Don't Forget...

In 1907 a wonderful ministry was begun by a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church (the forerunner of the UMC) by the name of Anna Jarvis.  She organized a special service in her home church in Grafton, West Virginia.  In that service the congregation honored her mother who had died a couple of years before.  Within a year, she began to push that all Methodist churches have a service to honor mothers.  Eventually, the idea caught on and it literally swept across the globe as countries all over the world adopted some form of a Mother's Day celebration.

Just like with many other holidays, Mother's Day can be commercialized.  Stores try to sell more stuff, greeting card companies try to guilt us into buying expensive cards, and flower shops push their wares.  But as Christians, we should rise above the hoopla and regain the true essence of the holiday.  It's really not about the gifts, cards, or flowers.  It's not even about dads trying to fix a nice meal for their wives or children coloring pictures to hang on the fridge.  It's more about saying "thank you."

To be honest with you, I didn't really learn to appreciate my own mom until my wife became a mother.  I will never forget that first night that Myranda and I spent in the hospital after our eldest child was born.  It had been a long day.  We were both exhausted.  That night, the nurses came and picked up our baby to take her back to the nursery and we quickly fell asleep.  And then it happened...at about 2:00 in the morning the phone rang.  We both sat up, bleary eyed and still out of it.  The voice at the other end said, "It's time to feed your baby."  Myranda said, "What baby?" and I thought "Who's calling us at 2:00 a.m.?"  Needless to say, we finally woke up enough for Myranda to nurse the child.  Unbeknownst to us at the time, this was just the first of many sleepless nights and confusion on what we were to be doing as parents.

For the last 13 years, I have watched my wife mother our children.  Each one is different.  Each one is special.  Each one drives us up the wall in her own way.  And each one is loved so much.  As I reflect on Myranda's mothering ability I can't help but think about God's divine love for us.  His love goes deeper than even a mother's love.  He cares for us even when we cry and throw a fit.  He watches over us even when we do really dumb things.  He continues to show us the right path to follow even when we don't listen.  Sounds a lot like a mother loving her children, doesn't it?

In 1 John 5:1 we are told "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child."  I have found this to be true in my human relationships and in my spiritual relationships.  The people who have loved me for as long as I have known them also love my girls.  The people I love their children I love too.  I guess that's what makes Christianity so amazing to me.  I love God with everything I have.  Sometimes I disappoint him.  Sometimes I fail to live up to his standards.  Sometimes I spend more time disliking others than I do trying to understand them.  But the truth is, I no longer doubt his love.  I know he loves me and I am doing everything I know to do to love his other children too.

So this week we get to honor mothers.  We get to celebrate a love that reflects the love that God has for people.  We get to give back in a small way to women who have borne us, loved us, showered us with attention, and watched us grow from needy infants to real people.  May God allow us to catch a glimpse of his love through the love of a mother for her child.  Until next time...




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Holiness of Heart and Life

The reality of the resurrection should be making a difference in the lives of the people of God.  In fact, it is clear when we read Scripture that God has an ultimate goal in mind with people.  He wants to bring their joys to completion.  He wants to bring true peace and fundamental assurance to the hearts of human beings all over the world.  His one desire is to see people come to him and to allow him to transform them into who he wants them to be.

Many times, we read about God's transforming Spirit in the writings of John.  However, the truth of salvation is sprinkled throughout Scripture, from the Old Testament all the way through the New Testament.  Infusing humanity with God's holiness and love is the point the apostolic witness we read in the epistles.  One example that has spoken volumes to me and continues to speak to me each time I read it comes from 1 Corinthians.  Paul says, "Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived!  Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers--none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.  And this is what some of you used to be.  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God."--1 Corinthians 6:9-11

I love this statement from St. Paul!  This is what you used to be.  I certainly see my former self in that list.  However, because of the love of God, he takes something vile, evil, and dirty and cleans it up.  He washes, sanctifies, and justifies his children and turns them into something new...something clean...something that is worthy of inheriting his Kingdom.  That is what true salvation is.

After these verses, St. Paul instructs the congregation in Corinth that they are to live their new lives in accordance with God's design.  They are are reminded that they were "bought with a price" and that because of this, they should "therefore glorify God in [their] body."

Holiness is what I thirst for.  Righteousness is what I desire.  God's Spirit is active in the lives of his children and because of his love he replaces the former desires we had with a desire to serve, love, witness, and teach about what God has done and what he wants to do.

As you listen to the words of this song, allow God's holiness to wash over you and remind you that you are indeed on the road to perfection.  +May God's full salvation graciously enter into your heart as you continue to walk by faith.  Until next time...




