Month: February 2021

Therefore I tell you whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:24

There is a story told of a Welsh woman who lived in a remote region in Wales. She went to a great deal of trouble and expense to have electrical power installed in her home. However, after several months the electric company noticed that, according to her bills, she hardly used any electricity. Thinking there was a problem with the hook up, they sent a meter reader out to her house to inquire. The woman came to the door, and the meter reader asked if there was a problem since she hardly used any electricity. The woman replied, “Oh no, everything is fine. We switch on the electricity every night to light our lamps, then we switch it off again.”

Sometimes I wonder if that’s how we use prayer. We switch it on when things are bad, wait for a quick answer, and then switch it off again. In other words, we demote it to the bottom of the list of things we believe will work for us. I hear this all the time, “If all else fails, let’s pray”. It could also be rephrased as, “If all else fails, pray for us.”

The truth is any believer can pray. We don’t have to be a minister or some superhuman Christian, we just need to be specific in our prayers and have faith. We need to pray with expectation but trust God to answer the prayers in His time and in His way. I know God hears us and cares for those of us who ask when we pray. We have all experienced a time when we need someone to pray for us.

During our years in Bowdon, there was a family who were the first friends we made there. Their children, Scott and Connie, were older than our kids, but they became like a big brother and big sister to Rob and Ashley. Their mom, Sherrod, is one of the best friends ever. We have stayed in touch over the years, shared our stories of children and grandchildren, and always reach out when there is a need.

Early one morning about six weeks ago, Sherrod called with news that her grandson, Hank, had been diagnosed with leukemia. She began the conversation with, “I just called to ask you to pray for us.” The call was not for anything material, the call was for no other reason than to ask us to pray. She did what we all should do, she put prayer at the top of the list rather than demoting it to the bottom of the things we think to do. Prayer is powerful.

Just like the woman in Wales, sometimes we don’t use the power that is right in front of us. Why not start with prayer? God can heal any way he wants – with a prescription or without. He can heal with our permission or not.

During the time of waiting for prayers to be answered, God is using doctors, nurses, research, procedures, even prescriptions to His purpose. While God is working, we should be doing a few things.

First, we should be thinking and praying positively and aggressively. There is much to be said for fortitude and mental attitude.

Secondly, we should count our blessings each day. Things like good doctors, nurses, family, friends, even spot blessings that just pop up! There is a great possibility that this experience will change a lot of people for good.

Next, we should continue to work, read, and lift up others. Staying busy is therapy. We are God’s workmanship.

Finally, we should claim God’s promises. God heals everyone in some way.

I think we are all amazed when, in the midst of life’s setbacks, prayer warriors emerge from places we would never suspect. Strangers hear of a need and join the prayer chain, long lost friends emerge to offer support, and families and friends come together in prayer. Pray for us is a motto because in saying it, we move from fear to fear not!

We serve a sympathetic Savior who is attuned to all our prayers. Let’s all pray for each other, and although Hank is doing great, please add he and his family to the circle of prayer.

He surrounds you twenty four hours a day. He is in you, with you, about you and before you. John R. Bisagno

Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. Acts 3:19

This week we begin the Lenten season by celebrating Ash Wednesday. During this 40 day journey to Easter, Christians everywhere focus on repentance of our sins in anticipation of the forgiveness that Easter represents. Many Christians give up some food, habit, or activity that is unhealthy or damaging to them to remind them of Christ’s sacrifice for them. It’s a form of fasting!

One of the funniest movies ever, in my opinion, is Doctor Doolittle starring Eddie Murphy. His role is one of a doctor who can communicate with animals, and they can speak to him. There is a little monkey in the movie who speaks with a French accent and who obviously has a problem with alcohol. Every time something happens while he is under the influence, he throws down his bottle and exclaims, I Give It Up! This is a stretch for the idea of fasting, but it drives home the point.

Fasting has become a popular thing in our society to aid in weight loss and to teach discipline. Fasting is defined as abstaining from all or some kinds of food and drink, especially as a religious observance. Most fasting involves temporarily giving up something that you enjoy. When you long for something you love like a cookie, you reorient yourself to something healthier. It doesn’t sound nearly as tasty, but that’s the point.

Christians might fast for dietary purposes or physical benefits, but dietary goals aren’t what makes fasting Christian. When the Christians fasts, it’s about what spiritual fruits we might receive from God in response to our purposeful fasting.

There are purposes in fasting. When we fast there are some rewards that we are seeking, such as a more meaningful prayer life, seeking God’s guidance, expressing repentance, or just humbling ourselves before Him to express our love and devotion. Without a spiritual purpose, it’s not really Christian fasting, it’s just going hungry!!

Janna Firestone tells of a different idea of fasting in an article. She said, “Catherine Marshall used a different approach in her fasting. She chose to give up her criticalness. In doing so, she realized that most people didn’t seem to miss her negative comments or heated political debates. God seemed to replace the energy she used correcting others with a new creativity to positively influence them.”

In thinking of the many times I might be critical of someone or something, it seems like giving up criticalness for Lent is the right thing for me to concentrate upon during this season. Randy would say nagging is a close second!!

During the last year, it’s gotten easier for me to be critical of almost everything from quarantining to what’s on Netflix. What I really need to do is give it up and focus on the positive. Instead of a critical vision, I need God to be my vision.

A critical spirit can make us lose perspective, joy, and even relationships. It can also prevent the good work God wants to achieve through us. Consider what could happen as a result of your own criticalness fast. Pray for God to do the correcting while you focus on building up others.

