Weekly Blog

A Jewish woman from Hungary was imprisoned at Auschwitz, the Nazi Concentration Camp during WWII.  She knew that she arrived at the camp on the second day of the Festival of Weeks (we would call it Pentecost), so she counted the days until the next Sabbath day.  On that Friday evening, the beginning of Shabbat, she saved the margarine from her meal instead of eating it, and with some threads pulled from the bottom of her dress, she made two tiny candles.  She would light those candles like generations of Jewish families before her.  She encouraged all the other women in her barracks to do the same and before long, every Friday night that room was glowing with an act of resistance and defiance.  

In the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia, there’s a special display for a rickety, home-made aluminum kayak. This tiny, makeshift boat seems oddly out of place among the displays of impressive Navy vessels and artifacts from significant battles on the sea. However, a bronze plaque tells museum visitors the heroic story behind this humble little kayak. 

In 1966, an auto mechanic named Laureano and his wife, Consuelo, decided that they could no longer live under the oppression of Cuba’s totalitarian regime.  After spending months collecting scrap metal, they pieced together a boat just barely big enough for two small people. Then Laureano jury-rigged a small lawn mower engine on the back of the kayak. After months of planning, and on a moonless night, they set out into the treacherous straits of Florida wearing only their swimsuits, their supplies consisting of just enough food and water for two days. After 70 hours, the U.S. Coast Guard rescued the couple just south of the Florida Keys. 

“I need you to replace the spigot in the backyard…by tomorrow,”  said my wife.   

My muscles immediately tensed up as I blurted out, “But I don’t know how to do that.”   

It was a disproportionately passionate response to my wife’s simple request.  Normally it's not a problem for me to seek out someone who can help me learn how to do a new project or watch a YouTube video to learn. In fact, this request just came on the heels of me learning how to order the parts and successfully fix our refrigerator’s ice maker.  I usually feel comfortable discovering a solution and working with my hands on mechanical things.

Thursday March 17^th is a day to celebrate and honor St. Patrick (born AD 386).  While many will turn it into yet another reason to drink too much beer, many of us live the day with more reverence.   When you realize the character, power and authority of this man in the 5^th century, you can’t help but be inspired.   

Patrick was captured as a teenager from his hometown in England and taken to Ireland by pirates.  He was sold to a man in the North named Milchu, who was a high priest of druidism (basically demonic nature worship).  Milchu assigned him to care for his livestock, and during that time Patrick came to know the one true God and grew in his faith.   

Our unique calling is revealed by God over time, and times of seeking Jesus for clarity. Attending a Focused Living seminar is an excellent way to see what God is revealing to us and to get breakthrough in our thinking.

We are having a Focused Living seminar this weekend on Friday evening and Saturday during the daytime.  This workshop is designed to help you reflect on your life and allow the Holy Spirit to show you how God has been working and shaping you over your lifetime.

Since the Council of Nicea in AD 325, Christians have observed Lent, which is the 40-day period before Easter. The season of Lent is intended to be an imitation of Jesus fasting in the wilderness for 40 days.

Some people see the Lenten season as drudgery and a kind of self-imposed penance or punishment. But for almost 2,000 years, the Church has seen this season as a time of growth, preparation and joy.

Lent is a Time for Growth.

Last week I watched a romantic comedy with my wife that contained a rare admission of truth on the world’s stage (a.k.a. movie screens). Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson are oddly paired as a math teacher and superstar diva. They find themselves impossibly matched up in very strange circumstances. It was predictable in all the ways you want a rom-com to be, but I couldn’t help but notice part of the message that was coming through, which is:

Obscurity is something good.

Which of the Ten Commandments do you suppose is most often broken?

You might guess that the 5^th commandment to honor your father and mother might be violated most.

The 10^th commandment forbidding coveting your neighbor’s wife and possessions might be broken often as well.

I believe the most overlooked and dismissed commandment is the 4th one.

The 4^th commandment as found in Deuteronomy 5:12-15 (NIV) reads this way:

Hearing God's voice is one of the most important parts of being a Jesus follower. Jesus often withdrew to a quiet place to listen to His Father.

To hear God’s voice speaking to your heart, you must turn down the volume of the world.

Once you’ve found the volume dial and silenced all of the noise of this life, how do you know it’s God speaking and not your imagination, or worse yet, the voice of the accuser of your soul?

The following list is not comprehensive, but it's a good starting place to use as a guide as you learn to hear and recognize God's voice when He speaks to you.

Our God is Always Speaking…

God reveals Himself to us in many ways. I hear the voice of God primarily through His creation, through His written word, and by the whispers of the Holy Spirit to my heart.

Years ago as I was spending time in prayer with some of the staff at the church, this thought rushed into my mind.   It was seven words:

“You will lead a ministry of honor.”

The first time it flew into my mind seemed like a distraction from our prayers. I was trying to pray, and so I squinted harder and tried to focus more on listening to my teammates and agreeing with them in what they were asking God for in prayer.