I love this song, one of my favorite worship songs…but I love it even more listening to Korbin sing it.  You know this brought a smile to the face of the Father.  Enjoy.

Those who have ears to hear let them listen… Be honest, we have used ears for a few things other than hearing.  I’ve grabbed my kids by their ears.  Some of  you have multiple piercings so that you can carry around valuable pieces of jewelry.  But those words came out of the mouth of Jesus — the one we sometimes call “The Word.”  There is something incredibly vital about listening for those who follow Jesus.  I’m not sure we really understand the power of the words that come from the mouth of the Living God, the one who creatively spoke the world into existence.  Time and time again in the Bible, we are confronted with the power of the words of God.

In fact in Psalm 107:19-20, the Psalmist writes… “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he saved them from their distress; he sent out his word to heal and deliver them...”  The words of God bring healing.   But if we don’t listen we’ll miss it.

Or how about Romans 15:4…  Paul writes, “…everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”  The words of God bring hope.  But if we don’t listen we’ll miss it.

Then there’s Ps 199:105-107…  “The Psalmist writes, Your word is lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.  I have suffered much, renew my life, by your Word O Lord.”  The word of God brings renewal and revival.  New energy, new love to redeem old hurts.  But if we don’t listen we’ll miss it.

One more…  2 Tim 3:16-17, for those of  you who have big dreams for what God might do through you, who want to go out and do good with your life, who want to not only discover but live out the calling God has for you..  Paul writes, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.”   If we don’t listen we won’t be prepared to do good.

Last weekend at Calvary we talked about the parable of the soils.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about you can read the story in Mark 4 or you can listen to my talk entitled

.  The parable tells the story of how different soils (different hearts) respond to the seed (Words of God).  The point of the parable is that we need to be listeners.

God still speaks.  There are many ways that God speaks to his people…dreams, visions, prayer, circumstances, other people, the Holy Spirit. But there is one avenue, one living avenue of communication that must form the foundation of our listening relationship with God.  It’s the Bible, the Word of God.  The Word of God is a seed that gives birth to new life. It is living and powerful.

Last weekend at Calvary, I gave a challenge, take an hour, listen to God.  Read the gospel of Mark.  When you come to Mark 4, stop and ask God what kind of soil is filling up your heart.   Then respond, read some more, listen some more.  God still speaks and there are few things that will change your life like letting His words go deep in your heart.

On April 17/18 while almost 800 of us here in Centre County were participating in CityServe — out blessing our community — in New York City a man died.  He was a homeless man who tried to intervene as a man was beating a woman.  In the process of trying to save her, the homeless man was stabbed multiple times and left on the street to die.  It was early morning, for the next 60 minutes, seven people passed the dying man on the street, all of them looked, one even stopped and turned him over.  But nobody helped.  Nobody even called 911.  (A surveillance video camera caught all the in-action.)  After an hour an ambulance arrived but it was too late.

It’s almost as though the city, or at least the neighborhood had no soul.

I was on a plane last week flying home from some leadership meetings in Orlando.  I was sitting next to a man who didn’t even look at me as I sat down.  (Which by the way, happens to be my favorite type of flying-friend.)  For 65 minutes on the plane we did not share a single word, then I sneezed.  It wasn’t one of my best – or worst depending on how you judge such things – and it was only one – I usually sneeze twice if I sneeze once – but the man next to me said, “Bless you.”  Didn’t look at me, actually it was probably about 7 seconds after I sneezed that he said it, like it took a bit of time for it to register.  But he said it, like he couldn’t help himself.

Did you know that this idea of blessing someone after a sneeze comes from times past, when it was believed that the act of sneezing would throw the soul from the body. “God Bless You,” was a prayer for spiritual protection. In essence it was a request for God to reconnect the soul to the body.  That thought brought to my mind a quote from a second-century Christian writer. In describing the lifestyle of Christians, he wrote, “As the soul is to the body, so Christians are to the world.” If that’s the case, then perhaps the way to reconnect the soul (church) to the body (community) is through a lifestyle of blessing?

To all those who served the city during CityServe — bless you and may God continue to bless others through you.

