Revitalize Your Church

Whenever Valentines Day comes around, I think about the day Cathy said "I do" back in ’82.  She was abeautiful bride, bold and confident. When it was my turn to say the vows, I blubbered and squeaked like Mickey Mouse – but she knew what I meant anyway.  It’s hard to imagine that so many years have zoomed by. It seems like just yesterday that I was courting her – dating her – writing little valentines with x’s and o’s at the end, and saying goofy things like “yours, ‘til the ocean wears rubber pants to keep it’s bottom dry.” We’ve done a lot of living since then. We have had our share of joys. We have shed our share tears. We have had our share of heartaches through the years – but as our love has matured, it has grown stronger and sweeter. A while back, Cathy made an astute observation: “You can’t really love somebody until you’ve been through something with them. Before that point, you’re just acquaintances.” Maybe that’s why I love her so much – because we’ve b...

Father in heaven! You have loved us first, help us never to forget that You are love so that this sure conviction might triumph in our hearts over the seduction of the world, over the inquietude of the soul, over the anxiety for the future, over the fright of the past, over the distress of the moment. But grant also that this conviction might discipline our soul so that our heart might remain faithful and sincere in the love which we bear to all those whom You have commanded us to love as we love ourselves. You have loved us first, O God, alas! We speak of it in terms of history as if You have only loved us first but a single time, rather than that without ceasing You have loved us first many times and every day and our whole life through. When we wake up in the morning and turn our soul toward You – You are the first – You have loved us first; if I rise at dawn and at the same second turn my soul toward You in prayer, You are there ahead of me, You have loved me first. When...

“Nonviolence is absolute commitment to the way of love. Love is not emotional bash; it is not empty sentimentalism. It is the active outpouring of one’s whole being into the being of another.” -- Martin Luther King, Jr. #mlk, #mlkday

God is love—love lived out through the power of the Holy Spirit in a community of gifted individuals playing one musical piece in different parts, a holy symphony.   Holiness is life lived by people in the fullness of the Holy Spirit who are empowered to offer a drastic alternative to the world around them. Love is the melody running through the community, underneath the community, and all around the community.   The Christian community is not a place of jarring instruments singing different songs, or a place of gossip, conflict, rejection, pain, strife, and hatred. It is a place where the Spirit’s fruit is present in abundance, so much so that the world around the Christian community can’t help but join the melody. It is a community that is so unified, so melodious, so beautiful that it stops others in their tracks. Those on the outside can’t help but peer in, and watch with awe and wonder, and notice the unity of the symphony.   Instead of...

  God is love—love lived out through the power of the Holy Spirit in a community of gifted individuals playing one musical piece in different parts, a holy symphony.   Holiness is life lived by people in the fullness of the Holy Spirit who are empowered to offer a drastic alternative to the world around them. Love is the melody running through the community, underneath the community, and all around the community.   The Christian community is not a place of jarring instruments singing different songs, or a place of gossip, conflict, rejection, pain, strife, and hatred. It is a place where the Spirit’s fruit is present in abundance, so much so that the world around the Christian community can’t help but join the melody. It is a community that is so unified, so melodious, so beautiful that it stops others in their tracks. Those on the outside can’t help but peer in, and watch with awe and wonder, and notice the unity of the symphony.   Instea...

Wesleyan Publishing House recently reprinted the works of  Samuel Brengle, the great Salvation  Army leader and holiness evangelist.  Brengle's writings have inspired and impacted greatly me since my teenage years when my youth  camp counselor, Larry introduced them to me.  My prayer is that this new publication of holiness classics will bring this beautiful message to today's  generation -- as it did so powerfully in years past.  This excerpt from the Introduction to Helps to Holiness , which describes when Samuel Brengle experienced the fullness of the Holy Spirit, resonates deeply with my heart:   He gave me such a blessing as I never had dreamed a man could have this side of heaven: a            heaven  of love in my heart.  I walked out over Boston Common before breakfast weeping for joy and  praising God.  Oh, how I loved!  In that hour I knew Jesus and loved Him till it seem...

