I Live In The Country

Isn’t it amazing how one little thing can change your whole perspective?  I love being a small town pastor.  My schedule is pretty flexible, I get to have personal interaction with a wide variety of people and I get to witness the splendor of God’s creation every morning as I make my way across Honey Creek bridge.  This week has been fun.  Monday and Tuesday, my day started early with breakfast and discipleship with two of the young guys in our church.  Last night, Shelley and Chelsea and I had dinner with a family that is considering joining and had a wonderful time of fellowship. This morning, I had an early breakfast meeting at the Hospital with the director of the Volunteer Chaplaincy Program, so as I left the house, the sky was just beginning to get lighter, but the sun wasn’t close to cresting the horizon yet.  As I stepped out of my front door into the early morning calm, I heard it faintly in the distance, a rooster crowing.  For the first time in the two years that we have lived in our house, I heard the sound that identifies for me that I really do live in the country.  I just had the discussion last night about how much I love where we live because it is far enough out of Grove to be peaceful and quiet, and yet we can still get to WalMart in about three and a half minutes.

But this morning, I realized that I do live IN THE COUNTRY. 

Okay, so this might not be such an earth-shaking fact to most of you, but to me it was an eye-opener.  In my mind, ‘the country’ has always brought to mind peaceful feelings, calm, a slower pace, the joys of childhood memories at my grandparents house in East Texas.  My everyday life, even at the slower pace that a small town pastorate offers compared to pastoring a church in Oklahoma City, still seems pretty hectic.  I get to the office and fill out my To Do List for the day and wonder how I am going to get it all done.  But just hearing that simple, far-off sound as I left my front door this morning reminded me that peace and calm are not that far away.  As a matter of fact, I can find them on my own front porch.

I think that sometimes we get so focused on the swirling of the waters all around us that we forget to take a few moments to peacefully float down the river and take in the scenery.  At this moment, two hours later, I find myself in my office, To Do List all filled out for the day, ready to get started on what this day requires.  But the memory of that brief moment in the still of the morning, gives me assurance that I can handle whatever comes, and when the day is over, I can make my way back out to my home in the country and the peace and calm that it brings. Thank you, Lord.

Christmas Memories

Christmas is a time for memories. Obviously, it’s primary purpose, one that is often neglected, is to remind us of the coming of the Messiah, the means by which God provided salvation for sinful mankind.  But it is also a time for remembering long-lost joys and relationships that have made Christmases past so sweet.

As a child, my most vivid memory is of the uncertain nature of when ‘Santa’ would come to our house.  My dad pastored a small church in Racine, Wisconsin and each year we would load up the car on the Monday after the Sunday before Christmas and we would make our way south.  We would make a short stop in Paducah, Kentucky, where my mother’s family would gather, then we would go on to Center, Texas for Christmas with my dad’s family.  We would miss one Sunday and get back right before the next, giving us almost two weeks to make the trek.  Because of this tradition, I never spent Christmas morning in my own home until the year after I graduated from college and spent Christmas alone in Spokane, WA, 2000 miles away from the rest of the family. 

Because we would always be away from home on Christmas morning, ‘Santa’ had to find us at home sometime before we left so that we could get our presents, so it was always an anxious time as we drew closer to the day of our departure as to when ‘Santa’ would come.  Sometimes we would wake up on Saturday morning before our departure and our gifts would be there, spread out on the living room floor.  At other times, Dad would say, “Hey, let’s go look at the pretty Christmas lights down at the lakeshore, and we would all pile in the car.  Just before we would leave, Mom would have to go back inside for something that she forgot.  When we got home from looking at the lights, the Jolly old Elf would have made his appearance and the presents would be there under the tree.  That feeling of imminent expectation was one that I will never forget and is my best reference when I think of how my heart should flutter at the certainty of His promise yet uncertainty of the timing when it comes to Christ’s return.