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The Old Has Gone...

Okay, I admit it.  I love being a Methodist.  In fact, I love it so much that I'm sure non-Methodists get a little tired of me talking about how much I love my denomination.  I will be the first to admit that our church makes mistakes, sometimes falls short, and has people involved in leadership who shouldn't be.  However, overall I love being a person called a Methodist.

One of the main doctrines of the church that I love to read and study is about the new birth and Christian perfection.  John Wesley, our father in the faith, had a lot to say about that.  When I first joined the Methodist Church, Christian Perfection, holiness, was a new concept for me.  However, the more that I read and studied about it, the more I realized that it is indeed Scriptural.  In fact, it is not only Scriptural, it is the essence of Christianity.

I'm afraid that many Christians, including those in my own denomination, have lost their understanding of the truth of the Easter message.  For so many people, Christianity is nothing more than "fire insurance."  People want to be saved from the pits of hell.  Or as many people put it they "want to go to heaven when they die."  But is that all there is to discipleship?  Is that all there is to mission?  Is that all there is to Jesus' message?

1 John was one of John Wesley's favorite books in the Bible.  It has quickly become one of mine too.  This short sermon packs a lot of punch in a small space.  It gives meaning to the resurrection and a purpose for mission work.  It lays the foundation for discipleship and a means for understanding the teachings of Christ.  There is so much more to Christianity than simply a free card to heaven.  There is so much more to salvation than crossing over into the Promised Land with streets of gold and glassy seas.

Our walk of faith during Eastertide should be focused on the reality of the resurrected Christ.  Our destination may be heaven, but that is simply "icing on the cake" (as one of my professors used to tell us).  Through my own growing and learning I have discovered that salvation is a current event.  It is a gift given now.  I have been saved from my old way of living life.  The old Dustin is dead.  He is gone.  He is not invited back.  Thank God that in his place is a new Dustin.  A Dustin who has the very seed of God abiding in him.  A Dustin who loves like God loves.  A Dustin who has "this hope in him" and "purifies himself as he (Christ) is pure.

The truth of the great salvation through Jesus Christ and the re-birth from the Holy Spirit is sweeping across the globe.  I have witnessed the great awakening happening in foreign countries first hand.  It is truly exciting to see how God is transforming people from old into new.  It is fascinating to see how people from all tribes and languages and backgrounds are loving "not in word or speech, but in truth and action."  It is awesome to see the old "selfs" banished while the new creations in Christ are growing up.

As we continue to walk through Eastertide 2012, let's not forget the amazing love that transforms sinners into saints.  Let's not forget the fullness of salvation.  Let's continue to search the Scriptures and seek the truth of God's desire for each one of us.  Let's live sacrificially...let's rejoice whole-heartedly...let's live holy.  Until next time...

+May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you.






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Camp Sunday

This coming Sunday, we are changing a couple of the things we do at Haskell UMC.  On April 15th, we are celebrating Camp Sunday.  Now when I was a kid, we didn't go to church camp.  The particular denomination I belonged to didn't have camping as a part of their ministry so church camp was a new idea to me when I became a United Methodist.  

This particular ministry is one that I have quickly come to appreciate.  The Northwest Texas Annual Conference, our conference, is blessed to have two great camps for our kids to attend each summer.  One of them is Ceta Canyon and is located in the northern part of our conference.  The other is Camp Butman and is located in the southern part of our conference.  This year our local church has several kids who are old enough to attend camp.  As their pastor, I am excited to see what God has planned for these kids who will be attending camp this summer.

I was first introduced to church camp a few years ago when my eldest daughter went for the first time.  Anyone who knows her quickly discovers that while she can be reserved around adults she is really the kind of kid who wants to try new things and looks forward to an adventure.  From the first time she set foot on the church camp property, she was hooked.  

Like I said, I have never attended camp.  However, over the years there are a few things I have learned that go on at these camps.  I understand that they sing silly songs...

I understand that they have time to act like kids and have fun...

And I understand that for an entire week, kids who normally are bombarded with secular ideas and worldly influences are able to get away from that and to focus on their spiritual growth.  Time after time, I have heard testimonies from people who went to church camp.  Those testimonies always include the above mentioned items.  But I'm always touched when I hear that a child is finally able to get out of the world long enough that God breaks down barriers and calls that person by name.  I love it when I hear counselors talk about the tiring, but exciting week they spent with the kids.  

