An Old Prayer for the New Year

Here is a prayer taken from Puritan book of prayers. A good friend sent it to me. He said it is best if it is read slowly and savored. I found it to be so. Enjoy, and have a Happy New Year.

A New Year's Prayer
O Lord, Length of days does not profit me except the days are passed in Thy presence, in Thy service, to Thy glory. Give me a grace that precedes, follows, guides, sustains, sanctifies, aids every hour, that I may not be one moment apart from Thee, but may rely on Thy Spirit to supply every thought, speak in every word, direct every step, prosper every work, build up every mote of faith, and give me a desire to show forth Thy praise; testify Thy love, advance Thy kingdom.
I launch my bark on the unknown waters of this year, with Thee, O Father as my harbour, Thee, O Son, at my helm, Thee O Holy Spirit, filling my sails. Guide me to heaven with my loins girt, my lamp burning, my ear open to Thy calls, my heart full of love, my soul free.
Give me Thy grace to sanctify me, Thy comforts to cheer, Thy wisdom to teach, Thy right hand to guide, Thy counsel to instruct, Thy law to judge, Thy presence to stabilize. May Thy fear be my awe, Thy triumphs my joy.
From Valley of Vision

You Have Been Gifted!!

We started a "You've Been Gifted" initiative during the month of December. I challenged the people of our church to blanket this area with 5000 acts of random generosity to remind everyone of the true meaning of Christmas. I have received dozens of stories. They are all great. This is one of my favorites and I thought you all would enjoy it as well. Merry Christmas to all of you.


Hi Joe,
I wanted to write you a note and share my experience using the Gift Card.
I was in the Super Walmart in Streetsboro this weekend and asked the lord before entering the store to lead me to someone who needs a blessing. I really felt the presence of God while choosing a check out aisle. I ended up behind a woman in one of those wheelchair type carts the store offers and she was with her adult daughter. They were having trouble paying for their purchases and were trying to use different credit cards. It was obvious that this was the person God has chosen me to "gift".

I stepped next to the lady and said " Merry Christmas why don't you let me pay for you today. " The cashier overheard me and said " you cant do that" and I asked "Why not?" and she turned the cash registers mo niter toward me that show her total bill was $192. I said "that's OK our church asked us to look for opportunities to bless other this Christmas season" I then handed her the gift card.
The lady in the wheelchair began crying really hard and her eyes were red , she grabbed my face in her hands and said " thank you very much I didn't think kindness like this still existed" She then said the reason I am shopping today is to buy clothes for my husbands funeral this weekend!"

The cashier heard this and raised her hands in the air (and held them there) and said "praise God!" she then asked where our church was and said she would like to a church where people are as nice as me.
At this point I was feeling awkward about all thre attention and started to babble phrases like "its not a big deal" and " I have a lot of money" how embarrassing is that !

However after all was said and done it really felt great to "team up " with God be a part of blessing some else.

Immanuel-The Breakable God

I have been thinking that the Christmas season is a wonderful time...for most of us...most of the time. It is precisely because it is so great most of the time that it can be such an incredibly difficult time as well. This got me thinking about pain during the holidays. There is tremendous warmth and goodness during this time but pain peaks as well doesn't it? It should not surprise us. The shepherds watched as the angels sang of great joy. They ran into Bethlehem, saw the Child, and then laughed and sang their way back to the sheep. God had come and they were no longer alone. But when God came there was also a dark side to all the joy. At Christmas we celebrate Immanuel, God with us. It is the time when God became breakable. Christianity is the only religion in the world that teaches that we can actually hurt God and we did. Hurting God became possible because of Christmas. Christmas does not give me the reason for suffering and pain. When suffering happens there are usually two possible responses. Some will think that God wasn't paying attention. That God is an absent God and doesn't really care. The other response is that God is vindictive and is punishing people for their decisions and their sin. Christmas forces us away from both those answers. The fact that God became Immanuel means that he is not absent. He is not a God who ignores our pain but instead has entered in. We may not know why suffering happens but as Christians we have a God who is willing to take the medicine himself. I will never suffer something he was not willing to suffer. He is not absent. The other truth that comes out at Christmas is that Jesus came to pay for our sin. That means that suffering is not because God is vindictive. If you are hurting this season I write this for you. If you are in pain then it is at Christmas you can be reminded that God came to be with you right in the middle of that pain.If your life is going well and you are looking forward with great anticipation to a joy filled time around a feast with friends and family, remember it is Immanuel who has given you joy. Either way, Christmas is a time of wonder. The infinite became finite, the immortal became mortal, the omnipotent became breakable...for you...with you.

D.Min

This is an unusual blog since it is just personal news. After reading around 15,000 pages and writing approximately 200 pages of papers I have just completed my Doctor of Ministries degree from Columbia Evangelical Seminary. In the words of just about anybody who has ever run a marathon, "I am glad that's over".

Slapped

I am a sports fan and have been for as long as I can remember. I don't know many sports figures personally so it is easy to talk about them. I talk about how bad Brady Quinn was the last game or how LeBron needs to quit dribbling so much. These are things I would never say to their faces or if I did it would be prefaced with a mountain of praise and offered as a humble suggestion. Tiger Woods has been in the news lately. No one really knows what happened and yet it seems that many of us enjoy talking about the possibilities. One of my best friends is Tom Randall. He is the chaplain of the PGA Champions tour. I was talking to him last night and I said with no small measure of amusement and excitement, "Hey Tom, you are in the know. What happened with Tiger? Wow, that is really crazy"? I expected him to join in like everyone else I had talked to and begin to smile and laugh at the craziness of driving over a fire hydrant at 2am and having your wife break out a window with a golf club. Instead Tom said, "Joe, I can't really talk about it". I realized that meant he was already involved but he was involved as a minister. He was trying to help a couple who were experiencing a terribly difficult time in their lives. Conviction hits me like a hammer most of the time. I guess it needs to. I have worked with couples who are really hurting, who have had all kinds of things go wrong. I would be so upset if I heard other staff members talking about their lives like I was talking about Tiger's. Tom slapped me back into thinking like a minister and he did it without even knowing it. Actually he slapped me back to thinking like a Christian. Now, consider yourself slapped.