The RUMC Pastor's Corner

The University of Adversity

2010-06-11T12:51:00.001-07:00

AN ENCOURAGING WORD written for June 17, 2010, by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First United Methodist Church

Dr. Scott Peck begins his most helpful book, The Road Less Traveled, with the simple sentence: "Life is difficult." When I first read Dr. Peck's book, that opening sentence stopped me dead in my tracks. As much as I knew it to be true, I did not want to accept it.

We all have a mental model of what life is suppose to be like and most of us have no place for 'difficulty' in that model. We go through life feeling that every time we have difficulty something wrong or abnormal has slipped into our lives. Any model of life that ignores the constant recurrence of difficulty in some form is bound to be disappointing, because as Dr. Peck explained, "life is difficult." Our mistaken model of life causes us yet another difficulty; a feeling of disillusionment that life has not been even-handed and fair with us because it has been so difficult.

Happiness is not the result of a trouble free life. If it were, we would never have a taste of it - not in this world. Happiness is a condition that graces our lives when we find creative ways of coping with difficulty. Happiness is not a singular experience that comes to us independent of other life experiences; it is a part of the whole cloth of life. It is a by-product. It is refined from life's inevitable difficulties by a style of creative living in which we accept and deal with the reality of our difficulties.

We have not been placed here in this life for the purpose of dodging difficulty, but for the purpose of meeting it. Someone has suggested that at the end of life 'God will not look for your medals, degrees or awards, but for your scars'. That may be a better measurement of meaning than most of us could imagine. The scar tissue of adversity can become the muscle of character. There are some who will never achieve greatness because they never had enough adversity to make them strong.

No sane person goes out in life looking for trouble, but no person begins to achieve his or her potential unless life is seasoned with some adversity. Disraeli once said: "There is no education like adversity". No person is really educated until he or she has an advanced degree from the University of Adversity.

The ugly scars of adversity are like Rembrandts before God. Take a look at your life and see how many battle scars you have. You may be a hero and just do not know it. Do not hide your scars. Celebrate the victories they represent.

Permanent Solution to a Temporary Problem, by Dr. Tom Butts

2010-05-28T13:28:00.001-07:00

Several years ago Larry King did a program on depression, and reported that 20 million Americans suffer depression serious enough to require treatment. It seems this illness has almost reached epidemic proportions in this country. Very few families are free of the impact of depression. We all know depressed people - and we may be a depressed person.

As a pastoral counselor, if there is one word that I hear more often than the word 'lonely', it is 'depressed'. The two words are often inter-changeable. One is almost always accompanied to some degree by the other. Since I am a 'general practitioner' (not a specialist), some of the people who come through my door suffer a kind or degree of depression that is above my pay-grade, and if they are able to afford the cost, I send them to a more highly trained specialist.

There are multiple causes and consequences of depression. Depression can erode important relationships at home and in the work place. It can cause many problems and much unhappiness to the depressed person and to the people who live and work with them. Situational depression can be resolved with time and some outside help, and sometimes with short-term drug therapy. But there is a species of depression that is more than situational. It is deeper, darker and less amenable to the usual means of treatment. Unfortunately, such in-depth depression is not always initially detectable; and unfortunately, those who have such in-depth depression are often resistant to treatment either due to embarrassment, pride or despair. If you are depressed over a long period of time, it is important to consult someone who can help you determine the depth of your condition and keep you from falling into an even deeper, darker hole. Even the darkest of depressions can be treated

One of the most serious outcomes of severe depression is suicide. Not all suicides are the result of depression, but I would estimate that 95% of them are. Last year more than 30,000 people in this country died by suicide.

There is nothing of which I know that is more emotionally devastating than the death of a family member or friend by suicide. Death under any circumstance is an upsetting experience, but death by suicide leaves so many unanswered questions, even when some note of explanation is left. "What were they thinking? What could I have done? Why? Why?" The mental and emotional machinations of a suicide are almost always lost in mystery.

I decided to write this column after reading an article on death by violence in The Chicago Tribune. The World Health Organization, using research from 160 experts in 170 countries, reported that 1.6 million people (world-wide) died violently in the year 2000. One person commits suicide about every 40 seconds, one is murdered every 60 seconds, and one dies in armed conflict every 100 seconds. The report estimated that almost 1 million people took their own lives in the year 2000, making suicide the number 13 cause of death world-wide. 550,000 people were murdered, and that does not count the unlawful deaths disguised as accidents or natural causes. About 60,000 young children died from abuse.

You may rightly be wondering in what way I intend to find a word of encouragement for anyone given the above-mentioned statistics. Encouragement takes many forms. Sometimes it comes in the form of comfort. Sometimes it comes by logically seeing an individual tragedy in the context of its larger social setting. Sometimes it comes simply by knowing that you are not alone in your struggle to understand a mystifying tragedy.

There are things that happen to us, and to those we love, which are beyond our power to understand or fix. Such things may come in the plain brown wrapper of every day life, or be wrapped in life-altering and soul-ripping tragedy A friend once told me of an ordinary day in his family in which it seemed that everything that could go wrong went wrong. At the end of a uniquely stressful and complicated day, his wife was preparing the evening meal to the tune of two children crying. Suddenly something boiled over on the stove and she threw up her hands and began to cry. The husband asked: "What can I do?" She said: "There is nothing you can do, just comfort me." Things happen in life about which no one can do anything. If all you can do is comfort someone, that is enough.

When tragedy strikes we often feel alone. While it is cold comfort to be told that the same thing happened to 999,999 other families, objectively, we at least know we are not alone, and we have a statistical reality which in time may help to put the matter into perspective. At the moment in which suicide happens, nothing else seems to matter except that one isolated death, but with time the margins will expand so as to allow the tragedy to be put into some perspective

If you have experienced several months of unrelieved depression, and you cannot identify a reason for your depression, ask your primary physician for help. If you have a friend or loved-one who has symptoms of serious depression, use your powers of persuasion in a spirit of love to persuade them to seek help. Help is available

While there are often warning signs that a person is suicidal, you must never blame yourself for the decision of a person to commit suicide. Get help if you see signs of suicide in yourself or others. After a suicide, get professional and spiritual counseling to help you come to terms with the fact that someone you know and/or love chose a permanent solution to a temporary problem. By Dr. Tom Butts

Enough: Part 2

2010-02-04T10:58:00.000-08:00

Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity & Generosity

By Adam Hamilton

Week Two: Wisdom and Finance

Key Bible Verses

Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity,
but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty. Proverbs 21:5
The wise have wealth and luxury,
but fools spend whatever they get. Proverbs 21:20

Key Insights from the Book and the Video

Many of us have a bit of the prodigal son in us: We have the habits of squandering and wasting our resources.
We have a tendency to focus on today rather than plan for tomorrow.
When our purpose is having as much pleasure as we can in the moment, the things we do tend to become less and less satisfying until finally we come to a place where we're entirely dissatisfied – and often broke.
Two of the primary money wasters we struggle with are impulse buying and eating out.
The rule-of-thumb regarding impulse buying is to shop for only what you need. Make a list, buy what you need, and get out of the store. If this is difficult, wait twenty-four hours before purchasing the impulse item.
Society tells us that our life purpose is to consume; the Bible tells us that our life purpose is to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Our money and possessions should be devoted to helping us fulfill God's purpose for our lives.
Being able to accomplish the greater purposes God has for our lives require goal setting and planning.
Without a plan to reach our goals, we will revert to being like the prodigal son. A plan gives us concrete steps that we can take to accomplish our goals.
Simplifying our lives enables us to give more generously and experience the joy that comes from living for something beyond ourselves.

Financial principles to live by

Pay God your first fruits; pay your tithe and offering first
Create a budget to track your expenses
Simplify your lifestyle (live below your means)
Establish an emergency fund
Pay off your credit cards, use cash/debit cards for purchases, and use credit wisely
Practice long-term savings and wise investing habits

Questions to Think About

In what ways are you like the prodigal son mentioned in Luke 15?
Which of the following most resembles your lifestyle:
1. Heading toward a looming financial crisis
2. Wasting what you have; spending money here and there because you can afford it
Which of the money wasters, impulse buying or eating out, presents the biggest problem for you?
How would you describe your life's purpose, vision, or calling?
What does the phrase "Blessed to be a blessing" mean to you?
How can goals and planning help us better accomplish the plans that God has for our lives?
Of the six financial principles, which is the most challenging to you?
If we want to achieve financial peace and accomplish God's greater purposes for our lives, what are our options? Why is simplifying our lives an important option?

Closing Prayer

Generous God, all we have comes from you, yet we are not always wise stewards of what you have so graciously given us. We have listened to the lure of the world, buying and consuming compulsively and excessively. Forgive us for being wasteful like the prodigal son. Forgive us for leveraging our future in order to have pleasure in the present. Help us to begin to put into practice the biblical wisdom we have discussed so that we may become good stewards of all that you have given us. Teach us to be generous and willing to share, to be Kingdom minded people who are focused on accomplishing your purpose for our lives.

Enough: Part 1

2010-02-02T10:58:00.000-08:00

Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity & Generosity

By Adam Hamilton

Week One: When Dreams Become Nightmares

Key Bible Verses

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many grieves. I Timothy 6:10
Whoever loves money never has money enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.
This too is meaningless. Ecclesiastes 5:10
What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? Matthew 16:26

Key Insights from the Book and the Video

We live in a world that encourages us to live beyond our means rather than be good stewards of our God-given resources.
When it comes to material possessions and money, we are not in a position to pass judgment on others, for we do not know their heart.
For many people, the American Dream is a subconscious desire for achieving success and satisfying the desire for material possessions. Generally, it has come to mean consuming, acquiring, and purchasing.
We are affected socially and spiritually by two "illnesses":
1. Affluenza – the constant need for more and bigger and better stuff.
2. Credit-itis – the idea that we can have something now and pay for it later, which exploits our lack of self-discipline and allows us to feed our affluenza.
Most Americans spend money with very little self discipline, saving less and spending more and more on credit.
A spiritual issue lies beneath the surface of our financial sickness. We have surrendered to the sinful nature that is within us.
The starting point of the solution to our problem is a changed heart, which results in changed desires and a changed sense of life purpose.
As we allow Christ to work in us, seeking first His Kingdom and striving to do His will, we begin to sense a higher calling to simplicity, faithfulness, and generosity.

Questions to Think About

What are some of the ways the world encourages us to live beyond our means? What challenges do you face when trying to save and be a good steward of your God-given resources?
Why is it dangerous to pass judgment on others regarding the way they spend their money (Matthew 7:1-5).
How has the "American Dream" changed over our nation's history?
In what ways do you struggle with "affluenza and credit-it is? How is this a problem for us as individuals, as a family, and as a nation?
What are some of the messages that advertisers convey to get us to buy their products?
What are the root causes of our wanting to consume more? How is sin part of the problem?
What role do you think God wants money and possessions to play in our life?
How is a changed heart the starting point to the solution of our problem with money and possessions?

Closing Prayer

Lord, we confess that in many ways we have bought into the concept of the American Dream which says that success is defined by worldly profits, possessions, prestige, and pleasure. We struggle with the yearning for more, and often we try to satisfy this yearning by pursuing material things rather than pursuing you. Forgive us Lord. Change our heart, and correct our vision. Give us your perspective on money and possessions. Help us not to focus on all the things we wish we had, but to be grateful for what we do have. Teach us to wisely manage the resources you have given us so that when you prompt us to help those in need, we are free to assist them. Enable us to live simply, to be content, and to give generously.

Enough: Introduction

2010-02-01T10:57:00.000-08:00

Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity & Generosity

By Adam Hamilton

Introduction: Faith in the Midst of Financial Crisis

Key Bible Verses

I lift up my eyes to the hills —
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
The Maker of Heaven and Earth. Psalms 121:1-2
Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. I Timothy 6:17

Key Insights from the Video

An economic crisis is also a crisis of faith.
The most potent threat we face today is fear.
At the center of most economic crisis is the extension and abuse of credit.
Credit comes from the Latin word "credo", which means "I believe" or "I trust". To extend credit to someone is to believe or trust that the person will repay you in the future.
As Christians, our credo or trust is in God. The Apostle's Creed begins, "I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth."
Throughout the Bible, we find words of hope and promise that remind us that we have no reason to fear, for God is our refuge and strength.
An economic crisis is a spiritual issue stemming from at least five of the deadly sins: gluttony, greed, sloth, envy, and pride.
The Church is a beacon of light inviting people to find deliverance, redemption, salvation, hope, and a new way of life.

Questions to Think About

How is an economic crisis a crisis of faith?
What happens when we feel we can no longer trust our banks, financial institutions, and our government?
What role does credit play in our economic crisis?
What insight does the Latin root word "credo" for credit play in your thoughts about the economic situation?
What insight do you get from the key bible verses about how we should trust in the Lord during times of fear during the economic situation?
In what ways is an economic crisis a spiritual crisis? Identify the sins that are at the root of this spiritual crisis.
We all are tempted by some of the sins of want and desire to have things. In what ways have you been tempted by or given in to the sins of gluttony, greed, sloth, envy, and pride?
Why is the government incapable of addressing the spiritual issue that lies beneath the state of our economy? What can Christians and the Church do to provide real help and hope?

Closing Prayer

O Lord, this earth and everything in it is yours. All that we have is a gift from you. When times are uncertain and our finances are hurting, forgive us for panicking and listening to the wrong voices rather than looking to you and your Word. Forgive us for giving in to fear and allowing worry and anxiety to keep us from being the wise stewards you would have us to be. Prepare our hearts and minds for the coming weeks of study. We pray to be open to your instruction and your guidance. As we learn to be better stewards of the resources you have given us, we put our complete trust in you. We trust you Lord, and with our lives and with all you have entrusted to us. Amen.

LISTENING FOR GOD, by Dr. Jim Savage

2010-01-28T10:31:00.000-08:00

I have heard Your Call, my Lord, and respond with a Yes that arises from the depth of my being. I Know that if I follow close to You, nothing shall be able to separate me from Your Love. Amen. (Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God)

Who are we to think that God speaks to us? Yet we know that God is trying to reach us all of the time.

Thomas Aquinas distinguished two kinds of Listening: "the language of man that speaks around us and God who speaks to us interiorly." For opposite reasons, these two kinds of Listening seem difficult for people who speak too much and superficially, while God doesn't express Himself enough and too profoundly.

Thomas Aquinas said: "There are two types of Wisdom: created and uncreated; both are given to man, and by this Gift of Wisdom, man can grow towards Holiness." He brought up many means to acquire created Wisdom: through our own efforts and as a freely-given Gift from God. We should give thanks to God for this Gift.

"Strive for the greater Gifts" (1 Cor 12:31): knowledge of God, theology, or discussions "about" or "of" God. By believing in a teaching that was given by God to man, we turn towards Him and draw the desired Wisdom from there.

REFLECTION: Grace

There is something very practical about God's Grace.

"For the Grace of God that brings Salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to Live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age." (Titus 2:11-12)

Grace brings Salvation, then shows us how to Live out our Salvation. Grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness and yes to godliness. While the Law does motivate Obedience, acting as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ Jesus, the incredible Grace of God is an even greater Motivator.

Grace brings out the best in people, not the worst. True Grace pours from the heart to be Shared with all.

The desire to say no to all that would make Jesus sad should be a motivator for Grace. Yet, some folks do refuse to show Love for others who do not measure up to our expectations, our 'rules' for Christian Living. Many folks have do this at one time or another.

Jesus makes it easy for us. Grace is the radiance of the first-Love that Christ Jesus extended towards us. "We Love because He first Loved us." (1 John 4:19)

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: Is yours a Life of Grace? Are the people around you inspired to godliness because you offer Grace? When you make a decision about right or wrong, is it made by Listening and following through?

You can take control of your own Life by taking the time to Listen for God's Call, and following God's will, so don't wait for others to determine your fate in Life. Live with your Purpose for being in Christ Jesus as Lord. With God's help and the power of the Holy Spirit,
you can find complete enjoyment and can arise each morning with a song in your heart and a skip in your Walk........Thanks be to God for Such Love!

Prayer For the people of Haiti...

2010-01-26T10:32:00.001-08:00

Lord, I just want to say THANK YOU, because this morning I woke up and knew where my children were. Because this morning my home was still standing, because this morning I am not crying because my husband, my child, my brother or sister needs to be buried out from underneath a pile of concrete, because this morning I was able to drink a glass of water, because this morning I was able to turn on the light, because this morning I was able to take a shower, because this morning I was not planning a funeral, but most of all I thank you this morning because I still have life and a voice to cry out for the people of Haiti. Lord I cry out to you, the one that makes the impossible, possible, the one that turns darkness in to light, I cry out that you give those mothers strength, that you give them peace that surpasses all understanding, that you may open the streets so that help can come, that you may provide doctors, nurses, food, water, and all that they need in a blink of an eye. For all those that have lost family members, give them peace, give them hope, give them courage to continue to go on! Protect the children and shield them with your power. I pray all this in the name of Jesus!!! Amen!

Eating Apples in the Dark, by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts

2010-01-04T14:50:00.001-08:00

AN ENCOURAGING WORD written for January 7, 2010, by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts.

There is an interesting story of a mountaineer who came home hungry one night. He lit a candle and began to eat an apple from a bowl of four apples. He soon discovered that the apple was inhabited by a lively worm. He threw it away and selected another, which he soon discovered to be wormy. He tried the third apple, but again found a worm. Whereupon, he blew out the candle and ate the fourth apple in the dark.

Sometimes it is easier to live in the dark than to face uncertain realities of life in the light. Some call it 'putting one's head in the sand'. Others call it 'looking the other way'. Psychologists call it 'denial'. Whatever you call it, it is dangerous. It can lead to eating a lot of bad apples without knowing it.

Several years ago I was a delegate to a law-making conference of the church. The dynamics of the procedure were not much different from the sessions of the Alabama State Legislature, which I have observed many times. I found myself ill-disposed to come home and tell the people who had sent me what really went on. It would shatter too many illusions and create too much anxiety.

I was reminded of the old German adage: "It is better not to know how sausages and laws are made". I had never really understood that adage before, but my experience made it painfully clear. To know how sausages and laws are made tends to make you lose your taste for sausage and your respect for laws.

We are living in complex and potentially dangerous times. Even a democracy can be an ineffective and sometimes dangerous form of government in the absence of the studied attention of an informed citizenry. We take great pride and sometimes exaggerated comfort in the fact that we live in a democratic society. [I use the term "democracy" because that is how we commonly think of our form of government. Technically, we live in a constitutional republic.] It is easy to forget that whatever you call our form of government, it needs "tending to". It cannot be put on auto-pilot and left to function unobserved and unattended.

Speaking to the House of Commons in 1947 Winston Churchill made an astute "tongue in cheek" observation regarding democracy. He said: "Many forms of government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."

Any student of history and any observer of the rise and fall of governments over time would agree with that "Churchillian" observation. Our enthusiasm about our form of government has sometimes led us to mistakenly think that we could export it, unaltered, to other countries whose culture is complicated and radically different from our own, and that such a change would be received with universal appreciation and function with great success. We have had occasion to experience great disappointment in the practical application of that philosophy. We tend to forget, if we ever knew, Churchill's caveat regarding the universal and immediate application of democracy as we know it. In a conversation with President Eisenhower in August of 1954, Churchill opined: "I am a bit skeptical about universal suffrage for undeveloped nations [actually, he used the word 'Hottentots' which I am hesitant to use] even if refined by proportional representation..The British and American Democracies were slowly and painfully forged, and even they are not perfect yet."

Our form of government is a "work in progress" and is dangerously fragile when left to float unattended. When 'the people' do not know, or do not care, what is happening at city hall or in the state legislature or in Washington, our democratic society (constitutional republic) can not only become ineffective, it can fail. When we blindly elect officials who become increasingly beholden to the army of self-interested lobbyists who prowl the halls of our law-making bodies, looking for law-makers who are morally weak, financially needy and fearful of not being re-elected, our government is in mortal danger. An informed and vigilant populace is an essential ingredient of our democracy. Ignorance and indifference are the greatest enemies of good government..

The fabric of integrity in our social and political life is kept intact by the people who keep the lights on while eating apples; and who are willing to watch diligently to see how sausages and laws are made. Ignorance may momentarily soothe our anxieties and accommodate our laziness when we have to take a bite of something about which we are not sure, but it will cause us to end up swallowing wormy apples, bad sausage and equally unpalatable laws. Blissfully blind ignorance can cause illness and lawlessness and the loss of our most precious possession - freedom.

Keep the candle burning bright when you eat apples. Keep an eye on how your sausages and laws are made. It is the key to the survival of our form of government and our way of life.

Speaking on the right of the election of Lord Mayor of Dublin over 200 years ago, John P. Curran said: " The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance, which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.."

Don't blow out the candle!!!

Never Shoot an Iguana

2009-11-05T10:36:00.001-08:00

In her book Out of Africa, Isak Dinesen has a section called "From an Immigrant's Notebook", which is a collection of inimitable vignettes.

In one of the stories she tells of shooting an Iguana in the hope of making something from its beautiful skin. She describes the big lizard as having such colorful skin as to appear like a pane cut from an old church window. A strange thing happened when she shot the Iguana, which created for her a memory that she never forgot. As she was walking up toward the dead lizard, it faded, grew pale and all the color died out as in one long sigh. It was the life of the Iguana that radiated all of the glow and splendor, and now that the flame of life was put out, the beauty and soul of the Iguana was also gone.

She wrote a brief commentary on her memory of the experience. Ever since that time when she 'shot an Iguana,' the memory came back to haunt her each time she tried to capture some part of nature's beauty and take it for her private use. She recalled a line from the hero of a book she read as a child: "I have conquered them all, but I am standing amongst graves." She concluded: "For the sake of your own eyes and heart, never shoot an Iguana."

This pensive little story spoke volumes to me. I recalled the many sad experiences that I have had in trying to snatch natural beauty from its living source so that I could have it for myself. I remembered crushed butterflies, dead fireflies in a jar, cut flowers, dead song birds (killed with a slingshot) which could no longer sing, and treasured relationships killed by possessiveness.

Perhaps we have all, at some time in our lives, tried to capture for our own private use something of beauty which really did not belong exclusively to us, only to discover that it slowly (or quickly) died in our selfish grasp. Maybe it was more than a cut flower found dead the next day or a crushed butterfly. Perhaps you have smothered a person in the process of trying to possess them for yourself in a way in which one human being can never belong to another. Perhaps it was a child you did not allow to grow up because you loved them just like they were - dependent. It could be a husband or wife or an employee whose beauty, usefulness, and love died when you held them too close.

Possessiveness is a dangerous characteristic. The desire to take for ourselves that which does not rightly belong to us is the source of so much human suffering. It is the cause of destructiveness at so many levels. It is a primary ingredient of wars. It is most destructive when it is exercised in the small kingdom of the family. A powerful, possessive and controlling parent or spouse can wreak havoc in a family and cause emotional problems in individuals that infect subsequent generations.

In his novel, "The Sleeping Doll," Jeffery Deaver has one of his characters explain why she ran away from home and joined a cult when she was a teenager. "When I was growing up they (parents) were very authoritarian. I had to do everything the way they insisted. How I made my room, what I wore, what I was taking in school, what my grades were going to be. I got spanked until I was fourteen and I think he only stopped because my mother told my father it wasn't a good idea with a girl that age....They claimed it was because they loved me, and so on. But they were just control freaks. They were trying to turn me into a little doll for them to dress up and play with."

This is a story I have heard, in one form or another, hundreds of times. It often comes from young women who left home as soon as they could escape a possessive, controlling and/or abusive situation. Ironically, these women often subconsciously decide to marry a controlling husband and/or join a church or some other group with a controlling leader. They do so without realizing how, or understanding why, they are putting themselves right back into a possessive, controlling and potentially abusive situation. Thus the debilitating impediment moves from one generation to the next, leaving the landscape littered with victims.

Beware of over-weening possessiveness at any level. It is often expressed under the guise of love. Many insecure young women who are starved for love and attention misread possessiveness for love and learn one or two children too late that they have made a terrible mistake. When you kill the spirit of a person with over-weening possessiveness and control, the beauty of the person and the relationship is lost.

In a 'cut flower' civilization such as our own, where we are tempted to separate beauty from its source for fear it will fly away, or for fear someone else will take it, we would be wise to remember Isak Dinesen's experience.

Hold beauty and your beloved with a loose hand. Do not shoot the Iguana.

All Saints Day

2009-11-02T07:39:00.001-08:00

COMMUNITY........ All Saints Day…Affirmation: We need our ancestors, guides, and fellow travelers in this work of the Spirit.....a Community of Faith ……………………MARK 12:28-34…Many think of religion, with all its Commandments, as a burdensome straitjacket. This may have been true, in some sense, of the Judaism in Jesus' day, and it is sometimes true today among people who claim to belong to God. Jesus wanted to correct this false understanding of True Faith. He summed up the numerous Jewish Laws in two simple but profound Commandments: Love God totally and love others as much as we love ourself. If these two thoughts rule our heart and mind, we will be well along the Path of Spiritual Transformation. (The Life Recovery Bible)

REFLECTION: Circle of Faith.

If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people. (Thich Nhat Hanh)

The spiritual practice of love builds community, as do kindness and gratitude and prayer.

Community is created and renewed when individuals act in love and serve each other.

Prayer is the rippling tide of love which flows secretly from God into the soul and draws it mightily back to its source. (Mechthild of Magdeburg)

"Life is like a bottle of wine. Some are content to just read the label. Some drink the wine." (Tony DeMello)

Which are we? Do we participate fully in life and share God's love with others? Are we inebriated with Redemption?

The challenge is to stop reading the labels----or labeling one another----and to drink deeply of each experience, each day, and each one's stories. This affords us the opportunity to see each of those with whom we are in relationship as a lifeline to the deeper mysteries of life where all are connected.

God draws us together to embrace eternal possibilities that God has in store for us: a place where all are welcome and all find a home. Each day offers us a new beginning to set our feet as pilgrims on the path to find again this place. It is the Spirit of God, the very breath of God that leads us to this place.

The path depends more on Enlivening the Web of Connection that will allow the Everlasting Source to sustain Itself and us, the way blood circulates through the body. ("Making Connections" Joseph Nassal, Fall, 2009)

As Jesus' disciples, our love of others needs to be not just within the community of disciples but outward to all humanity. This embrace of our human family leads to greater knowledge and acceptance of ourselves. As Jesus instructs this embrace of the family calls for us to love our neighbor as ourselves. To do this authentically, we need to set aside or transcend our own selfish interests and delusions of self-importance.

The command to "love your neighbor as yourself" is a very simple concept. One does not need a degree in philosophy or theology to realize that if all of us would follow it consistently, virtually all violence, war, racial prejudice, and political and economic injustice would disappear from our planet overnight. The perfection of God's reign would just that suddenly appear in our midst. The concept may be simple enough, but the headlines in our daily papers and our nightly newscasts make it obvious we humans "don't get it."

To love is "to will the good of another." The definition implies that we need to make the effort to actively seek the good of the other as the circumstances dictate. It is not enough simply to think nice thoughts or have warm feelings toward another. (James 2:15-16) Nor is it enough to "will the good of another" only when it is convenient or does not involve any sacrifice of personal interests. Jesus taught that "no one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friend." (John 15:13)

Dear God, help us to see our true Spiritual condition. The key is Your first commandment. And we do know it. All our good works, all our prayers, all our righteous words can mask a barren love-relationship with You. We know to love You with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength. Help us to love with all that is in us. Help us then to love others the way that Jesus taught. Come, Holy Spirit, renew our willingness to participate in life this very day. Thank You, Three-in-One God. Amen.

"By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:35) …Jim Savage

When to Ask for Help, By Dr. Jim Savage

2009-10-20T10:56:00.001-07:00

How far do you go, or how long do you wait before you ask for help?

My sense of direction when driving leaves something to be desired. I even have difficulty finding places where I have been before if I have not been there in the last six months. I hate to stop and ask for directions. I have spent much time 'wandering' rather than getting where I wanted to go because of my pride.

Last year my children gave me a GPS for my birthday. Thank God for that unseen satellite in the sky which beams directions to my GPS, which talks to me, telling me in advance on which street I should turn. I punch in the specific address of my destination and proceed with great confidence without having to stop and ask.

One of my esteemed colleagues in the ministry is retired Baptist minister, Dr. Gerry Gunnells, erstwhile pastor of Spring Hill Baptist Church in Mobile, Alabama. Several years ago he wrote a column about a notice posted in a textile mill. The notice read: 'If your thread gets tangled, call the foreman'. "If you have ever seen the complicated operation of one of these giant carpet mills," said Dr. Gunnells, "you can understand the wisdom of the notice." To wait too long to call for help is to court catastrophe.

Since we usually feel that most of our lost conditions and tangled situations are of our own making, we tend to keep struggling unproductively on our own so that no one will see our failure. If we felt that the problem had been caused by someone else, or even by forces over which we had no control, we would be less apprehensive about calling for help. The wish to protect our 'image,' the illusion of 'independence,' as well as other unspoken reasons, keep us from making a legitimate request for help. It makes little difference who or what caused the tangled threads; it is imperative to call for help before the situation spreads beyond your own life and begins to entangle the lives of other people in your tapestry of relationships. The truth of the matter is most of the people who can help us care little who or what caused the tangle. It is the loss of our image of adequacy that makes us reticent to ask for help.

Where do you go for help? Go to those who have reason (by training and experience) to know how to help you. It is always good for us to be willing to 'call upon the Lord' for help, as long as we remember that more often than not God sends help to people through people. It is okay to pray when you are lost on the way somewhere, if you will remember to stop at the nearest gasoline station and ask for the information for which you have prayed. Many people think God operates like the Lone Ranger, sans Tonto. Not so. Angels come in the form of strange people, strange ways, and at strange times in answer to our prayers.

I love the story of a man who was in a flood zone during a hurricane. The sheriff's department sent a car to take him to higher ground. He refused to offer saying that he was a religious man and that God had promised to take care of him. The rising water was ankle deep in his living room when a boat came by and offered to take him to safety. He declined the help on the grounds that God had promised to take care of him. The rising water finally forced him to climb on the roof of his house. The rescue squad sent a helicopter and offered to take him to safety. Once again he refused help because God had promised to take care of him. The man was swept away in the flood and drowned.

The scene changes. The man arrives in heaven and demands to speak with God. He tells God how disappointed he is that after such a life of faith and trust that God did not take care of him. God said: "I sent a car, a boat, and a helicopter to rescue you and you refused my help".

