Being a MENSCH...

Just read Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki and he speaks of, in leadership, we ought to be aiming to be not just good leaders but great humans that attempts to make the world a better place and give people the benefit of the doubt.  Good thoughts!

Becoming the Answer...

Fresh off of Memorial Day, I thought this recent article from commonprayer.net today was relevant for those who are part of the community of Jesus Christ...

Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers: A Few Ideas

1.   Wash your clothes by hand and dry them on a line. Remember the 1.6 billion -people who do not have electricity.

2.   Learn to sew. Try making your own clothes for a year.

3.   Eat only one bowl of rice a day for a week. (Be sure also to take a multivitamin.) And remember the twenty-five thousand -people who die of malnutrition and starvation each day.

4.   Keep the Sabbath holy. Rest one day a week this year — ​don’t answer the phone or the door, and don’t use the internet. Do something that brings you life that day.

5.   Go to a city council meeting. Pray. Speak as the Spirit leads.

Where does help come from?

I read and pondered this Psalm today.  When we are in need, where is the first place we turn?  To Jesus or to friends, family, the church, government, etc.?  We are tempted to try and either fix it ourselves or find the easiest short term relief.  Yet, the psalmist gives us something else which echoes Jesus telling us to seek first His kingdom and righteousness and all these things will be added to us.  The hymn tells us plainly, "I lift my eyes up to the hills.  From where does my help come?  My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth."

Lord, teach us to come to You first.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+121&version=ESV

Lectio Divina or Sacred Reading

In the last few years I have become aware of some ancient practices that have helped followers of Christ for centuries and some have been helpful for me.  One of those is called 'lectio divina' or the practice of sacred reading.  The idea is simple but powerful.  It breaks down like this:

Preparation - find a quiet place, take deep breaths, and relax.  To help quiet your mind you might recite the Jesus Prayer (Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner) or simple phrases like "here I am Lord", "Speak Lord for your servant is listening" or even just "come Lord Jesus".

Read - now you read and ponder a passage of Scripture - Psalms are great for this.  Listen for a word or phrase that you sense God directing your attention to.

Reflect - you now meditate and consider what this passage is saying to you? How does it connect with your story and life right now?

Respond - what can you speak back to the Lord based on what you have encountered?

Rest - coming back to square one you settle back down and rest in God's Word.

Resolve - pray and begin to live out what God's Word spoke to you.

Summer teaching series on Galatians is heating up folks!

I'm so excited to be going verse by verse and drawing out what the Lord wants our church to hear this summer in the letter of Paul to the Galatians!  I've been studying up for awhile on this 6 chapter letter and have enjoyed NT Wright's work on the letter.  In fact, when this series kicks off in June, I'll be departing from my usual use of the English Standard Version and using his translation of Galatians as our key text!  You can get a copy via Amazon if you so choose...it is a nice addition to other translations.

Here is a sample from HarperCollins:

Return to the Psalms

I just finished another class towards my master's degree from Hope International University, and, it was a great class focused on Psalms.  What struck me about the class was the reality that a good portion of the songs, hymns and poetry of the Psalms comes in the form of lament.  When do we lament in our corporate worship gatherings on Sundays?  Where do we voice our honest complaints and concerns to God corporately?  Ancient Israel didn't seem to shy away from such raw emotion - why do we?  Isn't God big enough to handle our frustrations that the world is not quite what it is supposed to be?  I'm pondering how to put more of this ancient hymnbook into our modern worship environments...

Oh, this was a great article I read today...http://worshipleader.com/worship/the-psalms/

Ben

Old School Devos...

I often post prayers and thoughts from this website resource that I discovered a few years back after reading some of Shane Claiborne's work.  He wrote The Irresistible Revolution and Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals.  It might help spark some new thinking in your devotional life.  Here is the website:  www.commonprayer.net.

In Christ!
Pastor Ben

The Jesus Prayer

I've used a simple prayer from the early days of the church that some call The Jesus Prayer.  It is a simple prayer that helps me center my focus on Jesus in our crazy, busy, noisy world.  It goes like this:

"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy On Me, A Sinner."

No, it is not some kind of magical formula or touchy-feely mantra to repeat over and over but a way to refocus a wandering mind in prayer.

I hope that helps you as much as it has helped me to be more prayerful this year!

Pastor Ben

Spring Madness!

TIME FOR A BLOG UPDATE...Well, it has been an interesting year for my family to say the least!  As of last week, we are relocated into a new (to us) home in Dallas.  I am also happy to be in the last phase of finishing up my Masters of Ministry from Hope International University.   Our daughter Emma will turn 20 in July and get married to her fiancé Tyler the first week in August at my parents' farm near Sheridan, Oregon.  Dylan is becoming quite the musician, singer and actor while also getting back into pitching baseball for Dallas High School.  Jackie and I celebrated 23 years of marriage.  She is still my sweetheart.  Dallas Church celebrated 2 years of being in our own facility last weekend.  I bought a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and sold my trusty old 1951 Chevrolet Pickup.  American politics are weird right now.  Feeling like God is maturing me this year as my ONE WORD for the year (instead of a list of goals) was "prayerful".  All in all, I know God is in control and He is truly good!