Lots of traveling

Wednesday 11:30 a.m. - Israel time
It is 11:30 Tuesday morning, 3:30 your time. What a morning it has been. We have gone to Caesarea on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and it is amazing. The history, the biblical context, is tremendous. I stood in one of the "cells" that the apostle Paul was probably held in before he went to Rome. We saw Charles Swindoll at the theater. He had a huge group and they did a worship service there. Our tour guide is magnificent. If half of what he has told us is true, it is amazing.

We are headed to Mt. Carmel. I hope we don't encounter any false prophets. They had some incredible storms here last week, and everything is green and the plants are flowering.

When we go to the Jordan River, I will actually be doing some of the baptizing. Wow!

Wednesday 2 p.m. Israel time
We just finished at Mt. Carmel. It's almost 6 a.m. for you. It is 2 p.m. here. Lunch was good. I ate a falafel -- crushed chickpeas that are fried and in pita bread. They look like hush puppies and taste like taco seasoning. Pretty good. Everything comes with "salad" which is different types of vegetables, peppers, egg plant, etc. It is hard to describe, so I took a picture. Hopefully I will get to upload some of these tonight.

It is a moving experience to be here. We looked over the Jezreel Valley where the last great battle will be fought -- Armageddon. It is a beautiful, green valley with lots of villages. I cannot imagine the horrors of war coming here. But it is.

Well, now we go to Nazareth. Still doing okay. Kind of tired.

Wednesday 10 p.m. Israel time
It is bedtime. We went to Nazareth - the Arab part. Very busy, crowded place. We walked up to the Church of the Anunciation - where Mary was supposedly given the message by the angel Gabriel. It really is a shrine to her. It is a Catholic church that is very beautiful, but it is obvious there that Mary is an object of worship. There is a tremendous disparity between the haves and have nots here. To rent an apartment costs $1300 per room per month. To buy an apartment is over half a million dollars. Cars cost twice as much here as in the USA because they charge 105% tax. We walked down to the Sea of Galilee tonight. It is quite beautiful here.

Thursday morning Israel Time
Pat and I were awakened at 2 am with a phone call. The lady that fell yesterday, Sarah, had to go to the hospital with an infected hemangioma in her leg. I awoke before the wakeup call and watched the sun rise over the Sea of Galilee. Spectacular sight. Breakfast was excellent. Pastries, eggs, eggs with stewed tomatoes, bell peppers filled with cheese and roasted. I knew I should have worn my stretchy pants. We left the hotel and traveled to the Sea where we boarded a boat named Mark and set out for a wonderful journey. We worshiped, we took pictures, we danced -- yes there is video evidence-- and we bought souvenirs. Now we are headed to the Mt. of the Beatitudes.

Thursday 11:15 am Israel time
We just finished at the Mt of Beatitudes. I was a little disappointed. The site was beautiful, but it has been developed into a tourist trap. Many beautiful flowers and even some parrots. There were a couple of beautiful views, but I guess I would have preferred to stand on the mountain and look out over the field where the multitude was gathered. Not disappointed, but I guess I was hoping for a little more natural beauty. The country is so beautiful and green. Shimon, our guide, says that in two months everything will be yellow and brown. Right now it sure seems as if the desert has truly bloomed. Banana trees, mango trees, loquat trees, olive trees, mustard, heather, and Rose of Sharon are blooming everywhere. Cows are everywhere. The storms last week raised the level of the Sea of Galilee by six feet. What a thrill to see it. The sea is 16 miles long, and from the Mt. of Beatitudes you can see all the way across. Now we are headed to Korazim.

We have just finished lunch and it is almost 2 p.m. here. The day has been full. We have taken the boat on the sea of Galilee, danced to Hava Nagila and another song, and watched one of the men cast a net. He didn't catch any fish. :)

After the mountain, we went to Korazim, the place that Jesus cursed. It was destroyed not long after, and nothing was ever rebuilt on the site. They did build a modern day city of Korazim, but according to the guide, they did not know where the old city was. Miraculously, the site is only a couple of hundred yards from the destroyed city. Amazing. I am really wondering how much of what this guy says is true.

We just finished at Tabgha, the place where the miracle of the multiplication of bread and fish supposedly took place. The Catholics built a church around the rock where they say Jesus performed the miracle. Wow.

Now we have been to Capernaum to see the house of Peter's mother in law. Some pretty neat stories about that. I will try to share them later. Now we are heading to the Jordan river for the baptism service. I will be baptized and will baptize some.

