Who Are You Going to Vote For?

I heard someone say recently that are not  very apt in keeping up with current events.     I am told that readership of newspapers are down, and that people get more of their  news from the internet and social media sites.   Despite that,  I think that it fair to say that even persons on the periphery of current events know that this is an election year.    While there is much focus on the 2016 Presidential election here in the Untied States, we have many other offices where candidates seek election.    There are persons seeking to be elected as our United States senator, our governor, and many offices in our community. .    

I find myself not certain who I am going to vote for for most offices.  I am sure that some reading this would be happy to give me their “sales job” on their candidates of choice.     I am a person that seeks to vote for the person, and not along party lines.  I  am trying to watch the debates and town hall meetings on the national scene.  I am trying to read the newspaper hoping to find what the candidates have to say and what is said about the candidates.   

I went to a different source recently to educate me in this election year.     Instead of reading the newspaper or watching the television, I went to the Bible to see what it has to say about leadership and leaders.   In Acts 20,  the apostle Paul meets with some of the leaders of the Ephesian Church.    Read these words from Acts 20:17-21 where we find these words:

¹⁷ From Miletus he sent messengers^[f] to Ephesus to ask the elders of the church to meet with him. ¹⁸ When they came to him, he told them, “You know how I lived among you the entire time from the first day I set foot in Asia. ¹⁹ I served the Lord with all humility, with tears, and with trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews. ²⁰ I never shrank from telling you anything that would help you nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house. ²¹ I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance to God and faith in our Lord Jesus.^[g]

As one of the leaders of the early Church, the apostle Paul, speaks to the Ephesian Church leadership, there are some words that stand out for me about the kind of leaders that I believe that God wants us to have in our nation, state, and communities.    Those words are qualities that are important for leaders not just in the days of the early Church, but also today.  They are qualities important not just for leaders in communities of faith, but also in our government.     Let me lift up some of the qualities found in these words of Paul.   They are as follows:

• Servanthood-  A good leader wants to serve, not to be served 
• Humility-    A good leader has a humble spirit
• Care and compassion-  Paul speaks of his tears in his service.   A good leader cares about those he serves.
• Integrity-  Paul speaks that even in the midst of trails he never knew “shrank from truth”.    What an important quality in any leader.

Those are some of the qualities I am looking for in those I vote for in this election year.    How about you?     Have a joy-filled week.-   Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:  Lord and God,  Give us wisdom in these election year to see the candidates as you see them.   Give us wisdom to see the truth of who you would have be our leaders.    Amen.   

Somebody's Watching

He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!

The words above are from the song “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”.     As I recall, it was one of my favorite Christmas songs when I was a young boy.   Though the song was written many years ago,  its words about someone always watching us are true in these early days of the 21^st century.   In this world where most everyone has a camera as close as their cell phone and where security cameras are everywhere to watch for potential terrorist,  there seems to always be someone watching and always eager to share that camera footage on a social media site. 

We can bemoan these watchful eyes as an invasion of privacy.  We can also celebrate these lurking cameras as a way to bring peace of mind in a dangerous world.   There is another way to look at it, and it is the truth that someone has always been  watching and that Someone is God.    We find that truth in the words of Psalm 139 where we read:

Lord, you have examined me;
    you have known me.
² You know when I rest^[a]
    and when I am active.^[b]
You understand what I am thinking
    when I am distant from you.^[c]
3 You scrutinize my life and my rest;^[d]
    you are familiar with all of my ways.
⁴ Even before I have formed a word with my tongue,
    you, Lord, know it completely!
⁵ You encircle me from back to front,
    placing your hand upon me.
⁶ Knowledge like this is too amazing for me.
    It is beyond my reach,
        and I cannot fathom it.

What solace we can take in the truth that God is watching us not to catch us in the act of some grievous sin, but because he loves and cares for us like a parent caring for their child.  Have a joy-filled week.-    Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:  Lord and God, thank you for watching over us like a Shepherd watching over their sheep.  Thank you for your love and care; through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Singing In the Dark

The early morning has always been one of my favorite times of the day.   I am blessed these days to be able to spend time as night gives way to day, darkness to light in extended prayer.    The other morning,  I was moved as I heard the sound of a beautiful bird singing its song.    Even though it was still dark outside, the bird was offering its melodious praises to its creator.