More often than not angels come in human form.

If your thread gets tangled, or the water is rising, or if you get lost on the way, ask for help. You would be surprised how many people there are in the world who not only can help, but who want to help.

Things You Can’t Change and Things You Can

2009-10-01T11:42:00.001-07:00

AN ENCOURAGING WORD written for October 1, 2009, by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First United Methodist Church

We live in a frustrating world where there are nagging problems we cannot change - certainly not in the short term - maybe not in a lifetime - maybe never. Nothing frustrates us more than nagging personal problems. Frustration leads to resentment - and resentment to anger. Chronically angry people do strange and uncreative things to themselves and others, none of which resolves or even lessens the nagging problems.

There are problems in life that are beyond our power to fix. These are almost always problems outside ourselves. We have all worked on age-old social problems we wanted to fix only to discover that in spite of our best efforts, solutions would not likely take place in our lifetime, and maybe never.

There are problems in and between people we know and love that are beyond our power to fix. Sometimes there are problems in members of our immediate family that are beyond our power to fix no matter how hard we work and pray.

I have an old friend who, when he writes me, ends every letter with a well-known Latin idiom: "Amor vincit omni" - love conquers all. It is a lovely and hopeful thought, but its practical application has notable exceptions. Christians tend to extol the virtues of love as the immediate and final cure for everything. It pains me to tell you that this is not true, certainly not in the simplistic way in which we usually think and speak of love. Nothing is the cure for everything.

The only nagging problems we have the power to fix are our personal problems. Even then, there is no 'silver bullet'. If we have deep-seated unresolved anger, frustration, hatred or any other negative feeling that is burning us, it lies within our power to do something about it. No one else can do it for us. It will take intentional effort, or prayer or counseling or all of the above, but it is within our power.

As I write this column, I have just come from a meeting where I listened to one of my heroes speak, Col. Glenn Frazier. He is a World War II veteran and a survivor of the Bataan Death March. His suffering in that experience was beyond words. He hated the Japanese. Col. Frazier said that his hatred of the enemy was a useful, if not an essential attitude as a soldier at war. But, when the war was over and the enemy was defeated, the hatred did not go away. It intensified and became generalized. He hated Japanese automobiles, electronics and everything made in Japan. He came to hate people who bought anything made in Japan. The war was over, but not for Col. Frazier. In his heart there was no peace treaty. Twenty-five years of hatred rewarded him with nightmares every night. He dreaded going to sleep and finally could not sleep. His pastor counseled him that forgiveness was the only solution. He did not see how this was possible. But, after 25 years of suffering after the war, he decided he had to do something, and forgiveness was about the only thing he had not tried. So, with the tools of his faith and help of God he set out to forgive the Japanese. The process took two and one-half years. Probably the most difficult thing he ever did, but he did it. He finally threw down that weapon that was so useful to him as a soldier at war, but which was so self-destructive for him as a civilian in peace time. He said that after the process of forgiveness was complete, he has never had another nightmare!

In James Lee Burke's novel, A Stained White Radiance, there is an interesting and insightful encounter between Detective Dave Robicheaux and his AA sponsor, Tee Neg, an uneducated Cajun who could barely read and write. Before Tee Neg bought a bar and poolroom, he was a pipeline and an oil-field roughneck. Three fingers on his right hand were snipped off by a drilling chain.

It is obvious to Tee Neg that Robicheaux is chronically worried and frustrated, so he decides to do some 'Cajun counseling'. This is what he said:

"You're studying this case all the time. You t'ink that's it, but it ain't. You bothered by the way t'ings are, the way we got trouble with the colored peoples all the time, you bothered 'cause it ain't like it used to be. You want sout' Lou'sana to be like it used to be. You want sout' Lou'sana to be like it was when you and me and yo' daddy went all day and went everywhere and never spoke one word of English. You walk away when you hear white people talking bad about them Negro, like that bad feeling ain't in their hearts. But you keep pretend it's like it used to be, Dave, that these bad t'ings ain't in white people's hearts, then you gonna be walking away the rest of yo' life.

"I had seven years sobriety, me. Then I started studying on them fingers I left on that drill pipe. I'd get up with it in the morning, just like you wake up with an ugly, mean woman. I'd drag it around with me all day. I'd look at them pink stumps till they'd start throbbing. Then I went fishing one afternoon, went into a colored man's bait store to buy some shiners, told that man I was gonna catch me a hunnerd fish befo' the sun get behind them willow tree. Then I told him I changed my mind, just give me a quart of whiskey and don't bother about no shiners. I got drunk five years. Then I spent one in the penitentiary. Get mad about what you can't change and maybe you'll get to do just what Tee Neg done".

Do you understand that?! (Email for Dr. Butts: tolabu2@frontiernet.net )

Why People Give

2009-08-31T11:28:00.000-07:00

Why People Give

This is the time of year when churches are in the process of planning their projected budget. This essential procedure lacks exactitude, but when done correctly and published to the membership everyone gets a birds-eye view of the scope of the mission of the church.

The next step taken by most churches is to conduct a campaign for pledges to that budget. Many ministers and church leaders do not look forward to this annual task. We are reluctant to ask people to give, even to so worthy a project as the church. For the most part I have always found this exercise to be potentially spiritually enriching. I believe most people want to give to causes which represent the betterment of society in general and individuals in particular.

There are at least 3 essential ingredients to a stewardship campaign with integrity. The first is a clear understanding of the sacred nature of the cause for which money is being raised. This is God’s money. It is to be used only for promoting the Gospel and helping people. These are two things to which Jesus called his followers when he was here in the flesh. "Go ye unto all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation" (Mark 16:15). After a laundry list of ways we are called to minister to the poor and oppressed, Jesus said: "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren (and sisters) you did it unto me" (Matthew 25:40). Having established the holy nature of the effort we go to step two.

People tend to give generously when they know their leaders are giving generously. I recall a phrase from a stewardship campaign many years ago which I find to be true: "Financial influence runs downhill." No minister or church leader should ask others to do something they are not doing. One of my friends was asked by a local church to direct the annual stewardship campaign. Early on he was told that the pastor of the church had never pledged, and had no record of giving. He went to the pastor and asked if this was true. After some stuttering and fancy footwork the pastor admitted this to be true, but said he gave to other undocumented causes. My friend said to him: "You will either make a pledge worthy of your means right now or I will pack my bags and go home. I will not ask people to do something their pastor is not doing."

The third important element: "Do not be afraid to ask people to give." When the cause is beyond our own interest – when it is for the highest purpose, be bold.

Robert Macauley, founder of AmeriCares Foundation, a humanitarian group that provides relief efforts at home and around the world, recalled an experience he and Mother Teresa had on an airplane flying to Mexico. As box dinners were being passed out, Mother Teresa asked how much the airline would donate to her charity if she returned her dinner. When she found out, she soon had everyone, including the crew, returning their dinners.
But it didn’t stop there. When the plane arrived at its destination, Mother Teresa asked the crew if she could have the dinners to donate to the poor. And, when the airline provided the dinners, she asked to borrow one of their maintenance trucks to deliver them.

If your cause is just and you can speak with the moral authority of one who has already set an example, boldness is appropriate.

AN ENCOURAGING WORD for September 27, 2007 - written by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First United Methodist Church

The Tyranny of Absolute Certainty

2009-08-27T14:19:00.001-07:00

AN ENCOURAGING WORD written for August 20, 2009, by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First United Methodist Church

The Tyranny of Absolute Certainty

What we see and understand in and about life so often fails to correspond with what others see and understand. For those for whom unanimity of understanding is essential to emotional security and mental comfort, this universal fact is a source of considerable frustration and anxiety.

In the opening chapter of his classic book, The Immense Journey, anthropologist and naturalist, Loren Eiseley, offers an insightful caveat concerning his view of reality which he gives in the remainder of his book. He says: "On the world island we are all castaways, so that what is seen by one may often be dark, obscure (or hidden) to another". (Eiseley, Loren. "The Immense Journey". Vintage Books, 1959. 14)

There are so many things which conspire to keep us from seeing things alike. Our views are conditioned by our experiences, our ignorance (or education), our prejudices, and our deep (and often unconscious) personal needs.

How futile it is for us to expect others to share our perceptions of reality with uniform exactitude. We may learn from each other, but we will never be alike. Those who nurture serious expectations of uniformity are doomed to disappointment; and those who are obsessed by expectations of uniformity are the budding tyrants of our time who would extinguish the human mind, which is the primary light by which God has traditionally rescued us from darkness and ignorance, chaos and fear.

We are never in greater danger of error than when we are absolutely certain that we are absolutely right. The most destructive and inhumane times in history have been those in which some person or group of persons have been so absolutely sure they were absolutely right that they used the power at their disposal to impose their views of reality on all who were under their domain. Some of the most unpleasant people I have ever met have been people who were absolutely sure they were absolutely right, and whose mission in life was to impose their views on everyone else by whatever means necessary.

To be a little uncertain, or at least only moderately sure, is to be human - and humane. The encouraging word for today is that you do not have to be absolutely sure in order to be right.

It is quite possible to have strong convictions and still be open to those with countervailing strong convictions. Our understanding of reality changes as we grow older, and hopefully, wiser. My children ask me questions to which I sometimes have to reply: "You should have asked me that question thirty years ago when I knew the answer!" I suspect that all of you who are over thirty-nine have had same or similar experiences.

The people with whom Jesus had his most serious problems were those who had no doubt whatsoever that they were absolutely right. In order to prove their point and eliminate any doubt about how wrong he was, they killed him.

Think about that the next time you are absolutely sure that you are absolutely right.

(You may email Dr. Butts at tolabu2@frontiernet.net )

Teach Us To Pray, by Dr. Jim Savage

2009-08-12T14:32:00.000-07:00

"Call to Me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known." (Jer 33:3)

The utmost earnestness should be employed in seeking Salvation in the use of appointed means; yet it is to be sought only as the Gift of the Son of man.

Constant exercise of faith in Christ is the most important and difficult part of the Obedience required from us as sinners seeking Salvation. When by His Grace we are enabled to Live a Life of Faith in the Son of God, holy tempers follow, and acceptable services may be done. God, even His Father, who gave their fathers that food from heaven to support their natural lives, now gave them the True Bread for the Salvation of their souls. Coming to Jesus, and believing in Him, signify the same. Christ shows that He is the True Bread; He is to the soul what bread is to the body, He nourishes and supports the Spiritual Life. He is the Bread of God. Bread which the Father gives, which He has made to be the food of our souls. Bread nourishes only by the powers of a living body; but Christ is Himself Living Bread and nourishes by His own Power. The Doctrine of Christ Crucified is now as strengthening and comforting to a believer as ever it was. He is the Bread which came down from heaven. This shows the Divinity of Christ's person and His Authority; also, the Divine origin of all the Good which flows to us through Him. May we with understanding and earnestness say, Lord, evermore give us this Bread. (Matthew Henry)

"We receive God's Grace and it has nothing to do with merit. The beauty and the paradox of Grace is God does not demand that we EARN His blessings. The Grace and Love of God transcends our human ability to understand. But even without understanding, we are Called to Accept that Gift of Grace, freely given, and rejoice.

There is great Mystery. But what we need to Know and Believe is that there is great Power. Things happen when we pray that do not happen if we don't pray.

Prayer is one of the Ways we link ourselves with God; we put ourselves in the channel of God's moving Power; and we participate with God in ministry to All." (Maxie Dunnam)

REFLECTION: Practice a Life of Prayer:

The psalmist pleads his earnestness, and the Mercy of God, as reasons why his prayer should be heard.

Our poverty and wretchedness, when felt, powerfully plead in our behalf at the Throne of Grace. The best self-preservation is to Commit ourselves to God's Keeping. I am one whom Thou favorest, hast set apart for Thyself, and made partaker of Sanctifying Grace. It is a great encouragement to prayer to feel that we have received the Converting Grace of God, have learned to Trust in Him, and to be His servants. We may expect comfort from God when we keep up our Communion with God. God's Goodness appears in two things, in giving and forgiving. Whatever others do, let us call upon God and Commit ours case to Him; we shall not seek in vain. (Psalm 86, Matthew Henry)

AFFIRMATION: Grace:

Grace is the Gift of unlimited blessings that I receive without any requirements or stipulations being placed on me. There is no term I must meet and there is nothing I can do to earn or lose the unconditional Love of my Creator.

Grace is always present and blessing me. Mercy and Goodwill are mine Now and Always.

The Gift of Grace proclaims that I am of unquestionable value to my Creator; the generosity of God inspires me to give back in return.

Yet the Reality is I am Always Blessed with more than I give.

Thank You, Gracious God. Thank You, Christ Jesus. Thank You, Holy Spirit. Amen.

"Incline Your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy....You are my God, be gracious to me, O Lord, for to You I cry all day long....Hear my prayer, O Lord." (Ps 86:1, 3, 6)

"Keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of Your people, and direct their hearts toward You." (1 Chron 29:18)

AUDACIOUS PRAYERS / PERFECT RESPONSE, by Dr. Jim Savage

2009-08-10T13:58:00.000-07:00

(Fearlessly daring; bold; unrestrained by convention)

"David danced before the Lord with all his might......."

IN THE MORNING:

Lord, give me a cheerful disposition, not only to benefit myself but also to bless others. I know that a good attitude can be a great influence for You. Help my Joy spread to all those I meet. Amen.

2 Samuel 6:12-19:

It became evident that happy was the man who had the Ark near him. Christ is indeed a Stone of stumbling, and a Rock of offence to those that are disobedient; but to those that Believe He is a Corner-stone, Elect, Precious. (1 Peter 2:6-8)

Let us be religious. Is the Ark a blessing to others' houses? We may have it, and the blessing of it, without fetching it away from our neighbors. David, at first setting out, offered sacrifices to God. We are likely to speed in our enterprises when we begin with God and give diligence to seek Peace with Him. And we are so unworthy, and our services are so defiled, that all our Joy in God must be connected with Repentance and Faith in the Redeemer's atoning blood. David attended with high expressions of Joy. We ought to serve God with our whole body and soul and with every endowment and power we possess. (Matthew Henry, 1662-1714)

"Remarkable things happened when the early church prayed. The fourth chapter of the Book of Acts records just one of those Audacious Prayers and the nearly unbelievable events that followed a time of very Bold Prayer.....

The results of the apostles' Prayer was evident to those within the church and astounded observers from afar, who were then drawn to this contagious and Joyful community.

May our Prayers be as Audacious and God's Response in our midst as dramatic and Transforming." (Rueben P. Job)

CONTEMPLATION: Stillness and Praying....Personal Rhythm:

Some never experience the Peace of Contemplation because they try to Pray in distractions. Most people realize that it is difficult to hear God's whisper over blaring noises. Our noise is on the inside. Our minds grind in an endless conversation---commenting, regretting, expecting, worrying, resenting. Because of these distractions our encounters with God remain shallow and tentative. Some of the early Desert Fathers called this the ceaseless "murmuring" of our minds. An early abba likened the mind to a tree full of chattering monkeys.

Through a rhythm of quieting and "stilling," of systematic Preparation for Prayer, we can Attune ourselve to the Mystery within us. Contemplation begins with the quieting of one's whole lifestyle and being.

Discipline of Inner Stillness:

1. Prepare yourself. Be comfortable; Be alone; Slow down.

2. Be Aware. Observe feelings; Relax.

3. Breathe. Take four long breaths. These can help you distance yourself from the world. (Sr. Kathryn Hermes, 2001)

(4. Enjoy the Presence of God.)

"This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." (Ps 118:24)

Enjoy the blessings of this day.

"Be glad of Life, because it gives you the chance to Love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars; to think often of your friends, and every day of Christ; and to spend as much time as you can, with body and with spirit, in God's out-of-doors.

These are the little Guideposts on the footpath to Peace." (Henry van Dyke)

PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES OF DISCIPLES, by Dr. Jim Savage

2009-08-06T13:47:00.000-07:00

Disciples are Expectant.

The Way early disciples lived mystified people around them because the disciples seemed to live in another world. The Principles that guided them clearly differed from those that guided others. They Practiced a Way of Life both beautiful and mysterious. Their Lives made sense only if one Knew that they were Living by the Power and Guidance of God. Their Lives were governed by the Reign of God and not by the press of politics or the call of culture. They were Different Because they Chose to Live their Lives in Obedience to and in the Presence of God. (Reuben P. Job, A Guide To Prayer For All Who Seek God, Upper Room, 2003)

The people sought the Spiritual food of Christ's Word, and then He took care that they should not want bodily food. If Christ and His disciples put up with mean things, surely we may.

And this miracle shows that Christ came into the world, not only to Restore, but to Preserve and Nourish Spiritual Life; in Him there is enough for All that come. None are sent away from Christ but those who come to Him full of themselves.

No difficulties can hinder Christ's appearance for His people when the set time is come.

Let the disciples have their Master with them, and All Is Well. It is for want of rightly understanding Christ's former works that we view His present works as if there never were the like before.

It is sad to think how much more most care about their bodies than about their souls. (Mark 6:30-34, 53-56, Matthew Henry)

"Regardless of how we define Christ's separation from the world, one fact is clear: He did not separate Himself from human beings and their needs. Nor did He limit His concern to the Spiritual part of man's personality." (Edwin W. Lutzer, 1941-)

REFLECTION: Wherever we are, God Is, and All Is Well.

THE LIGHT OF GOD SURROUNDS US. Wherever we may be in the world, we give thanks that God's Light is shining on our Pathways.

THE LOVE OF GOD ENFOLDS US. We are never alone. Enfolded in the Love of God, we receive the deep, abiding comfort of our Creator.

THE POWER OF GOD PROTECTS US. God is the One Power and Presence in the universe, ever with us and blessing us.

THE PRESENCE OF GOD WATCHES OVER US. We are eternally One with God and one another.

WHEREVER WE ARE, GOD IS! And ALL IS WELL.

(This prayer was put in Bibles for troops in WWII and also taken to the moon when astronauts landed there in 1969)

"Do not fear for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand." (Isaiah 41:10)

Father God, give us Jesus' wisdom, Jesus' heart, Jesus' determination to minister to All. He had compassion on All. Thank You, Gracious God, for Christ Jesus. Lord, today minister to our churches wherever they are, to Your disciples wherever they might be this day. Help us to live in this world but not be a part of this world, Now striving to Live Your Way. May we have the compassion and generosity toward All that You showed us. Thank You for coming to show us the Way Home to the Father through You. Come, Holy Spirit, guide us this day in the Jesus Way. Thank You for the assurance of Such Love! Amen.

"When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the Harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His field." (Matthew 9:36-38) In Christ, Jim

“Hollow Praise” by Dr. James H. Savage

2009-08-05T06:47:00.000-07:00

Has someone ever given you a compliment, and later said something about you behind your back that was not so pleasant? Why do we humans do this? Would it not be easier to simply never offer the compliment to the other person if we are not serious about our words? How does it make you feel about the other person when you find out through the rumor mill that unkind things have been spoken? I wonder how Jesus felt on Palm Sunday as he rode into Jerusalem.

The New Testament shares through the four gospels that Jesus began to be less and less popular as Passover came closer and closer. Jesus was talking about His death more as each month passed by. Jesus’ disciples seem to become more nervous as they journey closer to Jerusalem, and as they speak more about death.

When Jesus and the disciples reach Bethpage, they settle down near an olive grove. Some of these olive trees today date back for many centuries. We often call this place that is still in existence “the mount of olives.” It is located on a hillside directly across from the hillside gate where Jesus would enter on the next Sunday. Jesus spent much time in prayer and thought as he prepared himself for the entry into Jerusalem. A great number of people were still following Jesus, and many inside the city had heard about Him. Jesus must have been famous by the time Sunday had come, for the crowds were lining the streets. They were praising Jesus, and proclaimed: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” Why were they waving palm branches, and calling Jesus “the Son of David?” They did this because they expected Jesus to overthrow the Romans, lead a rebellion of Zealots, and establish a new nation of Israel. Jesus heard their shouts of praise, and already knew He would disappoint them greatly since His purpose was very different.

I personally think Jesus appreciated the support, and shouts of praise. But Jesus would also have concern in His heart for the souls of the same people who would turn their backs on Him in just a few days. Everyone loves a person in power like a king or a president. But no one likes a servant who dies on a cross for the spiritual salvation of the world.

Things did not change for the followers of Jesus until The Day of Pentecost. Even the event of Easter did not provide the power and courage that was needed. Palm Sunday reminds me that our praises to God might be hollow shouts of praise until we receive the power and courage we need through the Holy Spirit. In my daily relationships, Palm Sunday reminds me to offer true and genuine encouragement to family, friends, and church members alike. My prayer is that each of us will be filled with God’s Spirit this year, and offer our praises to God, and our encouragement to our fellow Christians along the way. I pray that our praise to God and our encouragement to others will never become words that are nothing more than “Hollow Praise.” God grants the Spirit to all who ask. God offers us the opportunity to offer heartfelt praise this year! Praise God!

It is interesting that all four of the traditional gospel writers include the story of what we call “Palm Sunday.” Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all share this great story, but here is Matthew’s account:
“When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethpage at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, ‘Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; and they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the palm trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.” May the God of all palms and praises touch your heart and bring comfort to your soul this spring. May the God who led Jesus to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, be with you and give you comfort, and strength for each day: and may the God of peace bring peace to all souls that struggle.

ENCOUNTERING OPPOSITION, by Dr. Jim Savage

2009-08-04T07:27:00.000-07:00

SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE: Psalm 130

Many things present themselves as diversions, many things offer themselves as remedies, but the soul finds that the Lord alone can heal. The Holy Ghost gives to poor souls a fresh sense of their deep necessity, to stir them up in earnest applications, by the prayer of Faith, by crying to God. And as they love their souls, as they are concerned for the Glory of the Lord, they are not to be wanting in this duty....... Then let us up and be doing; it must be done, and it is attended with safety. We are to humble ourselves before God, as guilty in His sight. Let us acknowledge our sinfulness; we cannot justify ourselves or plead not guilty.

Jesus Christ is the great Ransom; He is ever an Advocate for us and through Him we Hope to obtain forgiveness. (Matthew Henry,1662-1714)

"I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His Word I Hope....." (Psalm 130:5)

JOHN WESLEY ON PSALM 130:

In his journal, John Wesley describes hearing a choir at Saint Paul's Cathedral singing this Psalm on May 24, 1738, just hours before he felt his "heart strangely warmed" at Aldersgate Street. This is a Psalm of Hope, a plea for God to hear; an expression of Hope for God's forgiveness. The Psalmist repeatedly asserts Hope that God will Save. (The Wesley Study Bible, 2009)

REFLECTION: AWARENESS / AUTHENTIC DISCIPLESHIP:

The powers of this world do not want to see their authority and control usurped by another, even if that other is God.

To preach a Message and Practice a Life of Authentic Discipleship will make us uncomfortable and make others anxious and sometimes hostile. We are not above the struggle of what it means to Follow Jesus. The complex issues of Life do not lend themselves to easy answers. It is not easy to Know with certainty the Path we are to Follow. ("A Wesleyan spiritual Reader" by Rueben P. Job, Upper Room Guide To Prayer For All Who Seek God)

WHAT WONDER DOES FOR US:

Wonder expands our thinking, deepens our insight, attunes our hearing. We begin to ask, Why? and How? and What if?

Out of that quest comes Discovery: all of our inventions and creations and musings and pushing for knowledge---our drive to conquer challenges, to search out mysteries. It should lead somewhere, prod us to think a bigger thought that moves on to nobler or more expansive actions. Visions and insights that Open us to Wonder should be enjoyed and meditated on and pondered through the years until we not only Understand their Meaning, but find ourselves shaped by them.

A Sense of Wonder exposes the world as more than flat and static and still.

We become able to See its dynamic qualities, to See inside and through and past the obvious. Wonder recognizes and enjoys the beauty of Creation and the quality of Created Things.

When we develop the Sense of Wonder we gain insight into Purposes and Meanings behind events and gain the desire to Seek out Wisdom from the Powers beyond our own.

We're able to Understand that this Life isn't all there is.

There's a time and space and order in another Realm.

Those of us who have come to Know this have to Share the Love discovered! The Holy Spirit is truly Guiding the Way if only we Wait and Seek with our whole heart and mind and soul.

Dear God, lead us in new directions this very day is our prayer. Surprise us with insights that never end! May we Share the Love we've found. Thank You, Father God. Amen.

PRAYING FOR BOLDNESS, by Dr. Jim Savage

2009-08-03T14:00:00.000-07:00

".....The righteous are as Bold as a lion." (Proverbs 28:1)

True Prayer begins with God who moves our spirit, as the Gospel song tells us, to seek Him seeking us.

To believe that we who Pray take the initiative is a conceit born of pride! The impulse to Pray always begins with God. We may either choose to Obey or ignore that impulse, but the impulse itself always begins with God. Through our Prayers He reveals that His Will is wholly Love, and that our response to that Will must be Love as well. Even our Love for God draws its Energy from the Source of Love itself, which is God...........

This yielding may begin hesitatingly, reluctantly, and with apprehension, but over time these misgivings must give way to the Joy of that New Awareness that comes of Spiritual Rebirth. (Russell M. Hart, "Crossing the Border")

WESLEYAN LIFE APPLICATION TOPIC: PRAYER

Wesley calls Prayer the "proper test of our desires, nothing being fit to have a place in our desires which is not fit to have a place in our Prayers." (Sermon 26) He says we Pray "not for a passive, as for an active conformity to the Will of God." Testing desires and being conformed to God's Will do not happen in passive pleasantries of Prayer. It takes us beyond a "sweet hour of Prayer" into a Profound Awareness of God's Goodness and painful confession of our sin until we hear the often disturbing and always challenging Word of God for our world. (The Wesley Study Bible, 2009)

REFLECTION: PRAYER CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE: Rest for the Soul:

We need to find an "out-of-the-way" place in our own backyard or by a lake or at a park to "rest awhile." When we are stretched in so many different directions we still need time by ourselves to get our Life together.

Most of us only spend time at these rest stops once or twice a year during the period we have marked on our calendars: Vacation.

When that time arrives and we hit the road to get away from it all, sometimes we maintain the pace we keep during the rest of the year. When we return we often seem more tired than when we left. But every now and then during this sacred space of leisure----whether we put our feet as we gaze at majestic mountains in the early morning mist or soothe our thirsty feet in a cool stream; or put our feet under the table in the company of Friends----we may find ourselves whispering, "Ah, the Good Life."

The challenge comes in keeping that whisper Alive in our hearts when the rubber meets the road again and we find ourselves rushing off to our next appointment. The challenge is to find these holy places of rest in the midst of the hectic pace of everyday Life. The challenge is to take a few mini-vacations each day to refresh the spirit and restore the soul. (Joseph Nassal, "Rest Stops for the Soul")

2 Corinthians 12:7-10:

"My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorn. I have thanked Thee a thousand times for my roses, but not once for my thorn. I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my Cross, but I have never thought of my Cross as itself a present Glory. Thou Divine Love, whose human path has been perfected through sufferings, teach me the Glory of my Cross, teach me the value of my thorn." "George Matheson, 1842-1906)

Dear God, we Know to Trust You with our sufferings. Help us to understand Your great compassion, even when You choose to let us remain broken. Teach us through our weaknesses to lean on Your Strength. Give us Grace as You keep us humble, so that Christ's Power may rest on us. Forgive us, Lord, when we forget Your Gift of how to Pray, and Your example of Love. Come, Holy Spirit, purify our hearts with Holy Fire this day. Teach us is our Prayer always. Thank You, Gracious God. Thank You, Christ Jesus. Thank You, Holy Spirit! Amen.

"But He gives us more Grace. That is why Scripture says: 'God opposes the proud but gives Grace to the humble.' " (James 4:6, Prov 3:34)

Tell What You have Seen, By Dr. Jim Savage

2009-08-02T09:31:00.000-07:00

TELL WHAT YOU HAVE SEEN

"He wants you to become a Living Force for All mankind, Lights shining in the world. You are to be radiant Lights as you stand beside Christ, the Great Light, bathed in the Glory of Him who is The Light." (St. Gregory Nazianzen)

The language of God is specifically tailored to each person who encounters Him.

The apostle Thomas was missing when Jesus appeared to the apostles. He claimed that he wouldn't believe Jesus was risen until he put his hands into the wounds of the Savior. To Thomas, a man struggling with faith, Jesus spoke a very "physical" language: "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believe." (Jn 20:27) Jesus offered His body to Thomas so that he could touch His wounds and Know that it was He.

To Mary Magdalene, on the other hand, Jesus said, "Do not hold Me for I have not yet ascended to the Father." (Jn 20:17) Mary was not struggling with faith, she was shaken by Love. She did not need to touch in order to confirm her faith. Love had led her beyond doubt. To one in Love, Jesus instead gave a Mission: "Go to my brethren and say to them...." (Jn 20:17)

Many whom Jesus healed, forgave, or called in the Gospels were sent to tell someone else what had been done for them. The Samaritan woman is one who went off to gather her whole town to hear Jesus. Those people saw for themselves, then moved on to develop their own stories of Relationship to this Teacher at the well.

The world waits for the story of what you have seen. Your contemplative Living, your Journeys through Prayer, the Crosses you have carried and Shared, the nights you have passed through, God's Self-revelation to you----someone is waiting to hear.

Your story will be the language by which others will learn how to sit in God's Presence, Listen, and speak to Him.

Jesus Knew where He had come from, why He was here, and what He was supposed to accomplish. He came down from heaven not to do His own will, but the will of the Father. That determination controlled every decision He made.

As a result, He was not distracted with trivia. He was never in a hurry, for He Knew His Father would not give a task without the time to do it. Christ was not driven by crises, feeling He must heal everyone in Israel. He could say, "It is finished," even when many people were still bound by demons and twisted by disease. What mattered ultimately was not the number of people healed or fed, but whether the Father's will was being done. His clearly defined goals simplified His decisions." (Erwin W. Lutzer, 1941-)

AFFIRMATION: Awareness: Gratefulness: JOY IN LIVING:

Gratitude brightens any day. We can be on a personal Mission to brighten the world with appreciation to God.

Coming from our hearts, we put our Love into words of appreciation for family, friends, All....even those who pass through our day only briefly.

We can say silent thank-yous to Spirit throughout the day for Blessings and Opportunities. With each acknowledgement, we grow in Awareness of God as our Source of Love.

