Special Guest Ben Jennings

We are having a very special guest visit RCCC on Nov. 11 and 12. His name is Ben Jennings. He was the long time prayer coordinator for Campus Crusade for Christ under Dr. Bill Bright. I was at a gathering of Denominational leaders where Ben led in several times of prayer. It was a truly powerful experience!

On Sunday morning, Ben will be sharing on prayer and then lead us in 2 different prayer gatherings on Sunday and Monday evenings. We will be practicing what we are learning by praying for actual issues facing RCCC! I am really looking forward to this special weekend!

Milestones

My kids started school this week. Where did the summer go?

This was a big one for us. A woman very close to me (who shall remain nameless) turned 40, we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary, and our daughter is turning 16. This has been a summer of significant milestones in our family. It all went by so fast...I hope I took enough time to appreciate each milestone.

Milestones are supposed to be an opportunity to pause, remember, and reflect. Sometimes I'm afraid that our frantic pace has broken the pause switch on our life's remote control. This can be tragic; because as I pause at these milestones I am overwhelmed by a flood of thanksgiving. I've had the privilege of watching the "growing up" of a great woman (who shall remain nameless). I've been blessed with 20 wonderful years of marriage. Our little girl is becoming an extraordinary, beautiful, young woman.

God is very good...and I am very thankful.

Let's hear it for milestones!

Prayer

I’m learning a lot about prayer these days, which is good because I have a lot to learn. Prayer is at the same time one of the most natural, even instinctive things that we do as well as an ongoing source of frustration and defeat for many of us who call ourselves believers. My spirit regularly joins Jesus’ disciples in saying, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

One thing I think I’m learning about prayer is that it is a natural expression of our belief that God is present. God is here, I might as well say, “Hey.” It is important to note that God is present with “me”, not just with “us”. Consequently, prayer is the place where I must simply be who I am. No pretending because…well, it’s God. He’s here and He knows. To put it another way; He knows and He’s still here! I don’t have to measure up, I just have to be. Prayer is the safest place in the world. I am loved and accepted and I can say whatever is on my heart without fear of rejection. I am growing in my understanding and experience of a natural, ongoing dialog with my Heavenly Father. Prayer becomes a joy rather than a chore.

Fired up!

Everywhere I look around RCCC people are catching vision. It's really exciting! People are seeing possibilities when it comes to reaching out to their community. Get ready, 'cause when the church gets serious about serving and influencing its world, lives start changing and good things start happening! Join me in praying that we will all catch a vision of what God desires to do in our world!

Ireland

I'm in Ireland with a group from our youth ministry. We are having an outstanding time! Ireland is beautiful and the people are great! We are currently traveling towards Dublin where we will minister in a very poor area of Dublin. I look forward to what the Lord is going to do.

Honestly, what I am most blown away by right now is the students from River City. This is an amazing group of students with true hearts to minister. I am so encouraged by who they are! They are here to serve the Lord and are looking for Him daily. Our kids are getting it! Please pray that God continues to fan the flames that He has sparked in these kid's hearts. Also pray that the old timers can keep up!

Stunned disbelief

Stunned disbelief...

33 dead at Virginia Tech. Horror, shock, grief, fear. The students, their parents, the faculty, ...Cho Seung-Hui.

As a pastor, I'm supposed to have answers. I don't.

I have questions. What was going on in the tortured heart and mind of Cho Seung-Hui? What horrors defined his victims final moments? What of the grieving parents and families left behind?

I don't have answers but I do have faith. I believe that God grieves with us. I believe that what happened earlier this week is an example of the darkness of sin. It underscores why God hates sin....because it kills those He loves!

I pray for the families of the victims. I pray for the University Administration as they struggle to navigate this impossible situation amidst the media's callous criticism and blame game. I pray for a nation that has forgotten how to teach right and wrong and then wonders why people are so lost. I pray for those who will struggle with a new sense of fear.

In times like this, I am thankful for prayer. God listens and He responds. He will comfort the grieving and meet the seeking. When tragedy strikes we can become angry and fearful...

...or we can pray.

Days

I just got back from a trip to Chicago and the South Bend area of Indiana. I am in a leadership position for our fellowship of churches and we had some meetings last week at Bethel College, our denominational school. The unique thing about this trip was that I took my daughter with me. I wanted her to check out our college as a possibility for her in a few years. We had a great time together and she really enjoyed the school.

I must say while we were there I was struck hard by the fact that my little girl was checking out a college. Where did the time go? Isn't she just 7...or is it 8? No, she learning to drive and thinking about college. As a parent it makes me very aware of the time I have left before she starts following her own path...without me. The time is going by so fast. I hope I have made the most of it.

As I look ahead to the next few years I am very aware that life is made up of days; I don't want to waste a single one.