The next thing that comes to mind when I think of Christmas is just a simple expression without a spoken word.  It is the look on my grandfather’s face whenever we were gathered at his house on Christmas.  He was a quiet man, mostly because it was hard to get a word in edge-wise around that house.  The gift of gab is a dominant genetic characteristic of the Hughes clan.  We would gather in my great-grandmother’s room, around the fireplace, and talk and laugh and cut up, and Papaw would sit in the corner and watch and listen and just smile.  He was at peace and everything was right with the world, because he had his whole family around him.  When I think of what heaven will be like, I can’t help but wonder if there won’t be a familiar taste of that spirit of love, joy and peace.

One more thing that comes to my mind at this time of year is the feeling that I had that one Christmas, mentioned earlier, out of my 52 Christmases, that I spent away from family and home.  I had just turned 21, I was over my head in a job that I was unprepared for, and I was thousands of miles from the familiar.  I went outside of town to a friend’s acreage and cut the top out of a fir tree, thinking that it would be a good Christmas tree.  It more closely resembled a Christmas shrub.  Charlie Brown had nothing on me.  When all was said and done, friends from church invited me over for Christmas dinner and I enjoyed the fellowship, but for the first time in my life I understood what so many others feel at this time of year who are alone at Christmas time.  The soldier off to war, the homeless on the street, the prodigal far from home, I got just a little taste of how they feel and I never have forgotten it.

These days, our Christmas traditions have changed a bit.  With Mom and Dad now living with us, Christmas comes to us.  We always go to my sister’s in Fayetteville for Christmas Eve, have dinner together and then go walk around the old town square, then we make our way home for Christmas morning and the family gathering Christmas afternoon. But it is really hard for me to wait to open presents, so I am always trying to figure out a way to convince Santa to come early but Shelley is a little bit more of a traditionalist (i.e. grown-up). 

I am thankful for the memories that still remain.  Instead of mourning the loss of those who are no longer with us, I relish the times that we shared.  Instead of regretting what is no more, I look to and long for that which one day will be again, when we gather around the throne in heaven and witness God’s contented smile and realize that no one will ever be alone for Christmas again.

Does God Like What I Like?