A beautiful thought expressed by 18th Century Methodist leader, John Fletcher, in a letter to his dear friend, Charles Wesley: "I have the impression that we can never have too much compassion for sinners, nor overemphasize for them the love of Jesus, when he himself became incarnate and declared redemption and salvation to tax gatherers and evildoers.  I have also the impression that faith shows itself gradually in many hearts, and that it is our task to nourish the weakest spark, the faintest signs."    ( Reluctant Saint , Patrick Streiff, p. 82)

"I walked out over Boston Common before breakfast, weeping for joy and praising God. Oh, how I loved! In that hour I knew Jesus, and I loved Him till it seemed my heart would break with love. I was filled with love for all His creatures. I heard the little sparrows chattering; I loved them. I saw a little worm wriggling across my path; I stepped over it; I didn’t want to hurt any living thing. I loved the dogs, I loved the horses, I loved the little urchins on the street, I loved the strangers who hurried past me, I loved the heathen, I loved the whole world."    --  Samuel Brengle, Salvation Army leader and evangelist, sharing about his personal immersion in Holy Love  

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wronged and possibly broken. If you want to be sure of keeping your heart intact, you must give your heart to no-one - not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries. Avoid all entanglements with others. Lock it up safely in the coffin or casket of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not become broken. It will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The only place outside of heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers of love is hell."   -- C. S. Lewis

A beautiful thought expressed by 18th Century Methodist leader, John Fletcher, in a letter to his dear friend, Charles Wesley: I have the impression that we can never have too much compassion for sinners, nor overemphasize for them the love of Jesus, when he himself became incarnate and declared redemption and salvation to tax gatherers and evildoers.  I have also the impression that faith shows itself gradually in many hearts, and that it is our task to nourish the weakest spark, the faintest signs.  What is your opinion?   (Reluctant Saint, Patrick Streiff, p. 82)

To retain the grace of God is much more than to gain it; scarcely one in three does this, and this should be strongly urged on all who have tasted of Perfect Love . -- John Wesley

The Bottom Line of Pastoral Ministry: Love God and Love all the People. It's a matter of attitude and action, impacting everything we do, and not merely theoretical. How is this priority demonstrated in your life?

" With all the hatred in this world. . . this good world. . .let us be kind to one another." -- Walter Breuning, the world's oldest man, who turned 114 today.

God is All Loving . . . So He Wants What's Best for Me. God is All Knowing . . . So He Knows What's Best for Me. God is All Powerful . . . So He Can Do What's Best For Me. God is All Wise. . . So He Will Do What's Best for Me. -- from a semon by belated Baptist preacher, Jack Hyles. The will of God will never take you to where the grace of God cannot keep you.

A few weejks ago, as the young people led us in worship, they sang the strangest song about hurricanes, sinking oceans, and a sloppy wet kiss. I struggled to make sense of all those metaphors. Sloppy wet kiss? Where in the world did that come from? Why were we singing such sophomoric emotings? I scratched my head, and jotted a note for Tuesday's staff meeting -- "No more sloppy wet kiss songs." In the days that followed, I couldn't get the chorus out of my mind, "O, how he loves us so. . ." I went online to see if I could find out a little more about the meaning behind the song . . . and WOAH, was I ever surprised. I'd misundertood the meaning and context. "How He Loves Us" was written by John Mark McMillan, after the death of a close friend. The main point is that even in our pain and anger, through the darkest fog of confusion, God's love breaks through. The song captures a heart of praise, from the crucible of suffering. Understood in t...

“We are put on earth a little space,” said poet, William Blake, “that we may learn to bear the beams of love.” What does it mean to “bear the beams of love?” The Risk of Receiving It: When the light of pure love shines brightly, our natural tendency is to scamper away like frightened mice and hole up in a good hiding place. Hiding is much safer than loving. You can hide from a distance. If you’re going to love, you have to do that up close. This brings the possibility of pain. Loving and pain are Siamese twins; they’re always connected together. The beams of love shine the light of truth on any given situation. Sometimes, we don’t want to know the whole truth. It’s too hard for us to accept. By lingering in the shadows, we do not have to face the brutal facts. Exposing ourselves to beams of love brings a certain vulnerability and risk that many are unwilling to take. You can hardly live without loving, however. A loveless life leads directly to despair. You might feel “safe” behind cas...

"You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do." — Anne Lamott

“ The aim of God in human history is the creation of an inclusive community of loving persons, with himself included as its primary sustainer and most glorious inhabitant.” -- Dallas Willard (HT Heath Davis) By the way, Check out Heath's excellent Blog, A Northwoods Life . Good stuff. Deep!

Let us resolve, first, not to hurt one another, to do nothing unkind or unfriendly to each other . . . Let us resolve, secondly, God being our helper, to speak nothing harsh or unkind of each other . . . to say all the good we can, both of and to one another . . . Let us, thirdly, resolve to harbour no unkind thought, no unfriendly temper towards each other . . . Let us, fourthly, endeavour to help each other on in whatever we are agreed leads to the Kingdom. So far as we can, let us always rejoice to strengthen each other's hands in God. -- John Wesley, Letter to a Roman Catholic , July 18, 1749

A small piece of ice which lived in a test tube fell in love with a Bunsen burner. "Bunsen! my flame! I melt whenever I see you" said the ice. The Bunsen burner replied :"It's just a phase you're going through". (Found this treasure on my daughter in law's facebook status. Thanks Allegra!)