So as we near summertime, maybe your church will begin to plan for kids in your congregation to attend camp.  Because of the rise in cost of everything, church camp has gotten more expensive every year.  If you are able, please consider sponsoring a scholarship for a kid to go to camp.  When you help a kid go to camp you are truly making an investment in a child's chance at being a kid and in a child's spiritual growth.  Until next time...

+May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

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Holy Saturday

Today is Holy Saturday.  It is the day between the intense emotion of Holy Week and the excitement of Easter Sunday.  It's a day that I'm still coming to terms with in my own spiritual development.  I'm really not sure what to think of this Holy Day.  I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do.

Scripture doesn't give us much of a clue on what was going on this day during Passion week.  We're all familiar with Palm Sunday with it's waving branches and songs of Hosanna.  We're all familiar with the week following Palm Sunday with the readings of the trial (or mistrial) of Jesus.  We know the stories of the soldiers' mockery and the flogging of Christ.  We are told of the Via Dolorosa as Jesus made his way up to the hill of Golgotha.  And we know about the women's devotion, Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus.  We know all of this...an yet what happened on Holy Saturday?

In 1 Peter, there is an interesting passage that some people have interpreted as being what was going on during the hours between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.  He states, "For Chirst also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God.  He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water...For this is the reason the gospel was proclaimed even to the dead, so that, though they had been judged in the flesh as everyone is judged, they might live in the spirit as God does."--1 Peter 3:18-20; 4:6.  Well, thanks Peter...that really helps!

So even with this brief passage, I still don't know about Holy Saturday. Maybe part of my problem this year is that it has been a really busy week for me.  We had two funerals at the church this week and we had a Tenebrae service on Good Friday.  Maybe I'm just tired.  Or maybe I've been so busy this week that I feel anxious that I should be doing something.

Source: Dominicana

When I woke up this morning I knew that I needed some time with God by myself.  I left the house and went outside of town a few miles to a piece of property that I discovered last summer.  I'm not sure who owns the land, but I firmly believe that for this time in my life, it is there for me.  I parked by truck on the empty dirt road and I read Scripture.  I walked down the winding road that divides "my" property in half and I enjoyed the spring wildflowers, the songbirds, and the gorgeous greenery that surrounded me.  I prayed for my friends who are going through a time of transition and for parishioners who are dealing with various issues.  I prayed for my congregation, my family, and myself.  And when I was finished, I felt much better and refreshed.

Maybe that's what Holy Saturday is all about.  We can't always see what is going on.  We can't always understand what is happening between the highs and lows of our faith journey.  Maybe we're not supposed to know what happened on Holy Saturday.  What we have to do is trust God and remember to give him time to take care of things.  We have to remember that ministry is not always about going and doing, but it is also about being still.

In one of my favorite quotes from Oswald Chambers he states, "Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work."  That's what Holy Saturday is for me this year.  It is the greater work.  It is the time between our greatest tragedy and our greatest glory.  It is the lull of the sadness of Good Friday and the excitement of Easter Sunday.  It is a time for God to work and for us to wait.

So today, spend time in prayer.  Wait patiently.  Allow God to do what needs to be done.  Trust in the LORD.  Take time to be holy.  Until next time...

+May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you.






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Can I Get A Testimony?

The last couple of weeks have been very busy.  Between meetings, school activities, and spring break, it has been difficult to get everything done.  But it has been good.  Recently, I looked back over my time in Haskell and it amazed me how active God has been in the life of our congregation.  We have ministered to others, loved our brothers and sisters through some difficult times, and remained faithful to God as his children.

One of the texts that I studied for this week's sermon is found in Jeremiah.  In this promise, God declares through the prophet that a new time is coming.  The people God called turned their back on him and his Law. They refused to allow the Law to penetrate their hearts.  Because of their unfaithfulness their hearts were as stone cold as the tablets that the 10 Commandments were written on.

So God's promise is of a new covenant.  Through that covenant God says, "I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."  Of course, this promise was fulfilled through the only Son of God, Jesus Christ.  He came and taught, modeled, and witnessed to the love of God that inspires and ignites people to go forth and to testify to the amazing transformative love that comes to people through the Holy Spirit.

In the early days of Methodism, it was common for there to be a testimony time during the weekly worship service.  One of the questions the Methodists were asked in their small groups was "How goes it with your soul."  Part of the meaning behind that was how have you seen God active in your life recently.  These people were willing to get up in front of others and tell how God had been putting his law within them.  They were excited about God writing his law on their hearts.