Okay, let's get it all out in the open. MUSIC IS A TOOL OF THE DEVIL!....Ummm, not all music of course, just the music that I don't like.  Because God and I have similar tastes in music and therefore, I know exactly what He likes and what He doesn't. 
Sounds pretty arrogant doesn't it?  But it also sounds pretty familiar.  Not just from those who would have us sing nothing that was written after the 1850's but from those who would gladly throw the hymnbook away and have us sing the same few words over and over again ad infinitum.
So now that I have properly offended everyone, let's take an honest look at this issue that the devil does use to divide God's church in so many cases.
First, let's acknowledge that our preferences are going to be different, so we need to have a starting point that we can all agree on.  I suggest that we start with Scripture, because God's Word has an answer for everything.
The issue of worship has been a conflict from the very beginning.  I have heard it said that the first murder took place over the issue of worship.  Cain slew Abel over an offering that wasn't acceptable to the Lord.  Our problem with this anaolgy is defining who is who, so we will leave that one alone.  Jesus told the woman at the well that God was looking for worshippers who would worship him in Spirit and in truth.  So our worship must involve both the Truth of the Word of God and a responsiveness to His Spirit.  This can be accomplished in a number of ways.  Paul spoke in two different epistles about this issue.  In Eph. 5:19, he invoked the need to speak to ourselves in "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord."  Each of those words described a different form of music, all present in their society, but each used for a specific purpose in their worship.  In this passage Paul emphasizes the use of these forms of music in personal devotion and private time with the Lord..  But in Col. 3:16, he uses the same descriptive terms while speaking of corporate worship.  He says "let the word of Christ dwell in you richly..." implying that one way for the message to be enriched in your heart and spirit is through music.  Then he broadens the application by saying "admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord."  We are to worship and sing together as a means of encouraging and edifying one another as we sing to the Lord with grace in our hearts.  Grace, now there's a concept that is not always seen in our discussions of this issue!
So these texts describe the use of varying types of music for God's glory, personal devotion, and corporate worship.  So what's the problem?  The problem is most often in our definitions of those terms, so let's talk about definitions.
What is spiritual music?  We most often want to define spiritual music by our own religious background and culture.  If that were true then that definition would be constantly changing and in constant contention.  Sadly, that is true, but I don't believe that God intended it to be that way.
Bear with me for a moment here and let me give you a scenario that is I believe is completely defensible from Scripture and is a reasonable approach to this issue. 
Eph. 5:19 talks about "making melody in your heart to the Lord." What if music is the language of our heart?  We know that it influences our heart, our feelings, our emotions.  We can see that Paul recognized the importance of music to worship, so why didn't he define his terms more specifically?  Could it be that God wants to hear us worship Him in the language of our heart?  African Christians will worship God in a different language.  Their music will also be different.  Asian Christians will worship God in their own language and to their on rythym and tempo.  We acknowledge this as natural and appropriate, why can't we see the same thing when it comes to the language of the heart between different generations in our own culture?
Music is ultimately a vehicle for the message. Even the most reverent of hymns can contain doctrinal error and be the tool of Satan to deceive and mislead.  Therefore, whatever the style of music, the key is to examine the truth of the lyrics in light of the Scriptures.
One argument made against Contemporary Christian music is the association in the hearts of many with the music of rebellion and worldliness of generations past.  It is important to understand that associations are personal, not universal and if we take this reasoning to it's logical conclusion, then we should all become Amish.  It is a similar argument to Paul's discussion of meats offered to idols.  He said that the meat was nothing, the idol was nothing, but if your heart condemns you, then you should abstain.  He did say that those who were stronger in the faith would recognize that distinction and shouldn't cause the weaker to stumble, so this issue is important.
Another issue is the use of instruments in our worship.  Many don't like guitars or drums being used in worship and I agree that these things sometimes overpower the message and distract from it, but we should be careful about associations once again, because the Scriptures are full of references to the instruments of praise used in worship by God's people and those instruments include a number of different instruments that strongly resemble the guitar and the drums.  Just look in your Concordance for the word "instruments" and then look up the definition of the names given in those passages.
And if the volume is your problem, then you need to read II Chron. 30:21.
So the Scriptures give us good reason to consider our opinions about worship to see if they line up with what God clearly says.
Let me bring this to a close with a couple of things to consider:
First, the issue here is not my preferences but our collective worship, so I need to remember a couple of things.  Spiritual maturity will result in patience, longsuffering, and deference to others.  All of us need to extend this grace to those around us as we worship together.
While some consider this issue the evidence of compromise and wandering from the true faith in modern churches, let me offer a different possibility.  Could it be that Satan knows how important music is in worship and that he has chosen to use it as a barrier between one generation and the next in an attempt to keep the Gospel from being passed down?  If this is even a remote possibility, shouldn't we consider it?  We would never say that we will share the Gospel with the world as soon as they learn our language.  Neither should we say, we will worship together with the next generation as soon as they agree to only do so in the language of the heart of our generation.
I believe that God hears, not the words, the beat, the tempo, and the volume, but the attitude of the heart whether we are singing Amazing Grace or the latest thing off the pen of Chris Tomlin. So come, let us worship the Lord together. Amen.

Cracked Pots

It amazes me, how God uses broken vessels to carry His Living Water.  It has been a while since I posted to this blog.  I could say that I've been busy, this has been an amazing summer filled with fruitful work and ministry. But in reality, I've just been distracted.  I've told people for a long time that God blesses me far beyond what I deserve, and that has become more real to me in these last few days.  At our Men's Retreat over the weekend, the Lord spoke to me and said, "Are you enjoying the blessings that I've been pouring out on your church?" He said, "Just imagine what I could do if you would just give me your whole heart, all of your attention, the full measure of your strength, and a single-minded focus."
The very first speaker quoted Ps. 19:12-14. It reminded me that my words, my thoughts, my actions, and the things that my heart meditates on are constantly in the sight of God and I need to be sure that they are acceptable to Him.
It is easy to let yourself think that the blessings of God are the result of your efforts, when in fact, I've learned that they are more often in spite of your shortcomings.  All God wants from us is a vessel that He can use.
I guess my challenge today is that we give ourselves fully to the Lord so that He has a little more to work with when He sets out to bless our lives and our church.  Because it truly is amazing how much Water He can haul, even in a cracked pot.