That’s 1635 visits from 39 countries to my blog in the last month.  Now the reality is that’s small potatoes in the blog-world.  So this ain’t a bragging post!  1538 of those 1635 were visits from 41 states in the United States, so I had a few less than 100 international visits last month.  So two requests…

1) I have no idea who the international readers are and what would draw them to this blog.  If you have a chance, and you are willing, would you take a minute and let me know who you are and what brought you to this blog?

2) For those of you who are in the States, a bit different request at the moment…just for fun and my own sense of accomplishment.  Readers from 41 states have read this blog in the last month.  Nobody has visited from Nevada, Wyoming, North Dakota, Iowa, Mississippi, West Virginia, Rhode Island, Maine, Vermont, Hawaii, or Delaware.  If you know someone from one of those states, point them my way.  It would be kinda cool to have a visitor from all the states some month.

To all of  you who read — thank you.  I appreciate your time and I hope that occasionally your time is rewarded with something to ponder.

People who know me like to joke about my love for things like coffee and krispee Kreme donuts. And I’ll occasionally get thoughtful concern from some of you who eat, what you consider to be healthier foods… so I’ve started collecting articles on the health benefits of coffee…it’s amazing how many there are. In fact drinking coffee may be the healthiest thing I do. But in reality my love for food extends beyond coffee and donuts.

I like other foods; like Lynn’s cinnamon rolls, chocolate covered rice krispee bars, and turkey chili. I love a good t-bone steak with garlic smashed potatoes. I don’t like lutefisk and even tho I’ve never had it, I’m fairly certain that I don’t like ochra or grits. I love Halloween. I know that’s not a food…but it is a food group… where else but America could I send my kids out into neighborhoods to collect a year’s supply of chocolate? I love bacon from the Waffleshop, fresh squeezed grapefruit juic from Florida, Sees Candy from California, chocolate chip banana bread from Maui, and seafood chowder from Kelly’s.

I could go on and on. It’s amazing how many good memories are connected with food and meals. That’s why I think it’s hard for me to fathom the idea of a famine. Most likely few reading this blog post have ever experienced a food-famine. Few of us have ever had to wonder where our next meal would come from…or if it would come. Isn’t that why our hearts connect when we hear stories about children at the orphanages in Myanmar, Rwanda and the Dominican Republic? A recent Christianity Today article estimated that 25,000 people die every day from hunger-related illnesses and 850 million people are chronically hungry.

Death by famine is a slow, painful death…that includes physical weakness, susceptibility to disease, mental confusion and the inability to focus or reason, lethargy and death. We see those pictures every once in awhile, starving children, extended bellies. We can’t watch long, because it is so hard to watch someone starve. Understand this…when it comes to the cultures of the Bible, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, the people were more familiar with famine than they were with fast food. They were an agrarian culture, shaped by poverty, more like Africa than the U.S.

One time Jesus quoted words from the OT book of Deuteronomy. He said, “Man shall not live by bread alone.” We hear those words and we are tempted to think…of course, we must have peanut butter and jelly. We need to understand that Jesus wasn’t referring to the easily accessible wonder bread that we can walk into any Weiss market and pick up off the shelf. To the people in Jesus day, bread alone was all they had. Bread was life. Without bread there was no life.

So when Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone — and then continued with the words — but by every word that come from the mouth of God.” Jesus was saying there is no life without the Word of God. Tonight Lynn and I are going to some friend’s house for dinner. I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be a great Italian meal. Then I’m going to come home and read my Bible.

I need both for life.

Imagine being humiliated by being forced to do things you never would’ve dreamed of doing… Imagine being treated like you were worthless day after day… Imagine being starved for speaking, beaten for stumbling… How do you feel about those who have hurt you and possibly even enjoyed hurting you? What would you do when you saw that person again?  

It was in a church in Munich that she saw him again — a balding, heavyset man, a brown felt hat clutched between his hands. It was 1947 and Corrie Ten Boom, having gone through the hell of the Nazi concentration camps had come back to Germany with the message that God forgives. She had just finished telling the people of God’s incredible grace and ability to forgive all sins, when she saw him making his way to the front. One moment she saw his overcoat and hat, the next she saw a blue uniform and cap with skull and crossbones. In her mind she was transported back to Ravensbruck, the Nazi death camp. The man making his way forward had been one of the most cruel while she was there.