One of our oldest and moving moving hymns is Be Thou My Vision written by an unknown Irish poet in the eighth century. Some think it might have been St. Patrick. It was a prayer asking God to be his vision, his wisdom and his best thought by day or night. These words seem appropriate as we give up some criticalness for this season.

Be Thou My Vision, O Lord of my heart; Naught be all else to me, save that thou art; Thou my best thought by day or by night; Waking or sleeping Thy presence my light. Set to music by Audrey Assad

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your mind. Secondly, love your neighbor (friend) as yourself. Matthew 22:37 & 39

As we enter into February, the month characterized by love, it’s a great time to grab onto the feeling that runs through this month. During this special month, our hearts, minds and emotions turn to all the different kinds of love in our life. Love is the emotion that gets a lot of attention both romantically, physically and emotionally.

Philia is the Greek word for brotherly love; the kind of relationship between close personal, nearest and truest friends. It is a special kind of love. Randy and I have some friends who never leave a gathering with us without this exchange: One of us will say, We love you; and the other will respond, We love you more. It’s become a tradition of sorts, and a gathering wouldn’t be complete without it.

I began to ponder how we can love someone more? It seems that there are many reasons that we might say I love you more to friends, and it’s dependent on the situation. In our situation, it’s a combination of many things such as: love you more because you make us laugh, love you more because you always listen to us, love you more because we feel safe with you, love you more because you host the best parties, love you more because your personality is awesome, love you more because you still laugh at the same old stories, love you more because you are always there in times of need, love you more because you are easy travel partners, love you more because you support us, and the list goes on.

In order to love someone more, there are some things we need to do. We need to love unconditionally, love sacrificially and love selflessly just to name a few.

When we speak of loving more, it needs to be said that in order to love people, you first must know those you love more. It takes time and a lot of water under the dam to truly know someone. Sharing life’s experiences, both good and bad, leads to loving unconditionally. Jesus would say that there’s nothing we can do that ‘s bad enough to make him quit loving us. The same can be said for people who love us more.

Sometimes to love more, we have to make sacrifices. Jesus said, greater love hath no man than this; to lay down one’s life for his friends. John 15:13 When we love you more, we don’t physically lay down our life, but we are willing to accept pain and suffering, to support, defend and comfort friends whenever needed.

When we love more, we must love selflessly. The best example of loving selflessly seems to be the story of the Good Samaritan, a man who took time from his own travel to help a wounded man by not only taking him to have his wounds treated, but also paid the price. If we love someone more, we are willing to take ourselves out of the equation and selflessly put them first.

There is no such thing as unloved Christians or friends. The Bible says whosoever believes in Him; therefore, Jesus’ love includes all of the whosoever’s. We have never been and will never be loved by anyone as much as God loves us.

We all have these kinds of special friends in our life that we treasure. Unfortunately, the longer you know someone, the more likely you are to take them for granted, look for faults, and remember the bad times instead of the good. We never want to be guilty of that, and we want to celebrate the friendship and love. So to all our friends, near and far, old ones and new ones, thank you for loving us more. We love you more, too.

Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not see it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:18-19

I love to listen to books on Audible, and the last author had a profound statement when he said, There is one thing that we can count on in this world and that is that everything changes. Upon considering this statement, I began to realize just how true it is. Our personal everyday lives have changed so much in twelve months. The country has changed, the church has changed, social gatherings have changed, travel has changed, and our attitudes and priorities have changed. Instead of lamenting the words, everything changes, it should be a consolation when things are rough, and a reminder to stay humble when things are good.

The first thing I realized that is changing in our personal life is location. Our neighborhood has transitioned from a fairly stable one to one with a huge turnover in homes and just as many brand new faces. We’ve gone from knowing everyone to knowing almost no one. Stollers have replaced older kids driving, young families have replaced the mid life crisis crowd, and I see more toys than ever in the yards! People our age are relocating to smaller places and homes. Everything changes.

Traditions also are changing. I especially notice that in the church services of today. The sacred organ, choir and piano music of past years has changed to worship leaders and bands, and the robes and formal Sunday attire are not seen much anymore. Not too many years ago, cell phone usage was discouraged in worship services. Please turn off your cell phones was a message on the screen because it had become a frequent occurrence for a phone to ring about 11:55 just as the service was ending. Randy loved to say, Unless that’s God calling, hang up.

Now a days, people are encouraged to bring their phones to church to look up an app, look up scripture, and even take notes. Oh, for the good old days where we used the Bible ,the hymnals, kids colored on paper, and coffee and other containers were prohibited. This is a reminder that everything changes.

Change is also evident in attitudes of people these days. There is less conversation in the grocery store, less shopping opportunities and meeting up for dinner, not to mention the the day to day lives of friends and family has changed. Small groups are now the norm instead of a large group. Family members are leery of getting together, friends want to avoid risks, and people in general are keeping their distance. Everything changes.

Change is happening in the education of today’s children. Teachers are working harder than ever to teach virtually and face to face. When we talk about being on the front lines – we see the faces teachers. Students are missing instruction, personal care and socialization. Here’s a funny but scary thought, in twenty years these children who were taught at home by adults who were “day drinkers” will be running the country!! copied Everything changes.

Change is evident in the country. In 1960, John F, Kennedy made the statement: Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. These days people seem to want the country to accommodate their wants and needs, but they aren’t willing to step up to try and do for their own country. We have had a new awakening of those who wanted to see change, and they got it! Now, let’s see if we are willing to work to make that change work for all.

The one thing that never changes in the midst of all this is the steadfast dependability of God. God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. So amidst the knowledge that everything changes, my thoughts are that God must be in the process of doing something revolutionary! He’s changing everything!!