"Thanks be to God for His indescribable Gift!" (2 Cor 9:15)

"Do not fear, God is with you. Be serene, joyful, happy. Carry serenity, joy, and a smile everywhere, especially where smiles re missing because God's Grace is missing." (Venerable Mother Thecla)

"This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:24) In Christ, Jim

A Call to Confession, by Dr. Jim Savage

2009-08-01T09:30:00.000-07:00

A CALL TO CONFESSION: AWARENESS

As Believers it is our privilege to Share the Good News. It is our responsibility after we have met Jesus. He IS our Life and we want others to Know this great Gift of Love.

REFLECTION: EMMAUS ROAD EXPERIENCE:

In a way, the disciples leaving Jerusalem and walking to Emmaus were experiencing may of our misperceptions about God. They had expected a Messiah who would accomplish things their way, on their timetable, to their satisfaction. And instead, He had been killed. That was it. Their time had been wasted. Their hopes had been dashed.

Then a man caught up with them and accompanied them to their home. He was interested in their feelings about the situation. He kept them talking, while they revealed to Him their fears, their disappointment, and ultimately the Love that lay beneath their pain.

In a sense, they were walking away from their commitment to discipleship because Jesus hadn't performed correctly...or the way they had expected.......

Jesus put Himself totally at their disposal for as long as they desired His Presence. He taught and didn't rebuke. He listened and spoke as long as it took to ignite Anew the Fire in their hearts. He revealed Himself in the breaking of the bread. By the time He disappeared from their midst, their commitment had been Rekindled. They ran, not walked, back to Jerusalem.

Lord Jesus, You speak to us and our world changes. You say, "Be still!" and all of creation listens. All recognize Your voice. This same voice spoke everything into Being with the dawning of time. You are Lord over All and give Peace to All who take the time to be still and listen for Your voice today. Peace You leave with us. Thank You, Christ Jesus. Amen.

"Be Still My Soul" (1752, Katharina von Schlegel)

Be still my soul! Thy God doth undertake To guide the future as He has the past.

Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;

All now Mysterious shall be bright at last.

Be still my soul! The waves and winds still Know His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.

AFFIRMATION: Feeling Peace in the Moment:

I take a few moments throughout the day to rest from all activities---from thinking and talking, looking and doing----and become still.

I let go of any expectations of what I should feel or do. The less I focus on myself and my surroundings, the more at Peace I am.

I maintain Awareness of the Present Moment. There are no concerns to distract me, no disruptions to my time alone with God.

I rest in the Silence and let Serenity wash over me.

The Peace I experience in the quiet of this Sacred Time brings respite and Renewal to my soul. I am in the Flow of God's Love.

Thank You, Father God. Thank You, Christ Jesus. Thank You, Holy Spirit. Amen.

"The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you Peace." (Numbers 6:26)

"For He is the Living God and He endures forever; His kingdom will not be destroyed, His dominion will never end. He rescues and He saves; He performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth." (Daniel 6:26-27)

Somebody Touched Me (Pt 3) The Conclusion

2009-07-31T09:29:00.000-07:00

I do not know what it is that makes us reach out in desperation, any more than I know what makes us withdraw in fear. I only know that we stand in constant need of each other, and without each other, we die a little each day.

How do we come to have this need to touch and be touched? I do not know what it is, I only know that it is. Jesus was many things to many people. He was a person so varied that all attempts to describe him in the human dimension fall far short of an adequate explanation. Thus we have come to call him the God-man, or the Son of God. Whatever else may be said of Jesus, it must be said that he was deeply sensitive to the needs of people. And he knew how to reach out and touch those who needed him. It little mattered to him that they were young or old, Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, man or woman, sick or well. He reached out and touched them and they lived. Since we are pledged to follow this God-man, Jesus, should we not go and do likewise?

That is the kind of sensitivity that we, too, must develop for those we serve, and for one another. This is what church is all about. If we miss this meaning of the Gospel, how poor and empty and ineffective our lives and our life together will be!!

Somebody Touched Me (Pt 2) The Sermon

2009-07-30T09:28:00.000-07:00

I am sure this story has many things to say to us, but today, let us see what it has to say to us about what it means to touch somebody, or to be touched. Touching is surrounded by mant taboos in our society. On Sunday mornings I stand at the door of the church and greet the members of the congregation by touching them. But, how I touch each of them is carefully regulated by an unwritten, but well known, law of decorum. How I greet the congregation under that unwritten law of decorum depends on their age, sex, social standing, and their relationship to me as a person. Those who are under six, I may pick them up and kiss them. If they are female and over sixteen, I don't do that. The adult males I will greet by touching their hands, or elbow, or perhaps even their shoulder, but no more lest people think odd of it. Those who are over sixty and related to me, I may embrace them -- carefully -- if they are not too sophisticated. And, on and on, the unwritten code of decorum goes. You know the rules better than I do because I do not always abide by the rules. The most common form of greeting by touch is the handshake, which is a form of greeting that became common in the 18th Century. It was also used in ancient Rome as a pledge of honor. Some say that the handshake was the earliest form of greeting by primitive people. The open extended right hand was intended to show that two people who were meeting had no weapon. It meant: "I come in peace. I mean to bring you no harm; see, my weapon hand is empty." (You could be in trouble by trusting this system if you happen to have a left-handed enemy.)

What does it mean to touch -- or to be touched? It means love. Perhaps that is why we are so cautious about touching. Perhaps this is why we have hedged it about with so many rules and regulations. It is an expression of intimacy that says: "I am open and vulnerable to you. I need you and want to be needed by you." One has to trust and love in order to do that. When I look around and see all of the wounded and isolated people no one has touched for a long time, and who have touched no one for a long time, it makes me very sad. When no one touched us, we may be greatly admired and highly respected, but equally deeply rejected as a person. We need to be touched in order to be reassured that we are loved. The need to be touched is built into the human nervous system. Slice into life at any age or stage and you will find the need to be touched expressing itself in a wide variety of ways. The need is there when we are born, and it continues until we die. For instaance, the clinical history of what happens to little children in hospitals who are seldom touched by human hands is tragic.

When my children were young they came to me in the evenings when I came home to touch and be touched. They wanted to sit in the chair with me -- but they became too old and I got too wide for that. Sometimes I brushed the children aside and asked to be left alone because I was tired and weary of people Do you know what they would do when I did that? (You mothers know!) They turned quickly to their mother, or to each other, or to the dog; and they would sit closeto each other or touch by fighting intensely or loving the dog inordinately; not only to fulfill the normal human need to touch, but to compensate for having just been rejected by their father. If we live in a world where somebody touches us, we can survive many jostles and rebuffs in life.

Age does not subdue the need to be touched. We sometimes forget that elderly people need to be touched too. In fact, the need is often intensified in old age because of deprivation. Have you ever stopped in the hall way of a nursing home to speak and shake hands with people sitting there in their wheel chairs? When you are ready to break off the conversation and be on your way many of these patients will not release your hand. They want you to stay. They love to be touched. Nobody has more beautifully or more classically depicted this need in the elderly than Donna Swanson in her free verse poem, "Minnie Remembers." I never read it but what I see my mother and grandmother, and a thousand elderly people I have known in my ministry through the years Listen.

"God,

My hands are old.

I've never said that out loud before, but they are.

I was so proud of them once.

They were soft, like the velvet smoothness of a firm, ripe peach.

Now the softness is like worn-out sheets or withered leaves.

When did these slender, graceful hands become gnarled and shrunken?

When, God?

They lie here in my lap as naked reminders of the rest of this

old body that has served me too well -- if not too long.

How long has it been since someone touched me?

Twenty years?

Twenty years I've been a widow.

Respected. Smiled at. But never touched.

Never held close to another body.

Never held so close and warm that loneliness was blotted out.

I remember the first boy who ever kissed me.

We were both so new at that.

The taste of young lips and popcorn, the feeling deep

inside of mysteries to come.

I remember Hank and the babies.

How can I remember them but together?

Out of the fumbling, awkward attempts of new lovers came

the babies.

And as they grew, so did our love.

And, God, Hank didn't seem to care if my body thickened

and faded a little.

He still loved it, and touched it.

And we didn't mind if we were no longer 'beautiful.'.

And the children, they hugged me a lot.

Oh, God, I'm lonely.

Why didn't we raise the kids to be silly and affectionate,

as well as dignified and proper?

You see, they do their duty.

They drive up in their fine cars.

They come to my room to pay their respects.

They chatter brightly and reminisce.

But they don't touch me.

They call me 'Mom' or 'Mother' or 'Grandma.'

Never Minnie.

My mother called me Minnie.

And my friends called me Minnie.

Hank called me Minnie, too.

But they're gone.

And so is Minnie.

Only Grandma is here.

And, God! She's lonely!"

Somebody touches me and life takes on meaning; nobody touches me and I am enveloped by a pervading sense of loneliness that is beyond words.

The human touch is so basic that it has been called "The Mother of the Senses." In a world filled with stress and strain, we reach out to our loved ones for comfort, but if by reason of indifference or preoccupation they fail to respond, we begin to look for some meaningful substitute for intimacy. We feel pain when nobody touches us, and we subconsciously begin to cast about for some surrogate, though less meaningful, experience to compensate for what we need, but do not have. Perhaps the most common substitute for the human touch is pets -- dogs and cats. I have noticed that many nursing homes now have inhouse animals for the patients to pet--to touch.

Desmond Morris, in his book, "Intimate Behavior," reminds us that in the United States we spend billions of dollars annually on more than a hundred million dogs and cats. Blocked in our human contacts by cultural restrictions, we redirect our intimacy to a love substitute -- pets. If those closest to us cannot supply us with what we need, and it is too dangerous to seek intimacy with strangers, we make tracks to the nearest pet shop, where for a small sum we purchase ourselves a bit of animal intimacy. Pets are innocent. They ask no questions, and they cause no questions. But these additional, or substitute, sources of intimacy are, at best, poor replacements for the human touch. I am not suggesting that we ban pets, because I doubt that the absence of pets would remedy the fears and inhibitions that compose an iron curtain around our lives. For instance, I doubt if the ubiquitous elderly lady in every community, who has forty-nine cats, were to suddenly discover that all of those cats had disappeared, that she would take to stroking the postman when he comes by. When the need to touch or to be touched is blocked, for whatever reason, we nearly always find some substitute. Late-life love affairs are not at all uncommon in assisted living and nursing homes.

How often do you suppose people go to the hairdresser, the barbershop, the shoe-shine parlor, or to the doctor, or to a masseur or a masseuse just to be touched in a socially acceptable way. What does it mean when somebody touches us -- or fails to touch us?

Many years ago I did a sermon on "Touch" in a South Alabama County Seat town church. One of the school teacher members stopped at the door and waited to tell me her own poignant story of the need to be touched. She taught first grade in a section of town where many of the children came from homes where emotional deprivation was common. She said that she had always tried to compensate for what these children lacked in whatever way she could; and for years she had stood at the door each afternoon and touched each child as they left school. Of late, some of the boys had been playing games with her by ducking their heads and running out so she could not touch them. But, she said, the interesting thing was what they would do when they were successful in evading her touch. They would stop and back up so she could touch them. Going or coming, we need to be touched by someone who cares who we are and what happens to us.

The meaning of touch is deeply ingrained in the history and practice of the Christian Church. Paul wrote Timothy: "I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you THROUGH THE LAYING ON OF MY HANDS . . . " In ordination I was made a minister by the imposition of the Bishop's hands on my head. The authority to preach and to administer the sacraments was given by touch. Likewise, candidates for church membership are confirmed by the "laying on of hands." Both authority and grace are given by touch -- "The laying on of hands."

Leprosy in these modern times is rare. I doubt that any of you have ever seen a leper. Yet, there are many who live and die in the same isolation as a leper, because they play it safe. They do not let their feelings show and people get the signal that they are "untouchable." Nobody touches us and we die deep down inside -- a little bit every day. You brush elbows every day (but do not touch lives) with people who are entombed in an emotional cocoon from which they will never be set free until somebody touches them -- until somebody cares. Love cannot live at arm's length. There never has been an adequate substitute for the outstretched hand -- the outstretched heart. You cannot heal the hurts of the human heart from across the street any more than you can set a broken arm, or remove an appendix, or deliver a baby from across the street. Redemption for us all awaits that critical moment when the word becomes flesh -- when love reaches across the barriers and the taboos, and somebody touches us. None of us will ever amount to anything until we know that somebody cares, until we reach out in the dark and find somebody there. Somebody touches me and I live -- nobody touches me and I die.

There are two experiences from my personal background that have both haunted and guided me for more than half century, They are not experiences easily shared except with those who are on the same wave length with me. I will risk sharing them with you today.

When I was a student at Northwestern University in the mid-fifties, I served a little Swedish Methodist Church on the southside of Chicago. One of the most senseless murders that took place in Chicago while I was there happened near my little church on 111th Street South. The whole event started with a little boy named Jimmy, who was born to two parents who did not want him. And it did not take Jimmy long to find it out. Jimmy never knew what it was like to be hugged and held close. By the time he entered the first grade, he had become so unmanageable that his school teachers were afraid of him. Nobody decent ever had anything to do with Jimmy. He never belonged to the Scouts; he never went to Sunday School. He had never seen the inside of a church except the two times that he broke in the church.

As a teenager, his deep sense of loneliness, isolation and frustration began to manifest itself in antisocial behavior that got him into many scrapes with the law. Being unable to find any meaningful relationships with the nice people in the community, he applied for membership in one of the southside gangs -- the young "untouchables." They accepted his membership. They even let him buy the gang jacket with the emblem on the back, but they would not let him wear it, until he could prove himself to be as tough as they were. Sometime later Jimmy was with a carload of the boys as they drove down the street when they saw a sixteen year old boy waiting at the bus stop. They had never seen the boy before. Jimmy said, "Stop the car; he is mine." He bounded out of the car with a claw hammer in his hand and beat the boy to the pavement. The boy died on the way to the hospital. Jimmy jumped back in the car and they sped off. They let him put on the gang jacket right then and there, and he enjoyed wearing it for three hours, until the police picked him up. He went through a series of hearings, and finally came to trial for first degree murder. During the trial Jimmy's father was called to testify. He had to walk past the defense table on the way to the witness stand. Jimmy was sitting there surrounded by his court appointed attorneys. As his father passed by, Jimmy spontaneously stood up and reached out to touch him, -- his father drew back in revulsion and fear.

There were no photographers there, but a courtroom artist caught the scene in a line drawing which appeared on the front page of every newspaper in Chicagoland the next morning. It was a picture with no caption, for it needed none. It was a graphic, one-frame story of Jimmy's life -- forever reaching out, but never touching or being touched. Nobody touches me and I die.

The other experience comes of that same time frame, while I was doing an internship at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. It is an experience that was highly personal and mystifying. Each chaplain intern was assigned three or four wards. One of my ward assignments was to the Female Cancer Ward. It was a large open ward of about 100 beds in two rows, with an aisle down the middle. It was late one afternoon that I went back to visit a patient in the cancer ward who was to go to surgery the next day. I really did not want to go. I was tired, and it always drained me emotionally to visit that ward. But I had promised to see this patient before she went to surgery. As I pushed through the doors into the open ward, I noticed that there was a patient in bed #34 who was crying, flailing her arms, and rubbing her body.

From the moment I walked in all the patients began to look at me as if to say: "Chaplain, stop and help that woman." Nobody said anything, they just looked. Have you ever had anyone "look" you into doing something?

My daddy was good at it! I could be out in the backyard playing in the Chinaberry tree, and my sister would come and call: "Tommy, come to dinner", and I never heard it. My mother would call out: "Tom Lane, come to dinner", and I'd say, "Just a minute." My father could push open the back door and just look at me, and I would drop from the tree like a rock.

Well, the patients were trying to "look me" into stopping to help this woman. But I was tired, and I didn't want to get involved. Not only that, but we had an understanding with the Roman Catholics that we would not visit any Roman Catholics and they would not visit any protestants. (It was a sorry understanding.) Not wanting to stop anyway, I reasoned to myself: "For all that I know she may be a Roman Catholic," so I walked right on by. But, when I got to the end of the ward I discovered that my patient had been taken to radiation therapy, and I had to walk all the way back the length of that ward with all those patients looking at me, as if they were saying: "Do you mean to say that you're not going to stop and help that woman?" So, when I got even with her bed, I turned and walked up beside her and said: "I'm the chaplain. How are things going with you?" She paid no more attention to me than if I had not even been there. I repeated the introduction several times. It was becoming embarrassing . She continued to cry and rub her stomach.

The next thing that I did was not a conscious act on my part, but since I could not communicate with her verbally, instinctively, I tried to communicate with her physically. When she slowed down one of her arms, I reached out and touched her hand. The moment I touched her, she grabbed my hand and held it to her stomach. To say that this startled me is a mild expression of my momentary feeling. She held my hand to her stomach for a few seconds, which seemed like an eternity to me. She became still and quiet, and I began to hear whispers from the beds nearest by: "Look at that man of God. He has healed that woman."

This really frightened me, for whatever had happened, I, least of all, understood it. For the first time in my life I began to understand why Jesus said: "Don't tell anybody." In a matter of less than a minute the woman was fast asleep. The moment she relaxed her grip on my hand, I slipped my hand from under hers and took my leave. As I went out through the big swinging doors, I discovered that the ward clerk had been watching through the big window. She stopped me and said: "Chaplain, what did you do to that woman?" I said: "I don't know; who is she?" She said: "She came in about eighteen hours ago, and she has been crying and fighting us the whole time. I said: "Who is she?" The ward clerk said: "Oh, that is Mrs. Rodregius. She is Puerto Rican. She speaks no English and we speak no Spanish, and we have not been able to communicate with her, or get her quiet until you came in. What did you do to her?" I said, "I don't know," and I still don't know. I only know that in my own bungling way, not knowing what else to do, I reached out and touched her, and something redemptive happened, at least for the moment. Somebody touches me, and I live -- nobody touches me and I die. (By the way, it took several weeks for me to quell my unwanted reputation in that ward as a faith healer.)

Somebody Touched Me (Pt 1), by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts

2009-07-29T09:25:00.001-07:00

A sermon preached by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, Minister Emeritus at First United Methodist Church in Monroeville, Alabama on July 26, 2009.

Scripture: Matthew 8:1-4

Introduction, Explanation of Scripture, and Summary Statement

In the ancient world into which Jesus was born, the most dreaded of all diseases was leprosy. It was to that day and age somewhat like aids is regarded today. It was dreaded more than death itself. Leprosy not only had severe physical consequences, it also had social and economic consequences. The worst thing about leprosy was that the leper became an absolute and a complete outcast. They banded together and foraged the countryside for sustenance; and they clung to one another for some semblance of meaningful human relationships. They were required to wear distinctive clothing so they could be easily identified; and when they approached a town, they were required by law to put their hand (or a cloth) over their mouth and cry out the warning: "Unclean -- Unclean."

Even as late as the Middle Ages, when leprosy was diagnosed, the priest would don his stole and crucifix, bring the leper into the church, and there, read the burial service over the leper. . A leper was considered as good as dead, and lived out the eight or nine years that it took the disease to run its course in lonely isolation and complete segregation. No one dared come near a leper for fear of contracting the horrible disease; and a leper dared not come near others on pain of the penalty of the law.

The three Synoptic Gospels each tell an identical story about the healing of a leper in the early part of Jesus' ministry. Listen to the account from the Gospel of St. Matthew. For some reason not known to us, the leper ignored the ancient law that forbade him to approach a well person unannounced. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and said: "Lord, I know that you can heal me if you want to." And Jesus stretched out His hand and touched the man and said: "I so will; be well again." And the man's leprosy was healed immediately.

Jesus then gave the man two directives, the first of which was that he should say nothing to anyone about what had happened. The second directive was that the man should go and show himself to the priest, have the cure certified, and then make the offering commanded by Moses. The Jewish nation was not a democracy, but a theocracy, where matters of church and state were one. The priest had duties that we would consider civil duties. He was the local health officer. It was the priest who diagnosed and declared a person to be a leper, and only the priest could certify a cure and restore the leper to friends and family. Jesus could heal , but only the priest could certify the cure.

I cannot resist the temptation to point out the implications of this second directive. For several years now we have been passing through an era of anti-institutionalism. There are those iconoclasts who think we would have better education without schools; better families without marriage; more justice without courts and a purer faith without the institutional church. And, often this anti-institutionalism has been promoted in the good name of Jesus and on the authority of the Bible. The iconoclast forgets not only the lessons of history, but also the facts of the faith. While it is true that the institutional church tried to destroy Jesus, Jesus never tried to destroy the church. How often, as here upon this occasion, Jesus pointed people back to the institutional framework of the church. Jesus could heal him, but the man needed more than relief from the burden of leprosy. He needed the saving, and nurturing fellowship of the congregation. He needed the familiar forms -- the tangible framework of the faith that could give him strength for other storms of life that were to come. How often we have seen the lines by which we learn from the past -- our roots -- broken by thoughtless persons who think because faith is intangible that it needs no visible expression -- no organized framework of support. Those who break the idols, destroy the institutions, demythologize and explain the mysteries, do no service to faith. Faith is not strengthened by destroying the vessels in which it is received. You can't get a drink of water in a rainstorm. Water must be organized in order to be useable. The institutional church, our myths and our mysteries, are vessels in which we organize and serve the water of life. "Go show yourself to the priest, offer the gift that Moses commanded, get a certificate of your cure." Go back to church.

To the first generation church the essence of the story was the miracle of the healing of an incurable disease. It was told and retold, and finally recorded to further document the divine nature of Jesus as the authentic Son of God -- to wit, he could cure an incurable disease. I do not wish to minimize the miraculous nature of this event. It is obvious; but as important and miraculous in the episode as the healing of the leper is the touching of the leper. He reached out his hand and touched him. Defying all tradition and training; defying all known laws of sanitation, contagion and propriety; Jesus physically touched the man.

Reflection: The Wonder of Love

2009-07-25T12:30:00.000-07:00

By Dr. Jim Savage

True Love isn't blind. It Sees everything----the faults, the irritations, the sins----and offers no excuses. Yet in time it reconciles and tries hard to kill the lingering resentments and every wish to humiliate, to hurt, to pay back. ( It's the reason Hallmark and Dayspring provide a line of "I'm sorry" cards.)

True Love enjoys the best, forgives the worst.

Love can be generated. The Pursuit of Love----giving it, receiving it-----makes a Wonder of any Life. Love has a math all its own: the more we expend, the more it multiplies. Love Can Be Regenerated.

"Love is an exotic; it is not a plant that will flourish naturally in human soil, it must be watered from above." (Charles H. Spurgeon)

It is impossible to Love without first being loved. Love is a Communicable Trait.

God's Cosmic Generosity is poured into our world every day. His Love is Alive, Bountiful, throbbing with Creativity.

He unties knotted things and ties up things dangling loose. His Love holds all things together, sustains the universe. It's not a scarce Resource or a rare commodity, but only the eyes of Wonder recognize it.

Without God, there would be no Love.

Those who claim they Know Love without God's help, without a whit of acknowledging Him, have never had their Love tested in a completely godless world. He's there for them, whether they Know it or not.

Those who Know God through their Spiritual Senses, through the Sense of Wonder, say He is Lovable, the most winsome, charismatic Being in the universe. His Love vibrates with Electric Intensity. But nobody could Love God, unless He first Loved us, because we could never Know Him, unless He Allowed Himself to be Known.

To receive an Invitation of Friendship with God is to be Fully Awakened, to come Alive in the Spirit, to Know Love's Alpha and Omega.

"Praise be to the Lord, for He showed His Wonderful Love to me......" (Psalm 31:21)

"Blessed be the Lord, for He has wondrously shown His steadfast Love to me...." (Psalm 31:21)

"When I look at Your heavens, the Work of Your fingers...what are human beings that You are mindful of them.......O Lord, our Sovereign, how Majestic is Your Name in All the earth!" (Psalm 8:3, 9)

"I am only one, but I am one. I can't do everything, but I can do something. And what I can do, I ought to do. And what I ought to do, by the Grace of God, I shall do." (Edward Everett Hale, 1822-1909)

WESLEYAN CORE TERM: Faith of a Servant

2009-07-20T12:28:00.000-07:00

Dr. Jim Savage

John Wesley talked about the Faith of a Servant of God in contrast to the Faith of a child of God. Faithful Servants Know their Duty and perform it the best of their ability. Just so, Christians who have the Faith of a Servant Know what God requires and do their best to Obey. Wesley knew that people with only the Faith of a Servant are not certain of their status before God, and they have not felt Assurance of God's Love for them. They could experience doubt and fear as a result. Wesley believed that people could have more than a Relationship with God based simply on Obedience. While he came to Understand that the Faith of a Servant should not be disregarded but rather recognized as an Important Initial Response to God, Wesley also kept encouraging Christians to Seek a higher degree of Faith, which would bring Assurance and thus remove doubt and fear. (The Wesley Study Bible, 2009)

God often sends Good Words and does Great Things by the weak and foolish things of the world.

This reminds us of Christ, the Good Shepherd, who not only ventured, but laid down His Life for His sheep. Our Experience ought to encourage us to Trust in God and be Bold in the Way of Duty.

Faith, Prayer, Truth, and Righteousness; the Whole Armor of God, and the mind that was in Christ, are equally needful for All the Servants of the Lord, whatever may be their Work. (1 Samuel 17:32-49, Matthew Henry)

How Much Do You Know? By Dr. Jim Savage

2009-07-13T08:42:00.000-07:00

On some days and at some places in our journey, the demands of life seem overwhelming. We cannot be or know or do or give what seems to be expected of us. The source of demand does not seem to take into consideration our limited resources of energy, knowledge, or money. And, unless we get some relief by a lessening of expectation or a rearrangement of our own priorities, we may withdraw, give up or break down. More often than not, the problem lies more in our perception than in the essential reality of things.

During a national census, a census-taker knocked on the door of a cabin in the remote hills of Tennessee. An old woman with a quizzical look on her face and an oversized dip of snuff in her mouth came to the door. The young census-taker proceeded to explain why he was there. "Every ten years the government tries to find out how many people there are in the United States", he said. After staring at the ground for a moment, trying to take in what had been said, the old lady said to the young census-taker: "Lordy, honey, I shore do wish I could hep ye, but I don't have no idee how many they is".

Life does not always expect of us what we think it expects. The people who are dependent on us do not always expect of us as much as we assume they expect. The problem of feeling overwhelmed lies more often in our own perspective.

We do not know how to work the new math our children bring home from school and often we cannot offer specific answers to their deep and searching questions about life. Sometimes we feel guilty, or at least inadequate, when we do not know or cannot do what is asked of us. Our role is not to do everything, but to do everything we can. Like the lady in the hills of Tennessee, we cannot count all the people in the United States, but we can account for ourselves.

The people who lived best before us were not people who knew all of the answers; they were people who could survive creatively with unanswered questions. Carl Jung once wrote: "The greatest and most important problems of life are all fundamentally insoluble. They can never be solved but only outgrown". The most important tool we have for negotiating the things in life that are too large to understand is faith. Faith is not so much a solution as it is a coping mechanism. It is a device for withstanding more than for understanding.

The encouraging word for today is that you do not have to know or to do everything in order to be an adequate human being.

Strangers to Ourselves, by Dr. Jim Savage

2009-07-06T08:41:00.000-07:00

One of the most important aspects of growing up is learning to take charge of and responsibility for one's own life. The complete dependence with which we begin life as infants must slowly and surely be replaced by independence. While no one ever gains complete independence - by our very nature we are not complete within ourselves - a healthy independence is essential to maturity.

Sometimes people are threatened by the healthy growing independence of people they may wish to keep dependent, and thus under their control. It is not unusual to see a subtle (and sometimes not too subtle) battle develop along these lines between parent and child or husband and wife. But taking control of one's own life is a natural process. Some of the most profound parenting mistakes I have seen have to do with parents not knowing when to keep control of a child and when to turn loose. There is no set formula you may follow. Only parents who are sensitively and lovingly involved in the maturation of their children will know when.

I have seen many marriages 'go south' and end up in divorce because of the strange and unrealistic behavior of a controlling mate. The quest for power in a marriage is a very bad sign. It is almost axiomatic that the person with the most power loves least. Any time someone exercises control over another person by manipulation, fear, or any other means, they should not be surprised when the oppressed person someday makes a declaration of independence and leaves.

In his book, "The Mask Behind the Mask", Peter Evans, biographer of Peter Sellers, says that Sellers played so many roles that he sometimes was not sure of his own identity. Approached by a fan who asked him, "Are you Peter Sellers?", Evans said Sellers answered briskly, "Not today", and walked on.

There are some people who act as if they were visitors or strangers in their own lives. Instead of attempting to map out the direction of their lives, they seem to be along just for the ride.

Take charge of your life, for you are really not able to give your life to anyone or anything until you first possess it. Teach your children (slowly) how to achieve meaningful independence. It will be a gift of great value to them as long as they live. It will mean far more than any material bequest you may leave them in your will. We will not be with our children forever. We begin to influence them before we realize it, and we finish before we want to. While we all hope to be missed when we are gone, we do not wish our final absence to leave those we love paralyzed.

We will always be dependent to some degree and in some matters, but we achieve our highest potential as we learn to take charge of our own lives. And it goes without saying that we are responsible for all of that of which we take charge.

What Would You Have Me Do Now, by Dr. Jim Savage

2009-07-05T09:04:00.000-07:00

One of my dear friends and valued colleagues was the late Dr. Rodney Wilmoth. I can still see the twinkle in his eye as he told the story about a man-servant of a Duke and Duchess in Europe many years ago. The following conversation took place between the man-servant and the Duchess.

"James, how long have you been with us?"

"About 30 years", he replied.

"According to my records", said the Duchess, "you were employed to look after the dog".

"Yes, ma'am", James replied.

"James, that dog died 27 years ago!"

"Yes, ma'am", he said. "What would you like to have me do now?"

I spent 48 years in a profession in which one of the prominent expectations was to help everybody find something to do. While I am not sure that this expectation is completely legitimate, the fact that clergy spend so much time and effort at this has legitimized the expectation to the extent that most people think it comes straight out of the Bible. There are times in which the process becomes a kind of game of 'hide and seek'. There is a category of people in every church and community who, when they are asked to do something, will decline, but who leave you with the impression that if you were a proper leader, you would be able to 'guess' what they would like to do. This is great sport with some people, but it will frustrate any who have accepted this 'hide and seek' process as a legitimate expectation of leadership.

One of the most thrilling experiences of a church or community leader is to have people ask for what they want. There is, however, a sense in which there is something everyone can do without having to ask or be asked. Any person who genuinely wants to do something positive for the church, the community, the country, or for some individual person, can easily find many things begging to be done. They are usually things that are so simple anyone can do them, and so important that if they are left undone we will all be the poorer.