Now the hand which had slapped her was extended to her, “A fine message Fraulein,” he said, “How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea.” Corrie couldn’t bring herself to shake his hand. He obviously didn’t remember her, but she remembered him, remembered what he had done. “You mentioned Ravensbruck,” the man was saying, “I was a guard there, but since then I have become a Christian. I know God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips too. Fraulein will you forgive me?”

What would you do? The seconds seemed like hours as Corrie stood there wrestling with the most difficult thing she had ever been asked to do. The coldness of her heart was holding her back, till in her heart she cried out, “Jesus help me. I’ll do it if you help me…and she reached up and took his hand.”

This weekend at Calvary we were talking about the things that keep us from hearing God — parable of the soils, Mark 4 –Jesus tells a parable of great harvest. The seed is God’s Word. The soil is our hearts. If we aren’t hearing God, it’s not a seed problem. It’s a soil problem and one of the ways we work the soil is to practice forgiveness. If we can’t forgive we won’t hear God’s voice. Who has hurt you? Have you heard God calling you to to take their hand and forgive?

Corrie Ten Boom says, “As I thrust my hand into the hand of the once cruel guard, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced dwn my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes. ‘I forgive you with all my heart,’ I cried. Never b4 had I known God’s love so intensely as I did at that moment.”

That’s the way it is with grace — give it and it flows back magnified, healing grace. Work the soil. Keep your heart soft. Forgive.

In his book, “The Pursuit of God” A.W. Tozer writes,

I believe that much of our religious unbelief is due to a wrong conception of…the Scriptures… A silent God suddenly begins to speak in a book and when the book was finished lapsed into silence again forever…I think a new world will arise out of the religious mists when we approach our Bible with the idea that it is not only a book which was once spoken, but a book (through) which (God) is now speaking.

I realize the difficulties that so many have with reading the Bible.  I hear them all the time..  “It’s hard to understand.”  “The language is archaic.”  “Some of it seems pretty irrelevant — like all the begets.”  But set all of that aside and what if Tozer is on target, what if God… the Creator, Holy, Omni-everything-good God is now speaking through the Bible?  Would we want to listen?  That’s really the starting question… do I care what God has to say?

Here’s another quote…one from John Piper,

I am constantly astonished at people who say they believe in God but live as though happiness were to be found by giving him two percent of their attention. Surely the end of the ages will reveal this to be absurd.

I don’t want to live an absurd life.

Harold and I became good friends about 17 yrs ago.  I spent the weekend with him as his sister Helen died, leaving him the last in his family line.  Over the course of the years — whenever I went to Minnesota I would try to visit him.  I remember sitting in his living room not long after his 93rd birthday! He had been retired for about five years…that’s right, he stopped farming when he was 87. At 93 he was still living in his on home, driving his own car, chasing away his own phone-salesmen!   I remember that day talking about change.  Can you imagine the change he saw in his lifetime?  He was born in 1907.

• – In 1907 Leo Baekeland developed the 1st entirely synthetic plastic, Bakelite. It’s hard for me to imagine growing up in a world without pampers, contacts, frisbees, styrofoam, and fisher price toys.
• – That same year the Azusa Street Revival took place in California giving birth to modern pentecostalism. Today one half billion Pentecostals worldwide outnumber Baptists, Anglicans, Presbyterians and Lutherans combined.
• – When he was one, a man named Ford sold the first Model T, automotive.
• – He saw a man named Hitler come into power in 1933. 12 years later, after some 17 million soldiers and 60 million civilians (including 6 million Jews) had died, he watched the Berlin wall go up and come down.
• – Harold saw the birth of rock-n-roll and the discovery of Elvis.
• – He was alive when penicillin was discovered and the first atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima.
• – He went from farming with a team of horses to a four wheel drive John Deere with a ten bottom plow; from Kitty Hawk to the moon; from stories around the fireplace to virtual reality.
• – When he was a teenager, a chip was something you found dried in the cow pasture…hardware was a store and software wasn’t even a word.
• – When he was my age, you could buy a Chevy Coupe for $600 but who could afford one, which was a pity because gas was only 11 cents a gallon.
• – He never knew facebook, txt messaging, or anything that starts with an “i.”

He went through a lot of change.  Some of us love change.  Some of us hate change.  Many of us are somewhere in between.