Wow. We did go to the Jordan River. I baptized Allen and Shannon Thompson and Pat baptized me. The water was extremely cold. My feet still haven't warmed up. I forgot to buy me some water shoes. If I cannot find some, I won't be able to go into the Dead Sea. Oh, well. If that is the only thing I miss out on, I won't complain.

Lunch was great. I had "shiwama" which is a turkey and lamb mixture with some kind of sauce and cabbage in a pita bread. It was great. Shimon, our guide, brought around an Iraqi sauce made of mango peels. Not very good, but I tried it.

The hotel has put a special gift in our room since Pat is the tour director. Last night it was a bottle of wine. As you know, it has remained unopened. Tonight there is a thermal coffee mug. I could hide it since Pat isn't here, but he has worked hard to make this trip good, so I guess he should have it. Besides, he said nice things about me when he baptized me.

Tonight, some of the ladies are going to the diamond factory to shop. I'm sorry, sweetheart, but I chose not to go since you don't wear jewelry any more. :) You know that I love you from the bottom of my heart.

So We Are Here

What a great trip. We were scheduled to leave New York at 11:50 p.m. on Monday night. After sitting on board for over an hour due to electrical problems and Orthodox Jewish rabbis problems, we left the ground about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday morning. I will explain the rabbi problems: apparently you can tell an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, but you cannot tell him much. Like sit down. Get out of the aisles. Your carry on luggage is 10 times too large. It was amazing to watch. Even more amazing was the number of times they had to get back into their carry ons during the flight. Sure, most of the time they were getting their garb out so that they could do their prayers. Prayer shawls, phylacteries, bindings, robes. Let me say that I am certainly glad God didn't make me an Orthodox Jewish rabbi -- however, I am told that they had a lot more fun on the flight than I did. Can you say "duty free?"

Anyway, we took off after midnight. I had just dozed off when the flight attendants started serving dinner-- at 1:15 a.m. It was the worst sesame chicken I have ever tasted. The salad would have been good if my Italian dressing packet had not exploded all over Pat, my son-in-law's father and tour director. I had hoped to keep it from him and let him think he had spilled something on himself, but my conscience got the better of me, and I confessed. Oh, well.

So then it was time to get some sleep. However, the temperature hovered around 80 degrees while we traveled almost 5700 miles at speeds of almost 700 miles. At 37,000 feet, the outside air temperature was about -50 and lower, so I thought it would have been simple to have brought just a little bit of that air inside. Sleeping was not easy, but we did sleep some even with all the banging and moving around. Breakfast came about 6 a.m. Omelet with "salad." A mixture of peppers, olives, tomatoes and other things that they serve at every meal. The bread was fantastic.

We finally made it to Israel and through customs, and though everyone had told me to expect to see lots of soldiers with guns, there were none. At least none we saw. I am sure that most of the El Al agents were carrying some, but they were concealed. Well, let me close this post by saying all is well except I have to pay for Internet service. As technological as Israel has become, the hotels are not equipped with wireless or wired internet.

Thank you all for praying for us.

Going to Israel

I can hardly believe that I will be leaving for Israel this coming Monday. We fly out of Atlanta in the afternoon and out of New York at 11:30 p.m. Monday night. We will arrive in Tel Aviv Tuesday morning (around 5:30 p.m. Israeli time). I am excited about what God has in store for me, sad that Sonya isn't going with me, concerned about rooming with my son-in-law's father (Pat Andrews - only because I snore), but not the least bit anxious about our safety.

My plan is to give you a daily update on the trip and include pictures when I can. My first picture should have been of the adventure we had in packing my suitcase. I am extremely happy to say that it closed without too much effort and weighed only 48 pounds. I am also extremely happy that I remembered -- at the last minute before closing the suitcase -- that I had not included underwear, socks, or toiletries. All in all, I think it has been a successful operation so far.

I know that everyone who knows me and who knows the history that Sonya and I have when planning special trips is waiting to see if I actually go. I told our church family last night that should something happen to them while I am gone, my heart would long to be with them, but there is no way that I will be able to come back. The good news is that Bro. Wayne and Bro. Matt, our two faithful staff members, will be here to fill in the gap. Matt has even agreed to do any funerals should the need arise. Of course, as I shared last night, the only other option would be to ask the funeral home to put them on ice until I return. Please don't feel bad about that statement. Sonya told her mother the very same thing.

