Taking nothing for granted…

This week a process that began almost two years ago reached a conclusion. We are moving into the new offices across the street from the Church at 2337 Darby Rd.

We are in moving mode, so you have to have a vivid imagination or be able to look beyond boxes and clutter. In spite of the mess, the staff’s excitement is obvious to anyone who takes a few minutes to visit.

God gave me a timely scripture this week. I was reading the narrative in Deuteronomy 8 about the days leading up to Israel’s entry into the Promised Land. The reminder not to “forget the Lord” caught my eye and penetrated my spirit as I sat in my new office earlier this week.

Perhaps knowing God’s people, in fact, did “forget the Lord” caused me to stop, pray and commit to give God the glory for His gracious provision.

The new office is a testimony to God’s faithfulness and the sacrifice of God’s people who call or called Grace Chapel their “home.”

The pull of human nature will make my commitment to remember the Lord’s provision hard work. The keys to success on this front are found in the verses surrounding the warning about forgetting the Lord. Deuteronomy 8 is filled with simple words of warning and encouragement. God’s people are called to “be careful” in 8:1. They are called to “remember” in 8:2. The next paragraph begins with the call to “observe the commands of the Lord… walking in his ways.”

The next paragraph contains the warning against forgetting the Lord and an inspired glimpse into the ways of man.
Forgetting the Lord leads to a heart [which becomes] proud as we grow satisfied and settle down. [8:12]

The principles that consumed me this week in the new offices will also be relevant as we progress in the renovation and the New Century Campaign. God has been gracious to us. Let us be careful… remember… observe and walk in his ways.

Blessings…
PB

Kenya follow up

Two months after Kenya and I am still recovering. Our team of 12 returned to the States on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. The physical recovery took longer than I imagined. Sleep was hard to come by but I blamed it on a mind that was spinning faster than the little beach ball on my laptop when it is having trouble processing too much information.

I tried to slip back into my routine while anticipating my daughter, Ashling’s wedding, and planning for the Christmas ministry season. But I viewed everything in the final days of 2007 with a Kenyan lens.

It’s 2008 and the impact of the trip is getting stronger and stronger. I assume the media coverage of the chaos in Kenya following the presidential election helps keep the trip in my mind’s eye. But I think it is more than that.

Kenya today reminds me of the fragility of life in real time. In my travels from Nairobi to Karundas to Kisumu my senses were overloaded but the evidence of the difference the Church has made in Kenya warmed my heart.

It is obvious that when everybody else gets tired, bored, discouraged or distracted the Church and God’s servants remain.

I spent “Black Friday,” with the Pastors of a church planted by Africa Inland Mission missionaries in 1904. A huge church, even by American standards, with a school, an orphanage, a thriving youth ministry and community development projects all run by nationals. Risper’s parents and her extended family hosted us. They had waited anxiously for my arrival. They greeted me with song, prayer and much celebration. They peppered me with probing questions covered with deep pride about the prospect of Barak Obama becoming the next president of the United States.

While the ladies prepared the first of two incredible meals I toggled between talking to the Pastors and meeting the Kenyan believers.

The Pastors had an endless list of questions about shepherding God’s flock. The question that brought the biggest smile to my face was their problem of introducing contemporary music into their worship services. They explained the problem of the senior members of the church rejecting anything but the great hymns of the faith, imagining I could never understand such a conflict!

They tried to sit at my feet but in reality, I was the student, I was the novice in the faith life. The daily and weekly discipline of the members of the church in Kisumu is the stuff of the hero’s of the faith. The prayer, the fasting, the knowledge of Scripture, the sacrificial giving and the broad ownership of the call of God to provide light and salt to their world caused me to be humbled as I said goodbye and returned to meet the team in Nairobi.

Today Kenya, the most stable country in central Africa, is reeling. Someday soon the politicians will figure out a way to save face and work to restore the confidence of the people, the rest of Africa and the world.

The local churches scattered across Kenya will not wait for the politicians and governmental authorities to restore order. They have already begun the process of preparing for the next chapter of God’s work in this part of Africa. I trust we can be part of that story!

A new forum

Very often life is a process of adjusting our dreams and musings with reality. When I was a new follower of Christ, in my college years, I had a cool idea of getting a jeep and having "Bound4Glory " emblazed on the cover of the spare tire mounted on the back of the vehicle. I never got a jeep and never got to use this cool phrase. Until now! I had to name my web journal so why not dust off an old dream!

"Bound4Glory " was the name of a folk song sung by Woody Guthrie. As a wild teen I loved the phrase. As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is a testimony of of God's faithfulness and my future. A future guaranteed not by my merit or self worth; but a future guaranteed by my faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ
Ephesians 2:8-10 "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God —not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

So... I look forward to sharing my experiences, my current musings and stuff that does not make it into messages. Thanks for reading and your interest in what God is doing at Grace Chapel.