Alvin Toffler who wrote Future Shock says that when people go through rapid times of change they need islands of stability. Things that do not change.  Is there anything like that in your world?  My guess is there are probably some things in your life that you thought were unchangeable two or three years ago that have already changed.  Is there anything that never, ever changes?

My islands of stability are God-shaped. His love. His calling. His grace. His promises.

My daughter Sarah graduates from Penn State next month. A whole season of changes are coming her way. My prayer for her is that she will find that her God is an island (or a continent) of stability in the midst of a sea of change.

I’ve been thinking about the kids in Myanmar this week.  Not sure why, just am…  

Peter Singer — a controversial Princeton philosopher poses this question, “If you are walking by a pond and you see a child drowning, do you save her? What if it means ruining a very fancy pair of Italian shoes?”

Peter Unger takes it a step farther when he tells the story of Bob. Bob is a car nut. His prize possession is a vintage Bugatti roadster. It’s his prize not only because he is passionate about cars, but also because this Bugatti is Bob’s retirement plan.  One day, while out walking, Bob sees a train bearing down on a toddler who has wandered on to the tracks. Bob can save the child by throwing a switch and diverting the train onto a side rail.  But parked on that side rail is Bob’s beloved Bugatti — the funding source of his retirement years.  If he throws the switch and saves the child, his car will be crushed. The kid or the car: which to choose?

Well of course I would sacrifice the shoes to save a drowning child, and though I might have to fight through a split-second moment of indecision, I am confident that I would throw the switch and give my car/retirement fund in exchange for the life of the child on the tracks.  In fact wouldn’t we judge as an immoral monster…anyone who would choose Italian shoes or Bugatti roadsters over the life of a child?

If that’s true… what is the difference between the child on the tracks and one of the 24,000 children under the age of five who died today… from preventable poverty conditions?  Does proximity alone make me responsible for saving a life…that I can save?  How many must I save?   Or does knowledge alone put me on the scene?  Am I less responsible if I am not the only one who “can” save the child?

I am sitting here in a hotel in Orlando.  I’m on the leadership team for our conference of churches and this week is our quarterly meeting.  My plane ticket cost $400.  I’m sure the room I’m in will cost at least $300.  Last night I had room service for dinner, a hamburger, onion soup and a desert.  It cost $30.  $730 will keep three children in Myanmar alive for a year.

I enjoy reading books on my Kindle will I listen to music on my ipod — Kindle + ipod + head phones + book + music = 3 more children for a year.

I love my jeep.  It isn’t extravagant.  It has over 150,000 miles on it.  It’s about 15 years old.  The soft top has holes, the body has rust, but I love driving my jeep.  I paid $3000 for my jeep — would I throw the switch that would destroy my jeep if it meant saving one life?  Without a moment’s hesitation…yes!   So why do I still have it?

It seems like the appropriate questions are “How much is enough?”  AND  “How many is enough?”  How much stuff do I need and how many people should I save?

I don’t have an answer for either question, for you or for me.  But it seems like we should at least wrestle with the questions.   As I wrestle, I’m going to be raising about $6000 to buy a flock of chickens for the orphanages in Myanmar.  A $6000 flock will provide eggs, meat, and income for quite some time.

Have you ever had one of those prayers that you prayed with regular consistency.  It’s a request coming from a heart that says, “O God if you would just answer this prayer before I die, I will die a happy man.”  It’s passion turned into persistent prayer.  I’ve had seasons where a passion was turned into persistent prayer.  This morning I ran across a prayer like this in Proverbs.  Francis Chan mentioned it in a blog post.  It’s a prayer found in Proverbs 30:7-9.  Here it is…

⁷ O God, I beg two favors from you; let me have them before I die. ⁸ First, help me never to tell a lie.  Second, give me  neither poverty nor riches!  Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. ⁹ For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?”  And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy name.”

Wow.  I wonder how often that prayer is prayed from American lips?  God — two things, just two things — if you would answer these two prayers before I die, I would die a happy man.  God give me character and contentment.  God let me be a truth-teller and don’t let money motivate my actions.  God give me integrity and just enough money to satisfy my needs.  Character and Contentment.

I think I pursue the character part with a measure of passion.  I don’t think I pursue contentment with enough passion.  I wonder how it might change my life if that prayer became my passion?