With that said, please pray for the whole group that is going. Pray for Sonya as she remains behind -- spending her time with Ashley, Jennifer, and Hayes.

Good morning, everyone. I was planning on doing this tonight in our Prayer Meeting time to help us prepare for our Sacred Assembly on Sunday, but since we are not meeting tonight, I am asking you to help me through e-mail. I know that this will not allow for anonymity, but I promise that if you respond to this, I will be the only one who sees it and will not pay attention to who writes what. Following is a list of corporate sins found in the Bible and in many churches. Would you read through the list and tell me which of these you believe our church is guilty of as a whole. I know that you could probably select every one of these and be accurate, but would you pray and ask God to show you those that we as a church need to focus on in repentance. It is a long list. You can select as many as you would like. Just comment anonymously with your list.

LOCAL CHURCH CORPORATE SIN TALLY

Use the following worksheet to tally the responses of your leadership and membership.

___________ Abandoning God

___________ Anger

___________ Apathy

___________ Attacking Leadership

___________ Backsliding

___________ Bitterness

___________ Blinded by Tradition

___________ Broken Covenant

___________ Carnal Decision-Making

___________ Carnality

___________ Complaining

___________ Compromise

___________ Correction Refused

___________ Corruption

___________ Covenant-Breaking

___________ Covetousness

___________ Defiance

___________ Dependence on Men

___________ Destroying Leaders

___________ Discord

___________ Disloyalty to God

___________ Disobedience

___________ Disputing

___________ Disrepaired Place of Worship

___________ Distrusting God

___________ Division

___________ Doubting God

___________ Dull Hearing

___________ Empty Offerings

___________ Evil Hearts/Minds

___________ Evil Speaking

___________ Evil Thoughts

___________ Excessive Spending on Self

___________ Factions

___________ Faith Without Works

___________ False Dealings

___________ Forgetting God

___________ Forsaking Commandments

___________ Forsaking God

___________ Forsaking the Assembly

___________ Grieving the Holy Spirit

___________ Grumbling

___________ Half-heartedness

___________ Hardened Hearts

___________ Hearing Without Doing

___________ Horizontal Focus

___________ Hypocrisy

___________ Hypocritical Worship

___________ Idolatry

___________ Ignorance of God’s Law

___________ Ignoring God’s Discipline

___________ Ignoring God’s Voice

___________ Ignoring Leadership

___________ Image Consciousness

___________ Immorality

___________ Indifference

___________ Inferior Offerings

___________ Ingratitude

___________ Iniquity

___________ Lewdness

___________ Limiting God

___________ Loss of First Love

___________ Lost Respect for Marriage

___________ Lukewarmness

___________ Lying

___________ Meaningless Ritual

___________ Misplaced Trust

___________ Murmuring

___________ Neglect of the Poor

___________ No Fear of God

___________ Non-submissive to Leaders

___________ Partial Obedience

___________ Powerless Rituals

___________ Prayerlessness

___________ Prejudice

___________ Pride

___________ Profaning the Sabbath

___________ Quarreling

___________ Rebellion

___________ Refusal to Repent

___________ Refusal to Return to God

___________ Rejecting Leadership

___________ Self-Centered Fasting

___________ Self-Sufficiency

___________ Selfish Ambition

___________ Speaking Against God

___________ Spiritual Adultery

___________ Spiritual Deadness

___________ Stiffened Necks

___________ Strife

___________ Stubbornness

___________ Superficial Healing

___________ Testing God

___________ Tolerating False Teachers

___________ Treachery

___________ Turning Aside

___________ Turning Back

___________ Unfaithfulness

___________ Ungodly Alliances

___________ Unmindful of God’s Works

___________ Unresponsive to Leadership

___________ Wickedness

___________ Withholding Tithes

___________ Worldliness

A New Year's Prayer

Lord Jesus,
Are you coming back today? It is Rosh Hashannah, but you know that. It would only be fitting to start the Jewish New Year in heaven with you. The signs are all there. They are talking peace in Israel while all the world is aligning against them. Even the good old U.S. of A. is adding pressure to Bibi to make concessions. But that doesn't mean much because this great country has just about reached its lowest point of relevancy in her history: economically we are bankrupt; politically we are impotent; militarily we lack the courage to win; and spiritually, ah Lord Jesus, forgive us, but spiritually we are not even in the game. WE have allowed our morality to be dictated by liberal judges who don't even understand the concept of morality. WE have let them remove prayer and Your Word from our schools, and they are quickly removing them from the public square. WE have let them tell us that our unborn children are not humans so that it has become acceptable to murder the innocent unborn while they rest in what You meant to be the safest, most love-filled, space in the world -- a mother's womb. WE have let them change the laws, Your law, on marriage, and now men marry men and women marry women. How disgusted with us You must be. And we, Your people, called by Your name, called to be the salt and light -- change