Smile at some lonely stranger. Speak to someone you do not know. Pick up a piece of trash. Find a person dining alone in a restaurant and when you leave pay for their meal and leave before they know who you are. Use your imagination and the list becomes endless. Then you will never have to ask the Duchess, the pastor, or anyone what to do next. The world is a better place when we practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty.

Weeping With One Eye, by Dr. Jim Savage

2009-07-04T09:02:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we are smitten by a phrase that conjures up remarkable mental images. There are phrases that drip with emotion and meaning and which beg to be repeated, dissected and discussed. They come from strange places and strange people, and they stir up strange feelings. One such phrases for me was: "Weeping With One Eye".

The late Dr. Scott Peck of The Road Less Traveled fame (who said he did not remember where he heard it) tossed this phrase into a small circle of people, toyed with it philosophically for a few minutes and then left it with us.

It has been like a cocklebur in my mind since that time.

My first impression was: "What a way to describe somebody who just half cares - somebody who is good enough not to ignore the pain of others, but not good enough or not strong enough to enter fully into that pain". There is no way to take away the suffering of others without entering into it. People who really care not only cry, they also get their hands dirty and they spend money.

Deep in the Old Testament there is a piece of writing called Lamentations. It is traditionally thought to have been written by Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. It is a funeral song written about the destruction of Jerusalem. In 587 BC, the Babylonian army destroyed the city of Jerusalem. They deported all the able-bodied people to Babylonia where they remained in exile for almost fifty years. Surveying the obvious tragedy of the situation, Jeremiah cries out: "Is this nothing to you, all you who pass by?" (Lam. 1:12) There are times in which the sorrow and tragedy in us or around us is so obvious that we become distressed when others do not see and feel it as we do. I do not know what touches you to turn your tears to anger. It may be senseless ethnic cleansing, the wars of religious hatred, starvation in a world of plenty, destructive ignorance, or the homeless people who sleep in the doorways of churches and businesses. There does come a time to act in the tradition of Jeremiah - to quit crying long enough to grab the world by the coattails and scream in the ears of the indifferent masses: "Is this nothing to you, all you who pass by?" If you care you cannot remain dry-eyed and silent.

In the slums of Calcutta, India, thousands live on the streets. If they own a ragged blanket to spread over the place where they sleep, they feel lucky. Early each morning trucks come by to pick up the bodies of those who die in the night. Babies are born on the sidewalk and left in cardboard boxes. In the midst of this abject poverty and unspeakable suffering a tiny little woman who, until her recent death, could be seen moving among the sick, homeless and hungry, giving help wherever and however she could. She was an Albanian nun lovingly called Mother Teresa. She walked among these homeless, hurting people. She bent low to touch them, whispering a word of comfort and encouragement to them. She lifted the dying in her arms to hold them as they died. She was not afraid of them. She wept and worked and walked and begged for them. She is a proper model for what to do when weeping, even with both eyes, is not enough. There is so much in this world to cry and care about!

It has been said and it is true: "People do not care how much we know until they know how much we care".

An Encouraging Word Makes a Difference, by Dr. Jim Savage

2009-07-03T09:33:00.000-07:00

It is difficult to estimate the extent to which a word of interest or encouragement can brighten and empower the lives of people we encounter every day. It costs so little and means so much that it would be a shame to withhold the words we can give to those whose lives these words would strengthen.

One day Verdi, the great musician and composer, came upon an organ grinder who was messy, dirty, and greasy. Even his monkey was dirty. Worst of all, he was playing the tune on his instrument too slowly. Verdi tapped the man on the shoulder as he walked past him and said, "Pick it up; pick it up". Three weeks later Verdi came upon this very same fellow again, and to his surprise the man was clean, neat and well-dressed. Even his monkey was neat and clean now. But, best of all, he was playing the tune in perfect time. Verdi walked past the man and turned to congratulate him on his tremendous improvement of appearance and style and, to his utter surprise, saw a band on the organ-grinder's hat which read: "Master Musician, Student of Verdi".

A word of encouragement or guidance from someone whose judgment we value can revolutionize our lives. When we feel that nobody cares how we look or work, then we begin to lose our sense of pride. Sometime just a word, spoken in the right tone, can restore our pride and bring out the best in us.

There are few, if any, of us who have not been discouraged and depressed over circumstances over which we had little or no control. We have watched late into the night with some loved one who was dying and we have felt the frustration of helplessness. We have watched the questioning face of a child in pain when we could find no words to comfort or explain. We have watched the savings of a lifetime disappear. We have felt the sense of shame and embarrassment over losing our job. We have experienced the pain of divorce as we lost the love of someone to whom our lives had been knitted by children and years. We have watched our children, around whose lives we have built our lives, leave us. We have been rejected by persons we loved, but who did not love us back. We have been excluded from groups to which we wanted to belong, and shunned by people whose companionship we craved. We have hurt late into the night for no specific reason, that we could identify, but simply because somewhere along the way our reason for living fell through a crack in the bottom of life. Have I left you out of this list? If so, call me.

People who are hurting need more than idle encouragement of the unaffected.

It costs the giver so little and means so much to the receiver that we should be generous with our words of interest and encouragement. Look around you today for some person who seems to be down. Give them an encouraging word. It will enrich both of you.

Divorce Prevention Tips

2009-07-02T14:55:00.000-07:00

THIS LIST OF DIVORCE PREVENTION TIPS WAS WRITTEN BY DR. THOMAS LANE BUTTS, PASTORAL COUNSELOR AND PASTOR EMERITUS OF THE FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH OF MONROEVILLE, ALABAMA. FEBRUARY, 2009

Economic uncertainty, unemployment and fear about possible job-loss can, and often does, cause stress on marriages. If a marriage is already experiencing problems, the stress of a poor economy can push a marriage into deeper trouble. It can cause new and unexpected problems to surface. Under such circumstance there is danger that troubled married couples will jump to the conclusion that divorce is the best solution to complex problems. The idea that divorce will solve financial and relationship problems is an illusion. The result is usually more problems and more hurt to more people than you can imagine. With this in mind, consider these suggestions on divorce prevention.

(1) One of the primary causes of divorce is loss of communication or miscommunication between a couple. Silence in marriage is a deadly sound. Talk about your problems openly and honestly with your spouse. Hear each other out. This will at least save you from misunderstandings. No matter what the problem may be in your understanding of reality, tell your spouse what you think and how you feel. This should be done in a civil manner, without exaggerations and crude language.

(2) Do not have "heated" discussions in the presence of small children. One of the earliest fears of a child is the loss of one or both parents. Do not use your children as a weapon in a verbal battle or marital war. You will live to regret it. They will be damaged and your cause will not be helped.

(3) If you have money problems, sit down TOGETHER and draw up a budget based on your total income and your necessary expenditures. Find adjustments upon which you both agree. Do not make large and/or undiscussed purchases. Beware of credit cards. Pay off your credit card debt FIRST. The compounding interest will eat you up. You would be wise to stop using credit cards altogether if you cannot pay them off each month.

(4) Do not use alcohol or other drugs to deaden the pain of your problems. It will not work. Use only prescription drugs and follow your doctor's orders strictly in using any drug.

(5) If you (and/or your spouse) are drinking too much, do not ignore the problem. Bring it out in the open, discuss it and make mutual resolutions to address the issue.

(6) Jealously and possessiveness are dangerous ways of relating. When parading behind religious language, and offered in the name of love, they become insidious tools of manipulation that can finally destroy a marriage relationship. If you have suspicions about the behavior of you husband or wife, i.e. if you think they are cheating on you, address the problem openly, directly and quickly. You could be mistaken, but if you are not, the matter should not be allowed to continue.

(7) If you are having marriage problems you cannot resolve between the two of you, get help from an objective outside person who by reason of training and experience in the field of marriage and family counseling can help you or refer you for professional help. This may be your Pastor. At least this is a good place to start. Do not discuss your marriage problems with relatives and casual friends. (The exception to that is if you need quick help and protection in the case of abuse). Their advice is not likely to be helpful. It could be hurtful.

(8) Go to Church. If you do not have a church, find one. It is always wise to have and loving and supportive community in the event of serious trouble. There are many fine churches and pastors in this county.

(9) Remember what you agreed to in your marriage vows, especially that part about: "for better or worse; richer or poorer; in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish until death do us part." That was a contract you signed on to in the presence of God and other witnesses. Breaking it will be costly in many ways.

(10) Remember the lasting damage that a divorce can do to your children. It lasts a life-time. If you do not understand the full implications of that damage, visit me or your pastor and we will explain it to you in Monroe County English. You really do not want to inflict a life-time wound on your children!!!

(11) Spouse and child abuse is absolutely unacceptable!! Do not do it. Do not tolerate it. Physical abuse has legal consequences. Verbal and emotional abuse has serious moral consequences, and is often the prelude to physical abuse if it is tolerated.

(12) If you have marriage problems you cannot resolve, ask your doctor, minister or some other trusted person to help you, or to send you to someone else who can help.

(13) Divorce is far more expensive than you ever thought possible. It will cost you in more ways than you can imagine, and leave you with regrets that will last a life-time.

(14) If you are tempted to file for a divorce, ask your lawyer to show you the laundry list of bad things that will said about your spouse in a divorce complaint. And, remember that an equally ugly set of very bad things will be said about you in response.

(15) When you discuss problems with your spouse, fight fair. Do not use abusive accusations and language that you know to be untrue and which you may want to take back later in some possible reconciliation. Words CAN and DO wound. Sometimes these wounds never heal.

(16) There is more!! But, make your own list and reread this list when it is appropriate to do so.

Another Aspect of Freedom, by Dr. Jim Savage

2009-07-02T08:34:00.000-07:00

Last week I told the story of one brave man, Alex Campbell, who died for freedom during World War II. Alex Campbell is 'legion'. Because there are so many who have done so much, we tend to lose the power of the specifics in the overwhelming numbers. Because we have inherited a unique freedom, it is incumbent on each of us to live and act like free people.

We have in this country, even with all its failings, a species of freedom that is unique in the world. And when 50 per cent of the eligible voters stay away from the polls, it is obvious we do not appreciate what we have.

There is something we need to understand about this matter of freedom. Political freedom does not assure personal freedom. While personal freedom may be easier to achieve in a politically free society, it does not confer personal freedom. Personal freedom is a personal achievement.

There are many who live in our free society who are not free. They live in oppressive and/or abusive relationships - either by choice or by some species of force that constitutes the worst kind of tyranny.

There are many slaves in our free society. They have chosen or fallen into an addiction. They are slaves to drugs or alcohol or tobacco. There are many people walking around in what we think is a free world, but they wear chains that are very real. If you look closely, you can see it in their eyes, hear it in the timbre of their voices, and see it in their broken lives and relationships.

We all know people in our free society who are in a constant state of war against unseen enemies within which hold them prisoner. They flail out at spouses, brothers and sisters, parents, colleagues at work, and even strangers on the street in a desperate effort to free themselves, but they never win because they are not fighting the right enemy. They battle imagined external enemies when the real enemy is within. Until they look within and ask God to join them in the battle, there is no victory, no truce, no freedom and no peace.

Can you hear what I am saying? Just how free are you in our free society?

Signs and Wonders

2009-07-01T12:39:00.000-07:00

SIGNS AND WONDERS

"God delivers and rescues, He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth." (Dan 6:27)

"Now to Him who by the Power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to Him be Glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen." (Eph 3:20-21)

Prayer is not an indifferent or a small thing. It is not a sweet little privilege. It is a great prerogative, far-reaching in its effects. Failure to pray entails losses far beyond the person who neglects it. Prayer is not a mere episode of the Christian Life. Rather the Whole Life is a Preparation for and the Result of Prayer. In its condition, Prayer is the sum of religion.

Faith is but a channel of Prayer. Faith gives it wings and swiftness. Prayer is the lungs through which Holiness breathes.

Prayer is not only the Language of Spiritual Life, but makes its very Essence and Forms its Real Character. (Edward M. Bounds, "The Possibilities of Prayer")

Paul wrote Ephesians while in prison at Rome. He wants to strengthen them in the Faith of Christ and to give exalted views of the Love of God, and of the dignity and excellence of Christ, fortifying their minds against the scandal of the Cross. He tells them they were Saved by Grace and they now have equal privileges with the Jews. He encourages them to Persevere in their Christian Calling, urging them to Walk in a manner becoming their profession....They have Special Duties.......

The apostle asks for Spiritual Blessings, which are the best Blessings. Strength from the Spirit of God in the inner person; strength for the soul; the strength of Faith to serve God and to do our duty. If the Law of Christ is written in our hearts, and the Love of Christ is shed abroad there, then Christ dwells there. Where His Spirit Dwells, there He Dwells.

How Powerfully the apostle speaks of the Love of Christ!

The breadth shows its extent to All nations and ranks; the length, that it continues from everlasting to everlasting; the depth, its saving those who are sunk into the depths of sin and misery; the height, its raising them up to heavenly happiness and glory.

Those who receive Grace for Grace from Christ' fullness, may be said to be Filled with the Fullness of God.

It is proper always to end prayers with praises. Let us expect more, encouraged by what Christ has already done for our souls, being assured that the Conversion of sinners and the comfort of Believers, will be to His Glory, for ever and ever. (Eph 3:13-21, Matthew Henry)

Dear God, how can we understand that which is beyond imagination? How can we Know that which surpasses Knowledge? Thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus, to show us the Way of Love. Christ Jesus, how can we even ask for Your Love after the way we have turned from You? Yet, You have Loved us in Ways we cannot imagine.....We are contained in the boundaries of Love...We will never find the outermost limits of Your Love for us. Your Love is immeasurable, inexhaustible, inescapable, irrepressible, insatiable, irrational.....O Lord, help us in our deepest desire to Know Your Love through personal Experience. Thank You, for Such Love! Come, Holy Spirit this day and fill us with Your unlimited Resources until we are fully Focused on Love. Thank You, Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen.

"Higher than the highest heavens, Deeper than the deepest sea, Wider than I can ever imagine, Is Your great Love for me, Your great Love for me." (1997, Morris Chapman)

Freedom Is Never Cheap, by Dr. Jim Savage

2009-07-01T08:32:00.000-07:00

Soon we will celebrate Independence Day. How can we remind this generation that many people died to give us a unique freedom about which so many seem so casual? There are countless examples of courage that have preserved our freedom. Let me tell you one of them.

In his book, And No Bird Sang, Farley Mowatt tells a touching story that comes from the Canadian Armed Forces' involvement in the assault on Sicily and Rome during World War II.

Mowatt was a very young, eager, sensitive and idealistic junior officer. He had a colleague by the name of Alex Campbell who was just the opposite. Alex was wounded early in the war, but returned from a North African hospital for a final battle near the end of Mowatt's account. While in the hospital he had tried his hand at poetry, which he timidly shared with Mowatt when he returned. When Mowatt read the poetry and saw that this scathless pillar of a man had been afraid too, he was shocked. The poem was a prayer that he would be able to manage his fear in such a way that the men he led would say of him afterward: "He was a man".

On Christmas Day a bone-weary sergeant returned from a terrible battle in which Campbell's company had been cut to pieces. That is how Mowatt found out how Alex Campbell died. Seventh Platoon had been pinned down by murderous machine gun fire. The logical move for Campbell would have been to use one of the other platoons to outflank the guns, but instead he did the unexpected - and inexplicable. Seizing a tommy gun, he drew his great bulk to its full height, gave an inarticulate bellow, and charged straight at the enemy.

After no more than three or four paces he was riddled with bullets. He crashed into the mud like a falling colossus. During that timeless interval, both his own men and the Germans were so stunned by his action that not a further shot was fired by either side. The sergeant gave his graphic impression of the event as he ground out his cigarette and looked at Mowatt with puzzled eyes: "It was the bravest... thing I ever saw...and the craziest. Crazy, but Jesus, what a man".

Standing there among the dead and the wounded, Mowatt, for the first time, began to weep. Thirty-five years later Mowatt was still asking if his tears were for Alex Campbell, the wounded or all the others who were gone and who were yet to go? "Or was I weeping for myself...and those who would remain?"

No person ever remains the same when they realize that they live in a world in which someone died for them. We are all here, as we are today, because many have died for us. The proper response is to weep and be humbly grateful that such courage did exist - and still does, in the most unexpected places.

Freedom is never cheap. Somebody pays for it. Do not forget those who paid the ultimate price so that you and I can enjoy a unique freedom.

Mission Accomplished? By Dr. Jim Savage

2009-06-30T08:39:00.000-07:00

It has become fashionable for businesses - and churches - to write mission statements. A mission statement is a brief summary of the meaning and purpose of the organization for which it is written. It is a guide for the leadership of an organization as to how they will relate to their customers, stockholders, employees, parishioners and to one another.

It is a good idea. When everyone in an organization pledges themselves to a statement of purpose, it saves the organization from getting away from its central purpose. Good idea!

A few years ago a minister friend came across a mission statement from a well-known major national corporation. I was so impressed with the statement that I decided to share it with you. Here it is.

RESPECT - We do not tolerate abusive or disrespectful treatment. Ruthlessness, callousness, and arrogance don't belong here.

INTEGRITY - We will work with customers and prospects openly, honestly, and sincerely.

COMMUNICATION - We have an obligation to communicate.

EXCELLENCE - We are satisfied with nothing less than the very best in everything we do.

I like those values. Would you not like to do business with a company, or attend a church, which includes those values in their mission statement? Sounds like it would be a great place to work. But what happens to our trust level when those values are just words?

The values listed above are in the mission statement of the Enron Corporation. I doubt that any of you need to be briefed concerning the Enron Corporation. At one congressional hearing, a legislator spoke of Enron as the "Betty Crocker of Cooked Books".

Does your church or your business have a mission statement? Do you have a mission statement for your life? The world does not really care how pretty your statement sounds. The world only wants to know if you accomplish the mission of your statement.

Any organization (or anyone) who has a mission statement should have some point on a continuum where some objective test is administered to see if the mission is being accomplished.

On Celebrating Independence Day

2009-06-29T07:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we quit what we were doing, laid aside the working tools of our vocation, and celebrated the birthday of America’s Independence which officially dates back to July 4, 1776 – 231 years ago. The specifics of that celebration vary so widely that it would make an alien in our midst wonder if we were all celebrating the same historical event; if, indeed, any historical event at all. Many made their way to the river or the beach to picnic, party, fish, barbeque, or just sit in the shade and enjoy the scenery. Some gathered around the flag pole at parks to hear patriotic speeches and remember fallen comrades from at least as far back as 1941; while children climbed on and played around decorative abandoned instruments of war – tanks, planes, old ships, and cannons. Old men wore ill-fitting uniforms which when they were young fit so well. There were misty-eyed old soldiers whose chins quivered at the sound of Taps as they remembered with painful specificity the names and faces and lives of comrades at arms who did not make it. Here and there some made their way to cemeteries to touch the grave stones of friends, loved ones, and fallen comrades who lie forgotten by the thoughtless many for whom they died, but remembered by those sacred few who promised never to forget – and they never have. Then there were the mindless many who not only know no history, they do not care to learn, and thus they celebrate "the 4th of July" as "a day off" with little or no thought of the sacrifices, drama, and sacred history that bequeathed them the privileges and freedoms so thoughtlessly exercised as entitlements without root or reason.
The thoughtless thousands for whom the day had no meaning beyond a "day off" remind me of the lazy worker who waltzed into the workplace 45 minutes late. The supervisor said to him/her: "You should have been here at 8:00," to which the tardy worker replied: "Why? What happened?"
What happened 231 years ago yesterday, which we tend to refer to so non-specifically as "the 4th of July?" The brave people who are our ancestors – who came here as aliens from so many different places and for so many different reasons, finally were fed up with the disrespect with which they were treated. It was not just taxation without representation, it was the tyranny and oppression from which they fled which followed them across the ocean. One anonymous pamphleteer characterized our forbears like this:
"They left their native land in search of freedom, and found it in a desert. Divided as they are (were) into a thousand forms of policy and religion, there was one point in which they all agreed: they equally detested the pageantry of a king and the supercilious hypocrisy of a bishop." They decided to be done with unelected political and religious authority which listened to no voice but their own."
It was Patrick Henry who in March of 1775 articulated the sentiment of the American masses. "Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what the course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
Some 56 leaders in the fledgling colonies took out their pens, stepped up to the table and signed the Declaration of Independence; indicating, at risk of life and fortune: "So say we all." Brave men and women have affirmed that declaration many times over the past 231 years. Many died in and for that cause. And, if we hope to continue as a beacon of hope for freedom loving people around the world, doubtless many more will continue in that endless line of splendor.
That was what yesterday was all about – not "the 4th of July", please.
Repeat after me: "Independence Day," long may it last!
AN ENCOURAGING WORD FOR July 12, 2007 - written by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First United Methodist Church

Signs and Wonders (1)

2009-06-22T12:38:00.001-07:00

SIGNS AND WONDERS

"God delivers and rescues, He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth." (Dan 6:27)

"Our work is constant, our homes are full. The problems of the poor continue, so our work continues. Yet everyone, not just the Missionaries of Charity, can do something beautiful for God by reaching out to the poor people in their own countries. I see no lack of hesitation in helping others. I see only people filled with God's Love, wanting to do Works of Love. This is the future----this is God's wish for us-----to serve through Love in Action, and to be Inspired by the Holy Spirit to Act when Called." ( Mother Teresa)

Even Comedians Cry, by Dr. Jim Savage

2009-06-22T08:34:00.000-07:00

Eighteenth Century British physician, Dr. John Abernathy, was visited by a patient complaining of depression. After an examination the doctor pronounced, "You need amusement. Go and hear the comedian Grimaldi; he will make you laugh and that will be better for you than any drugs". Said the patient, "I am Grimaldi".

Comedians are sometimes sad, comforters need comforting, and even the most optimistic get depressed sometimes. After her death, we learned that even Mother Teresa had some serious doubts and nagging depression.

There is a recurring theme in bumper stickers these days in which different professional groups proclaim they need love, i.e., "School Teachers Need Love, Too", "Truck Drivers Need Love, Too", etc. Even comedians cry sometimes.

We tend to think that certain professional groups are immune to the ills and troubles that are common to those of us who are just regular vanilla human beings. Most people have a difficult time envisioning their doctors being sick, their psychiatrist depressed, and a school teacher not knowing something or their pastor having doubts. This comes (at least in part) from our habit of defining personhood by vocation. When we say: "Hello, Reverend", Good morning, doctor", "How are you, judge?", "Goodbye, commissioner", Greetings, counselor", or Goodnight, professor", we tend to miss the personhood of the individual. In being too conscious of the titles people carry, we can ignore the delicate and unique personhood of the individuals behind the titles.

Some of us may have a need to think that our 'professional idols' are immune to the ills that are common to all, thinking that if they are not perfect they will lose their power to help us. Whether perfection would improve the quality of the labors of those we look up to, I am not sure, but that they are not perfect, I am sure. We sometimes wish we were. Sometimes we try to be. God forgive us, we occasionally pretend to be. But the truth remains: comedians sometimes cry, even doctors get sick, and clergy have doubts occasionally.

Tomorrow, when you meet and greet your favorite professional idol, the one you hold in highest esteem, and the one you suspect may walk on water in his/her spare time, let your greeting penetrate the title. There is probably a real live human being back there who needs some understanding, kindness and warmth.

AFFIRMATION: I Boldly Believe in Ongoing Conversion, by Dr. Jim Savage

2009-06-15T09:52:00.000-07:00

One change in my Life may initiate nothing more that me making simple modifications. Another Change may lead to an incredible Transformation for me....for others.......Learning....Sharing....on the Journey together........Christians Need one another!

I consider each day a Golden Opportunity for me to have a fresh outlook on my world. My outlook effects others.......

No matter what the situation or timing of it, God IS my Constant Companion, and with God, I am Always Making Progress...alone....together with others........All of us.........

"All of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the Glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being Transformed into the same image from one degree of Glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit." (2 Cor 3:18)

"A frequent intercession with God, earnestly beseeching Him to forgive the sins of All mankind, to Bless them with His Providence, Enlighten them with His Spirit, and bring them to Everlasting Happiness, is the Divinest exercise that the heart of man can be engaged in." (Wm Law, 1686-1761)

"Our prayer for others ought never be: 'God! give them the Light Thou hast given to me!' but: 'Give them All the Light and Truth they need for their highest development!' " (Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948, Indian statesman, national leader)

"The Seed of God is in us. Given an intelligent and hardworking farmer, it will thrive and grow up to God, Whose Seed it is; and accordingly its fruits will be God-nature. Pear seeds grow into pear trees, nut seeds into nut trees, and God Seed into God." (Meister Johannes Eckhart, 1260-1327)

"Four elements of Love: Lovingkindness, Compassion, Joy and Inclusiveness." (Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist Monk)

God Who Loves and Who Loved first, open my heart to accept Your Love and Believe that it is for me....for All.

Thank You, Father God. Thank You, Christ Jesus. Thank You, Holy Spirit. Amen. In Christ, Jim

Lest We Forget, by Dr. Jim Savage

2009-06-10T08:32:00.001-07:00

On Memorial Day weekend, we honored the men and women who died in service of our country. We also expressed our heartfelt appreciation to those living veterans who risked their lives, but who were not called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice. We also honored those members of the Armed Service and military reserves who have never been called upon to put themselves in harm's way, but who were and are ready to do so when called upon.

In times of peace, or when the war is far away, we tend to forget those who serve to protect the freedoms we enjoy. I love the poem, Recessional, by Rudyard Kipling. There is a certain solemnity about those elegant lines which call upon us, not only to remember, but to see ourselves in the light of the larger picture of history. Read these first two stanzas:

God of our fathers, known of old,

Lord of our far-flung battle-line,

Beneath whose awful hand we hold

Dominion over palm and pine -

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,

Lest we forget - lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies;

The captains and the kings depart:

Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,

An humble and a contrite heart.

Lord God of Host, be with us yet,

Lest we forget - lest we forget!

Some thoughtful writer put it this way:

It is the VETERAN, not the preacher, who has given us freedom of religion.

It is the VETERAN, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the VETERAN, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the VETERAN, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to assemble.

It is the VETERAN, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the VETERAN, not the politician, who has given us the right to vote.

We salute all the men and women, dead or alive, wounded or well, who have served our country in the name and spirit of freedom and truth. We owe them a debt that money cannot pay, and which words cannot describe. It is not a matter of which war in which they served or during which years of peace they stood ready to protect and defend the citizens of this country. There have been big wars and little wars, but no war is little to the soldier who risks his/her life for our country. And, no death is diminished by the size or length of the engagement in which a brave soldier dies. We salute, honor and offer our thanks to every soldier who has served this country, from the Revolutionary War, which made us a nation, to the present war against terrorism being waged in Afghanistan, Iraq and around the world.

Five years ago, we dedicated a long over-due memorial park in Washington, D.C. to the soldiers of one of the most extensive and serious wars in which we have ever been engaged. WWII. Sixteen million people served in that conflict. Four hundred thousand American soldiers died and hundreds of thousands more were wounded in some way. Approximately three million WWII soldiers are still alive and they are dying at the rate of 1100 each day, and that number is increasing each year. That is almost a half million each year. Soon we will not have among us the brave men of this community, whose names I will not try to recite, who fought in that war to save the world from a tyranny worse than death. Well, let me recite one name. There is not a man I know that I hold in higher esteem than that irascible, grey-haired, loveable old soldier, Charles Ray Skinner. His story will send chills up and down your spine, and bring tears to your eyes. Charles Ray Skinner had a dozen excellent chances to get killed. He never thought he would live to come home, but he did come home to tell his story, and what a story that is. He is a cardinal example of the bravery Tom Brokaw called the GREATEST GENERATION. My hat is off to Charles Ray Skinner and his kind.

I did the funeral service for my oldest brother in January this year. He was in the Battle of the Bulge, which was Hitler's last futile attempt to gain a significant victory in WW II. My Cousin Louie went down on the USS Savannah on September 11, 1943. Another cousin Bill came home, but was deeply emotionally scared by the war. There was hardly a family in our community that did not have someone in that war.

To you, the old soldiers of WW II, whose grey heads are filled with terrible memories, some memories too awful to speak, we salute you. We want you to be mindful of our love and appreciation before you leave on the LONG JOURNEY. You are truly our heroes!!! LORD GOD OF HOSTS, BE WITH US YET, LEST WE FORGET - LEST WE FORGET.

TRINITY SUNDAY: First Sunday After Pentecost by Dr. Jim Savage

2009-06-03T14:41:00.000-07:00

God Lives In Community

Matthew 28:16-20
"Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee....."

The eleven do go to Galilee, and Jesus appears as promised. Jesus says He has been given all authority, and then He authorizes His disciples to make disciples of all nations, which is said to involve baptizing in the Trinitarian name and teaching the converts to obey all that Jesus commanded.

But Jesus does far more than just authorize and empower His "learners." He promises to be with them (Immanuel) as the divine Power, Presence, and Wisdom of God until the close of the age. Never again will they be bereft of Him. Thus, the Gospel closes with a presentation of Jesus as God's Wisdom, His wise Presence, who dwells within the People of God and guards and guides them.

As God's people we are called to live and call others to live according to the counterorder Wisdom of Jesus, the sage. The Gospel for learners is also the Gospel for teachers. Ultimately, there is only One Teacher, One Sage, One Wisdom-----Jesus.

REFLECTION:
Why did Jesus tell the disciples that He would be with them to the end of the age?
In what ways is Jesus Christ with us today?
Consider choosing one of those ways and attempting to be especially sensitive to Jesus' Presence with you this week.

SEEK LOVE (Andrew Murray):
"Has our daily habit been to seek being filled with the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Love?
When the body is divided, there cannot be strength. In the time of great conflicts, one of the mottoes is: "Unity gives strength." It is only when God's people stand as One Body, One before God in the fellowship of Love, One toward another in deep affection, One before the world in Love----it is only then that they will have Power to secure the blessing which they ask of God......Give yourselves up to Love, and the Holy Spirit will come. Receive the Spirit, and He will teach you to Love more."

"And Hope does not disappoint us, because God's Love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us." (Romans 5:5)

AFFIRMATION:
We are All God's beloved creations and One in Spirit.
As divine creations, we have Love within that Connects us One with another.
Following the leading of God's Love within, I Connect with others. God's Love links us heart to heart.

