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Word From Woods
August & July 2008 Archive
God Knows Where You Are!
August 24, 2008
Do you ever feel confused and lost? Even people who are saved spiritually can feel lost they walk this world’s pilgrimage. I like the story told in the newsletter of the Christian Community-developer, widower Bob Lupton.
“My wife Peggy is a thoroughly suburban woman. She is very comfortable driving the slow-paced streets of Peachtree City, the planned golf course community where she spent the last 20 years of her life, but navigating the confusing tangle of impatient Atlanta streets … causes her some anxiety. (She often gets lost!)… Needless to say, navigating the city was stressful for her, for both of us.
I surprised her one day with a gift—a GPS! A Global Positioning System is an amazing device. It receives signals from satellites high above the earth, pinpoints your location on a computerized map, and directs you to any location you tell it. It was the perfect gift for Peggy. Now she can cut out ads and coupons from the morning paper, plug into her GPS the addresses of the stores where the bargains are, and head out for a day of shopping without a concern in the world about getting lost. And getting back home from any shopping destination is anxiety-free—just touch HOME on her new little companion and a female voice courteously gives her turn-by-turn directions right to our doorstep.
My minister brother recently related to me a conversation he had with one of his older parishioners who had recently purchased a GPS. "This electronic marvel always knows where you’re at anywhere in the world!" the man exclaimed as he demonstrated the remarkable device for my brother. "No” responded my brother with tongue in cheek, “This thing has no idea where you are at any time. All it knows is where it's at—and that's all! It can never know where you are—but you can, if you stay close to it."
My brother was right, of course. A GPS signal can give the precise location of the transmitting unit … The only way her GPS is useful to her is when she keeps it with her. I told my brother there was a sermon in there somewhere... Maybe it’s like being guided daily by scripture reading – the Book is of no use when it’s shelved in a bookcase… Here’s one I like better. How about the Holy Spirit that Christ promised to all His followers, a Presence that would always remain within us to guide us into all truth? It is a special gift He gives us to keep us from getting lost, an indwelling GPS that keeps us from going off in the wrong direction, a trustworthy Voice that will direct us home. And this GPS does know where we are, at all times anywhere in the world, so we don’t have to worry about forgetting it somewhere. Now that is a gift.”
Walk today in the joy and peace of knowing He knows you. You are never lost!
Watching, Waiting and Working for the Outcome
August 17, 2008
On Wednesday mornings, Ron Vining and I meet for prayer and study. This week Ron talked about the Ark being a refuge for Noah—like God is a refuge for us. I referenced my reading in Matthew 26:58 about Peter watching for the outcome of Jesus’ trial. When he thought that the outcome was not going his way, he denied Christ three times. Yet the outcome for Noah was not the flood, but the rainbow deliverance; the outcome for Peter was not the death of Christ but the resurrection. In the meantime, God is a refuge.
Football will start soon. We love football in the Deep South for many reasons. One is that we can know quickly the outcome. A typical game lasts less than three hours. One team will win and the other will lose. The outcome will be clearly seen on the scoreboard… for everyone to see.
Yet in most of life the outcome is not seen so quickly. Floods of change can come and the death of dreams can occur. We may even feel tempted to deny our faith, but the final outcome of a rainbow and resurrection may come from our Refuge. We CAN trust Him to lead us to the FINAL outcome!
We often misunderstand what is happening. It can even happen to preachers. One young minister in Kentucky told of being asked by a funeral director to hold a grave-side service for a homeless man, who had no family or friends. The funeral was to be held at a new cemetery way back in the country, and this man would be the first to be buried there. The preacher was not familiar with the backwoods area, and soon became lost. Being a typical man, he did not stop to ask directions. He finally arrived an hour late, saw the backhoe, and the open grave, but the hearse was nowhere in sight. The digging crew was eating lunch.
