Pastor Tim's Blog Archives - Page 53 of 63

Wait on The Lord

Written by TimMaynard on January 15, 2016. Posted in Pastor Tim's Blog.

No one likes to wait. At least, no one I know. Few of us fight to get in the longest lines at the grocery, or gravitate toward the slowest moving lane of traffic. We don’t like to wait. By the way, if waiting really frustrates you, the quickest lines in the world are found in Sweden. Average wait time: 4.4 minutes. Just saying.

But really waiting frustrates us all. There is something inside us that’s always on, that needs to move to the next thing, that hates the idea of standing or sitting doing nothing. We are in a hurry. To do… what?

Whether we are waiting for a repairman to come for an appointment or a doctor’s office to call back regarding a medical test or waiting for your cup of coffee at Starbucks we want what we want… now.

That happens in our prayer life too. We don’t want to wait on the Lord. We’ve prayed. We’ve done our part. Why doesn’t He respond more quickly? H.B Charles in a little booklet on prayer told about a lady who had gone to a favorite produce stand to buy some grapes. There were several people in line in front of her, and the man who owned the stand moved them through rather quickly. But when she got to the counter to order her grapes, the man disappeared into a back storeroom.

After he had been gone for several minutes, the lady was fuming! She was a loyal customer… she wouldn’t go anywhere else for her produce but to him. How could he treat her like this?? She waited and fumed, and finally he reappeared and laid some of the most beautiful grapes on the counter she had ever seen!

“I’m sorry to keep you waiting,” he apologized, “but I had set these aside just for you when they came in this morning. I had to put them somewhere special where they wouldn’t get sold to just anybody!”

Sometimes God makes us wait. Nobody volunteers for it and few of us have any choice about it. But what we can choose is our attitude while we wait. Do we wait trusting… or fuming? Could it be that, as we wait, God is preparing His very best to give to us if we will just wait on the Lord?

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“Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength….” (Isaiah 40:31)

FOR REFLECTION: The next time you find yourself waiting for something, thank God for what He is preparing for you and in you.

Prayer Driven Ministry

Written by TimMaynard on January 12, 2016. Posted in Pastor Tim's Blog.

Ronald Dunn wrote, “The Book of Acts is filled with prayer meetings; every forward thrust the first church made was immersed with prayer.

Take another look at the church at Pentecost. They prayed ten days and preached ten minutes and three thousand souls were saved. Today we pray ten minutes and preach ten days and are ecstatic if anyone is saved.” His words, though cutting, are true. I wonder if the barrier between the church today and God-sent revival is not an enemy who wishes to keep us in the darkness of sin, but a neglectful church that does not want to do the hard work of intercessory prayer?

I’m afraid we have become prayer-phobic. We are afraid of what might be required of us if we truly pray. We are afraid of what it might cost us if we are awakened in the middle of the night and are called to pray for a missionary couple in a Muslim country. We are afraid of what it might mean to our comfort zone and our predictable religious experience.

In your life, personally, how have you advanced in prayers in recent days or months? Would you say your prayer life is much the same as it was… or worse than a year ago? We are losing the culture around us, not because we lack churches, or sermons, or Christian music. We are losing the culture around us because we have lost our desire, our focus, our willingness to pray.

In an old booklet entitled “The Warfare of Prayer,” Brother Andrew wrote “God invites us to influence our community, our nation, and the world…to literally impact history while we’re on our knees.” I wonder, sometimes, if we truly believe we can do that. Often our prayers become automatic, rote statements of things we may or may not believe. They become “vain repetitions,” according to Jesus, that really don’t reach the heart of God. I have often said if our prayer life bores us, it probably bores God too!

I wonder what would happen in a community…in OUR community….if one church woke up to the potential, the power, the possibility of prayer?

How would life around us change… homes would be healed, children delivered from abuse, families reconciled, crime reduced, the lost saved… as darkness is pushed back by the prayers of God’s people?

“Every forward thrust the first church made was accompanied by a movement of prayer.” And why would we not believe the same is possible…

… today?

“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (James 5:16b)

FOR REFLECTION: How could your prayers today bring change in the community and culture around you? What are you asking God to do toward that end?

A Fresh Encounter

Written by TimMaynard on January 9, 2016. Posted in Equip The Church, Pastor Tim's Blog.

Few musicians have impacted my life spiritually like Keith Green. Keith was Brooklyn born and raised and came to Christ at the zenith of the Jesus movement. His death in the early 80’s hit me viscerally as though I knew him personally. The songs he sang challenged me and changed me and spurred me to live for Jesus like few sermons I’ve ever heard. Recently, I was playing back through some of his earliest songs, and one simple chorus captured me again. It is a song of honest confession. It says,

My eyes are dry

My faith is old

My heart is hard

My prayers are cold

But I know how I ought to be

Alive to You, but dead to me.

How often do our prayers get voiced around our hearts but not through them? How often do we echo words…even good words….but they come from a heart that has grown hard and cold? Perhaps Green’s words were inspired by the Psalmist David, who first gave human voice to these words-

Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones

You have broken rejoice.

Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all

My iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart

And renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your Presence

And take not Your Holy Spirit from me

Restore to me the joy of your salvation

And uphold me with a willing spirit.

(Psalm 51:8-12)

What is the cure for a heart that is hard and eyes that are dry? A fresh encounter with the living Lord who wants desperately to help you find the joy of your salvation once again!

But I know how I ought to be,

Alive to You, but dead to me.

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The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:17)

FOR REFLECTION: As 2016 begins, what steps can you take toward praying more authentically and less automatically?

That we pray…

Written by TimMaynard on January 3, 2016. Posted in Equip The Church, Pastor Tim's Blog.

THAT we are praying is far more important to our Father than HOW we are praying. WHY we are praying outstrips how long we are praying in significance. And to WHOM we address our prayers means more than where we pray.

Visiting St Patrick’s Cathedral during our trip to New York last fall was profound, impressive and impactful. The front of the cathedral was cordoned off from the rest of the massive complex to allow room for the faithful to pray. Candles could purchased and offerings given to gain Gods special attention.

And yet if we understand Scripture correctly God’s ear was equally if not especially inclined to hear the prayers of the homeless woman on the front steps or the young business man hurrying down the street praying for his family as he passes by out front. God, you see, will not be manipulated by our posture or position. His concern is not with the physical address from which our prayers originate but with the condition of the heart which is praying.

This is the wonder, the mystery and sometimes the frustration of prayer for us. We want prayer to be a formula to get our needs met. God calls us into relationship that through it He may meet our deepest need…

The need for a Father.

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But you when you pray go into your closet and close the door . Your Father Who sees in secret will reward you openly. (Matthew 6:6)

FOR REFLECTION: Try and be aware today of God’s Presence in unlikely places and circumstances.

PRAYERLIFE

Written by TimMaynard on January 2, 2016. Posted in Pastor Tim's Blog.

One of the privileges people lost when Adam and Eve sinned was the privilege of unhindered, unbroken fellowship with God. Because of their sinless state prior to the Fall, they were able to enjoy face-to-face intimacy with their Creator. Each day they walked together “in the cool of the day.” But among many other things sin broke that relationship, that conversation, that intimacy with God. Adam and Eve cut themselves off from Gods gracious presence. (See Genesis 3:1-6)

But as we pray, a part of that curse is reversed. The last thing the Enemy wants us to know is the potential joy of unbroken, unhindered fellowship with our Creator. Satan desires to sow discord, doubt, and distraction in place of the fellowship we could know in prayer.

As we pray we begin to return to the place God intended us to be…wants us to be. He wants us to draw near to Him that He can draw near to us.

It is there and only there in prayer we can be what He wants us to be. It is there that we can be empowered to live.

It is there we can be…

Home.

“Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.” (James 4:8a)

FOR REFLECTION: As you reflect on the year that has come and gone are you closer to God now or further away?

Christmas Day – Day 25

Written by TimMaynard on December 25, 2015. Posted in Pastor Tim's Blog.

It is here! The anticipation, the planning, the wrapping, the whispered secrets, the phone calls… all finding their culmination for most today. Christmas morning! Finding brightly-wrapped gifts beneath the tree with YOUR NAME on them.

In the midst of the stress this holiday can bring, the love that gets poured into Christmas morning makes it worth coming back and doing it all again next year! Well, let’s enjoy this one first.

Christmas memories seem indelible. Like many, I can remember way back to waking my parents bleary-eyed on Christmas morning. Only later did I learn why they were always so tired, as my own children awakened me after a night of assembling part A to non-existent part B and trying to make the toy look at least passingly like the cover on the box.

But it’s all done in love. The gifts chosen, some beautifully wrapped and some clumsily taped by young fingers, are in a deep sense a giving away of love. While to some Christmas may feel like obligation, to most it is a way to tell those who matter most to us “we love you.”

And that’s exactly what God did as He sent His only begotten Son, born of a woman, to come and be our substitute, our sacrifice for sin. The Son of God willingly came, becoming a real human being. The One Who died for us created the tree that made the manger in which he was laid. The Son of God… created the parents Who bore Him!

Let the mystery of Christ’s coming soak in before the wrapping and tinsel and lights and trees go away, and Christmas memories fade into the new year. The Savior we celebrate at Christmas made it all. He was the eternal “Word made flesh.” He is the One Who holds it all together, and Who is the exact image of the invisible God. (Colossians 1:15-20)

And He is truly the Reason for the Season. And the greatest gift you can give Him this Christmas is your affection, your devotion… your heart. Enjoy the day. All of it. Love your family, laugh, eat and celebrate.

But don’t forget the reason why.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

FOR REFLECTION: During the day, find a few moments to quietly read the Christmas narrative in Luke 2 either privately or aloud to your family and friends. Thank God again for His indescribable gift!

Christmas Gifts – Day 24

Written by TimMaynard on December 24, 2015. Posted in Pastor Tim's Blog.

O little town of Bethlehem

How still we see thee lie.

These familiar words were written by Philip Brooks in 1868 following a visit to Bethlehem. While the words, “how still we see thee lie” certainly had application to that evening in 1868, it had little to do with the time Jesus was born.