Lithuania - Day 4 - 17 More Set Free!

I apologize for not having any pictures tonight.  This has been a whirlwind of a day.  Up at 6:00, ummm, 6:10, ooookaayyyyy 6:20 AM so that we could pack up, load up, and head to the gym for our last day of Basketball Camp in Kaunas, three hours of basketball camp that included 17 more young people choosing to follow Christ, lunch at McDonald's(oh, by the way, ketchup costs .45 over here), a four and a half hour trip to Riga, an adventure at the airport, checking in for our flight and checking our bags, turning in the rental vans, and taking a taxi to our hotel. By the time we headed out from our hotel for the half mile walk to Riga's Old Town, it was almost 8 PM.  We decided to have one more good meal before we lift Riga, so we stopped in at T.G.I. Friday's.  After a great steak and a little dessert, we hit the shops for souvenirs and headed back to the hotel.  It is now 11:15 PM and the sun has just ducked below the horizon.  My laptop battery and my body's energy resources are both just about depleted, but I couldn't go to bed without sharing this last post.
God worked miracles today.  He intervened in a situation that could have thrown a stumbling block into the situation and turned it into a blessing.  He spoke to the hearts of the children and answered our direct prayers about a couple of the kids that we knew needed the Lord. Our young orphan Gades prayed to receive Christ and I am praying that God chooses to use him in a mighty way. 
One story that I must tell you.  Each day we wrote our names on a piece of duct tape and asked the kids to do the same so that we could communicate with them.  One of the younger orphans' name was Donates.  Yesterday as we were walking out of the gym, my name tag was hanging a little loose and he reached up and grabbed it.  This morning, when he arrived, he was wearing my name tag and made a point of showing it off to me.  He is probably no more than nine or ten.  He has such a sweet personality and I'm sure that the other boys make his life a living hell.  If I could, I would have brought him home with me.  When we asked them to pray and ask Jesus to be their Saviour, Donates was the first one to do so and the rest of the day, his smile lit up the entire room.  Before he left, he brought me a gift for all that we had done for them. 
Tomorrow we will leave Lativia.  While we were here, God used us to see 103 young people come to know him.  And although we will leave Latvia, Latvia will hold onto us for a long, long time.

Lithuania - Day 3 - Evangelical Christian Baptist Church

This morning, we had the chance to sleep in a little later because we didn't have to be at camp at 8:00 am.  Instead, we headed to the Kaunas Evangelical Christian Baptist Church at about 10:15.  They are the church that is hosting us this week.  They have worked very hard to get kids to come to the camp and we enjoyed worshipping with them this morning.  When we walked into the sanctuary on Friday night during our meeting, it struck me that our ministry's theme verse, John 14:6, was written in 12-inch letters on the front wall of their church.  I took it as a confirmation that god had brought us together.  The following video is my greeting to the church before I preached from John 14:1-6 during their morning worship service.

When I finished preaching, Joel and Gary led the church in a couple of worship songs.  They had sung a couple of hymns in Lithuanian before I preached, but they seemed to know the songs and sang along. Then the pastor came up and preached another short message and we had the offering, a couple of testimonies and we were finished.

After church we had lunch and then headed back to the gym for this afternoon's camp session.  We were up a little bit from yesterday.  We had a great time and it seemed that the kids were opening up to us a little more today.

I wanted to introduce one of our campers to you today.  I learned that the word for name is 'vardas,' so when I address one of the kids, I first ask , "Vardis?"  hoping that they will give me their name and that I can wrap my Oklahoma tongue around their Lithuanian letters.  This young man speaks pretty good English so when I asked him his name, he said, "Harry not Potter."  So I have continued to address him as Harry not Potter.  We have had a good laugh over it.