Thank You, Loving God. Thank You, Christ Jesus. Thank You, Holy Spirit! Amen.

"If we Love One another, God lives in us, and His Love is perfected in us." (1 John 4:12)

Shalom,
Jim

GRADUATED ISN’T EDUCATED

2009-05-18T07:33:00.000-07:00

I love to see the proud gleam in the eyes of young people as they graduate from high school or college. It is a significant accomplishment that should be celebrated.

I remember how ‘educated’ I felt when I got my high school diploma. I felt a little less educated upon graduating from college. I did not bother to attend graduation exercises for two graduate degrees. My feeling of being ‘educated’ decreased exponentially with every degree I received. Strange! I never thought it would be like that.

For the young people who are graduating from somewhere with a degree in something, just remember: "It isn’t over!" You are not educated yet. You never will be as long as you are alive. Anytime you think you are terminally educated, that will be a sure sign that you have become terminally ignorant.

One of the biggest problems today is the adult aversion to continued learning. We are afraid to think and continue to learn lest we be forced to change.

I have many times had reason to remember a scene from my youth which took place at a high school graduation at Repton High School. I must have been in the 9th or 10th grade. I do not recall why I attended the graduation exercises, unless it was because I had no place else to go. A young woman whose name I do not recall took her diploma from the principal of the school, Mr. H.D.Weathers, and then threw her cap in the air and yelled: "Educated, by God!" I wish I knew what ever happened to her - not much, I expect. She finished her education too soon. Who in the world could be ignorant enough to think they were educated upon graduation from a rural high school in the mid-forties?!

A number of years ago Robert Maynard Hutchinson, long-time chancellor of the University of Chicago, wrote in the Saturday Review: "Almost every fact I was taught from the first grade through law school is no longer a fact. Almost every tendency that was proclaimed has failed to materialize. I am especially embarrassed by the facts and tendencies I proclaimed myself. I ask all my students at Yale University Law School to forgive me, for the courts have overruled and the legislatures have repealed most of what I knew."

Doctors know that at least 75 percent of what they learned in medical school 15 or 20 years ago is obsolete. Ninety percent of the medicines they prescribe came on the market since they graduated. Almost every time I go to my cardiologist and he asks me what was the last procedure done to my heart, he says to me: "We do not even do that anymore. There is an improved technique."

I made my living for almost 50 years as a hired-hand for Christian people who in the main still wish to live as if the list of chemical elements that was on their high school wall were still true. There were 96 elements on the periodic table when I was a freshman in college. I do not know how many there are now because it changes every year. I cannot even pronounce many of them.

It does not matter whether you are a doctor, lawyer, minister, teacher, or a person now at some point on your life journey, you are not educated - not yet - not ever. If your education does not continue in whatever you do, you will lose your effectiveness and become obsolete.

A little girl fell out of her bed one night. Her mother asked: "What happened?" She said: "I think I went to sleep too near to where I got in." Don’t let that happen to you. Keep on asking and learning.

The poet, James Russell Lowell, said it well. Sometimes we sing it:
New occasions teach new duties,
Time makes ancient good uncouth;
They must upward still and onward,

Who would keep abreast of truth.

Abiding in Love, by Dr. Jim Savage

2009-05-13T09:49:00.000-07:00

"We Love because God first Loved us." (1 John 4:14-21)

The Father sent the Son, He willed His coming into this world. The apostle attests this. And whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. This confession includes Faith in the heart as the Foundation; acknowledgment with the mouth to the Glory of God and Christ, and profession in the Life and conduct, against the flatteries and frowns of the world. There must be a Day of Universal Judgment. Happy those who will have Holy Boldness before the Judge at that Day; Knowing He is their Friend and Advocate! Happy those who will have Holy Boldness in the prospect of that Day, who Look and Wait for it, and for the Judge's appearance! True Love to God assures us to suffer for Him and with Him; therefore we may Trust that we shall also be Glorified with Him. (2 Tim 2:12)

Obedience and Good Works, done from the Principle of Love, are like that of a dutiful child who does services to a Beloved Father, which benefit his brethren and are done willingly.

It is a sign that our love is far from perfect when our doubts, fears, and apprehensions of God are many. Let heaven and earth stand Amazed at His Love. He sent His Word to invite sinners to partake of this Great Salvation. Let them take comfort from the happy Change wrought in them while they give Him the Glory. The Love of God in Christ, in the hearts of Christians from the Spirit of Adoption, is the Great Proof of Conversion. This must be tried by its effects on their temper, and their conduct to their brethren. If one professes to Love God, and yet indulges in anger or revenge, or shows a selfish disposition, he gives his profession the lie. But if it is plain that our natural enmity is Changed into Affection and Gratitude, let us Bless the Name of our God for this Seal and Earnest of Eternal Happiness. Then we differ from the false professors, who pretend to Love God, Whom they have not seen, yet hate their brethren whom they have seen.

(Matthew Henry)

God Doesn’t Come by Every Day, by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus

2009-05-11T07:31:00.000-07:00

In her collection of short stories entitled, "Winter Tales", Isak Dinesen tells a haunting story of a young man who became a rich and famous author early in life. Like most people to whom wealth and fame happen unexpectedly, he developed significant problems. His newly acquired wealth and fame caused problems in every area of his life.

He had written out of poverty about poverty, and now he was rich and estranged from the condition and the people that had given him his first book. He was estranged from his wife, God and even himself. He wandered all night in Amsterdam, trying to sort things out. He decided he could never write again, and gave away the manuscript of his new book. The more his mind wondered, the more it brought home fresh material for suffering.

At the end of his "Dark Night of the Soul", in which he had considered many things, including suicide, he has a strange conversation with God. God assures him that he wants him to write again, "...not for the public or for the critics, but for ME," said God. "Can I be certain of that?" the young man asks. "Not always", said the Lord. "You will not be certain of it at all times. But I tell you now that it is so. You will have to hold on to that".

I saw a lot of people I know in that story, including myself. We want certainty when faith is the only thing available for us. We are afraid of those long dry spells when God does not come by daily, monthly, or periodically to tell us again what God has already told us. Like children, we remember the promise but we want to hear it again. It was to people of this frame of mind that Jesus said, "O ye of little faith".

Perhaps one of the most reliable characteristics of a mature faith is: How long can we hold on to the reality of something without having to see it or hear it again. When I was a child, my father would give me a nickel to put in the offering at Sunday School each Sunday. During the two mile walk to church, I would take that nickel out of my pocket a dozen times and look at it to be sure it was still there, or I would reach my hand in my pocket to touch it to make sure it was still there.

Boswell, the biographer of Samuel Johnson, used to plague Johnson for reassurance of his love and esteem. On one of these nagging occasions Johnson said to Boswell, "Take out your note book and write it down. You are held in my highest esteem. That, sir, remains true until I tell you to erase what you have written".

If God has not come by lately to renew the covenant made with you earlier, remember what God once said, and take courage that it has not been retracted. Neither God, nor the people who love you, are going to come by each day and renew the promise and pledge once made. It is your responsibility to hold on to the promise. The ability to hold on to it is the substance of faith.

How are you doing?
by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First United Methodist Church

Ten Rules to Live By, by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus

2009-05-04T07:27:00.000-07:00

Erma Bombeck was one of my favorite newspaper columnists. I do miss her! When writing on her favorite subject, "children and family life", she had the wonderful capacity of being able to combine profundity and playfulness. She had the amazing ability of being able to call our attention to serious matters without letting us take ourselves too seriously.

One of my esteemed clergy friends, Dr. Norman Neaves, once introduced a sermon by reading Erma Bombeck’s "Ten Rules to Live By." Since Mother’s Day is just a few days away, perhaps these Ten Rules would be worth reading.

Here they are. First, never have more children than you have car windows! Second, gravity always wins. Accept that. Science is trying to reverse the aging process and the kicker is that you look young on the outside, but on the inside you’re still aging. There’s no advantage to looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger on the beach if you can’t travel two feet from a restroom! And third, never loan your car to someone to whom you have given birth.

Here’s the fourth one: Pick your friends carefully. A "friend" never goes on a diet when you’re fat or tells you how lucky you are to have a husband who remembers Mother’s Day - when his gift to you was a smoke alarm! And the fifth one: Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart! And the sixth rule: given a choice between the man of your dreams and a plumber, choose the latter. Men who can fix your toilet on Sundays are hard to come by!

This is rule number seven: Know the difference between success and fame. Success is Mother Teresa. Fame is Madonna! Number eight: Never be in a hurry to terminate a marriage. Remember, you may need this man or woman someday to complete a sentence for you! And the ninth rule: There are no guarantees in marriage. If that’s what you’re looking for, go live with a Sears battery! And finally, here’s the last one, rule number ten: Never go to your class reunion pregnant. If you do, they’ll think that’s all you’ve been doing since you graduated!

Well, that ought to get us ready to consider the serious responsibility of child rearing. Now that I am well past the biblical statute of limitations of three score and ten years of age, and soon to be an octogenarian, and my children are married and live 100 miles away I have become an authority on the subject. I can explain the process, and dwell on the particulars with senile rapture! So listen up.

by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First United Methodist Church

THE LAST LICK, by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus

2009-04-29T07:20:00.000-07:00

A little girl came in from the playground at school one day sobbing as if her heart would break. The teacher went immediately to the child and asked if she were hurt. She said she was not hurt. "Then why in the world are you crying?" asked the teacher. Between sobs the little girl said, "Susan hit me and the bell rang before I could hit her back."

The need to "get even" with people who have hurt us is strong. We want to have the "last word" in an argument and the "last lick" in a fight. Nothing is more fragile than our pride. But anybody can get in the "last word", or the "last lick" and keep the battle going. Only the strongest and the most mature can absorb the "last lick" and end the battle.

If there is anything that the world and our community needs, it is people who are filled with enough love and grace to allow someone else to have the last word or the last lick. Having the strength not to strike back causes momentary pain, but after the initial blow to pride, that pain is transformed to strange strength. Conversely, those who have the last word feel very good initially about their conquest, but after the initial flush of pride, last words begin to turn to ashes in one’s mouth.

One of the notable achievements of Jesus, for which he is remembered as one of uncommon strength, was how he let the cruel world have the last lick. Even the Roman soldiers on the execution team that killed him looked up as he died and began to wonder who had really won. Today, there is no doubt as to who won. But what if Jesus had insisted on the last lick or the last word?

It takes maturity to deal with conflicts in such a way as to bring lasting victory and lasting peace. In addition to all the theological understanding of Jesus, he is also a noble and notable model for us in dealing with physical or verbal conflict.

Test the strength of your character today - let someone else have the "last word". If necessary, let someone else get in the "last lick."

by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First United Methodist Church

WALKING IN HOLINESS....FOCUSED by Dr. Jim Savage

2009-04-20T07:47:00.001-07:00

"As we begin to Focus upon God, the things of the Spirit will take shape before our inner eyes." (A.W. Tozer, 1897-1963)

1 John
This epistle is a discourse upon the principles of Christianity, in doctrine and practice. The design appears to be to refute and guard against erroneous and unholy tenets, principles, and practices, especially such as would lower the Godhead of Christ, and the Reality and Power of His sufferings and death as an Atoning Sacrifice; and against the assertion that Believers being saved by Grace are not required to obey the Commandments.

This epistle also stirs up all who profess to know God, to have Communion with Him, and to Believe in Him, and that they Walk in Holiness, not in sin, showing that a mere outward profession is nothing without the Evidence of a Holy Life and Conduct.

It also helps forward and excites real Christians to Communion with God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to Constancy in the True Faith and the Purity of Life. (Preface to 1 John, Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible)

"Give us Love, sweetest of all Gifts, which knows no enemy. Give us in our hearts pure Love, born of Your Love to us, that we may Love others as You Love us. O most Loving Father of Jesus Christ, from whom flows All Love, let our hearts, frozen in sin, cold to You and cold to others, be warmed by this Divine Fire. So help and bless us in Your Son. Amen." (St. Anselm, 1033-1109)

"These Things Are True of You" (1996, Tommy Walker)
Unshakable, immovable, Faithful and True; Full of Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty:
These things are True of You.
Fearless, Courageous, Righteousness shines Through in All You do;
Yet You're so humble, You laid down Your Life:
These things are True of You.
And as I turn my face to You, Oh Lord, I ask and pray, By the Power of Your Love and Grace,
Make these things True of me, too.
Make these things True of me, too.
"Eternal and Most Glorious God, You have stamped the soul of humanity with Your Image, received it into Your revenue, and made it part of Your Treasure; do not allow us so to undervalue ourselves, so to impoverish You, as to give away these souls for nothing, and all the world is nothing if the soul must be given for it. Do this, O God, for His sake who Knows our natural infirmities, for He had them, and Knows the weight of our sins, for He paid a dear Price for them; Your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ." (John Donne, 1572-1631)

"What does Love look like? It has hands to Help others. It has feet to Hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to See misery and want. It has ears to Hear the sighs and sorrow of others. That is what Love looks like." (Saint Augustine of Hippo, 354-430)

Mental Poverty

2009-03-02T09:00:00.000-08:00

During my active years of sermon writing I used some short, anecdotal pieces about Hetty Green who was reputed to be the richest woman in America at the end of the 19th Century. I recently came across a biography of Hetty Green, written by Charles Slack. The anecdotal material I read had made it clear that she was eccentric, stingy, crafty, and thoughtless of everyone and everything except herself and her money. While the biography softened my view of her, it remains clear that she was a scheming, wealthy woman who in spite of her great wealth was a lonely and unhappy person. At the turn of the century her net worth was estimated to be between one and two hundred million dollars, which in today’s currency would push a billion. To say she was "frugal" would hardly reflect how much she loved her money.

John J. Cisco of the Cisco Bank loved to tell of the day he looked out the window of his office at 59 Wall Street and saw Hetty stepping off a public coach on Broadway, carrying a bulky parcel. When he greeted her at the door he learned that the parcel contained $200,000 in negotiable bonds. He asked if she did not think it risky to have brought these bonds downtown in a public stage. Cisco said: "You should have hired a carriage." Hetty arched her eyebrow and said: "Perhaps you can afford to ride in a carriage – I cannot!" Hetty Green was way beyond "frugal." Her whole life was about her money. She lived as if she were poor, and in spite of her immense wealth, I suppose she was "mentally poor."

Many people in our culture live in the fear that they will not have enough to last them to the end of the row, or that they will not be able to leave a respectable bequest to their heirs. Laboring under the fear that there will not be enough we tend to develop "mental poverty." This is a malady that is impervious to facts to the contrary. The nagging fear that there will not be enough begets a degree of anxiety which puts a shadow over all of life. There are many people with modest, but adequate, assets who suffer the "Hetty Green Syndrome." If you believe you are poor and live as if you are poor, then you are poor – no matter how much money you have.

My friend and colleague, Dr. Norman Neaves, once told a story that illustrates how we can be in the shadow of plenty and live as if we are poverty stricken.

Many years ago there was a man who lived in the Netherlands who wanted to immigrate to America. He finally saved enough money to buy a ticket to America in steerage. He had very little money left over, but he took what was left and bought all kinds of simple foods to eat on the trip.

During the voyage, when everyone else was going to the dining halls, he would slip away to his tiny room way down below and munch on whatever he could find in one of his suitcases. After awhile, it started to get to him. There were all of these sumptuous spreads of food in the dining halls from breakfast in the morning until dinner late at night, and all he had to eat were crackers and cookies and a few other imperishables. Each day his resentment grew as he watched all the other people go to the dining hall. He kept telling himself he was poor and that he did not have money like everyone else and that this was the very best he could do.

On next to the last day of the trip, he happened to be talking with another man who was also traveling all by himself. The man looked at his watch and said, "Oh my goodness, it’s almost noon. We better hurry or we’re not going to get any lunch." And the man had to say to him, "I’m sorry, but I will not be able to go. I do not have enough money to buy lunch today." The man said, "What do you mean you don’t have enough money to buy lunch? Do you not know it is included in the price of your ticket?" The fellow was absolutely dumbfounded because he did not know that. He had traveled all the way across the ocean eating crackers and cookies when he could have been eating at the table with everyone else.

There are people who live in poverty – actual poverty. Some of them are in our own city, county, and state. Some of them are on the other side of the world, and some of them are on the other side of town. They are the poor and oppressed about whom Jesus spoke in Matthew 25. But almost all of you who read this column are not poor; but some of you suffer "mental poverty" and live in fear that there is not enough. If you fit into that category, may you never actually become as poor as you imagine yourself to be. Learn to celebrate living in a land where there is enough. Use what you have. Don't sit on it. Spend it or give it away, but don"t fall in love with it, because you are not going to be able to take it with you when you leave on the "Long Journey."

WAITING TO RECEIVE INSTRUCTIONS by Dr. Jim Savage

2009-02-27T09:00:00.000-08:00

Power / Companion
Lectionary: 1 Peter 5:8-9

Be Alert!

The greatest tactic a lion has is surprise. Once its prey realizes there is a lion in the thicket, there is a good chance the lion will go hungry that night.

Peter posts a warning sign right in front of every follower of Christ. There is a lion in the thicket! His warning resounds throughout history. Satan is still alive and active. His tactics have not changed. His intentions are still as evil and destructive as they have ever been. That's the bad news.

The Good News is that we have the Power to resist. We can stand strong against the enemy and be victorious. James puts it this way: "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (Jas 4:7). John says it like this: "The One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world" (1 Jn 4:4). There is a battle at hand----no question! But there is Power for Victory in Jesus Christ. (Women of Faith Study Bible)

REFLECTION:
When you consider Peter's life as a disciple of Jesus, would you say that you are serious in the same way he was about being taught by Christ? Dallas Willard in "Renovation of the Heart": "Disciples of Jesus are those who are with Him learning to be like Him. That is, they are learning to lead their life, their actual existence, as He would lead their life if He were they......They are learning how to walk with Jesus and learn from Him in every aspect of their individual lives."
What aspect of your life has Jesus been focusing on recently? What is He teaching you?

"By all means remember to pray earnestly for me.....Emulate each other in prayer with holy rivalry, with one heart, for you wrestle not against each other, but against the devil, who is the common enemy of all the saints......For your conscience is responsible to God; to each other owe nothing but mutual Love. May the Lord, who is able to do above what we ask or think, give ear to your prayers." (St. Augustine, "Letter 130---to Proba")

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the Faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." (Col 2:6-7)

Shalom, Jim

Making Points With God by Jon Walker

2009-02-25T09:00:00.000-08:00

“For no one can ever be made right in God's sight by doing what his law commands. For the more we know God's law, the clearer it becomes that we aren't obeying it. But now God has shown us a different way of being right in his sight—not by obeying the law but by the way promised in the Scriptures long ago.” (Romans 3:20-21 NLT)

Brett Favre, the lion-hearted quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, is one of my favorite players in the National Football League. He’s courageous and tough-minded, showing a rare grace under pressure, yet his boyish enthusiasm for the game is infectious as he celebrates each Packer success.

A couple of Sundays ago (Sept. 30), Brett threw a pass that set a new record: the most touchdown passes by an NFL quarterback – 421.

Although the Pack was playing in Minnesota, the officials temporarily stopped the game in order to honor Brett’s achievement. And Brett, in his customary humility, later said he was more interested in a team win than an individual record.

In surprising contrast, the very next week (Oct. 8) Brett tied another record: the most interceptions thrown by an NFL quarterback – 277. This game also was stopped after this record was achieved, but only because the interception ended the Packer’s last-second attempt to win the game.

The most touchdown passes and the most interceptions! It reminds me that there was a time when Babe Ruth, the baseball player who was one of the greatest hitters in the game, owned two records simultaneously: the most home runs hit in a career as well as the most strike-outs in a career.

Here’s the thing: We tend to think of life as a balance sheet that we’ll eventually present to God. As long as the number of our touchdown passes exceed the number of our interceptions, then we’re cool with God, right? To echo the Apostle Paul, God forbid this to be true!

“For no one can ever be made right in God's sight by doing what his law commands. For the more we know God's law, the clearer it becomes that we aren't obeying it.” (Romans 3:20 NLT)
In other words, we can never be made right by throwing touchdown passes – because the more we learn about the Law, the more obvious it is we can never throw enough touchdown passes to make things right with God.

“But now God has shown us a different way of being right in his sight—not by obeying the law but by the way promised in the Scriptures long ago.” (Romans 3:21 NLT)
In his own geek-Greek way, Paul is saying we should forget the balance sheet – ignore the scoreboard, give up on tracking good and bad statistics. Listen, there is good news! There’s another way to get right in God’s sight, and it has nothing to do with your own achievements. It’s based on a promise made by God long ago – a promise is fulfilled through Jesus Christ.

Can I get an amen?

We are saved by grace and not through faith. It is a gift from God, not by our own works, so that none of us can boast of the ability to tip the balance sheet in our own favor. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

No doubt you’ve heard this over and over again, including many times in these devotionals. Yet many of us still live as if we get right in God’s sight by what we do – by our works, our achievements, the records we set.

We do this because it is, as Paul says, an offense to think of the Gospel as so simple and, therefore, it becomes a stumbling block to our pride. Getting right in God’s sight by what we do appeals to our human pride, or as the poet-king James would say, it appeals to our “flesh.”

It makes us feel good, as if we’re doing something to earn our way into heaven. If we cling to the idea that we can, even in some small way, contribute toward our salvation, then we also can cling to the idea that maybe we’re not that bad – maybe we aren’t included in the “all” of “all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory.”

Put that behind you and get on with the truth: You, my friend, can never be made right in God's sight by doing what is right – because the closer you get to God, the more you’ll realize you’re not even close to getting it right (see Isaiah 6 and Romans 3:20).

The one thing you can do is to move in loving obedience to your gracious heavenly Father, doing and saying whatever he tells you to do and say; allowing your life to be energized by God’s Spirit within you.

What now?

· “Balance sheet” fear – Good news! You are free to follow the Father instead of living in “balance sheet” fear. You can be who you were meant to be and you can live how you were meant to live. You don’t have to be good enough – you just have to trust in the redemptive power of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. And you don’t have to fear if you hold both the record for most touchdown passes and the record for most interceptions – love God and live accordingly!

· Record of faith – A record of your faith in Jesus is more important than any record of your wrongs or resume of your achievements. If you haven’t already done this, set a spiritual marker as a reminder that you have received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Write it down – or establish some other kind of tangible memorial for this event – and every time the devil tells you you’ll never be good enough for God, or that you’re so good you can remain independent of God, take him to that marker and remind him that you are right in God’s sight because of Jesus.

· Big play – Next time you’re watching a sporting event and one of the players makes the big play, turn to the person next to you and say, “That was a great play, but it won’t make him right in God’s sight.”

· Huge error – Likewise, next time you’re watching a sporting event and one of the players makes a huge error, turn to the person next to you and say, “That was a huge error, but the good news is it won’t keep him from getting right in God’s sight.”

· Pray for others – Ask God to show you who to pray for, related to getting right in God’s sight. It may be a non-believer or someone who believes but struggles in this area. Pray that this person will know God’s “different way of being right in his sight—not by obeying the law but by the way promised in the Scriptures long ago (Romans 3:21 NLT) And pray that Brett Favre and his family will come to know this truth, so that when he retires from football he can spend the rest of his life preaching how to be right in God’s sight.

Getting Practical With Love by Jon Walker

2009-02-23T09:00:00.000-08:00

Getting Practical With Love

“Little children, let us stop saying we love people; let us really love them, and show it by our actions.” (1 John 3:18 LB)

The heart is the control center of all actions. How you act reflects what your heart trusts. Dallas Willard says, “You can live opposite of what you profess, but you cannot live opposite of what you believe.”

Eventually what you believe will show up in your actions. If you believe God loves you, then you’ll begin to love others. If you believe God forgives you, then you’ll begin to forgive others.

Your experience of God results in an overflow of his life into the lives of others.

As we allow the Holy Spirit to continually fill us, we become a spring of his love and life to all around us. John would say we have “rivers of living water flowing out of us.” We become a conduit for the life of Jesus.

The life of Jesus is a practical life. The disciples were expected to live out what they heard Jesus say. Jesus told his disciples they would be known by the way they treated others.

He gets specific in Matthew 25:35-36:
· You gave food to the hungry,
· You gave drink to the thirsty,
· You invited a stranger into your home,
· You gave clothes to the naked,
· You cared for the sick,
· You visited the prisoners,

And this isn’t an exhaustive list on the ways to offer practical help. Jesus constantly provides us with down-to-earth examples meant to get us started.

What now?

· Love language – Make a list of people you love and pray through it, asking God to show you what you can do that will speak love to each person.

· Take initiative – When someone is in crisis, we genuinely want to help, and we’ll say, “If there’s anything I can do, please, just let me know.” Start changing that to express a concrete form of love: “I’m going to do this for you.” Maybe you offer to bring over a meal or watch the children.
Perhaps you offer to cut the grass. Maybe you bring a roll of quarters to the hospital so the family can grab snacks and drinks from the vending machine. Be creative – and let the Holy Spirit guide.

· Fake it ‘til you make it – C.S. Lewis said, if you don’t love someone, then act like you do. Eventually the feelings will catch up with your actions.

· Pray – Be still and ask God to show you someone you know who is in need, and ask him how you should help your friend. Seek God about the timing of your help. Ask him to use your act of service to make his presence known to your friend.

by Jon Walker.

Modern lessons and Commands from Joshua

2009-02-20T11:00:00.000-08:00

Joshua, Chapters 1-3.
Modern lessons and Commands from Joshua:

1. Have faith in God and hopefully a spiritual leader. Joshua trusted Moses, and realized people had to trust God and him.

2. Be yourself, but do not use it as an excuse to be lazy or sloppy. Joshua could have said: “I’m not Moses and will never be Moses so I will just get by. I do not need to work that hard”. But Joshua did not say that. Joshua trusted God, worked hard, and simply tried to be himself.

3. Improve each year on yourself and your Christian life.

4. Joshua set goals and had dreams of what he thought God wanted him to accomplish. We need to dream dreams and set goals also.

5. Joshua did not give up even after set backs. Joshua was not successful the first time, or every time, but he kept working toward his goals.

6. Joshua commanded the people to remember God’s Word and to study it. They were to pass it down to the next generations.

7. Joshua prayed and called on others to pray.

8. Joshua served God and his fellow humans with all of his heart and called others to serve faithfully as well.

9. Joshua gave to God the first fruits and tithed and called on the people to give their best first fruits in the form of crops to God.

10. Joshua remembered the law of Moses that Jesus would later say is the summary of the entire law and the prophets: “Love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself.”

Love by Thomas Lane Butts

2009-02-13T09:37:00.000-08:00

Looking at my calendar for the month, I realize that I am scheduled to speak to the Business Women of Monroeville at noon today on the assigned subject of "Love." And, St. Valentine's Day has just slipped by. Hope none of you are in the "doghouse" for not remembering. So let me reflect with you on the meaning of that slippery, kaleidoscopic word: Love.
New Testament Greek, which is rich in synonyms, has words with shades of meaning which English does not have. In Greek there are four different words for love. Briefly, they are: storge (family love); eros (passionate, romantic love); philia (brotherly love, best friend); and agape (unconquerable benevolence, invincible goodwill). Love is a very large word! When we speak of love without some differentiation, what we mean may not be what is understood by the hearer. Be careful. Let us think of the kind of love that leads to the relationship of marriage, with the understanding that this kind of love may have some shades of several meanings.

On St. Valentine's Day our hearts and minds lead us to think of how we can best express an intangible feeling in some tangible form. Perhaps this was easier when we were young and ignorant, and the fires of love were stoked with an abundance of hormones. Do you remember the ecstacy of young love? You thought it would last forever!

Some say that it has. But for more people than you might guess, the fire went out, or at least cooled down to warm embers. And for those for whom romantic love (or its more stable successor) is still alive, you may be sure that it not only took some work, but it has required some changes from how it started out.

Those who thought the fun and feeling of young love would last forever, but who did nothing to adjust to the changes that inevitably come with the years are likely no longer together, and if they are, they are probably somewhat frustrated and unhappy. The myth of romantic love is just that. Unless the myth is transformed by some very practical changes, which pushes love to another dimension, then there is profound disappointment, unhappiness and/or a quick trip to Splitsville, U.S.A.

If you are young (or old) and in love, for heaven's sake, enjoy it. Relish and cherish every minute of it. It is one of the good gifts that God gave to get people together initially. Some may say that it is a subtle (and delightful) trick of nature designed to perpetuate the species.

With whatever words you choose to describe the experience, it is at least memorable. For those who thought it would last forever, or those who fell in love with someone who did not reciprocate, the experience may be remembered with some disappointment.

Wise people savor the taste of romantic love but soon learned (if they did not already know) not to count it as the sole support of a marriage relationship. Romantic love should be remembered with a sense of joy, and occasionally rediscovered with surprising delight.

Some social scientists would say "never marry for love." Those who have spent a lifetime working with intimate human relationships understand that there is a degree of truth in that statement if it refers to romantic love. We would probably more likely say "never marry without love, but do not count on romantic love to solve all of your problems."

Love that lasts changes. If it does not change, it does not last. People change. If love relationships are not adjusted to accommodate those changes, the relationship begins to die.

People often have unrealistic expectations of the person they marry. They want someone who will meet all their needs and in their romanticized understanding of reality, they believe that person is out there - somewhere. When we marry with that exaggerated expectation, in a sense, the person we marry becomes a substitute for someone who does not exist.

In her book Brief Lives, Anita Brookner tells of a woman whose unhappy marriage ends with the death of her husband and her lover. Asked if she missed her lover she said: "Oddly it was not Charlie that I missed, but rather the person for whom Charlie had always been a substitute, whoever he was."

No one person is going to meet all our needs. If we are unable to accept partial fulfillment by someone who cannot measure up to our total expectations, we feel cheated. Because he or she was not perfect and could not measure up to that ghostly composite of a person who never really existed, we often demean that person, despite his or her efforts to meet our needs.

This business of love and marriage is more complicated than most of us realize. Unless we enter into a marriage with willingness to adjust and change, then love disappears into a gap that widens exponentially with the years when it is all about "me" and not about "us."

Hope this does not frighten anyone contemplating marriage! But, do be careful. (You may email Dr. Butts at tolabu2@frontiernet.net )

AN ENCOURAGING WORD written by Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First United Methodist Church

Common People by Thomas Lane Butts

2009-02-12T09:35:00.000-08:00

Today is Abraham Lincoln's birthday. He was by all appearances a very common man. It seems to be a good day for us to think about value, and values, of common people.