Bethlehem of Judea, described by the prophet Micah, was “the least” among the cities of the region. It was hardly a city, but more a hamlet or village. Certainly Bethlehem was not a commercial or marketing center, but more of a layover for travelers on the way to the Holy City.

The time of Jesus’ birth, during the census being mandated by the Roman authorities, would have found Bethlehem a place of chaos and turmoil. It would have been struggling with overloaded housing accommodations and the throng of travelers making their way to Jerusalem for the census.

We get our modern term “bedlam” from a corruption of the name of a hospital founded in 1245. It became a hospital to treat the mentally insane called “Our Lady of Bethlehem,” shortened later to “Bethlem,” and finally referred to simply as “Bedlam.”

Though there is no Biblical record of an innkeeper turning Mary and Joseph away, it may have been that they settled for one of the many shelters carved from rock out of the hillsides outside the city. These were the “barns” of the day where animals would be sheltered. It was likely there that Mary gave birth to the Christ child.

And it was there, in the midst of “bedlam,” that our Savior came. Not in the serene silence of a winter night but within the sight and sound of human chaos, pain, and turmoil. Not separated from our pain, our stresses, and our despair but in the midst of it.

And that is where He meets us even today.

Where meek souls will receive Him still

The dear Christ enters in…

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“But to as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become children of God.”
(John 1:12)

FOR REFLECTION: As Christmas Eve has arrived find a still and quiet moment to bow in gratitude for the gift of God’s Son.

Christmas Gifts – Day 23

Written by TimMaynard on December 23, 2015. Posted in Pastor Tim's Blog.

Our daughter Allison has always been our “Christmas child.” While her brother loved the gifts Christmas brought, Allison loved the music. I still remember listening to Kenny G’s Christmas CD flowing from her room until long into the New Year… like Valentine’s Day.

Her favorite Christmas CD still today, however, is Michael W Smith’s Christmas CD. She would sing it from the backseat of our car on trips back to see grandparents. She would sing it through the day, and throughout the season, and into the New Year also!

One song on the CD is entitled “All is Well.” It’s one of the most haunting and lovely Christmas songs on the CD, and (thanks to Allison) has LONG reminded me of Christmas. A few weeks ago, at the beginning of the Christmas crush, Allie texted us a brief video of her singing that song. It was a deeply moving experience for me and for Pam to hear this. Partly because of memories it kindled. Partly because of the meaning it conveyed.

The message of Christmas is captured with those words. The message delivered by the angels of “peace on earth, goodwill toward men” is one that resonates with us. It has never been more needed than it is now.

Perhaps the greatest gift that Christmas brings is the gift of peace. Not peace in the form of the serenity painted on Christmas cards of starlit, snow-covered fields with a horse-drawn carriage or roaring fires roasting chestnuts. The peace Christmas brings is more gritty, more real-world than that. It is peace in spite of circumstances. It is not peace that comes in the absence of a storm, but in the midst of it. It is peace while living on a planet in the middle of a war zone.

It is peace that was purchased with a price. On a cross. With blood and nails and tears. It is peace with God that can only come from God. And because of the peace that comes with the baby of Bethlehem, the Prince of Peace, we too can say,

“All is well.”

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Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:1)

FOR REFLECTION: What is one practical thing you can do to share God’s gift of peace this

Christmas?

Christmas Gifts – Day 22

Written by TimMaynard on December 22, 2015. Posted in Pastor Tim's Blog.

Hopefully by now your Christmas shopping is about wrapped up (corny pun INTENDED). I’ve often thought about the person who wrote the Christmas carol, The Twelve Days of Christmas. If you add up the number of gifts sung about in the song, you would see there are 364 gifts!

Someone has said that Christmas is that time of year when you buy presents you can’t afford, for people you don’t like, to impress people you don’t know. Hopefully your Christmas giving is not going to be that cynical!

But the gifts we give are important. We want the person to know they are loved. We don’t give expecting to get back an equal or better gift. Truly the best Christmases I remember are those when I had a gift to give that was so meaningful and given in so much love that I literally could not wait for the privilege to share it!

That’s what the wise men did. They traveled from afar bearing gifts from their homeland. If we estimate the time of their journey correctly, they traveled two years to bring their gifts to the newborn King! That’s some long road trip. (see Matthew 2:1-12)

But there was no hint that they gave their gifts in selfishness or with resentment for what they had to go through to get to the house where Jesus was. They opened their gifts gladly, carefully deciding who got to approach the manger first.

A missionary teacher shared the story of a student who traveled on foot for two days to bring her a Christmas gift. While he didn’t fully understand what Christmas was about, he carefully crafted a clay candle holder for her gift, and then began walking. When he arrived, hungry and weary from the trip, she gently scolded him for coming so far to present the gift. He said something she never forgot: “I came because I love you. The journey was part of the gift.”

And at Christmas, we hear the Father whisper the same to us.

Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. (Matthew 2:11)

FOR REFLECTION: Think of the most meaningful Christmas present you ever received. Thank God for the person who loved you enough to give it.

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