He apologized to the workers for being late, and stepped to the side of the open grave. The vault lid already in place; he assured the workers that he would not be long as he told them that this was the proper
thing to do and commenced preaching. The workers gathered around the grave and stood silently, as he preached. They got so caught up in
the message that they shouted, 'Amen,' 'Praise the Lord,' and 'Glory!' Their fervor so excited the preacher that he preached like he never had preached before—all the way from Genesis to Revelation. As he walked away to his car he heard one of the workers say, "I ain't NEVER seen nothin' like that before, and I've been puttin' in septic tanks for thirty years!"
When we do not understand the ways and workings of God we can panic, give up too soon or not be people of faith. God is calling us to something higher. Interestingly it is EXACTLY believing that God exists and is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him during times of darkness and difficulty which is the essence of faith and that pleases God! Keep working while you watch and wait!
When we do not understand the ways and workings of God, we can panic, give up too soon, or not be people of faith.
IT IS WORKING…
Reflections on Community Transformation…
August 3, 2008
Last January our pastor, Dr. John Avant, challenged us as a church to give ourselves away in ministry efforts to bring about Community Transformation. Many of our Singles have stepped forward to help make this happen.
Have you heard the good news about how God is working to change our community? He is using Singles!
- Last week Bruce Thorn, and Don Smith, along with Lyle and Janet Malloy and others went to Swanson’s Correctional Center to do VBS with those troubled teens and saw 90 salvations!
- Many Singles were a part of the 30 church members who served and gave tracts to 168 people at Grace Place on the south side of Monroe.
- Jennifer Bass, Becky Bourgeois, Loretta Dennig, Evelyn Scott, and others led the initial Jobs for Life training in our community and saw two ladies get jobs and grow in their faith.
- God is even using us to change other communities. Danny Pitts led a mission trip to Ukraine and saw 94 people saved! Wayne Moncrief went on another one to Ukraine with good results. Jackie Trim was a part of the Wales trip that saw 70+ saved!
Before John’s challenge, we had many church volunteer-led ministries through the Reach Ouachita structure. These included children’s ministries like Front Porch FAN Club, Boys and Girls Club, Kid’s Hope, BET, and Upwards Basketball and Cheerleading. We have specialized ministries to serve the Deaf, Dioko Motorcyclists, Disaster Relief, Prison Ministry, Spanish speaking, and special needs. We have intervention ministries like Celebrate Recovery, Compassion Ministries, Desiard Street Shelter, Grace Place and Refuge 91:1. We have seasonal ministries like Angel Tree, Fair Ministry and Operation Christmas Child.
Since John’s challenge we have added church ministries that are making a difference. Some have names; some are not waiting on titles. Here is a sample:
- “A Brush with Kindness” – Fixing up dilapidated homes for poor homeowners.
- “Employment Readiness Training” – Equipping the under-resourced to succeed in the work place, using Jobs for Life materials
- “Freed Men” – Assisting ex-offenders when they get out of prison
- “Hope Initiative” – Stimulating existing groups (business, faith-based, government, and non-profits) in our community to work together to improve our area so everyone wins
- “Riverbend Transformation” – Partnering with the city of West Monroe, other churches and community center in Riverbend for improvements
Where are you giving yourself away? Let’s transform our community. By God’s grave, it is working! Are you?
From Appetizers to Victors: Doing the Mission Impossible
July 27, 2008
Remember the opening scene of each Mission Impossible episode (Okay, I have dated myself again! 50 is coming fast!!), where the leader listens to the taped recording which spelled out the mission. In the presentation the leader heard, “Your mission—if you choose to accept it…” How nice that they gave him the choice!!
In our spiritual warfare we do not have a choice. The word picture Dr. Ed Laymance uses in Not Against Flesh and Blood highlights this compulsory battle.
In the film, The Patriot, Mel Gibson plays the role of Benjamin Martin, a hero of the fierce French and Indian war. As a single father, he has purposed to raise his seven children in peace. But when the British arrive at his South Carolina home during the early days of the American Revolution and attack his family, Martin takes up arms and leads a brave rebel militia into battle again a relentless enemy.