In October, 1864, Carl Schwarz wrote a letter to Theodore Patrasch in which he said: "You are underrating the President (Lincoln). I grant that he lacks higher education and his manners are not in accord with European conceptions of the dignity of a chief magistrate.

"He is a well-developed child of nature and is not skilled in polite phrases and poses. He is a man of profound feeling, correct and firm principles, and incorruptible honesty. His motives are unquestionable, and he possesses to a remarkable degree the characteristic God-given trait of this people, sound common sense."

Lincoln was a common man.

On the night of December 23, 1863, Lincoln dreamed that he was in a party of undistinguished, unattractive people; when they found out who he was, they commented on his appearance.

One of them said, "He's a very common-looking man." Lincoln retorted, "The Lord prefers common-looking people; that's the reason he makes so many of them."

Judging people by outward appearance is a common but dangerous practice. First impressions are important, and you never get a second chance to make a first impression. That is a good thing to remember if you are going for a job interview or on a blind date. Wise people do not judge by first impressions and outward appearances. Sometimes there is gold underneath a common outward appearance.

Some of the greatest gifts in life come from common people. I have read more than one version of this story. This is the essence of the story.

Charles Elliot was president of Harvard University in the 1800's. In the spring of 1885, a humble-looking couple from California showed up at his office. The only reason he agreed to see them was the man had recently been elected to the U.S. Senate.

The couple, Leland and Jane, told Dr. Elliot that their only son had died of typhoid fever that year. His dream was to attend Harvard University. They wanted to give the university a gift.

Dr. Elliot looked at this rather plain-looking couple and asked them what they had in mind. They wondered if the school could use a building. Dr. Elliot sized them up as a kindly, but naive, couple whose grief was most likely deeper than their pockets. He told them that it would be quite costly. He suggested that maybe they might consider endowing a chair in honor of their son. Perhaps they should go see the academic dean, he said.

When the couple stood to leave, he asked what Dr. Elliot thought it would cost if they just built a university out in California and endowed it so that students would not have to pay tuition.

Dr. Elliot was stunned. He said he thought it would cost something like $5 million. Leland and Jane looked at one another and agreed that they thought they could do that. The couple left and within the same year, they began plans to build a university in California in honor of their son. Today we know that fine school as Stanford University.

One cannot help but wonder if Dr. Charles Elliot ever stopped kicking himself when he realized what Harvard University might have looked like if he had responded differently to that common working couple from California.

The best people I have ever met were common people. If you consider yourself to be a common person, stand tall, be proud. We are "legion." (You may email Dr. Butts at tolabu2@frontiernet.net )

AN ENCOURAGING WORD written by Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First United Methodist Church

The Quest for Success by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts

2009-02-11T09:37:00.000-08:00

What can we do to help our children find success in life? It certainly cannot be done by making them an extension of ourselves by trying to fulfill our thwarted ambitions by pushing them to become what we wanted to be. Every person is different and it is essential to recognize that individuality. We help people move toward success when we set them free to find their places in the world. This is not always easy when we want a child to adopt our specific standards of success. Henry David Thoreau observed that if a person does not keep pace with his peers, it is perhaps because he/she hears a different drummer. Respect and encourage the child who hears a different drummer and you will be helping that child on the road to success.

Henry Ford once had an efficiency expert evaluate the running of his company. The expert gave a favorable report, but said he had reservations about one employee. He said: "It is that man down the hall. Every time I go by his office he is sitting there with his feet on his desk. He is wasting your money." Ford replied: "That man once had an idea that saved us millions of dollars. At the time, I believe his feet were planted right where they are now." Ford kept the man who could think better on his seat than on his feet.

There is a plaque on the wall just outside my home office that suggests a pretty good philosophy regarding success. It was written by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Read it.

"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived."

This is to have succeeded. (You may email Dr. Butts at tolabu2@frontiernet.net )

Courage by Thomas Lane Butts

2009-02-10T09:30:00.000-08:00

AN ENCOURAGING WORD written by Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First United Methodist Church

A few years ago I started a column with what I characterized as an old adage: "A brave person dies only once, but a coward dies a thousand times." A learned friend and retired teacher of English literature gently reminded me that this was a "corruption" of a passage from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Being thus informed, let me give you the setting and the exact quote.

Caesar's wife, Calpurnia, has had a dream in which her husband was murdered. At Caesar's request, the priests sacrificed an animal which, upon being cut open was discovered to have no heart. They send word to Caesar to stay home on this fateful day, the Ides of March, which the soothsayer had already warned him about earlier in the play. Caesar muses: "What can be avoided whose end is purposed by the mighty gods?" If he is already fated to die, how can he avoid it? He proceeds to encourage his wife with the now-famous lines, finding it strange that we fear death so much, when death is inevitable in every person's life. Caesar has been a strong and brave man, and now he will not waste precious hours of his life anticipating tragedy.

So, he says: "Cowards die many time before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once." (Julius Caesar,II,ii,32-37)

When fear is mingled with the instinct of self-preservation at the point of a crisis, sometimes, in a fleeting moment, we lay the basis for a life-time of guilt. When we do not pass our own test for courage, or measure up to the minimum standard of what is right, we unchain a ghost that prowls the cellars of our souls for life. Most of us could easily find an example in our personal lives, but to save you from the pain of such search, let me give an example from literature. You can look for your personal example later.

In his novel, The Fall, French philosopher and writer, Albert Camus, paints a frightening word-picture of a man haunted by a fleeting act of cowardice in his past. Time and geography bring no relief. The story is recalled by him one rainy evening in a shady Amsterdam bar, where he has sought refuge from his past.

He was a respected Parisian lawyer, a pleader of noble causes, secure in his self-esteem and immune to judgement - he thought. A silent listener at the bar hears his confession of the painful moment when the ghost in his life was unchained.
"That particular night in November, I was returning to the West Bank. It was past midnight, a rainy mist was falling and there were few people on the street. On the bridge, I passed behind a figure leaning over the railing and seeming to stare at the river. On closer view I made out a slim young woman dressed in black...I went on after a moment's hesitation. I had gone some 50 yards when I heard the sound - which despite the distance sounded dreadfully loud in the midnight silence - a body striking the water. I stopped without turning around. Almost at once I heard a cry for help, which was repeated several times. Then it ceased. The silence seemed interminable. I wanted to run, and yet did not. I told myself I had to be quick and then an irresistible weakness settled over me. 'Too late...Too far', I told myself...then slowly, in the rain, I went away. I informed no one."

This was the terrible failure of nerve perpetrated on the Seine River in Paris, which he believed flowed from water to water to await him wherever he went in the whole world. Nowhere he went was far enough. On the last page of the novel he returned (either physically or in his mind) to the scene of his cowardice and cried out into the night: "O young woman, throw yourself into the water again so that I may a second time have the chance of saving both of us."

James Russell Lowell put it clearly. "Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide; in the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side; some great cause, God's new messiah, offering each the bloom or blight, parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right, and the choice goes by forever, twixt that darkness and that light."

Each day in small, but important, ways we prepare ourselves for that moment in life where we shall die once the death of courage, or live to die a thousand times a coward. (You may email Dr. Butts at tolabu2@frontiernet.net )

AN ENCOURAGING WORD written by Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First United Methodist Church

Third Week of Advent, by Dr. Jim Savage

2008-12-08T10:52:00.000-08:00

(Isaiah 35:1-10) Third Week of Advent

The prophet calls upon the deep imagination of God's people to watch patiently for signs of change. In the dark season of exile, life signs have seemed dormant, dried up, and closed off. But in a new season of light, like spring after winter, life signs will break through for all who have held fast patiently through the darkness. This is a text about what will be, about what shall be, for those who patiently watch for and trust God's restoring care for them, even after a bitter, hard season.

Reread this passage from Isaiah, but do so slowly, patiently. Take your time with the text and read it with expectation that it holds a word of life for you to see, like the first crocus bloom in early spring. Which particular verse catches your attention? Write it down and sit with that one verse or part of a verse. Be patient. What does it call forth from you? What does it touch in your life?

Simply be in patient prayer.

Thank You, Lord, for the Hope of freedom. May we lift up our feeble hands this very day to You in praise and worship. Strengthen our faint hearts as we wait in the darkness...now beginning to turn to dawning. The hour draws nearer to Your coming.....With expectation we wait patiently for Your glory to shine forth on us. We read in the Word of the Day of the Lord prophesied by Isaiah. It will be a wild, hilarious day of seeing and hearing, of leaping and dancing and shouting and singing. No staid, inhibited praises there. The earth, too, will open its mouth with joy and drink and become a garden like the first morning of earth.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus! We need Your Light to shine on us Now.

Thank You, Loving God. Thank You, Christ Jesus. Thank You, Holy Spirit. AMEN. In Christ, Jim

"By the oaks of Mamre" by Dr. Jim Savage

2008-12-05T08:35:00.000-08:00

Genesis 18:1-15

This visitation by God in the guise of three strangers is among the most obscure and intriguing tales in the Abrahamic cycle. Extending hospitality to his guests, Abraham prepares a feast. Overhearing their prediction of her giving birth to a son, Sarah falls over on the tent floor in laughter-----still disbelieving the promise because, given her old age, pregnancy would be impossible.

Sarah gives us permission to worship God with our laughter when ours is an uncertain future.
In face of the incredulity of God's promises as we wait and wait, she offers comic relief. Up to this point the whole story of faith and obedience has been serious business. But here at a leisurely tent-side meal in the company of a God we can barely recognize, we are invited to laugh.

Sarah will in due time bear a son, and she will name him Isaac, which means "Laughter." (The Renovare' Spiritual Formation Bible)

It seems neither Abraham or Sarah exhibit much faith, focusing instead on the improbability of the promise being fulfilled.

Maybe the answer lies in what God saw in their hearts. He looks at our hearts......

They laughed at God..... maybe God laughed also with them..... He knew the end of the story..... All would laugh with Sarah in joy when God fulfills His promise.

AFFIRMATION: Let Go, Let God

I pray, releasing all doubt and concern about my own life or the lives of my loved ones.
I seek Divine Guidance and direction...... I am letting go and letting the Activity of God show me the Way.
In this Powerful release, I sweep away all worries, troubles, and concerns-----even those I might have been holding on to for a time.
Turning all over to God in prayer, I am fully Aware that we are All in the care and keeping of God.
Thank You, Loving God. Thank You, Christ Jesus. Thank You, Holy Spirit. Amen. May it be so.

Shalom,
Jim

GOD'S FAITHFULNESS by Dr. Jim Savage

2008-10-08T15:37:00.000-07:00

"He is my Loving God and my Fortress, my Stronghold and my Deliverer, my Shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me...." (Psalm 144:2)

"He who Loves God is never weary of serving Him. He is sure to dwell with God in heaven if he has God dwelling in his heart. So that to Love God is the truest self-Love. He who does not Love God does not Love himself.

Love to God evidences sincerity. To Love God is a better sign of sincerity than to fear Him. Repentance is no better than flattery when it arises only from fear of God's judgments and has no Love mixed with it.

Do you Love God? Then you may be sure of God's Love to you. As it is with burning glasses, if the magnifying glass can set a fire, it is because the sun has first shined upon it. So if our hearts burn in Love to God, it is because God's Love first shined upon us." (Thomas Watson)

MEDITATION:
I Live in the Light.
I appreciate and value the Divine qualities of Strength, Imagination, and Judgment, which God has instilled in me.
I accept my unlimited potential and the provision needed to fulfill my destiny to be the best that I can be.
Deeply grateful for All that has been given and All that is to come, I embrace the Good God provides with joy and thanksgiving.
Thank You, Loving God. Thank You, Christ Jesus. Thank You, Holy Spirit. Amen.

In Christ,
Jim

Unrealistic Expectations

2008-09-30T16:30:00.000-07:00

THE DANGER OF UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS
It is easy and not at all uncommon to become the victim of unrealistic expectations. It happens when friends or clients or even our own children develop mythologies about our power and wisdom. We do not want to disappoint people who think highly of us, even when they think more highly of us than is justified by fact. It feels good, initially, to be put on a pedestal, but eventually "pedestal people" encounter significant dilemmas when expectations exceed capability.

This can happen to some degree to almost anyone, but I do not know of any two professions where practitioners are more likely to get into trouble over unrealistic expectations than clergy and doctors. It does not take very long to discover that a pedestal is about as lonely a prison as any other limited space. One of the greatest dangers of being the object of unrealistic expectation is when we begin to believe the mythologies people have about us. We begin to work hard to fulfil those expectations. We neglect other important aspects of our life, such as family and friends and social obligations in the community, in order to do (or appear to do) all the miraculous things that are expected of us. I have seen people neglect their own physical, spiritual and emotional health trying to fulfil unrealistic expectations. Marriages have fallen apart because expectations drove a husband or a wife to do more good than was good for them.

Another by-product of being trapped by unrealistic expectations is a growing sense of guilt about not being able to do all that is expected. And yet another by-product is the temptation to fake it, even to lie to ourselves and others rather than admit we are in over our heads - that we are just not that powerful, wise or tireless. When you allow the thoughtless expectations and the unrealistic mythologies of others to become your personal agenda, you are headed for some very serious problems in some important areas in your life. You may know people who are living that kind of life, or you may be people who are caught in that trap. It is much easier to get on the pedestal than it is to step off.

It can happen to almost anyone; doctor, lawyer, clergyperson, social worker, banker, community "do-gooder", parent, teacher. You name the profession and I can tell you how it can happen. There is one unchanging truth that should be a mantra for anyone: "What lies beyond my power also lies beyond my responsibility". Let that thought play across the backdrop of your mind when you are considering expectations that you or others have of you.

When the Rev. Dr. Fred Craddock was briefly the acting dean at Phillips Seminary, the secretary came in his office and told him there was someone to see him. A woman came in and asked him to come out to the parking lot. He followed her to the parking lot and her car. She opened the back door, and slumped in the back seat was her brother. He had been a senior at the University of Oklahoma. He had been in a bad car wreck and in a coma eight months. She had quit her job as a schoolteacher to take care of him. All of their resources were gone. She opened the door and said, "I'd like for you to heal him". Dr. Craddock said, "I can pray for him. And I can pray with you. But I do not have the gift of healing". She got behind the wheel and said, "Then what in the world do you do?" And she drove off. Dr. Craddock said he went back into his study, stared at his books and tried to forget what she had said.

No matter who you are, if you are on anyone's pedestal, get off. It is not a safe place to be.

UNTIL THE BELL RINGS by Thomas Lane Butts

2008-09-19T12:06:00.000-07:00

When I was young, school started in mid-September. We had to get the cotton picked before we started school. But, here we are a month into another school year. Vacation-worn parents are probably glad!

The certifiable heros in our social structure are the teachers. As a profession, they are over-worked, often under-paid, and under-appreciated. They are the stop-gap against ignorance and the second most prominent source for teaching civility in a society where civility is sorely needed and often missing.

When you take your child to school, tip your hat to the teacher, and say an encouraging word. They are the best friends in your child's future. Whatever we accomplish in life we owe to a long line of teachers whose lives and lessons have influenced us.

In some cases, we may have forgotten the lessons, but seldom do we forget those who taught the lessons.

Many people mistakenly think that the yardstick for measuring good teaching and good learning is the extent to which a student can remember the details of content. The teachers who helped me most are those who taught me how to think and made me want to learn. Most of us remember very little detail from our education, but we remember principles and process and people. Every time I write (and try to punctuate) a complicated sentence, I see my high school English teacher, Miss Annie Hagood, standing at the blackboard diagraming that sentence.

My high school experience ended 60 years ago, and the dear lady who taught me is long since dead, but as long as I write and speak the English language, she will be alive.

When I was in the tenth grade, the wife of the principal of our high school informed her husband that she would like to teach Latin. He told her that it was not likely that rural children would be interested in Latin. This self-willed, white-haired lady informed her husband that if he would approve the class she would recruit the students. The next day, during recess, Mrs. Weathers walked across the playground and drafted nine students for her Latin class. Only after I was a grown man did I understand why I was selected. (Certainly not for my academic excellence!)

Today, when I am able to understand some strange words of Latin derivation, I always remember how this beautiful white-haired lady would shake me by the hair of my head and say: "Now conjugate that verb again and see if you can get it right". I know that you don't teach school like that anymore, but you can teach almost any way you want to teach if your lessons are laced with love.

Teaching has always been the profession from which all other professions emerge. Whatever you do, somebody taught you to do it. Members of every profession must pass through the hands of teachers. We very subtly move from the role of student to the role of teacher in life. All of us are teaching something, every day: from simple addition to calculus, from skipping rope to brain surgery, and from learning to live in a family to learning to live in a world.

Life is a classroom. We are all being taught, and we are all teachers - until the bell rings.

AN ENCOURAGING WORD written, 2008, by Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First Methodist Church

REFLECTIONS ON 9/11

2008-09-08T09:53:00.000-07:00

Seven years ago today, the foundations of our world shifted, and we have never been the same since, and probably never will be. Politically and emotionally, it was as if we had been struck by a great earthquake. We did not see it coming! It has shaken our long-held understandings of reality about ourselves as a nation, and our illusions of security. It has shattered our naive notion that we are universally admired and respected by the rest of the world, and, if not admired and respected, at least feared by any who would dare attack us. We never dreamed that anything like 9/11 would or could happen. Most of us still vividly recall our feelings of shock, sadness and rage on September 11, 2001, and with very little effort we can recover those feelings with the original intensity.

I made my annual visit to New York as Summer Guest Preacher at Christ Church ten months after 9/11. I thought that my initial intense feelings had been laid to rest, or at least put into perspective. I was mistaken. Having something of the soul of a teacher, I took my fifteen-year-old grandson to Lower Manhattan to see that terrible hole in the ground with the idea of giving him a well reasoned "Grandfather lecture" on how and why this happened. The sight of ground zero brought back all the feelings I thought I had worked through. Instead of getting a reasoned lecture on history and religion, my grandson saw what the combination of sadness, anger and fear can do to an old man. It wasn't pretty. I hope he did not hear some of the things I muttered under my breath.

What has happened and what have we learned in the seven years since our world changed? In an attempt to find and destroy an ubiquitous enemy, we launched one of the strangest and most expensive wars in which this country has ever been engaged, not just in Afghanistan and Iraq, but in other places around the world where we suspect the enemy might be. It has, in many ways, been like fighting a ghost. The enemy is here and there and everywhere. We see where the enemy has been but not where he is. Our fears rise and fall with successes and failures in the search, and we just cannot seem to find the serpent's head. It is somewhat like our experience with the Vietcong in another war, except worse, because the battle is not confined to a specific geographical area. It is essentially world-wide. In this whole experience we have lost our innocence. The illusion that we are safe because we are bordered by two huge oceans and two friendly countries now lies in shambles at our feet. And, our fear rises and falls as the hunt goes on.

We have learned how much we are hated and mistrusted by so many. We have seen how easy it has become for that hatred and mistrust to get expressed not only in terrorist attacks, but also in political defiance by countries we thought respected, if not admired us. This has wounded our national pride and put our collective political consciousness into a state of shock.
Having heard the rhetoric of politicians and preachers who have always urged us on to a more zealous expression of patriotism and religious faith, we have been shocked to see what happens when religious fanaticism and mindless nationalism are combined. It is a real witch's brew! It produces people who are willing to die for "the cause". People who are willing to die for a cause are always on the cusp of being willing to kill for it. We have seen it happen.

When we think of the pathos and pain this senseless terrorist attack has caused, it stirs the dregs at the bottom of our souls. And yet, this is a time in which we should be very intentional in calling forth what President Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature". Two sure ways to lose the battle against terrorism would be to cringe in paralyzing fear, or to let their ways become our ways. We should leave justice to those whose duty it is to administer it, and we should leave revenge to God. Let our anger be tempered in the cool springs of prayer, and let the faith about which we speak be acted out.

Remember 9/11, but do not forget that we live in an increasingly small world which requires a greater and greater measure of tolerance and temperance for mutual survival.

Think about that, and do your best to have a nice day.

AN ENCOURAGING WORD written, by Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First United Methodist Church

GOD'S FAITHFULNESS by Dr. Jim Savage

2008-07-09T08:00:00.001-07:00

God's Faithfulness by Dr. Jim Savage

2008-07-03T08:32:00.001-07:00

Romans 6:12-23

Life gains meaning and purpose when we are willing to spend it for something greater....

We have been released from slavery for a greater service. Freed from slavery to sin, we Now face Paul's "so now." What is the "so now" that encompasses our lives, that requires redirection and reorientation?

Christ did not come to make our lives easy, but to make our lives Great, not to fill us with ease and comfort but with the Energy of a Great Cause.

Are we ready to give ourselves, fully and completely, to the Cause of Christ? (Disciplines)

THE FACE OF LOVE:
"It is the purpose of God that the heart of Christ shall be revealed to His people. It is the will of God that "the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God" should be revealed to us "in the face of Jesus Christ."

Where there is the shining of the face, we know there is more than forgiveness. There is favor and disposition to please. What a wonderful view of the Light of His countenance the favored disciples must have had who were witnesses to His Transfiguration.

We are told that His face did shine as the sun. And so when the Lord makes the Light of His countenance to shine upon any of His people, in the measure in which with unveiled face they discern the beauty of the Lord, there is a moral and progressive change into His likeness." (Hudson Taylor)

"Let Your face shine on Your servant; save me in Your unfailing Love." (Psalm 31:16)

AFFIRMATION:
Prayer by prayer, we affirm peace and understanding for the world.
Even in a world of many different religions, cultures, and belief systems, there is One family of God.

Right where we are, we can work toward the Greatest Good of All.

We remember that world peace begins with each one of us. We are committed to being peacemakers at all times and in all situations.

Dear Lord, rescue us from aimlessness and meaninglessness. You call for our commitment. May we serve You this day not only with our lips but with our hearts, not only with our words but with our lives. Thank You, Loving God. Thank You, Christ Jesus. Thank You, Holy Spirit. Amen.

In Christ,
Jim

PERCEPTION.....GIVE US A SIGN by Dr. Jim Savage

2008-06-26T08:44:00.000-07:00

PERCEPTION.....GIVE US A SIGN
Psalm 86:1-10; 16-17
"Hear, O Lord, and answer me......"

Is it wrong to ask God to show himself, to prove himself, to give us a "sign" of His Goodness?
The Israelites are rebuked and disciplined many times for putting God to the test, for insisting on more evidence of His Goodness and Power than He's already abundantly provided. (Ps 78:41-51) But here the psalmist's motives are clearly not for his own benefit. He is not doubting God or demanding that the Lord demonstrate His character in a tangible way just so he'll feel better. Rather, he wants the evidence of God's Loving Presence to rebuke and shame the people who have no faith in the Almighty, to whom the psalmist owes his life.

Like the prophet Micah, we need not hesitate to pray that God will help and honor us so that His Glory will be revealed to the arrogant and unbelieving. (Mic 7:8-10) (Women of Faith Study Bible)

Our lives are ever changing. Part of our Spiritual Journey calls for us to embrace the moments of change in our lives. Not with the fear and trepidation that so often people exhibit, but with exhilaration and, as Ed Hays said, "with anticipation."

We willingly acknowledge that no matter how carefully we plan, LIFE, as John Lennon once famously said, "...is what happens when we are making other plans."
And we're OK with that because we are Living with Christ.

AFFIRMATION:
Willingly do I drink the cup of this day and all that it holds: All the blessings, All the challenges, All the opportunities for me to learn.
Be with me, Jesus, that I might live this day as Your compassionate disciple.
Make me Aware of Your Presence even when the answers to my prayers are not what I want or expect.
Thank You, Loving God. Thank You, Christ Jesus. Thank You, Holy Spirit. Amen.

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Heb 12:2)

In Christ, Jim

GOD LIVES IN COMMUNITY by Dr. Jim Savage

2008-05-19T08:20:00.000-07:00

Here....Now....Always

Jesus frequently proclaimed that He was in the Father and the Father was in Him and that He would send the "Advocate," or Holy Spirit, to the disciples to continue to guide and companion them. Jesus not only promised that God would live in community with the disciples but also declared the Reality of a Divine Community. Trinity Sunday highlights the deep Mystery of God in Three Persons living in Divine Community and invites the church to reflect that Divine Community in the contemporary world. (A Guide To Prayer For All Who Seek God)

REFLECTION: "Life Together" Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

"In the Christian community thankfulness is just what it is anywhere else in the Christian life. Only he who gives thanks for little things receives the big things. We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual gifts He has in store for us, because we do not give thanks for daily gifts. We think we dare not be satisfied with the small measure of spiritual knowledge, experience, and Love that has been given to us, and that we must constantly be looking forward eagerly for the highest Good. Then we deplore the fact that we lack the deep certainty, the strong faith, and the rich experience that God has given to others, and we consider this lament to be pious. We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts. How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully receive from Him the little things?"

AFFIRMATION: Believe! (Richard Baxter FRIEND):

"Who is more suitable for our love than Christ? His Godhead and humanity, His fullness and freeness, His willingness and constancy, all proclaim Him your most suitable Friend. Although your eyes have never seen your Lord, yet you have heard His voice, received His benefits, and lived close to His heart. He taught you to know yourself and Him. He opened that first window through which you saw into heaven."

Thank You, Father God. Thank You, Christ Jesus. Thank You, Holy Spirit. Amen.

Shalom,
Jim

Trinity Sunday: 1st Sunday After Pentecost

2008-05-14T09:51:00.000-07:00

GOD LIVES IN COMMUNITY
Genesis 1......

The Bible's opening verses offer us our first glimpse of God. He presents himself as One who brings order from darkness, emptiness and formlessness. He separates light from darkness, sky from water, water from land. He commands His creation to "produce," to "mark" seasons and days and years to "govern" the day and night----all ways of establishing order.

1:3-4 "Then God said...."
The mode of God's creative Power is divine speech. All that is needed for the creation of light, even before the sun and stars have been created, is God's intrusive Word. That Word that creates also qualifies what it creates as "Good." At the utterance of the divine Word there is Order and Goodness.

"We can 'un-train' from our habit of thinking of time in the 'normal,' linear way. In an age filled with clocks and calendars, we have limited our natural abilities to choose how we traverse time in our lives......we can learn.....take profound spiritual steps toward achieving liberation from the ego, connecting to the universal consciousness, and overcoming the fear of death." (Fred Alan Wolf)

REFLECTION: Love In Three Words (Reuben Archer Torrey)
"God is Love is the greatest sentence ever written. It sums up the whole contents of the Bible. It is the subject of the first chapter of Genesis, it is the subject of the last chapter of Revelation, and it is the subject of every chapter that lies in between.
There is mighty Power in that one short sentence, Power to break the hardest heart, Power to reach individual men and women who are sunk down in sin and to lift them up until they are fit for a place beside the Lord Jesus Christ upon the throne."

"Whoever does not Love does not Know God, because God is Love." (1 John 4:8)

AFFIRMATION:
I Trust that Divine Order is always present. Spirit is at work in the details of life.
As independent as activities and surroundings may seem to be of one another, they blend together in an intricate pattern...the Journey of Life...Connection...Transformation.......
Even when I do not See evidence of Good taking shape and emerging, I Trust that it is there. Divine Order is present and All is coming together for Good.

"Trust in Him at all times, O people." (Psalm 62:8)

Shalom,
Jim

TRINITY SUNDAY: First Sunday After Pentecost by Dr. Jim Savage

2008-05-12T14:41:00.001-07:00

God Lives In Community

Matthew 28:16-20
"Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee....."

The eleven do go to Galilee, and Jesus appears as promised. Jesus says He has been given all authority, and then He authorizes His disciples to make disciples of all nations, which is said to involve baptizing in the Trinitarian name and teaching the converts to obey all that Jesus commanded.

But Jesus does far more than just authorize and empower His "learners." He promises to be with them (Immanuel) as the divine Power, Presence, and Wisdom of God until the close of the age. Never again will they be bereft of Him. Thus, the Gospel closes with a presentation of Jesus as God's Wisdom, His wise Presence, who dwells within the People of God and guards and guides them.

As God's people we are called to live and call others to live according to the counterorder Wisdom of Jesus, the sage. The Gospel for learners is also the Gospel for teachers. Ultimately, there is only One Teacher, One Sage, One Wisdom-----Jesus.

REFLECTION:
Why did Jesus tell the disciples that He would be with them to the end of the age?
In what ways is Jesus Christ with us today?
Consider choosing one of those ways and attempting to be especially sensitive to Jesus' Presence with you this week.

SEEK LOVE (Andrew Murray):
"Has our daily habit been to seek being filled with the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Love?
When the body is divided, there cannot be strength. In the time of great conflicts, one of the mottoes is: "Unity gives strength." It is only when God's people stand as One Body, One before God in the fellowship of Love, One toward another in deep affection, One before the world in Love----it is only then that they will have Power to secure the blessing which they ask of God......Give yourselves up to Love, and the Holy Spirit will come. Receive the Spirit, and He will teach you to Love more."

"And Hope does not disappoint us, because God's Love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us." (Romans 5:5)

AFFIRMATION:
We are All God's beloved creations and One in Spirit.
As divine creations, we have Love within that Connects us One with another.
Following the leading of God's Love within, I Connect with others. God's Love links us heart to heart.
Thank You, Loving God. Thank You, Christ Jesus. Thank You, Holy Spirit! Amen.

"If we Love One another, God lives in us, and His Love is perfected in us." (1 John 4:12)

Shalom,
Jim

POWER FROM BEYOND OURSELVES by Dr. Jim Savage

2008-05-05T07:59:00.000-07:00

Acts 2:1-21
"When the day of Pentecost had come..."

Pentecost was the Jewish feast day, fifty days after Passover, commemorating the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai (Lev 23:15-21). This passage exhibits rich association with that event (Exod 19-20). Again, when important things happen, the community is "all together."

PENTECOST
The birth of the Church. The coming of the Holy Spirit. It all begins here. Or does it?
Turn back to the second verse of the Bible: "The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters" (Gen 1:2). The Holy Spirit was present from the beginning of time. The Old Testament is filled with examples of how the Spirit worked in powerful and amazing ways, in unique situations and through specific people.