For some reason we have lost this aspect of our history in our church.  Most churches no longer allow a regular time of testimony from the people and most people are hesitant to get up and testify about how God has been active in their life.  Maybe we are afraid of what the Holy Spirit will do in our midst.  Perhaps we don't want to lose control of the service.  It could be that we are afraid of becoming vulnerable in front of others.  But whatever the reason, we simply don't do it much anymore.

But this past week in our Methodist Beliefs class, several of the ones who attend the class volunteered to give a testimony of God's activity in their life.  As their pastor, I sat back and listened with great pleasure to my flock's stories.  There were some tears and there were some shaking voices, but everyone simply sat and listened.  When the testimony was over, there were "amens" and many smiles around the table.  I was truly moved and blessed during our time of sharing.

One of the keys to evangelism and faith development is the testimony.  People can doubt Scripture.  People can refuse to believe in God.  People can even make fun of us for our beliefs.  But the one thing they cannot do is discount our testimony.  I know without a shadow of a doubt that God has been active, caring, and encouraging.  I know what he has done in my life and how he has transformed me from a hate-filled, repugnant, know-it-all.  I know where he continues to work in my life.  And I know that God's love has penetrated my heart.

In St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, he talks about ministers.  He states, "We are fools for the sake of Christ..."  I have learned that he is describing me.  I am a fool for the sake of Christ.  But I've also learned something else.  I'd rather be a fool for the sake of Christ than to be the person I was before God's love penetrated my evil heart.

So I encourage you to go forth and tell your story.  Testify to God's activity in your life.  Don't be afraid of being honest with people.  Be truthful.  Be genuine.  But most importantly, testify to God's love for you and his desire to work in the lives of everyone.  Until next time...





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Take Up Your Cross

This week we continue our Lenten journey.  Our Scripture focus is found in the gospel of St. Mark where Jesus plainly teaches the crowd and his disciples the implications of being his followers.  In opposition to many contemporary sermons on prosperity and gaining a worry-free life once you sign up for Christianity; Jesus tells the reality of being his disciple.

He tells them "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it"--8:34-35.  That doesn't sound much like fun and games to me.

But Jesus was simply being honest with them.  The life of a Christ follower is not always easy.  In fact, it can be down right hard.  It's not easy to stand against the pressures of a society that wants you to look, think, and act a certain way when our Lord and master says we cannot.  Its not easy to resist temptations to compromise our beliefs and faith.  Its not easy to continually ask the Holy Spirit to examine us and to prune away the unfruitful segments of our life.

One of the hardest things I have ever had to do was to say yes to God.  When he called me into the ministry I was living a life in a town I had chosen to live in.  I owned a home that I wanted to own.  My children went to the school that I wanted them to attend.  I was a member of a church I loved.  But that all changed.  It had to.

You see, what Jesus was saying is that our Christian walk is not about us.  It is about a relationship with the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit.  He was saying that salvation is not some future promise.  Our salvation compels us to do the things we see Jesus do.  In this passage, we hear the words of Christ and we realize that Christian living is about sacrifice, self-denial, and bearing a burden for another.

Desert Father praying.

While I was preparing for this week's message to my church, I came across a wonderful story that I had not heard before.  It's the story of a man named St. Telemachus.  Sometime in the late fourth or early fifth century a monk named Telemachus was fed up with the church.  Like many others, he decided to traverse into the desert to live away from the hypocrisy of the church around him.  One day while he was in the middle of his daily prayers he felt convicted that he was being selfish.  He realized that instead of loving God that he was simply living his life how he wanted to.

So prompted by the Holy Spirit, he began to walk to Rome.  He made his way across the miles from where he had been living to the Imperial City.  When he got there, he heard a great cry from the Colosseum.  He followed the shouts until he reached the arena.  Much to his horror, there in the middle of this "Christian" city was a fight to the death.  What Telemachus realized was that here were men in the midst of fighting who Jesus Christ had died for.  And worse yet, here were men and women shouting for their deaths.  He jumped over the barrier and began to plead with the gladiators to stop fighting.

Of course, the crowd was furious.  They began to shout for him to move so they could watch the death battle.  He refused.  The crowd then began to throw stones at him so that the games could continue.  After they had killed him, they realized what had happened.  The crowd was convicted of their actions and the games came to a sudden stop.  Shortly after that episode, the games were permanently cancelled.

St. Telemachus intervening in the games.   Foxe's Book of Martyrs

I found this story to be fascinating.  Here was this man who was called forth from God to go into the world to love humanity.  When he did, he was killed for it.  Because of his death, others were saved and people turned away from sin.  It sounds a lot like St. Telemachus took up his cross.  He truly lived the gospel of Jesus Christ.  That is the call of every true follower of Christ.  Until next time...




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