As Christians, many of us are like Benjamin Martin. We have no desire to go to war spiritually. All we want to do is raise our family in peace. Our attitude with the enemy is "You leave me alone—I’ll leave you alone." But the enemy is coming anyway. Demons are very much like the arrogant, psychopathic British Colonel Tavington who arrives at Martin’s home. Tavington cares nothing for anyone or anything other than himself and will sacrifice his own men if necessary to have what he wants… Martin finally understands (after seeing one son shot, another son arrested, his house ransacked and torched, and wounded soldiers shot and killed) he no longer has a choice. He goes into the burning house and gets his weapons. He must go to war.
We are in a spiritual battle where the enemy does not play fair, speak truth or quit easily. It seems as if we are helpless and hopeless before his forces. When Jesus sent out the 72 disciples on a mission trip in Luke 10:3, He told them, “I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.” In other words they would be appetizers for the ravenous beasts. Paul used similar imagery in Romans 8:36 when he quoted Psalm 44:22: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” We are pictured as a tasty treat for the hungry demonic canines.
But that is NOT where either Jesus or Paul concludes. The end of the battle is sweet for us. Look at the returning mission trip veterans in Luke 10:17: “The 72 returned with joy and said, ‘Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name!’” Paul stated the victory in as overwhelming an amount as possible in Romans 8:37: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
We are all in this battle together against the spiritual wickedness and enemy forces. Let’s pray for one another, care for one another and stand strong with one another… and fulfill God’s mission as victors.
Healthy Body Life
July 20, 2008
Have you been for a medical check-up lately? I turn 50 years old in a few weeks (Thanks for thinking that I do not look that old. What!?!? You say you are not surprised!?! Oh, well it is going to be a long day now!). I am aware that I need to schedule an appointment with my doctor for a full physical. Where is that phone number?
There is great value in keeping our bodies healthy. Why would we eat salads instead of doughnuts? Why would we crawl out of bed or turn off the TV/ computer to go exercise? Why would we maintain active memberships at torture chambers called healthy clubs? We know we need to stay fit. A healthy body is a good thing.
How healthy are we as the Body of Christ? The Bible is clear that each of us is a member of His Body and that we are to work together to carry out His will and do His work. We can do it more effectively if we are healthy. So how healthy are we?
Christianity Today reported this significant event at the Southern Baptist Convention this summer in Indianapolis, IN. “With its 16.2 million members, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. But on any given Sunday, most Southern Baptists are missing in action. According to statistics released by the SBC in April, the average worship attendance in the convention is 6.15 million—10 million shy of the membership total. That is a problem, says Tom Ascol, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Florida. Ascol believes that Southern Baptist churches have sinned by maintaining inaccurate membership rolls, and by tolerating inactive members… [He] successfully pushed for an amendment that calls on congregations ‘to repent of any failure among us to live up to our professed commitment to regenerate church membership and any failure to obey Jesus Christ in the practice of lovingly correcting wayward church members.’
I like what newly elected SBC President Johnny Hunt said about this. He “agreed that Southern Baptists have to do a better job of reaching out to members who have fallen away. But he cautioned against full-scale purging of the membership rolls. For one thing, he said, few church members are in worship every single Sunday. First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Georgia, where Hunt is pastor, averages 6,800 in Sunday attendance. But over the course of a month, he added, about 10,000 of the church's 16,500 members will attend at least one service. ‘We have to be very careful,’ he said. ‘If you try to take this to the lowest common denominator, before too long, you'll find the pastors and the church leadership trying to separate the sheep from the goats, and only Jesus and the angels he assigned can do that.’”
We are considered one of the healthiest churches in our state, yet half of our members do not attend each Sunday. What do we call a body with only half its members functioning properly? It is handicapped. May God help us to reach out to those who are not with us so that we can all function together as an authentic caring community!