The object of faith

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. – John 15:7-8

Have you ever wanted something so badly that you practically begged God to bring it to pass? I have….and I will confess that some of these prayers have been answered in the way I desired and some haven’t. I will also confess that the ones not going my way have caused me a considerable amount of soul searching. The above passage from John 15 hasn’t really helped either. Was I not remaining in Christ? Were His words not in me? Was I not a “real” disciple?

I can see how remaining in Him and His words being in me would impact the way I pray. It causes me to pray differently; more like Him; according to His will. But in the case of many of my “unanswered” prayers, I felt like I was in Him, praying His will. Some might say I just didn’t have enough faith, which I suppose is possible, but I’m not so sure.

What if the problem lies not in the amount of faith but rather the object of my faith? I think when reading John 15:7, we get really excited about the phrase “whatever you wish”. The danger here is in putting our faith in a particular, desired outcome. “God is faithful and the scripture is true if He answers my prayer in the way I envision with the outcome I expect.” Instead, my faith needs to simply be in Him, trusting that His ways are higher than mine, His solutions better. Let me give you a hint: When God doesn’t respond as you would, remember…that’s why He’s God and you’re not. When we pray, let’s put our faith in our Father not in our idea of what should happen. He is working and some of those prayers we’ve given up on are being answered; just in a better way.

Rest!

And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief. Heb. 3:18-19

I’ve been thinking a lot about rest lately; largely because it seems that many people I run into aren’t getting much. When I ask “How are you?” I’m pretty sure the response, “I’m tired”, has actually surpassed the time tested, “I’m busy.” This of course makes perfect sense as busyness naturally leads to fatigue. What’s alarming is the fact that I don’t think we are any less busy…we’re just tired as well.

In the above passage from Hebrews, the writer is referring to the people of Israel who refused to enter the Promised Land because of a fear of giant people in giant cities. He goes on to warn us lest we miss out on God’s rest due to unbelief.

This leads me to a couple of observations. First, I find the comparison of the Promised Land (their final destination) to rest quite telling. Rest is not a place we are to visit…like a vacation. It is where we are supposed to live! God’s design is for us to operate in a state of restfulness in the midst of our work, play, family life, and spiritual life. Second, the connection between unbelief and unrest is worth noting. Unbelief directly disqualified a generation of Israelites from the promised land of rest; but what about us? I see how unbelief will keep us from the “rest” of salvation, but can it lead a believer to other kinds of unrest? Consider driven ness; what is the belief behind the need to do and have more? I think if we will take time to unpack the motives behind our frantic pace, we’ll discover more unbelief than we’d like to admit. Maybe God can’t provide, maybe he won’t promote me, maybe my kid’s aren’t safe in His hands…fear and unbelief everywhere! It’s time to say no to unbelief and enjoy a little rest!

God wants to set us free to live a lifestyle at rest! The big question is, “Do we believe enough to let Him?”

A life worth dying for!!

…and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. – Matt. 10:38-39

This is one of those sayings of Jesus that used to scare me. The truth is I wanted to find my life. Like any young man, I wanted to find love, adventure, joy, and anything else that life had to offer. There was something inside of me that longed for a full life of meaning! I also wanted to follow Jesus and the words from this passage did not bring me comfort. It sounded like I had to choose! I could have Jesus or the life I really wanted to live.

Then I thought about the circular nature of Jesus statement. Loose it, find it, loose it, find it. The key is found in the sentence before this one; “anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” The cross Jesus asks me to take is a real cross which will always involve loosing your life but the cross also always involves resurrection!

Any life I would find on my own would not be worth living. In loosing my life in Him, I find the very life I always longed for. I did have to choose but it was not between the good life and Jesus. It was between the life I could make for myself and the life Jesus would lead me to.

It’s been said that good is the enemy of best. That’s why American life can be so difficult. We can have what seems like a pretty good, passable, life just doing the American thing but the tragedy is it keeps us from the resurrected life Jesus intends for us…real life, abundant life!!

A life worth dying for.

What do you want for Christmas?

What do you want for Christmas?

I have to be honest with you; I really have a hard time with this question. I’m actually a pretty content guy. It’s not that I don’t enjoy Christmas presents as much as the next person. I just have a hard time compiling a list. However, Lauri told me if I didn’t put together a list for the fam, I wasn’t getting anything! That being unacceptable, I gave her a list, which included the following items; a Great Dane, neckties (lots of neckties), a fur coat, and an autographed 8 track of Lu Lu Roman (of Hee Haw fame) singing her greatest hits! She didn’t appreciate my humor but our daughter, Lauren, did!