How then is the day of Pentecost a dividing line in human history? Because it is on this day that the Holy Spirit of God becomes available to every Christian man, woman and child. Previously, the Spirit revealed himself only occasionally and for unique works of God. Today, the Spirit never leaves. He lives in us, is ever with us and gives us the "righteousness, peace and joy" that is such a beautiful evidence of His work in our lives. (1 Co 6:19; Jn 14:16-17; Ro 14:17) (Women of Faith Study Bible)

"The practical question is: Do I adequately acknowledge the Spirit's role in the good actions I perform every day, or do I attribute them only to my own initiative and hard work? The scriptural model insists that if the action was good, the Spirit was present from the beginning to the end.......To the extent that I have not served in Love, I humbly admit my faults and ask for a greater increase of Grace to transform these areas. My reward for living in the Spirit is the habitual Peace and Joy I experience." (Richard J. Hauser, "In His Spirit")

Thank You, Loving God. Thank You, Christ Jesus. Thank You, Holy Spirit. The faithful today continue to receive this Gift of God-dwelling-within to provide direction, courage, comfort, hope, companionship, and peace. Amen.

Shalom,
Jim

WAITING TO RECEIVE INSTRUCTIONS by Dr. Jim Savage

2008-04-29T13:53:00.000-07:00

WAITING TO RECEIVE INSTRUCTIONS
1 Peter 5:8-9; 1 Cor 10:13

No Temptation Too Great

Paul records one of Scriptures' most beautiful and assuring truths: Yes, temptation will come, but God will be there, too. Every Christian is faced with temptation of some sort. The temptation is itself not sin (even Jesus was tempted----Mt 4:1). Yielding to temptation is the sin. Some Christians may feel they are bombarded with temptation, and they grow weary under its weight. Through Paul, God responds to those weary Christians with His kindest and most reassuring words regarding the temptations they face: He is right there with them, and if they will only look about them, they will See a Way He has provided that will help them to resist. (Women of Faith Study Bible)

"God is the One who teaches to listen and to pray. We must pray for the Gift and pray for the Gift to be taught. They say that mature writers have 'found their voice.' I think we need to 'find our ear'----our best way of recognizing God's voice, knowing that, once we have found our ear, God may decide to speak in a different language." (John Ackerman, "Spiritual Awakening")

REFLECTION:
In what ways has the Holy Spirit helped to bring about "breakthroughs" in your spiritual formation?

Pray now that God would guide and enable you in a close walk of discipleship with Jesus, that He would grow you in the Grace and Knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

"Talk with God by frequent prayer. In particular, ask that your desires may be right---and love to have your affections with Him regular and holy. Call to Him for health, run to Him for counsel, and beg of Him for pardon. It is as natural to love Him to whom we make such addresses and on whom we have such dependencies as it is for children to love their parents. For it is not my governor, my employer, or my friend who supports me or provides my needs, but God." (Jeremy Taylor)

"But it was your own eyes that Saw all these great things the Lord has done." (Deut 11:7)

Jim

Easter Season ~ Job: Testing and Restoration

2008-04-08T13:11:00.000-07:00

Job teaches us to Persevere.

His long monologues reflect the profound drama of the heart's spiritual formation.

His speeches explore shades of despair, bitterness, anger, grief, resignation, false hope, and genuine hope. His struggle to understand the contours of his pain inspires us to delve into the Mysteries of God and our own heart and understanding.

One of the deep lessons Job learns is that the God he thought he knew is different from the God who had been watching over him all along. Pain limited Job's reality, but gave him the tools to deepen it also.

A new knowledge of God is the Blessed Result.

One man wrote at length about experiences such as Job's, and through his wisdom we can come to better understand many of the truths first revealed in the book of Job. John of the Cross's "The Dark Night of the Soul" describes God's process of maturing souls through allowing times of suffering and darkness in their lives. A sixteenth century Carmelite monk, John faced such a dark night himself while under arrest and in confinement for his work to reform within the Church.

"God must take spiritual consolation away in order to purify the soul," John writes. He describes how God worked in Job's life and how He works in the lives of those who know Him today. "Because of His Love for us, God urges us to grow up. His Love is not content to leave us in our weakness, and for this reason He takes us into a dark night. He weans us from all the pleasures by giving us dry times and inward darkness......Through the dark night pride becomes humility, greed becomes simplicity, wrath becomes contentment, luxury becomes peace, gluttony becomes moderation, envy becomes joy, and sloth becomes strength. No soul will ever grow deep in the spiritual life unless God works passively in that soul by means of the dark night." (The Renovare' Spiritual Formation Bible)

"You have granted me life and steadfast love, and Your care has preserved my spirit." (Job 10:12)

"Now, nothing wills and works with God but the Spirit of Love because nothing else works in God Himself. The Almighty brought forth all nature for this only end that boundless Love might have its infinity of height and depth to dwell and work in. All the striving and working properties of nature are only to give essence and substance, life and strength to the invisible hidden Spirit of Love, that it may come forth into outward activity and manifest its blessed powers, that creatures born in the strength and out of the powers of nature might communicate the Spirit of Love and goodness, give and receive mutual delight and joy to and from one another." (William Law)

AFFIRMATION:
Faith is the assurance of the answer to all we take into prayer. With God, the healing, the guidance, the peace that we seek or that others seek are indeed ours.
Faith is holding to the blessings we Know to be true even when physical symptoms and feelings of concern indicate otherwise.
Thank You, Loving God. Thank You, Christ Jesus. Thank You, Holy Spirit. Amen.

JESUS MEETS US ON THE WAY By Dr. Jim Savage

2008-03-25T12:21:00.000-07:00

"Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus....While they were talking and discussing, Jesus came near and went with them...As they came near the village....He walked ahead as if He were going on. But they urged Him strongly, saying, 'Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.' So He went in to stay with them...." (Luke 24:13-15, 28-29)

Two followers of Jesus are trudging down the Emmaus Road. Their hopes have been dashed, their dreams have been destroyed, their leader has been crucified. These two disciples are the painful portrait of the walking wounded, when suddenly, they get a new lease on life.

Cleopas and another man, whom tradition tells us was named Simon, have been followers of Jesus, but now they have thrown in the towel. They have quit, and they are limping down the Emmaus Road like broken and defeated warriors. They know about the Crucifixion. They saw it with their own eyes. But they do not yet know about the Resurrection. They have not yet experienced the Risen Christ. Disappointed, disillusioned, defeated, heartbroken, downcast, they trudge down the Emmaus Road toward home. Their hopes for the future have been dashed, so not knowing what else to do, they turn back toward the old life.

Their heads are bowed as though they carry on their backs a crushing burden of defeat and dejection. They limp along with weary steps as if their shoes are weighted with lead. Their eyes are misted over with the tears of disillusionment. They walk along in silence. They dare not speak for fear they will break into uncontrollable sobbing.

At last, with a sigh weighted with despair, the younger man speaks: "He's dead. He's gone. It's all over. They have killed Him, and without Him we are nothing. We should have known this wouldn't work. It was too good to be true, too idealistic for this cruel world. How could we have been such fools! We followed Him. We trusted, we thought He was the One to save us, and now it's all over." Down, dejected, defeated, worn, weary, wounded....

But we know that this is not the end of the story. No! The Risen Lord comes to them. He walks with them. He talks with them. He breaks bread with them, and as they experience the Resurrected Christ, they too get resurrected! They are healed! They find new life! And they rush, they run, back to Jerusalem to Share the Good News with the other disciples. They run, shouting, "Hope is still alive! Christ is risen! Christ is Alive!"

Dear God, thank You for the lessons of the Lenten Season and Easter Morning and afterwards..........We have learned, again, that Christ comes to us in a special Way when we are hurting. We have learned that Christ has the Power to heal our hurts. We have learned that Christ Shares His Resurrection with us today. Like Cleopas and Simon we get resurrected too! We too get New Life! Thank You, Christ Jesus! Thank You, Holy Spirit! Amen
("On the Road Again" James W. Moore) In Christ, Jim

LOVE THE WORD (Dwight Lyman Moody)

2008-03-13T12:48:00.000-07:00

All the historical things are told in the way that we know the world had of looking at them when they were written. People very often think that science is all fact and that religion is only fancy. A great many persons think the stars around us are inhabited, but they cannot bring themselves to believe that there is a life beyond this earth for immortal souls.

The true Christian puts faith before reason and believes that reason always goes wrong when faith is set aside. If people would but read their Bibles more, and study what there is to be found there about heaven, they would not be as worldly minded as they are. They would not have their hearts set upon things down here but would seek the imperishable things above.

"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." (1 Cor 2:9)

Use of Metaphorical Language in Romans:
The way we use language is critical in spiritual formation.
Jesus, of course, is THE Word. Language, one of the defining characteristics of being human, is integral to the way God reveals and works. It follows that the WAY we use language, not simply THAT we use it, is significant.

The way Paul uses language in Romans is to load it with metaphor, a practice he learned from the Hebrew prophets before him. There is hardly a paragraph in this letter without a metaphor.

Metaphor does not so much define or label: it expands, forcing the mind into participating action.....What metaphor does is force our mind into action to find meaning at another level, engaging the imagination to look for relationships and resonances that tell us more than any literal description ever could. We cannot be passive before a metaphor. We must imagine and enter into it. Metaphor enlists us in a believing, obeying, living participation..........(Again, my mind goes back to Disciple 1....Thank you, Terry.)

Paul uses words not to define, but to evoke......
Paul's language is a Living Energy Field.......This is language Alive, Expressing and Forming our lives from the inside out. Spiritual formation requires this lively, participatory language.
(The Renovare' Spiritual Formation Bible....The With-God Life)

Ever-active God, thank You for Your Living Word. Thank You for Paul who writes of Living Participation....Living Energy! We see this in Jesus and the Way He came to show us....We live it Now with the help of Your Holy Spirit. Such Grace given freely! Thank You, God! Amen.

IT’S FRIDAY, BUT SUNDAY’S COMIN’! by Rev. Jeff Parker

2008-03-04T09:37:00.000-08:00

One of the best sermons I’ve ever heard was given by a guy named Tony Campolo, and it was called “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s Comin’!” I remember that it was nowhere near Easter when I first heard that message, but it is such a terrific Easter theme that I was profoundly struck by the universality of it. In many ways, we live Good Friday every day of our lives. Death and dying are around us constantly and without fail as we move around on this planet.

Yesterday I was driving down an old country road and I came to a four-way stop. I looked to my right, and an eighteen wheeler was paused to let me go ahead. I saw that it was fully loaded with crates of live chickens, headed off somewhere along the chain of industry in order to make those awesome boneless chicken breasts that I bake, grill, fry and ultimately consume. It was strange, because it was about 25 degrees outside, and they were in wire baskets that had to be absolutely frigid whenever the truck began moving. I thought, “Those poor chickens need some cover.” And then, almost immediately my mind finished the thought: “…so that they are more at ease when they get to the slaughterhouse!” It was a strange moment.

But the “It’s Friday” part of the message and ministry of Jesus has to do with the painful reality that we really do not need anyone to explain to us. Life is hard, and it is often seasoned with great suffering. Many well-intentioned ministers and friends in the faith often try to comfort us in our suffering with the assurance that we live in a “fallen world,” and that all pain is a by-product of “original sin.” But such counsel has always struck me as pretty self-serving. I mean, I have never in my life been in a hospital room or funeral home and had friends and family members say to me, “Well, it’s hard to let my granddad go, but, you know, that’s what original sin does…” In the same way, I’ve never seen a doctor tell a patient that has just received the news that they have heart disease or diabetes “Well, Mr. Smith, before we talk about a course of treatment, I just would like to take a moment to explain to you how to avoid patterns of behavior that could bring about heart disease/high blood pressure.” Such a discussion would be completely silly: if the cat is in the chicken coop, it’s too late to tell me how to build a cat-proof chicken coop!

Explanations of why we suffer, or whose “fault” suffering might be strike me as utterly useless when grappling with the stark reality of pain. The truth is that we live predominantly in a Good Friday world. As a Christian, my job is not to offer up a reliable explanation of the mechanics of how the world is shattered. My calling is to follow Christ’s lead in fixing it.

SUNDAY IS COMING! It’s exciting, then, to get to the answer to every question: the reason why we are here. The reason why we do what we do. The reason why we hope in the face of great suffering and injustice. The reason we can sit beside our brothers and sisters who are grieving and resonate faith and love to them even as they cry. Sure, it’s Friday. Sure, it’s frightening and lonely and painful and demanding. Sure it is. We acknowledge the truth of life as we know it and as we build it. It’s Friday, but Sunday’s Comin’!”

Easter Sunday is the answer that God gives me whenever I confront the pain of a Good Friday world. It’s not a theory, or a mechanical description. It’s not an analysis of cause and effect. It’s not a sociological or demographic study. It’s an announcement that changes everything:

“HE IS NOT HERE! HE IS RISEN!”

You don’t have to intellectually accept it. You certainly don’t have to understand it. You honestly cannot ever hope to explain it. But this announcement is for you. You are meant to hear it. And once you hear it, you are invited to run – not walk! - to the empty tomb that is in your heart waiting to be discovered. Once you see it for yourself, you will live in an Easter world…forever.

To Begin Again

2008-02-26T13:12:00.000-08:00

Many years ago Louisa Fletcher Tarkington wrote a perceptive poem entitled, "The Land of Beginning Again." It begins and ends with a verse which is almost a universal wish.
I wish there were some wonderful place
Called the land of beginning again
Where all our mistakes,
And all our heartaches,
And all of our poor selfish grief,
Could be dropped like a shabby
Old coat at the door,
And never be put on again.

Do we not all, periodically, wish that could happen to us? We would do it at once if we just knew how. But, one does not live long without learning that this is not easy, even when it feels necessary.

There is something about the past which troubles all of us, even if it is nothing more than the nagging belief that we could do better if we had another go at it. Burdens and baggage of the past constitute such a terrible load for so many people! Until we can get rid of some of what we are carrying, we cannot take on more.

Admittedly, some of the burdens of the past are real. They cannot be dismissed with a wave of the hand. They represent the residue of old errors that have left scars and, sometimes, open wounds. Some of them are unfulfilled obligations that, whether they were wise or unwise, must still be met. Not all of the baggage of the past is imaginary, but much of it is.

All of us carry some baggage from the past which could be laid aside and never picked up again because it does not exist in reality. Our unwillingness to let go of the past hurts; our ignorance about how we may be forgiven and our blindness and insensitivity to the joys we could experience when we put unnecessary baggage aside keeps us a prisoner of the past. Only God knows how we hurt as the result of unresolved aspects of the past! Only God knows what we may become if we could be free of our unresolved and unredeemed past that we cannot change!

We can lay aside the anchors we have been dragging and gain dominion over the obstacles and burdens in life. I do not mean to be casual about your past, for who would be insensitive enough to be casual with people about the places where they hurt, the emotional "hot spots" of life? Our emotional and spiritual pain is serious business and should not be treated in a cavalier fashion. I cannot forgive sins or redeem the past for you. I cannot even do that for myself. I can only tell you where it can be done. The Bible teaches us that we do not have to be a victim of our past – unless we want to.

The Bible is filled with the idea of beginning life over again. Early on the concept of a new beginning became necessary in the life of God’s creation. When we were bounced out of the Garden of Eden we did not fall into the front pew of First Methodist or First Baptist Church! We fell into a world where we had to make choices which were more complicated than whether or not to take a bite of the apple. And we have never been the same since. Ever since Eden we have been building up a past that has to be dealt with. Jesus came into our sin-stricken world to tell us how to deal with our past.

When Nicodemus, that gentle and learned Pharisee, came to inquire of Jesus, the Master told him that he would have to be born again. Nicodemus tried so hard to intellectualize the process. He pointed out to Jesus that it is impossible to be born again. He raised anatomical problems with the process. He literalized what was spiritual and, therefore missed the point – a mistake from which we still find it difficult to learn a lesson. The marvelous thing about what Jesus taught was not so much that you must be born again, but that you can be born again.

Whatever loose ends may be lying out there in the past, God can help us gather them into new beginnings. Forgiveness is for the asking. "If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:9). "As far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:12).
While some people are haunted by the past, there are others who are lured to it, like a moth to the flame. The past is used as a place of comfort and security in a world of chaos and change. Some psychologists say that people who are threatened in ways they cannot handle tend to return to earlier levels of development (the past) for security. Those who constantly return to the past for security are in as much danger as those who flee from it and are haunted by it. Sometimes people keep going back to their past hoping it will improve. There is nothing more futile than trying to create a better past. There is a country song that has a very sad line in it about the past: "It looks like looking back is all I have to look forward to." If all our happiness is in the past, we are not likely to be happy again. You cannot live with the past when it is gone. Don’t try! Your story will be too sad to tell. It is better to trust the uncertain future.

No person need stay the way they are. The good news is that you can change.

Explaining God by Dr. Thoms Lane Butts

2008-02-13T11:30:00.000-08:00

Explaining God

When my grandson, T.L., was about 6 years old he had just finished a class in the Catholic Church preparing him for his First Communion. He was very proud of what he had learned about God and Jesus, and so were we all. T.L. had come with his parents and his little sister, Winslow, to spend the weekend. As we sat down for the first meal after their arrival, I looked around the table and asked who would like to say the blessing. T.L. quickly volunteered. His 5 year old sister spoke up in support of T.L. by saying: "My brother knows everything about God!" I asked T.L. if this were true. He said: "Grandfather, I know all about God. It is in a book I had to read, but I have lost the book." Guess who said the blessing! There was something strikingly symbolic about losing the book that explained everything about God. I thought of mentioning that "losing the book with all the answers" would be a problem all his life, but he was too young and too confident of what he knew to have his grandfather disturb that wonderful but temporary state of being. He would learn the truth soon enough.

It is 57 years now that I have been in the business of "explaining God"; embarrassingly often to people who were better acquainted with God than I. I used to be good at it! I was as confident of my complete knowledge of God as my six year old grandson. Now I have learned too much to have even the faintest shadow of an idea that I know very much at all about the Almighty. When I was young God was small enough to be encompassed in my descriptions. After all these years God has grown far beyond my feeble explanations.

Some days I reflect on what happened to the God of my youth, the God who was well within the range of my verbal skills. That nice comfortable God disappeared somewhere in the study of astronomy, physics, cosmology, and the Bible. When I learned that the earth was not the center of the cosmos, not the center of the "Milky Way," or even the solar system, God began to get bigger than my explanations. When I learned that our little solar system is in a remote corner of our unremarkable galaxy which is 100,000 light years across and contains a billion or more stars like the star we call the sun, and that the visible universe contains billions of galaxies like our own, and that even with the Hubble Telescope we have not yet found the edge of the universe, the God of my youth disappeared and there appeared a God too large to explain. This became a humbling experience for a person who is in the business of explaining God.

As a child I prayed to a God who was "good and great," but in adulthood I learned that this God who is indeed "good and great" is also subtle, elusive, and even strange. If I had read the Bible with greater care when I was young I might have suspected that God was different from (as in more than) what I thought. Isaiah 55:8-9 reminds us: "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways says the Lord. For as high as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Now I cannot speak of God quite completely. I can only point at Jesus and the universe, both of which are beyond my explanation, but they refer to an even larger reality that we call God.

I miss the God of my youth who was so easy to explain. I feel like Thomas Hood who in the last verse of "I Remember, I Remember" wrote:
I remember, I remember
The fir-trees dark and high;
I used to think their slender tops
Were close against the sky:
It was a childish ignorance,
But now ‘tis little joy
To know I’m farther off from Heaven
Than when I was a boy.

When I speak of God these days I have to qualify my explanations with: "There is more, much more." I realize most of you want someone to tell you everything about God. Sorry about that. Not now. Perhaps later, in another dimension, in "an older place than Eden and a taller town than Rome." "Now we see through a glass darkly," said an old friend a couple of thousand years ago.

AN ENCOURAGING WORD for September 6, 2007 - written by Dr. Thoms Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First United Methodist Church

HOPE by Dr. Jim Savage

2007-12-13T07:53:00.001-08:00

Responding to the Word HOPE

Hope.

Perhaps no other word better illumines the Advent story. Hope that Mary would say Yes! Hope that Joseph would not reject her upon hearing the news of her pregnancy. Hope that their long journey to Bethlehem would bring no harm. Hope that the bright star overhead would bring only Good.

Parents hope for room in an inn. Shepherds hope for Good News of a birth in a manager. Angels hope for peace in human hearts. Advent could not be Advent without hope. Not at the first and not today, for without the borning crying of hope, the world could descend into deadening discouragement.

Hope opens something in the human heart. Like shutters slowly parting to admit a winter dawn, hope permits strands of light to make their way to us, even when we still stand in cold darkness; but hope also reveals a landscape beyond us into which we can live and move and have our being. With hope, closely held interior thoughts are gently turned outward; deep desires, perhaps long hidden secret corners of our heart, might be lifted up to the light. At times, hope peels back the edges of our imagination to free what waits underneath----a changed life, a new resolve, a yes to pregnant possibility. In other moments hope dares us to unfold a layer of desire---for relationship, for clarity, for courage.

In the stories of the Season of Advent, God opens everything to us through hope born of expectation----expectation that Christ is coming to make all things new. And in the coming of Christ we find the coming of hope, made real in time, space, and flesh.

May you live through the Scriptures this Season, in which the Light of God's Hope breaks in on a waiting world to illumine the landscape in which we live and move and have our being.

Anticipation and Reflection

2007-12-06T11:57:00.000-08:00

By Dr. Jim Savage

ANTICIPATION
(Matt 24:36-44)

Here Jesus tells how, with the help of God, Noah anticipated and made ready for the flood, while others ignored God and lost their lives. Perhaps the others were too consumed with the ways of the world, distracted by their own interests. But Noah had learned to pay attention to what mattered to God; and what mattered to God were the ones who mattered to Noah.

We are entering a season when much of the world will be attracted by glitter and glimmer, but we are invited to anticipate with God what really matters in our lives.

Take pen and paper to a quiet place where you can be alone for a while; a place with few distractions. Begin a list of the people you love, all those persons who are dear to you, the ones you want to carry in your heart this season. Keep this list over the whole Advent Season; add to it any time. Be satisfied with remembering these individuals in prayer and thoughts for now.

REFLECTION:
Heart-and-Soul Connection.
I naturally want to connect with people in loving ways. So I express love and appreciation of family, friends, and acquaintances.....All given as a Gift in my life to Love. In meetings, calls, cards and e-mails I stay in touch with the special people in my life.

How good it is to be in touch with All for then I am Aware of the Sacred Love that is within All and is to be Shared by All. Thank You, Loving God. Thank You, Lord Jesus. Thank You, Holy Spirit.

Dear Lord, we ask for the steadfast, trusting faith of Noah. We can only imagine the scoffers...all those caught up in apathy, who didn't care to take time to know You. Noah persevered regardless of doubters, maybe those who tried to dissuade him from his building task. Even though he didn't fully understand God's covenant with him, he focused on obeying and made a difference in the lives of his family. He Allowed himself to be used in an unfolding Divine Plan. A Lesson to contemplate now.
You are worthy of our trust. Thank You for Such Love!

Our prayer today is to let us Know the warmth of Your Presence with us so that we may Share Your Love with All.
Today we anticipate Who has been..... Who is..... and Who is to come. Amen. Amen.

JIM

First Week of Advent by Dr. Jim Savage

2007-11-27T14:50:00.000-08:00

Readings of Scripture for the week of December 2nd, and the First Week of Advent
Isaiah 2:1-5; Psalm 122; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:36-44

GOD'S PREPOSTEROUS PROMISE

"......So often I stand on the edge of the light, afraid to believe, afraid to act, afraid that this story is too good to be true. But then in my better moments, when I listen closely to the story, move closer to the light, my fears seem to evaporate like an early morning mist, and I can believe again. I can believe that God who made all that is became clothed in our human flesh so that we might become clothed in God. I can believe that God claims me as a beloved child. I can believe that all my days are in God's strong and tender hands. I can believe that life is good, beautiful, and eternal. I can believe that not only my days but all days are in God's good and able hands. I can believe, rejoice, and wait trustingly and expectantly for the unfolding of God's promise given so many ways and most clearly in the Advent story. Thanks be to God!" (Rueben P. Job, Upper Room)

"The liturgical year opens the present to both the past and the future, widening our vision to glimpse the timelessness of God's own time. Through it we enter into the vigil being kept in the season before seasons. We continue to wait for the fullness." (Wendy M. Wright)

Isaiah 2:4-5:
I believe the words of this anointed prophet, and I rejoice in the vision of Your coming kingdom---a world without war, filled with a people who walk in the light of their Lord. Darkness, hatred and pain will be forgotten. Desperation and loss will be forever wiped away in the joy and comfort of Your Presence, O God. I thank You, bless You and praise You for Your sure promise and I look forward with longing toward the glorious fulfillment. (Maranatha! NIV Worship Bible)

AFFIRMATION:
For in Christ every one of God's promises is a "Yes." For this reason it is through Him that we say the "Amen," to the glory of God. (2 Cor 1:20)

WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE

2007-11-21T09:03:00.000-08:00

By Dr. Jim Savage

"I have often thought that life is a journey and existence is a constant movement: truths to be discovered, mysteries to be experienced, a surge of energy toward a goal, and an expression of passion toward a fulfillment. I am of the belief that in the life of each person there is a grand search to address fundamental matters: Who am I? Why am I here? Where will I go? A search for many things: philosophical, practical, and spiritual. Among the many reference points---family, education, society, and experience---faith and the teachings of the church are a major help. This search is at the core of the freedom in each individual's life......

What is God's will in my life? What is God's plan for me? ....This is the doorstep of spiritual direction.

This gift is in each person created by God. It is God's marvelous gift, an invitation to draw our lives closer to Him, and it is for us to decide to respond to that gift." (Luis O. Corpus, "Spiritual Direction: Pathway to Growth")

AFFIRMATION: Awareness
This is the season of busyness....the beginning of holiday activities and events. In the coming days, how will I respond and not neglect myself and my relationships with God, with family.........
I must stay focused and remember always that God's Spirit is within me every moment. I can relax and enjoy life. I Know that God is my Source of strength, wisdom, and love.
Being In The Moment with this realization prepares me for each day. Now is the time......
Thank You, Loving God. Thank You, Christ Jesus. Thank You, Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen.

"I thank You, Lord, that You have put eternity within my heart and that nothing else on earth can ever totally satisfy me." (Unknown)

"The world and its desires pass away, but the one who does the will of God lives forever." (1 John 2:17)

"Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me." (Matt 16:24)

In Christ,
Jim

A NEW BEGINNING

2007-11-16T10:27:00.000-08:00

by Dr. Jim Savage

"Being in the world without being of the world." These words summarize well the way Jesus speaks of the spiritual life. It is a life in which we are totally transformed by the Spirit of Love. Yet it is a life in which everything seems to remain the same. To live a spiritual life does not mean that we must leave our families, give up our jobs, or change our ways of working; it does not mean that we have to withdraw from social or political activities, or lose interest in literature and art; it does not require severe forms of asceticism or long hours of prayer....What is new is that we have moved from the many things to the kingdom of God. What is new is that we are set free from compulsions of our world and have set our hearts on the only necessary thing. What is new is that we no longer experience the many things, people, and events as endless causes for worry, but begin to experience them as the rich variety of ways in which God makes His Presence known to us. (Henri J.M. Nouwen, "Making All Things New")

"The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'There it is!' For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you." (Luke 17:20-21)

REFLECTION:
We do not need to look for miracles or signs outside us to find the kingdom of God. It is within our personal power to reach, through justice, love and faith. To ask "When" and "Where" is to delay the coming of the kingdom among us.

"Knowing that the place where you live and the work you do is not simply your own choice but part of a mission makes all the difference." (Henri Nouwen)

AFFIRMATION:
Discovery and growth are essential in life....each day we learn something new about ourselves and the world around us. This is ongoing conversion....transformation.....
At one time we may have believed that we were unable to change habits or behaviors..but...Now we Know differently. God is with us...within us and surrounding us always. "......God lives in us and His Love is made complete in us." (1 John 4:11-12)
We are spiritually awakened through the Power and Presence of God.....Free....Free to enjoy and experience life in a whole New Way.
Through God's Spirit within we Know true Freedom is our inheritance.
Thank You, Loving God. Thank You, Christ Jesus. Thank You, Holy Spirit! Amen.

CLAIM YOUR INHERITANCE by Dr. Jim Savage

2007-11-12T08:21:00.000-08:00

"You are the object of all Good, the apex of Life, the depth of Wisdom. Your servant's greatest consolation is to hope in You above all things. I turn my eyes to You. In You, my God, Father of Mercies, I place my trust. Bless my soul and make it holy with Your heavenly blessing; let it become Your holy dwelling, the place of Your Eternal Glory. Let nothing be found in Your temple that may offend the eyes of Your majesty.

According to the greatness of Your Goodness and Your many Mercies, look down on me and hear the prayer of Your poor servant, exiled far off in the land of the shadow of death. Protect and keep the soul of Your servant, traveling amid the many dangers of life. By Your Grace, direct him (us) along the Path of Peace until he is back home in the land of everlasting brightness. Amen." (Thomas a' Kempis, The Imitation of Christ)

"We must repeat the same supplications not twice or three times only, but as often as we have need, a hundred and a thousand times....We must never be weary in waiting for God's help." (John Calvin)

"Always stay connected to people and seek out things that bring you joy. Dream with abandon. Pray confidently." (Barbara Johnson)

Let all who take refuge in You be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread Your protection over them, that those who love Your name may rejoice in You. (Psalm 5:11)

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the heart of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

Thank You, our Three-in-One God. Amen. Jim

CLAIM YOUR INHERITANCE

2007-11-08T11:30:00.000-08:00

by Dr. Jim Savage

"We talk about God in the third person. We teach about God. However, we don't teach about our spouses or about good friends. We introduce them, not teach about them. Too often we relate to God as a myth or a theorem to be talked about and not as a Friend." (Norman Shawchuck, "A Guide To Prayer For All Who Seek God" Upper Room")

"The more you can feel safe as a child of God, the freer you will be to claim your mission in the world as a responsible human being. And the more you claim that you have a unique task to fulfill for God, the more open you will be to letting your deepest need be met." (Henri Nouwen, "Embraced By God's Love")

St. Therese's life of trust in God gave her the conviction that no separation on earth was final. Indeed, she understood that the God who created her was drawing her to Himself throughout her life, and that death was the final separation which would result in union forever with the Source of All Life and Love. The sentence Therese wrote in one of her last letters says it all: "I am not dying; I am entering into Life!" (St. Therese of Lisieux. Spiritual Life, 2000)

"In the prayer of adoration we love God for Himself, for His very being, for His radiant joy." (Douglas V. Steere)

I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts, living within you, as you trust in Him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love; and may you be able to feel and understand, as all God's children should, how long, how wide, how deep and how high His love really is....And so at last you will be filled up with God Himself." (Ephesians 3:17-19)

Dear God, be with us All today as we strive again to hear Your Voice. We so want to follow You on the Way that Jesus taught. Help us to be supportive to All, to be Your arms of comfort surrounding those in need of love, right Now. Help us to be unafraid of whatever life will bring so that we may be a strength for those in need of a Friend, right Now...Help us to Share Life with one another whatever the circumstances, right Now. We give You thanks, Loving God. We are grateful, Christ Jesus. We will listen and we will wait to feel Your Guidance, Holy Spirit, thank You! Amen. May it be so.

