seeing Mount Washington blue on the horizon from the top of a mountain in southern Vermont; of waking up in the middle of a moon-lit night to hear the hauntingly beautiful call of the loon; of watching shafts of sunlight stream down through the forest in the early morning after a night of rain…  And there have been my encounters with God’s little creatures like beavers, raccoons, deer, wild ponies, and that bear that just stood on the trail looking at me.  He moved… after we had a little talk.  I’m sure he was hoping for a Snickers bar out of my pack, but I don’t give up my Snickers bars without a fight, or at least a good scolding.
            Three years ago Barb’s mother came up to visit us for a few weeks, so I took the opportunity to take a longer solo trip (not to avoid her, she was a great mother-in-law, but because Barb would not be alone).  I met a taxi driver in northern Massachusetts, and he dropped me off in mid-Vermont.  I was ready for a glorious trip of 11 days down through the Green Mountains.  Hikers told me the first day out that it had rained 19 of the previous 21 days, and after hiking a few miles, I believed them.  The AT was a series of peat bogs separated by rocks and a few hilly sections.  I was carrying all of my food for the 11 days, which was more weight than I am used to packing.  By the end of the first day I was wet, I was sore, I was beat.  Seventeen miles of slogging my way through the peat bogs had taken their toll.  “God, I can’t do this.  I’m over 100 miles from my car.  I just can’t keep up this pace.”  I was up at first light, I made my coffee, and I sat down to read my little backpacking Bible.  I must have read it 100 times, but that morning the little phrase used by both Paul and Peter in their letters to the New Testament Christians jumped out at me, “grace and peace to you.”  If Jesus were standing there He could not have said it more clearly, “Gary, I will give you the grace each day to do the miles, and you will know My peace.”  I had calculated that the next day would be another long 17 miles, but when I stopped mid-day to take a look at the map, I realized that I had calculated incorrectly, and it was only a moderate 13 miles.  I slowed down, ignored my watch, stopped often to meditate and enjoy the beauty around me – such peace flooded my soul.  I was still hurting – sore feet, that pain in my side that kept coming back, the aching shoulders - but each day I made it to my designated shelter in plenty of time for a relaxing dinner.  Each day the mountains, the beaver dams, the sunlight, looked more beautiful, but what sticks with me from that trip, as glorious as it was, was not the scenery, it was the words of Jesus to me, “My grace will give you strength each day to keep going, and My peace will be with you.”  May grace and peace be yours in Christ Jesus.

Monday, July 14, 2014

GOD STILL SPEAKS


While I was an associate pastor on staff at North Coast Church, I was active in helping to start and build a local chapter of Love INC (that is love In the Name of Christ – it is not a dating service).  Love INC is great ministry to families and individuals who needed help with housing, food, utilities, and other basic needs.  Love INC was part of World Vision at that time, and they were a very supportive parent organization.
A couple came to minister at North Coast Church one weekend whom I had never met, but they were well spoken of.  The pastors and a large group of leaders, over 50 of us, met with them one evening for prophetic ministry.  I was hesitant about attending, and not particularly interested in being an active part, so I sat in the back, hidden behind a gentleman who was well over six feet tall.  After a time of worship the couple began to call out people in the crowd and speak prophetic words over them.  If you have never seen this kind of ministry, it is fascinating, but also a bit intimidating.  Thoughts go through your mind like, “Is this for real?  Are they just making up general words that could apply to anyone, or do people like them really hear from God?”  There is also the fear that if God does speak He might expose some hidden sin.  Is that why I was hiding?
The husband spoke the first word to someone near the front, but while he was speaking his wife kept looking toward the back of the room, trying to get a better look at me - as I slid lower in my seat.  She then said something to the effect, “You there in the back, are you involved in ministry to the needy?”  “Yes,” I said, but thought, “Maybe one of the other pastors told them that I work with Love INC.”  She then said, “I believe that God is giving you a blank check, and whatever you need to do this ministry, God will give it to you.”  “Great,” I thought, “another God-is-going-to-bless-you prophecy.  But I’m sure she means well, so God bless her.”  She finished with, “I’ll go further,  and I see millions of dollars passing through your hands to the poor.”  This was too much.  I was polite and smiled, but millions of dollars?  Really!!
About two weeks later World Vision contacted all the local Love INC chapters, and said that they were starting a new program to help us multiply ministry in our cities.  They were being given donated goods from major manufacturers, and they would make them available in semi-load quantities to chapters like ours if we had suitable warehouse space.  I just happened to know a businessman who had a warehouse, and he gave us about ½ of his space.  We found a tow motor and shelving for next to nothing.  Semis started to arrive full of women’s clothing, jackets, shoes, toys, medical supplies, house hold goods, and office supplies.  We contacted ministries to the poor and the homeless, as well as inner city churches who could use our goods, and passed them out by the van and pickup load.  They held neighbourhood fairs in their church parking lots, passed out clothing to the homeless, and helped immigrant families arriving in our city.  It was simply amazing.  I stopped counting after the total value of goods donated topped 3 million dollars.
So you decide.  Does God still speak?  And when He does, why does He do it – not to tickle our fancy or make us rich, but to accomplish His purposes, to answer the prayer He taught us, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done.”

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

A DYING WISH


Barb and I were leading a small but growing church here in Berea in the late 1980’s.  We were especially happy when Kevin started to attend.  He was creative, musically gifted, and a magnet for teens and young adults.  At six feet, seven inches tall Kevin was also our gentle giant.
Kevin invited me out for coffee a few months after he joined us.  He told me that before coming to our church he had left a long term relationship with an older man.  He told me that he knew that this was not pleasing to God, that he had repented, and that he was leading a celibate life.  I never saw myself as being judgemental towards homosexuals, but Kevin was the first gay person that I had come to know personally.  I was out of my comfort zone.  So I prayed, “God, how do I relate to him?”  The answer was clear, simply love and accept Kevin as I would anyone else that walked into our church.  God loved and accepted Kevin as much as any other sinner (me included) who looked to Him for forgiveness and life in Christ.  But Kevin was a special member of our church, he was a gift to me.  God had used him to set me free from a hidden fear and judgemental attitude towards people who have lived, or are living a gay lifestyle.  I’ll always be grateful for our friendship.
Kevin and I went out for coffee again about a year later.  He had visited a gay bar in a moment of weakness, and he had contracted AIDS.  This was early in the AIDS epidemic.  No medications to fight the disease were yet available, and life expectancy was frighteningly short.  Within a few months he was in the AIDS ward of St. Augustine hospital, and he was rapidly losing ground.  One day while I was visiting him Kevin pleaded with me, “Gary, there are so many in this AIDS ward who need to hear about Jesus’ love.  Promise me you will come back after I am gone and start a ministry here.”  Kevin died within a few weeks.
I struggled with the idea of regularly visiting the AIDS ward.  Little was known about the disease, and how it was contracted.  What if I got AIDS?  I had a wife and four young children to think about.  But I felt that this was an invitation from God.  Was I going to cower in fear, or take action and simply trust Him?  I went.  I befriended many patients.  I laid hands on them and prayed with them.  I fully expect to see some of them in heaven.  It became a very rewarding ministry, possibly the most important that I have ever served in.
Jesus was speaking to me through Kevin.  He was inviting me to do what He would do if He was here on earth – to do what Jesus did while He was here on earth – reach out to the hurting and lonely with God’s love.  Is God inviting you to reach out to someone?  Is He nudging you to move outside of your comfort zone?  Will you go?  Will you cower in fear, or be obedient and trust God?