Sermon hat trick

I heard three sermons today. So, as you might imagine, I’m feeling pretty holy.



This wasn't one of the three preachers I heard today, but it is cool that he has two microphones!

Pastor Matt and I took our interns to a Lutheran church as part of our effort to introduce them to different styles of following Jesus. That service, which featured real, but nasty, wine, ended just after nine am. This gave me enough time to zip over and slip into Union Chapel just as announcements ended for the first service. Gregg’s sermon was sharp, but not longer than usual. (Surprising since he’d been out of the pulpit for three weeks!) A quick hop across the parking lot and I was ready for message number three at CommonWay.

The first sermon had to do with prayer. While I’m a big fan of prayer, I’m afraid most of the content was pushed out of my brain by the latter two sermons.

Sermon two was the first in a three part series on service and volunteering. It centered around Moses’s call at the burning bush, particularly God’s question to Moses, “What’s in your hand?” The key point was that God has put stuff in our hands and given us opportunity to use it for His kingdom. We can if we will. What’s in your hand?

The third message (far and away the longest!) dealt with Christ’s reign in our lives and how it works out not only in good times but also in bad. It featured a brilliant real life example of letting Jesus carry out his character building work when life is bleak and challenging. The speaker was honest and authentic, without being maudlin. I appreciated it.

Are you wondering which was best? Keep wondering. In the unlikely event that someone besides my mom reads this blog, ranking them could only mean trouble!

Looking for God's Kingdom in Louisville

I’m writing this afternoon from Louisville, KY. The family is on a bit of a pilgrimage with some friends to sit in on two meetings with evangelist Todd Bentley. We’re in line right now at 3.30 pm, waiting for the doors to open at 5.30. Both the temperature and the humidity are right around 100, and I’m wondering if I’m nuts. In spite of the heat, people are singing, crying and praying for the sick right in the line. Wild.



Joseph and the line between us and the door.



This lady has a lucky green ticket that got her and whoever had one into the building 30 minutes ahead of those (like us) who were totally green ticketless!

I don’t know what you’ve heard about Todd Bentley or the goings on in Lakeland, FL, but it’s fun to think about God’s kingdom growing in fresh ways in our midst.

One thing that struck me, both as we’ve watched the revival online, and today here in Louisville, is the degree to which the focus is placed on Jesus. I don’t have much experience with this sort of thing, so I have little to compare it to. I do know that my cynical side would expect the focus to be on the main guy or on the healings. There’s a bit of that going on here, but not as much as I feared. The proof of that pudding will be if similar stuff happens on a similar scale without the Bentley-boy showing up.

Which is a key reason why we’re here. We’re wondering if God might desire to work in similar ways in our church.

Cool healing: A war veteran who’d been in a wheel chair or electric cart for 41 years, got up, walked, leapt and praised the Lord. His wife confirmed this was a whole new deal for him. She then got prayed for healing of a couple major issues. It was precious to watch them hug onstage, enjoying their divine two for one deal.

Heartbreaking sight: The service wrapped up, leaving a possibly Bengali couple onstage holding an obviously troubled child of one or two. They stood there, nearly alone, looking confused, as the focus of the meeting shifted away from the stage. I prayed that God would meet their needs some way.

Walking away from the meeting, I thought that it was probably good that Jesus came to the planet when he did. Early in the gospel of Mark the whole town gathered at Jesus' door and he heals many who had various diseases. What would happen today? When thousands can fly or drive to a place where people are getting healed, how would Jesus have handled it?

For that matter, how does Todd Bentley handle walking away when there are unmet needs? But the guy’s got to sleep. A friend once talked about the stress he felt while running an eye hospital in Azerbaijan. There were always more people than he could help. Every hour he didn’t work meant that someone who might have been helped remained sightless. That’ll keep you up at night.

May God give his people the wisdom to do the work he’s designed for them to do (Ephesians 2.10) and not stress about the rest. Jesus gave us a good model for this. He said, “I can do only what I see the Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does..” (John 5.19)

Yurt Snoozin'

I’m blogging tonight from the yurt. I’d rather be sleeping right now, but two things are keeping me from it: 1. How often do you get the chance to say you’re blogging from a yurt? And 2. My yurt-mates, Emily, Alia, and Abigail are still in chat and chuckle mode. (This is fake sleeping below!)





We’re hanging in the yurt tonight because ten of our friends are in Kazakhstan and we want to remember them and pray for them. They’ve gone off for a brief trip to love on some young folks who are “graduating” from an orphanage.

This is something I never thought of for the first 42 years of my life: Orphans eventually outgrow the orphanage. "Graduate" is a nice word for what happens at that point. You’ve heard how tough it is for some former inmates to adjust to the world outside of prison. Imagine growing up your entire life in the regimented environment of an orphanage, then all of a sudden heading out into the real world. To soft pedal it in a big way: It’s a bit of an adjustment.

So our friends are over there helping some friends make the adjustment. I can see Jesus doing that sort of thing. In fact, I can see Jesus in them now, doing the sort of stuff he likes to do.

Because we care for our friends, and want in some measure to care for these graduating orphans through them, we set up the yurt in the gym at church. It fills up most of the stage and covers some of the powerpoint screen, but the worship team is flexing. Over the course of ten days maybe thirty of us will spend the night here. If you're in driving distance and want to stay tomorrow (Friday) night, let me know.