God's Money by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts

2007-10-30T11:27:00.000-07:00

I set forth several conditions about where I would live when I retired, one of which was that I would live at least one mile from any church. Like most of the other conditions, this primary one was not met. By a fortuitous arrangement with the congregation I last served, I live immediately across the street from the church – so near, in fact, that on a sunny morning the shadow of the steeple falls across my front lawn. None of the problems anticipated about living so near the church have materialized; but there is one unanticipated problem.

In order for you to understand that problem you would have to know that my lovely wife, Hilda, has always been the treasurer and bookkeeper in our household. She is, and always has been, the soul of frugality, which is a fortunate characteristic for a clergy family. Her insistence on frugality tends to extend to any institution we support, the main one of which is the church whose steeple shadow falls across our front lawn. From the front windows of our house you can see some window in most of the whole church plant. Hilda cannot stand to see a light on where light is not necessary. I can handle that in our house, but First Methodist Church is a big building and people sometimes fail to turn off the lights when they leave. Guess who gets nominated to get dressed and go across the street to turn off those lights. Moi!! Hilda insists that God’s money should not be wasted. (Finance Committee, you may write a note of appreciation at your leisure; and by the way, send one also to me.) My experience here puts me in mind of a story.

One Monday morning a pastor in Texas answered the knock on his study door to find the church treasurer standing there with a check in his hand. He said: "Pastor, we have a little problem here; this is a check for five hundred dollars." The pastor opined that he could live with a few more problems like that. The treasurer said: "No, you don’t understand! Look at the check." The pastor took the check and read across the top line: Pay to the Order of God. When the pastor raised his eyes, the treasurer asked: "Now, who is going to endorse that?" According to the legend, the pastor handed the check back and answered: "You are! I certainly would not want it to get out that this church received an offering intended for God and didn’t know what to do with it!"

Before he retired as pastor of Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota several years ago, Dr. Rodney Wilmoth told of being at the church one Saturday morning. When the telephone rang he picked it up and said, "Hello" without identifying himself or the church. The voice on the other end of the line said: "I would like to order five pounds of barbecued ribs and five pounds of potato salad." Dr. Wilmoth said: "I believe you have the wrong number." The lady said: "You don’t have ribs and potato salad?" "No," said Dr. Wilmoth, "You have the wrong number." Then the woman said: "Well, what kind of business are you in?" Dr. Wilmoth said that question haunted him for a long time.

When you give your money to the church there are three things you should understand. First, it is no longer your money. It is now God’s money. The second thing you should understand is that it should be spent, not hoarded. The church is not First National Bank! The third thing is that it should be spent with great care. After all, it is God’s money!

OK, I’ll get dressed and go across the street and turn off the lights!! I not only feel responsible to God, I also have to live with the lady at my house who writes the check for our tithe on the first Sunday of every month!

AN ENCOURAGING WORD for September 20, 2007 - written by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First United Methodist Church

Living With Ambiguity by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts

2007-10-16T22:21:00.000-07:00

One of the best signs of maturity is the ability to live creatively with ambiguity. People who feel unduly anxious about not knowing with certainty the answer to all the big questions of life tend to be drawn to people who think they know everything. Uncertainty makes us look around nervously for experts.

Many years ago I had the pleasure of visiting the Holy Land. I wanted to stand in those special places where Jesus stood and remember what he said and did on certain important occasions. Every time we arrived at one of those sites and I was about to experience a moment of spiritual ecstacy knowing that I was standing where Jesus stood, our guide would inevitably destroy the moment by saying: "We are not really sure this is the exact spot where Jesus stood. It may have been ‘over yonder’ or it could have been some other place altogether. One of the traditions is that he stood here on that occasion." There was another group near us led by a minister with a thundering, authoritative voice who, when he came to the same place where we had been, would clutch his Bible over his heart and point the forefinger of his right hand to the heavens and pronounce with authority: "The Lord, Jesus, stood right here, on the very spot where I am standing and preached to the multitudes." I had sense enough to know that our guide was probably right, but I must confess there was something in me that made me want to be with that other group whose leader was absolutely certain. Do you understand that?

"Doubt is not a pleasant condition," said Voltaire, "but certainty is an absurd one." Human beings are never more dangerous than when they are absolutely certain beyond a shadow of doubt that they are right, and everyone else is wrong. Life is strewn with uncertainties. The bridge we must cross to get from uncertainty to meaningful action is "Faith." When two people stand before the altar to be married it is not unusual for one or both of them to have some lingering doubt about what they are doing. What makes them get married anyway? Faith and Love. Without this no one would dare embark on such a risky venture as marriage.

The older we are the more likely we are to realize the extent to which we are really ignorant about so many things. My adult children still ask me profound philosophical questions, to which I often answer: "You should have asked me that question 30 years ago when I knew the answer." The Apostle Paul was so right when he opined, "Now we see through a glass darkly . . . Now I know in part . . ." (I Corinthians 13:12). Paul went on to suggest the remedy for such ambiguity is "Faith, hope, and love."

If we wait until we are absolutely sure, we will always be waiting. In his novel, "The Trial," Franz Kafka has the hero, Mr. K, wander into a church where he hears a priest tell a parable which is frightening to those of us who are prone to wait until we are absolutely sure. There is a man who was told to enter a kingdom through a certain gate. When he arrived, he found the gate but he noticed a sentinel guarding the entrance. So he sat down and waited for the sentinel to give him instructions, or to grant permission to enter. But the guard did nothing and said nothing. So the man continued to sit there waiting for something to happen, waiting for someone to come. For a whole life he sat there. Then the guard closed the door. He said to the man, "The door was made for you, and for you alone. And because you chose not to enter it, it is being closed forever."

Don’t let your door to life close before you enter because you were not absolutely sure.

AN ENCOURAGING WORD for August 30, 2007 - written by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First United Methodist Church

Do We Finally Know It All? by Dr. Thomas Butts

2007-10-10T09:02:00.000-07:00

In a new biography titled "Einstein" Walter Isaacson refers to a remark made by the revered scientist, Lord Kelvin, when he was addressing the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1900. He counseled young men not to go into the field of physics because: "There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurements." Hmmm.

Even as he spoke a fuzzy headed, non-conformist, 21 year old Jew by the name of Albert Einstein, who had just graduated near the bottom of his class at Zurich Polytechnic College had strange new ideas about the structure of reality buzzing in his brain. After two desperate years of looking for a job, he was finally hired as a 3rd class technician at the patent office in Bern Switzerland. While working 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, and juggling a chaotic personal life, he came up with a scientific theory of Special Relativity which turned the world of physics on its ear. The famous equation E=MC2 came from Einstein’s 1905 paper on special relativity. It overturned long-held concepts in Isaac Newton’s "Principia Mathematica," such as the idea of absolute time. Newton, who had reigned supreme for over 200 years, was no longer infallible.

Lord Kelvin’s pronouncement that no thing new remained to be discovered was a colossal misjudgment. Everything old had to be re-examined and a whole new world of physics was opened up. When Albert Einstein died 55 years after Lord Kelvin’s pronouncement that everything new had been discovered, the whole world tipped their hat to this strange, imaginative, impertinent patent clerk who had become "the mind reader of the creator of the cosmos and the locksmith of the mysteries of the atom and the universe.

As the bright new age of the modern world dawned, Lord Kelvin was not the only person to think we knew just about all there was to know. In 1899, Charles Duell, Director of the U.S. Patent Office, urged President William McKinley to abolish the Patent Office. He told the President that "Everything that could be invented had been invented." But, even as he spoke two sons of a Methodist Bishop by the names of Wilbur and Orville Wright were toying with ideas of flight that would eventually revolutionize travel.

During the Great Depression in the 1930s my brother and I walked two miles on Saturday nights to hear the "Grand Ole Opry," being broadcast from Nashville, Tennessee, on a battery operated radio. In 1941, my father ordered a Silvertone radio from Sears Roebuck for $15.00 so we could listen to the "war news." As we listened to voices from thousands of miles away speak in our own living room, I thought this was as good as it gets. Surely there was nothing more that could be invented in the field of mass communication. Somebody, somewhere, said there was a strange new invention called television on the drawing board that could send real-time live pictures. What a crazy idea. I certainly did not believe it.

In this first decade of the 21st Century we have advanced instruments of technology that Lord Kelvin and Charles Duell would never believe possible. I scarcely believe it possible myself.
Surely by now "everything that can be invented has already been invented!" Shall we close the Patent Office? Hmmm.

When Bad Things Happen

2007-09-20T13:34:00.000-07:00

When Bad Things Happen to – Anybody written by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First United Methodist Church

In 1981, Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a book that touched a sensitive spot in many people. The book was titled, "When Bad Things Happen to Good People." Most of us consider ourselves to be good people, most of the time. Yet few, if any, live very long without having something bad happen in our lives which we feel is unfair. It is difficult to realize, in our understanding of reality, that "being good" is no guarantee against misfortune. We fail to see why God does not protect those who are trying to serve him. A man whose life had been "rained upon" considerably commented to me: "If God lets this sort of thing happen to his friends, pretty soon he will not have any friends." This is a universal human complaint against God even though it is often unspoken. But not everyone has remained quiet about it. The Book of Job and the Book of Psalms are laced with complaints to God about God’s failure to protect them from adversity.

In the Old Testament Book of Judges the "Angel of the Lord" appeared to Gideon and opened the conversation saying: "The Lord is with you, you mighty warrior." This salutation confused Gideon in view of all the trouble that was going on with him and his people. He obviously thought the Angel of the Lord was uninformed about the dire circumstances of God’s people. Gideon said to the Angel: "But, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonderful deeds that our ancestors recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has cast us off, and given us into the hand of Midian" (Judges 6:13). Gideon is expressing the age-old complaint: "Why do bad things happen to good people."

Job gave a philosophical answer to the question: "For misery does not come from the earth, nor does trouble sprout from the ground; but human beings are born to trouble just as sparks fly upward" (Job 5:6-7). He goes on: "A mortal that is born of woman is few of days and full of trouble . . ." (Job 14:1). While this philosophical explanation of the origin of trouble is of little comfort to a person in the midst of some life-altering adversity, it does offer a realistic understanding of the nature of human existence that will prepare one to deal with trouble when it comes.

One of the main obstacles to dealing creatively with the inevitable adversities of life is that our idealized image of what life ought to be like if it were like it ought to be gives no consideration to adversity being a normal part of life. Deep down in our hearts we think adversity is abnormal.

Truth is it is not abnormal but inevitable. It is part and parcel of our very existence. There is nothing in human experience or in our religious understanding of life which promises us a trouble-free life. Some of our troubles we bring upon ourselves, and there are some things that happen to us which are beyond our control. Our margin of control in both cases is in what we do with what happens to us.

Lillian Smith, in "Now Is the Time," reminds us that "Every good thing the human race has experienced was trouble for somebody. Our birth was trouble for our mothers. To support us was trouble for our fathers. Books, paintings, music, great buildings, good food, ideas, and the nameless joys and excitements which add up to what we call ‘a good life’ came out of the travail of countless hearts and minds."

Different people have different trials in life, and we deal with it in our own particular way, but adversity in some shape or form comes to everyone. Do not think for a moment that you can dance through the days of your years untouched by some kind of adversity. It is not going to happen.

If you want to really know a person observe them in a time of trial and trouble, when the mask of pretense and bravado is stripped away and there is nothing left but raw reality. While it is basically true that adversity tends to weaken the weak and strengthen the strong, there are people who are "born again" in the midst of a great adversity. But, that’s next week’s column.

We are not done here. Stay tuned.

AN ENCOURAGING WORD for August 9, 2007 - written by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First United Methodist Church

Real Change Leaders by Dr. Jim Savage

2007-09-06T16:49:00.000-07:00

‘Real Change Leaders’ is a book written by Jon Katzenbach. He wrote this book for businesses to invoke not temporary but permanent and real change. Jon is a man who takes principles that also come to us from ‘The Bible’ and shares great lessons for Christians, church leaders, Christian business people, community leaders, and those who desire to be better leaders inside of church, and outside in the real world for God’s kingdom.

There are 7 key points about ‘Real Change Leaders’ in church, business, and for Christ. Here are the 7 traits:

1. RCLs have commitment to a better way and a strong belief that the future’s dependent upon the change. They are also committed to the idea that they must also be a part of the better way. Don’t just tell others about the better “way”, actually live it and demonstrate. I would remind us Jesus says: “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.”

2. RCLs have the courage to challenge the existing power bases and norms. How many Bible characters can you think of who had the courage to challenge the existing power bases of their day?

3. RCLs have the Personal Initiative to go beyond defined boundaries. They break or alleviate constraints & think outside box. Which Bible characters would fit this trait?

4.)RCLs develop ways of motivation for themselves & others.

5.)RCLs care about how people are treated & then they enable people to perform well.

6.) RCLs often stay undercover, and keep a low profile.
Grandstanding, strident crusading and self-promotions are ways to undermine rather than enhance credibility.

7.) RCLs have a sense of humor about themselves, and their situations. Humor enables RCLs to help others stay the course over time.

Jesus Christ was a RCL! He invites you to Step n the River today to be a “Real Change Leader” for God and God’s kingdom. You can chase after other gods that do not profit the soul or you can come to God’s table and the Living Water, Jesus Christ and step into the River of Life with him receiving the changing power of the Holy Spirit.

This is the true Living Water that’ll never run dry that will lead you to be one of the “Real Change Leaders.”

Good Grief Part 2

2007-08-31T13:42:00.000-07:00

Good Grief Part II

When I left you last week we were examining the normal and essential nature of grief, and the tendency in our society to try to save our friends who mourn from this process because it pains us to see them grieve.

Hardly a week passes that we do not have some friend or colleague experience the death of a loved one; and we feel called upon to go to a wake or funeral service where we find ourselves fishing for the right words to say to them. And, even if we miss the wake or funeral service, we feel called upon to send a "sympathy card" or if we are more sensitive or thoughtful, write some words of comfort.

There is often a temptation to try to push some grief-stricken friend out of a stage of their grief, which is painful for us to observe, by asking them to compare their situation with someone whose situation is worse than theirs – in our view of reality. The book, "On Grief and Grieving," by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and David Keesler offers a poignant illustration of how dangerous it is to offer comparisons to a person who is grieving some loss. They tell of a young man named Brian who had to have his leg amputated. The loss was terrible. During a rehabilitation session he saw another man who had lost both legs and he was inwardly embarrassed for having felt self-pity about his loss of one leg. The next day he saw a man who had both legs but needed a cane to walk, and once again he felt his own loss more keenly. Later the two men had a chance to talk about what had brought them to this point. Brian said he had lost his leg due to diabetes.

The man with the cane said he had an automobile accident which had caused a minor back injury and that he was in rehab to regain his strength. Still comparing losses, Brian said: "Well, at least you have two legs." The man with the cane said, "Yes, I do, but I lost my wife in the accident." Someone else’s loss may seem greater or lesser than your own, but all losses are so individual that comparisons are dangerous, if not cruel. Do not try to comfort yourself, or someone else, by comparison. It almost never works.

In the Newsweek article (May 28, 2007) on grief, Jess Hinds, who was grieving the loss of her father said: "My grief is profound: I am mourning the past, present, and future. I resent the condolence cards that hurry me through my grief as if it were a dangerous street at night." "My grief is not a handicap. People seem to worry that if they encourage me to grieve openly I will fall apart. I won’t. On the contrary, if you allow me to be sad, I will be a stronger, more effective person."

There is a great temptation for us to point out the silver lining in the grief of others. Don’t go there! If there is a silver lining or a blessing in disguise to be found, it must be found by the grief-stricken person, not by some well-intentioned friend who just can’t stand to be near or participate in someone else’s pain.

This is an abbreviated form of Jess Hind’s basic guidelines for mastering the "Art of condolence." Read with care! Be simple and direct, i.e., "I am so sorry about . . ." Ask "how are you?" or "How are you feeling?" instead of telling someone how to feel. Never say: "I can’t imagine what you are going through." The emotional translation to the grieving person is: "This is too hard for me, I don’t want to think about it." Never give advice about how someone should get through the loss. There is no universal "how to" formula.

Any loss tends to be like an amputation. You will survive, but there will be less of you in the end. I know that most all of you have experienced some life-changing loss: death, divorce, loss of your job, etc. If you have not, trust me, you will.

I pray that when you experience your next loss you have Jess Hinds, or some sensitive soul like her, to help you grieve properly. In the absence of such saving assistance, the next best medicine will be to read (or to have read) "On Grief and Grieving" and "Life Lessons" by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and David Keesler. Available at fine bookstores everywhere. Order your copy now and read it before you need it.

Good Grief P 1

2007-08-27T16:29:00.000-07:00

Good Grief
Part I written by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First United Methodist Church

When Elizabeth Kubler-Ross lay dying at her home in Arizona, she was progressing through the classic stages of death which she had so beautifully set forth in her first book, "On Death and Dying." She observed with some dismay: "People love my stages. They just don’t want me to be in one." How sad! She was just as human as anyone else. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, who had helped so many people negotiate their exit on the "Long Journey," and who was soon to be flying with the angels deserved better than that!

We all experience many different kinds of loss in the course of life. It is difficult to rate any particular loss on a scale that is universally applicable to everyone. There is no such thing as a typical response to loss, and there is no typical loss. Our grief response to loss is highly individual.

Early in her professional life as a psychiatrist, Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross developed a framework in which most people work out their grief response to loss. Her initial research was at Cook County Hospital in Chicago from which she wrote her most profound book, "On Death and Dying," which lists five stages through which people tend to move on the way to death. Those stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. These stages are tools that help us identify what we may be feeling at certain times in our grief. It should not be supposed that everyone goes through all these stages, or that everyone moves through these stages in a prescribed order.

There is no loss that brings a more profound sadness or leaves a more indescribable emptiness than the death of a loved one. I am not sure that the prospect and process of our own demise is as great or any greater than the death of a loved one. The whole world stops. Intellectually you know that life will continue but you are not sure about how or why, or even if you care. Since this is a situation we see in others more often than we experience it personally, how can we be helpful to our friends as they deal with this intense and life altering experience? This is one of the most sensitive and difficult things we are called upon to do for friends.

It is surprising, and unfortunate, how often we try to talk grieving friends out of their grief instead of helping them with this most essential element in the process of dealing with death. I was touched by a "my turn" piece in the May 28, 2007 issue of Newsweek. It was titled: "‘I’m sorry’ shouldn’t be the hardest words," and written by a 25 year old teacher who lost her 58 year old father. She writes a graphic description of her profound feelings of loss, and then describes the unintentionally insensitive way in which many friends tried to console her by trying to talk her out of her grief. There is nothing more natural or essential in dealing with the death of a loved one than to not only allow, but to encourage the natural flow of grief. Jess D. Hinds, the young author of this article, spoke of how many condolence cards and letters she received that tried to talk her out of her grief. One friend wrote: "You should be happy to have your memories." Another: "You should feel lucky you got to be with your father in the hospital."

Miss Hinds’ response was: "You have got to be kidding!" Others tried to distract her from her grief with such questions as: "Are you applying to grad school?" "How is your teaching going?" "Are you still renovating your apartment?" "Are you keeping busy?" Miss Hinds opined how in our society we tend to want mourners to just "snap out of it" because observing the grief of others isn’t easy.

A casual perusal of sympathy cards on the rack at pharmacies and at Wal-Mart affirms how when we "Care enough to send the very best" but are too lazy to write, the generic cards almost always miss the deep feelings of those who mourn. Our condolences should not tell those who mourn how to feel but rather reach out to touch those natural feelings of grief that are already there, and which we had really rather avoid.

I am not finished here. More next week.

AN ENCOURAGING WORD for July 26, 2007 - written by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First United Methodist Church

Stewards by Dr. Jim Savage

2007-08-21T14:20:00.000-07:00

The word steward is an old Methodist term, but more importantly it is an old Bible term. In the old days of Methodism the Stewards were an all male group who felt it was their job to look after the “buildings, grounds, and finances” of the local church. That was a huge misuse of the term, and of the way John Wesley originally meant for the term to be used. Wesley meant for his Methodist stewards to be people who…

· Stewards set the example for everyone
· Stewards greet everyone they meet, and help new people find their way around the campus
· Stewards look for new people in worship, in the hallways and in the parking lots and try to be helpful
· Stewards are the LEADERS of the lay ministry and look for ways to step up and SERVE;
· Stewards are part of the volunteer staff of Riverchase United Methodist Church
· Stewards know Christ and share Christ
· “Stewards of the mysteries of God”
I Corinthians 4:1
· “Stewards of the manifold grace of God”
I Corinthians 4:10

The last two points relate to the passage in I Corinthians. These are the most important points for several reasons.
1. ALL Christians are called to be God’s stewards.
2. The very last things stewards should be concerned with are “buildings, grounds, and finances.”
3. Stewards are called to witness to others about the great “mysteries of God”.
4. Stewards are called to share “the manifold grace of God” with all whom they meet.
5. The passage in I Corinthians reminds us that we do not have all the answers to every question about God.
6. It reminds us we are not supposed to have all the answers, and that some things about God are simply a “mystery.”
7. The passage reminds us that God’s grace is abundant and not skimpy. It is “manifold” grace; not “small, little, limited” grace.

I pray that all of us will read I Corinthians 4 and step up to the plate to be the true “steward” God is calling us to be. I pray that we will be Christian stewards who are full of the Holy Spirit, filled with the saving love of Jesus Christ, and overflowing in our witness with the abundant love of God. I pray that God will bless you and lead you to fulfillment as stewards of the “mysteries of God” and the “manifold grace of God”.

In Christ, Dr. Jim Savage

Observations on History by Thomas Lane Butts

2007-08-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

I majored in history in college. I do not remember why unless it was because I was fortunate enough to encounter some history professors (such as Auxford Sartain and Merlin Cox) at Troy University who made the subject come alive. It seemed to be the logical thing to do when I was in the theological school at Emory University to major in church and biblical history. My academic background not only left me with a love for history, but to my consternation, a lingering ambivalence about it. I have studied enough history to realize in my ambivalence that it is both essential and dangerous.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn alluded to this in the preface to his monumental work, "The Gulag Archipelago." He quoted an old Russian saying: "Dwell on the past and you will lose an eye. Forget the past and you will lose both eyes." Early in my life I thought of history as an objective and uniform account of reality. Then I learned enough history to raise considerable doubt about that initial opinion. If you read a variety of accounts about the same event, the differences in what is reported and how it is reported will gradually, if not quickly, disabuse you of the illusion that history is a uniform account of reality.

In one of Samuel Johnson’s conversations with Boswell he pays his respects to the accuracy of history. "We must consider how very little history there is; I mean real authentic history. That certain kings reigned, and certain battles were fought, we can depend on to be true; but all the colouring, all the philosophy of history is conjecture." Johnson had earlier expressed his dismay with the subject when he said: "What are all the records of history but narratives of successive villainies, of treasons and usurpations, massacres and wars."

The philosopher, Voltaire was even more pessimistic when he wrote "All history of the past, as one of our wits used to say, is only an accepted fable." Thomas Carlyle called history "a distillation of rumors". Who would not be amused at Jane Austen’s observations on the subject: "History, real solemn history, I cannot be interested in . . . I read it a little as duty; but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilence in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all."

Hegel in his "Philosophy of History" writes with his characteristically caustic dismay in the introduction: "What experience and history teaches us is this – that people and governments have never learned anything from history or acted on principles deduced from it." That, my friends, is not only true, but scary.

My experience leads me to agree with Disraeli who counseled: "Read no history, nothing but biography, for that is life without theory." If I dared to apply my understanding of personal history to a broader understanding of the subject I would say that there is some danger in accepting conclusions of history written too soon. Personally, I have discovered that experiences which seem to be bad at the moment often, with time, become blessings in disguise. Enemies may become friends and friends may become enemies with the passage of time. Never write your conclusions of an event on the day it happens. It may change. It often does. Sir Walter Raleigh opined that if you follow too near "the heels of truth" it may kick your teeth out. Hegel expresses the same thought more classically and more beautifully in his observation that "the owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk." The meaning of that quote is worth researching.

One of my most treasured books is "Man’s Unconquerable Mind," by Gilbert Highet, in which he writes: "People who know no history always learn wrong history, and can never understand the passing moment as it changes into history."

If you have read this essay to the end, let me remind you that truth, even hard truth, is not meant to discourage anyone about history. It is meant to caution. If you are a faithful student of history, you will always be ahead of the crowd in your understanding of yourself and the world in which you live.

AN ENCOURAGING WORD for July 19, 2007 - written by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First United Methodist Church

Transformed by Tragedy

2007-08-14T08:14:00.001-07:00

Transformed by Tragedy. written by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First United Methodist Church

When Tammy Faye Bakker Messner died, Larry King did a program on her life. Larry King seems to have had a strange fascination with Tammy Faye. He had her former husband, the Rev. Jim Bakker as one of the guests. Jim Bakker was toppled from his position as a nationally known televangelist several years ago. He did time in prison for his financial misdeeds and is now rebuilding his life as a minister. Larry King asked Bakker a question about how he felt about his tragic experience. His answer was a shock to many. He said that it was the best thing that ever happened to him, and that if he had the power to change what happened he would not change it at all. Ordinarily, I would have either been shocked or would have thought he was not being truthful; but I have had some experiences with people who have had life-altering tragedies that made me believe the man was telling the truth.

There are people for whom tragedy becomes a transforming experience in which you might say they were "born again." This is certainly not universally true with tragedy. More often than not a tragedy, whether physical, emotional, or financial results in a brokenness from which a person never recovers, and from which they experience no benefit at all. But there are people who are so radically changed for the better by a tragedy that they would not change what happened to them even if they could. This is an anomaly to be sure, but it happens.

It is not unusual to hear someone speak of something being "a blessing in disguise." I have noticed, however, that people who offer up this casual assessment of an unfortunate event are usually speaking of something that has happened to someone else, or if it is about themselves, it is in reference to something far short of a true tragedy. When people are transformed, born again, as the result of some tragic event in their lives it is usually a blessing that was disguised to be sure, but it is more than that. There is something deeply mysterious about what has happened when someone is truly transformed by an actual tragedy, and the transformation is such that the person says they are glad that it happened and that if they had the power to change the event they would not change it. It is not just mysterious, it is even holy!

After more than 57 years in the ministry, I am no stranger to tragedy. I have seen tragedy destroy individuals and families. I have presided over more tragedies than I would like to remember. But every now and then I have seen people who were saved, transformed, born again by a tragedy from which I never dreamed any good could come. Don’t ask me to explain the mechanics of how or why. I do not know. I only know that it happens. Life-threatening accidents or illnesses often cause people to re-examine the very premises upon which they have based their lives.

Let me give you an example, and I have to be very careful here. It is a delicate matter for a minister to speak publically or write about a tragedy in someone’s life without their permission.
About two years ago I met a vibrant, beautiful young woman in a social setting in which I was involved. Her spirit of joy and sense of peace with herself was palpable. She was absolutely charming! I thought to myself: "Now, here is a young person who has it all together! She knows who she is and is happy with her life." In what began as a casual conversation I learned that when she was in her late teens she was in a terrible automobile accident in which almost every bone in her body was broken. Everyone thought she was dead, or would soon die, but by some miracle she recovered completely. I offered what I thought was an empathetic comment by saying: "What a terrible thing to happen to someone." As quick as a flash, and with an obvious sincerity that defied doubt, she said: "Oh, no, it was the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me. I would not exchange it for anything in the world!" She went on to explain how in this tragedy she found herself. She was transformed and (my words, not her’s) born again. Now that is more than "a blessing in disguise." There is something holy about that kind of alchemy.

It happens! Not every time, but it happens!

AN ENCOURAGING WORD for August 16, 2007 - written by Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, Pastor Emeritus, Monroeville First United Methodist Church

Amos & Hosea

2007-08-14T08:13:00.000-07:00

By Dr. Jim H. Savage
What do we have in common with folks who lived over 2,700 years ago?
We actually have a great deal in common. We learn from writers like Amos, Hosea, Micah and others that the people in the northern kingdom were named Israel at the time. Hosea was a prophet who lived in the northern kingdom of Israel and Amos and Micah were prophets from the southern kingdom of Judah. Why was everyone mad at the king and head priest in the north? What did they have in common with us?

It seems the head priest and king had allowed other gods to be worshipped, and had even changed the worship in the main temple to include “temple prostitutes” and other little things that would cause us to raise our eyebrows today. They had changed their measuring standards for the poor so that food was too expensive for them to buy. A pound of grain was really less than a pound, and then they raised the price on this “pound” as they called it. They were cheating the poorest of the poor. I guess the ones cheating them needed more money for those temple prostitutes.

They also began to do whatever was “politically correct” regardless of what the ten commandments said, or the other commands that had been passed down to them from God. Is this starting to sound familiar?

It was an extremely prosperous time for a few folks at the top in Israel. It is even recorded that some had beds made of ivory which was unheard of in their day. The poorest folks who worked very hard in the fields could not even make enough money to feed their children so the ruling class fixed that problem. They set up a place where the poorest farm workers could sell their own into slavery which was often the big land owners and successful merchants. Amos mentioned that even this did not help the poorest people too much because some children were swapped for just one used pair of shoes. Can you imagine being so poor that you had to sell your own child?

Amos, the southern prophet of Judah was taking his life in his own hands when he headed up north to confront these sins. Amos did not see himself as a prophet and even says in his own words: “I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’
Amos knew the agony of the poorest class of people. He was not part of them because he actually owned farm land, and sold his sycamore fruit to the poorest of the poor in the southern kingdom of Judah. But Amos was fair to them and tried to help them. The folks in the northern kingdom of Israel were cheating people right and left and especially those who barely had any type of food to eat. God saw this injustice and said this: “Hear this, you that trample on the needy and bring to ruin the poor of the land”…”I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation” (Amos 8:4 and 10). I could go on but you get the picture. God wants us to remember His ways, His commands, and his love for the “least of these” remembering that it was Jesus who said, “Whatever you have done to the least of these you have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:45).