One thing I would love for Christmas is to have the true holiday back! Between commercialism, busyness and political correctness Christmas seems to have been completely crowded out. Even our children’s Christmas musicals at school have replaced songs like “Silent Night” and “Away in a Manger” with “seasonal” or “cultural” selections. In the process of secularizing our holiday, the messages of “Peace on Earth” and “Joy to the World” have been all but lost! This is truly unfortunate for a world in desperate need of peace and joy. Christmas was once a time of year when even the most lost among us would pause to wonder if the miracle of Christmas could reach them. Sadly, that spirit of hope seems to be fading in the places that need it most.

As disturbing as the secularization of Christmas is, I believe this may be a cloud with a silver lining. As the message of Christmas becomes less popular the need for Christmas becomes more pronounced! In other words, the darker the night the more welcome the light. Far more compelling than a description of the light is the light itself! Songs and stories can only go so far so let’s not just tell them about Christmas; let’s show it to them!

Christmas is all about Emanuel, God with us! So what if the world doesn’t want to sing the songs of Christmas? Let them see the God of Christmas. Show them His awesome presence at work in His people! Sure, I miss some of the sentiment of ‘traditional” Christmas, but what really makes Christmas worth celebrating is the Presence of the King and He is alive and well! You want to make an impact this Christmas? Give the greatest gift ever given, Jesus! Let Him live, love and speak life through you!

My prayer is that you would have a blessed, Christ filled, Christmas.

I should have my head examined!

Do you know how crazy it is to try and summarize the book of Revelation in a 5 week series? What was I thinking?! My problem is I kind of enjoy getting bogged down in the possible interpretation of each and every symbol...while at the same time encouraging others not to! I keep reminding myself that this series is about the main themes! But, I can't help but wonder ...could it be that Jacques Chirac's name is encoded numerically in the description of the beast from the sea? Hmmm.

Awesome!

Wow, what a great weekend!! We had close to 4000 people come to our festival and everyone seemed to have a blast! Big thanks to all who worked to make it a huge success. You have no idea what kind of fruit your investment might yield. We serve a great God!

Big Weekend!

This coming weekend is a big one for River City Community Church! On Saturday, we are having our annual fall festival. We anticipate as many as 3000 people to come and eat, play, hang out, and have a general good time on our campus. I love this event! We get to meet people from our neighborhood as well as all over San Antonio. There will be some great bands (including the RCCC house band!) playing live music all day long. It really is a good time! I'm praying that we get a chance to connect with lots of people from our community.

On Sunday, I begin the much anticipated series "APOCALYPSE NOW?...A Message of Hope from the Revelation." I know this is an area of great interest to a lot of people. I’m really looking forward to the series and praying that God really speaks to people through the messages.

A Busy Day

I had a lot on my plate today. This is not an unusual condition and it’s not like that plate seems to ever get cleared off, but I still am aware of “the pile”. As I face a day like today, I am tempted to hit the ground running and play catch up. This is not entirely bad except that I may run right past some very important things in my haste!

If I run too fast, I might run right past my appointment with the Lord. This is an appointment I don’t want to miss. As I talk with the Father, He gives wisdom, peace, guidance, and strength. How much time and energy will I waste if I blow by the most important appointment of my day?

I could also breeze right by our staff small group / prayer time. We got together this morning for our weekly time together and I got to hear their heart’s as we shared and prayed together. What did we get accomplished? I guess that would depend on whether you were looking at the plate or the people.

I wouldn’t have had time to spend with three different staff members encouraging them, sharing vision and helping them think through various issues related to their ministry.

Jesus said the most important thing in life is to love God with all we’ve got and to love others the way we want to be loved. This cuts right to the heart of the matter and even though I didn’t cross that many things off my list, by Jesus’ standard, I guess today wasn’t half bad.

The plate is still sitting there but somehow I feel like some very important things were accomplished today. It was a good day.

Easter evening

This has been a tiring day...a good day, but a tiring day. For a minister, Easter is "big game time." I get to talk to people I may not see until next year this time about the most important event in human history...the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I get to tell them that resurrection means they don't have to go it alone...He desires to walk with us. I get to tell them they don't have to do it in their own strength, because His strength is available. I get to remind us all that resurrection means all things are possible. Our greatest fear, the fear of death, has no teeth because death has been conquered!

Then I get to challenge every one of us to stop living like the resurrection either never happened or is simply a religious story. I get to challenge us to rethink our lives in light of the reality of resurrection. Consider yourself challenged!

What matters most

I find it a constant struggle to remember what matters most. You would think in my job I could keep it straight! As a minister, I regularly remind people of the eternal and the lasting. Even as I'm pointing the way for others, I am constantly tempted to focus on things that won't matter in a year, let alone a hundred. Not that things like details and deadlines don't matter at all...they just aren't what matters most. Jesus put it simply..."The most important thing is love, for God and one another"

Relationships are what matter most. The Spirit inside you and that person beside you are more important than the task before you. God help us if we sacrife what matters most for...whatever.