Our God Reigns Here!
July 13, 2008
John Waller, a popular contemporary Christian musician, wrote a song by this title for Wales while we were there. It quickly became a favorite among us because it is a good reminder that God is in control when things seem out of control. In the spiritual battle we encountered we held on to the truth that God reigned and was accomplishing His work. We saw victories in Jesus’ name as a result. Over 65 people gave their heart to Christ with many more making other decisions!
THANK YOU for praying for the ten of us that joined the 70 from New Hope Baptist Church in Fayetteville, GA Where John Avant used to pastor and 10 from Holland Road Baptist Church in Brighton/ Hove, England. In Wales we ministered in these ways: teaching religious education and sports in high schools, doing clown ministry with elementary schools, painting schools and Single parent homes, ministering to people door-to-door and doing special events: choir concerts, rock concerts and men and women events.
You would have joined me in being grateful to God for our pastor, John Avant, as he proclaimed the word of God boldly and effectively in preaching venues and one on one with those needing Christ. He has a number of stories to tell of those who have been set free from the forces of darkness as well as those who refused to find the freedom they need in Christ. There is so much still to do there.
It was amazing to hear that 30 years ago God told Steve Morgan, a local pastor there, that a church from England and a church from America would work together to bring a fresh spiritual awakening to Wales. He also indicated that God had told him that churches in America would link with every town village in Wales; this is exactly what God has led our pastor to have our church seek to do; link other churches with that country. We may be the instrument God uses to fulfill His plans there in Wales!
HOW DO WE PROCEED FORWARD? This was our first trip to Wales but we plan to do a lot there over the next 25 years.
- Next year’s trip is tentatively planned for June 28-July 8, 2009. Prayerfully consider being a part of this major missions’ effort.
- We plan to meet the last Sunday night of each month to pray for Wales. You are welcome to join us. Details will be forthcoming…
Be aware that the victories (in lives being changed) that we saw there can happen here also! Be sensitive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit and be bold in sharing your faith. Someone needs to know that God reigns here!!
Trials and Troubles: Problems That Become Opportunities
July 6, 2008
In 2700 B.C. Emperor Whing Tee asked his wife Ce Ling Shee to try to find out what was damaging his Mulberry trees. The Empress first noticed that a drab-colored moth was laying tiny eggs on a Mulberry leaf, each hatching into a caterpillar that ejected a thread for three days which it wrapped around its body to form a cocoon. She dropped the cocoon into hot water and saw a single thread begin unwinding itself. She had discovered silk. The Empress observed that fineness and beauty of the silk thread and unwinding found it to be 1/2 mile long from that single cocoon.
A loom was soon developed on which the threads could be woven, and the silk cloth was in such demand that later Romans are said to have weighed the silk before buying it and then paid an equal weight of gold for it.
For more than 3000 years, only the Chinese knew the secret of silk. Then, in A.D. 522, Roman Emperor Justinian sent two monks to buy silk from China. The monks personally broke Chinese monopoly on silk by smuggling back into Europe two silkworm eggs and Mulberry tree seeds. They were apparently the first industrial pirates.
Like so many serendipitous events, the discovery of silk came while trying to solve a problem. Before long the business of growing Mulberry trees was for the sole purpose of providing moths with leaves on which to lay eggs to increase the production of silk, which brought about a revolution in fashions.
Could it be that the problems you have experienced or are now experiencing can become the very opportunities you need to change your life? Perhaps it is pain that you are suffering. Turn that suffering into stepping stones that will bring you closer to our Heavenly Father. Have you made bad decisions that led to
more and more problems? It is true that there are consequences for every mistake, every sin that we have committed; it is also true that God is the great Forgiver, Redeemer… and it is He that can turn your problems into opportunities.
Today, give God all your problems. He is faithful. He is our Wonderful Counselor! Ask Him to help you see the opportunities that arise from those trials and troubles.
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