agents and preservatives -- have chosen to sit idly by and let it all happen in the name of tolerance. WE see it all happening and we bemoan the fact that this old world just keeps sliding farther down that slippery slope into the abyss of depravit all the while wringing our hands and wishing You would do something about it when You already have. You Already Have! You sent Your Son to die on the cross for our sins so that "whosoever believes in You" will be saved. You sent Your Holy Spirit to comfort us, to guide us, and to empower us to transform this world. And You have promised that in our darkest moments you will be the Light that shines in us and through us to not only illuminate our need but also to extinguish the darkness. And all WE need to do is to come together as Your people, humble ourselves before You, seek Your Holy Presence, and turn from OUR wicked ways of apathy and laziness and pride and selfishness and then you would heal our land once our sins are forgiven. So Lord Jesus, are you coming back today? Or are you giving us another chance? Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly! Come soon! Come today! Happy New Year!

Partnership Building

I read this great article, and I thought I would share it with you today. It speaks volumes as to what we need to be doing to reach people today.

Brad Lomenick on Partnership-Building

“Building a bridge is an art...I’m referring to building bridges in business, friendships, co-workers, mentors, and key partnerships,” says Brad Lomenick, director of the Catalyst movement of young leaders. In a blog post, he talks about the importance of connecting with those we work, live, and partner with in ministry, particularly in this culture where new relationships can be intimidating, and 15-minute lunches are common. The following are his thoughts on how to best build a connecting bridge of partnership between yourself and another person:

1. Love people until they ask why. Lomenick says your actions of love should speak so loudly that people “ultimately demand an explanation for why you do what you do.”
2. Prove your craft before asking for something. People want to know you are competent before they partner with you, and valuing excellence and execution is key.
3. Ask more questions than they do. Lomenick says asking great questions can be “way more strategic” than giving great answers.
4. Spend lots of time listening. “Once you’ve asked a great question, listen. And listen more. And listen more,” says Lomenick.
5. Find points of connection and shared interests, and be intentional. Make a point to discover the person’s interests, hobbies, and what truly motivates them. Then build on shared interests.
6. Follow-up. Lomenick says this is the most important step that everyone seems to forget. “Never assume that because you haven’t heard from someone, it means they’re not interested. They’re busy, just like you. Take the first step and reach out. And then reach out again.”

Brad Lomenick, BradLomenick.com, 7/2/10

How To Listen To A Sermon

I have stood before congregations large and small along with Sunday School and Discipleship Training classes to proclaim God’s Word on the average of 3 times a week for about 25 years. Figuring in vacations and guest speakers along with the times I filled the pulpit in churches where I was not the pastor, I calculate that I have done this about 3,900 times. I have seen just about every reaction possible ranging from complete apathy to intense conviction that resulted in some people storming out of the church and some storming into the arms of God. How is it that many of these different reactions take place with the same group of people sitting through the same message? I think it is because some people know how to listen to a sermon while others do not. So I thought I would share my opinion on how to properly listen to a sermon.

It is as simple as this; ask the right question. For example, the wrong question is, “Which one of these heathens sitting around me is the pastor talking to?” Out of those 3,900 opportunities to proclaim God’s Word, I cannot begin to tell you how many times someone has said to me, “I sure wish so-and-so were here to hear this. They sure needed it.” I am fully convinced that God knows who the audience will be for every sermon preached, so let God be God and let us ask the right questions. Another wrong question is, “What is that preacher trying to say to me?” I’m sure I’ve heard someone else say what I am about to share with you because I am not that profound, but the other day, this thought came into my mind and I cannot get it out: “To believe that a godly pastor would target individuals with a certain message is either the height of arrogance or the depth of conviction.” To believe that a pastor has the time or energy to search out Scripture and put together a sermon that targets you demonstrates a level of conceit that is almost mind-boggling. However, I know there are times when individuals hear a message that pierces their hearts and souls to the point they know that they are the target – and that, my friends, is the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. So the right question that must come from an humble and honest heart is simply this: “What is God saying to me today through this sermon?” If you will ask this question, God will answer it every time, for His promise says, “Seek me and you will find me if you seek me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:13).