Beginning or End?

As a teacher, I get to experience a lot of beginnings and endings. The first day of a new semester to giving the final exam. Today, was exam day for my students. As they have worked like crazy to master the material so that hopefully they can move on from this class to something even harder, I look at them taking the exam and remember their first day. I also know that I will never again have exactly the same classroom dynamic as I had with that group. Sometimes that is a blessing, other times I wish they could all come back for a few more weeks. In churches, we also see many beginnings and ends. New believers who grow in the Lord and then move on into the ministry they have been called to. Pastors come and go. Sometimes leaving the church stronger than when they found it, or founded it as the case may be...and sometimes ripping it in two as they leave. Parishioners are the same...they come bringing vibrancy and new life to a church, or they tear it down with bitterness and division. Beginnings and endings...today, is the end of the first summer semester of 2009,and the beginning of a week long break! It is saying goodbye to one set of students and getting prepared for another set. (Summer-2 2009) It is on these days that I reflect over the time I spend trying, not just to teach some Spanish to students who may or may not want to learn it, but also to be an example for the Lord to them. I hope that they not only remember some grammar, but more importantly how to live honestly, lovingly, caringly and with character that we can all be proud of. I know that is a lot to ask of a Spanish class, but none the less, it is my wish. If you were in one of my classes this semester or at some time in the past. I wish you well and pray that you are living a life in such a way that I can proudly say, "I was his/her teacher."

Thoughts on a Verse

Ephesians 3:20 is a wonderful key verse in life. “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us”. Think about that for a second! What is the most incredible thing you can imagine? God can do more than that! HE wants to do more than that! So why isn’t God answering prayers? One reason is that we aren’t asking. Another one that we often don’t like is that the moral power that we have through Jesus Christ comes when we live in obedient discipleship. When we live in sin, our first prayer must be for forgiveness. Remember that Jesus loves us more than we can ever know and He wants us to progress in understanding His love and in loving as He loved. That is why we should pray for others.

Prayer Teams

Prayer support is very important for a pastor. Today’s blog is a little more anecdotal than usual, but something that I did recently as a lay person in my church was go to our pastor and shared with him that I felt it is important to have a group of people praying for him while he is preaching. His response was positive and ended with “Burl, you have a passion for it, so why don’t you get it started?” So after asking a few men in the church if they would either stay late or come early and pray during the service they don’t attend. (Our church has two services) Some of them responded that they had been thinking the same thing, but just hadn’t voiced it. Soon a group of guys are getting together and praying for the service and our pastor while the service is going on in another part of the building. And while hard to prove a direct relationship scientifically, the number of people attending, and more importantly, the number of people asking Jesus into their hearts each week is increasing! God can do anything, and HE doesn’t need us, but HE asks us to pray to HIM. HE can do abundantly and exceedingly more than we can ask or imagine! If you are one of the lay people who read this blog; pray for your pastor! And if you are a pastor and don’t have group of people praying for you, I encourage you to ask some people in your congregation that you respect as people who love the Lord to begin praying for you. You may not have the luxury of having a “Prayer Warrior” in your congregation. But just like young men going off to basic training, they can start praying, and God can turn them into prayer warriors!