The sound of that bird singing in the dark got me to think about how difficult it is for humans to sing in the dark.     I recall the opening song from the musical “Oklahoma”  where Curley sings “Oh, what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day.  I got a wonderful feeling everything is going my way.”    It is easy to sing in the sunshine of the day when everything is going your way, but it is harder to sing when your life is filled with dark and gloomy experiences like death, depression, sickness, or hunger.

I read again today the story of a man named Job.    He certainly knew what travail and trouble were .  In a single day, he experienced the death of his children… the loss of his home and livestock… and sickness for himself.    Some might say about Job that “it were not for bad luck he would have  no luck at all.” Despite it all, Job is a man that sings even in a dark time of his life  praises to God.    Listen to what Job says as the news of his troubles was given to him in Job 1:

²⁰ At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship ²¹ and said:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
    and naked I will depart.^[c]
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
    may the name of the Lord be praised.”

I think that the only way that Job could “sing in the dark” was that his life was centered in God.  Oh, to  continue to grow closer to the Lord.   Have a joy-filled week.-    Pastor Randy Wall

 Prayer:  O God, help me to live and believe that you are the greatest treasure in my life.  Thank you for being with me in good times and bad times.  I love you, Lord.  Amen.  

Praying for the Ones that Pray for Us

Delegates from congregations of the people called Methodist will be gathering for a big gathering next month in Portland, Oregon.    That gathering is called General Conference, and people will be there from around the world.      The meeting, which takes place only every 4 years, will be a time of discussion on what we believe and what we do as the people called Methodist.    One of the things that the people called Methodist are asked to do in these days in anticipation of that gathering is to be in prayer.    Yesterday was the date that the people called Methodists in our area were asked to be in prayer for that gathering.    Prayer is one of the things that I believe people of faith do well.    We pray as we begin our worship and we pray when we end our worship.   It is quite common in many churches I have participated in for churches to solicit prayer petitions and prayers of praise.    Many churches have prayer meetings on their weekly list of activities.    Some churches send out prayer requests via phone calls or via e mail.   The  church prays often and prays well.

In these days, the people called Methodist are asked to pray for their beloved church.   It got me to thinking:   Do we regularly pray for the Ones that pray for us?      Most people are quick and quite glad  for the Church to pray for them, but  do we take time to pray for the Church--  for its leadership, its mission, and its ministry?        There are times the church has failed to be the “body of Christ” and was quite deserving of the criticism that came its way.   While the Church serves a Savior who is without sin, its members are simply people saved from sin by grace.  Are we as  quick to offer prayers of thanksgiving to God for the church when it does that which is good, right, and holy as we are to offer criticism?

I know not whether you who are reading this are regularly involved in a church or not.    Whether you are involved in a church and whatever that denomination that church might be , I encourage you to pray for the church.    I believe that prayer works, and that the church that so willingly prays for us needs us to pray for it.     Let me end by sharing part of a  prayer of Jesus for his disciples found in John 17: 17-25:

¹⁷ “Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. ¹⁸ Just as you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ It is for their sakes that I sanctify myself, so that they, too, may be sanctified by the truth.²⁰ I ask not only on behalf of these men,^[g] but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ so that they may all be one. Just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be one^[h] in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. ²² “I have given them the glory that you gave me, so that they may be one, just as we are one. ²³ I am in them, and you are in me. May they be completely one, so that the world may know that you sent me and that you have loved them as you loved me. ²⁴ Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory, which you gave me because you loved me before the creation of the world.   ²⁵ “Righteous Father, the world has never known you. Yet I have known you, and these men have known that you sent me. ²⁶ I made your name known to them, and will continue to make it known, so that the love you have for me^[i] may be in them and I myself may be in them.”                                                                           -     Pastor Randy Wall

 Prayer:   Living God, I thank you for your church, the body of Christ.  Bless its leaders and members to be your hands and feet in the world;  through Christ our Lord. Amen.