Each day, we do a few things that have nothing to do with basketball, just to build our relationship with the kids and to let them have a little fun.  In one of the games, Joel will take a 20 Litsas bill and hold it in front of one of the campers and ask them to hold their fingers half an inch apart.  When he releases it, if they can catch it between their fingers, its theirs.  It has been a real crowd pleaser.  So far only one boy has caught the money here.  The Latvian campers cost Joel a lot more money. :0)

After camp tonight, I went to the mall with the Hills and had dinner and did a little shopping.  The professional basketball team from Kaunas won the European Championships this year so there is memorabilia all over the mall.

Well tomorrow is our last day in Kaunas.  I miss you all and can't wait to see you, but there is one big thing that we need to do before we begin our journey home.  Tomorrow is the day of decision for the kids in our camp.  Please pray that the Spirit will have His way in their lives.  We can see the devil trying to get in the way.  It amazes me how that it is often those who already know the Lord that throw stumbling blocks into the path of those trying to win more to him.  Please pray that we will have an eager and willing translator who is prepared to see kids call on the name of Christ when we share the Gospel tomorrow.  See ya soon!

Lithuania - Day 2 -

Day two of our basketball camp in Lithuania was a little down in numbers, but it was Saturday and there were several conflicting things that we had to deal with.  The kids that were there enjoyed the camp and we got to give them the next portion of the Gospel, moving them toward a decision on Monday.  The excitement today came when the camp was over.  We quickly ate a couple of Hessburgers that our hosts brought to us at the gym and we loaded into the vans and headed to the Juvenile Prison on the other side of town.  This facility is a medium security style facility housing about 300 prisoners from 13 -18 years of age.  Their crimes range from car theft to murder and so we were aware that this was a little different than anything we had done up to this point. 
We arrived and they had us put our valuables, cell phones, and wallets in a locker, they took our passports and they let us through the gate, three at a time.  When we were all inside, it was a little ominous to hear that heavy door close behond us.  Hmmmm, I don't think I told anyone where I would be.  What if they won't let me out?
When we were in and had our balls and snacks ready, they let the first 49 kids into the gym.  Later we would have another group of almost 60.  They lined up against the wall and we introduced ourselves and played a couple of Minute2Winit games with them.

We then divided them into four groups and started our drills and teaching stations.  Three groups worked with the coaches on basketball skills while the other group came upstairs in the un-airconditioned gym so that Joel and I, with the help of our translator, Yurij, could share the Gospel with them.  We had just 12 minutes to tell them that there is a God who loves them and has a plan for their life, but unfortunately, our sin has created a barrier between us and God.  They were somewhat flippant about things until I said, "You are in this place because you have done wrong.  The wall outside is a barrier between you and the outside, just as sin is a barrier between you and God.  But because you are in here, you can understand what I am talking about much better than many who are on the outside.  They dare to say, 'I'm a pretty good person.'  But the Bible says that there are none righteous.  We are all sinners and there is a price for that sin."  When I got to this part of the story, each and every group quieted down and became very somber.  They listened attentively from that point on as I told them that Jesus had come as their substitute to take their punishment for them and if they would simply believe that He is who the Bible says that He is and believe in their hearts that God raised him from the grave like the Bible says He did, then they could pray and ask Him to forgive their sins, come into their heart, and be their Savior.

When we prayed with them, they were absolutely silent, and when we asked them to keep their heads bowed and to raise their hands if they had prayed and asked Jesus to save them, 51 of the over 100 inmates that we witnessed to raised their hand. 

As the last group of 9 was entering our area and taking their seats, the chaplain's wife took me aside and said, "In this group is their leader.  We must pray that God reaches him."  I asked her not to tell me which one he was until after we gave them the Gospel.  When we had finished sharing the Good News with them 5 of the 9 raised their hands that they had received Christ.  As we dismissed them to join the others, the chaplain's wife was bouncing off the walls with joy, muttering in Lithuanian and English, "Praise God! Praise God! Oh, Thank You, Lord!!!"  The young man recognized by all of the inmates as their leader had been the first in the group to raise his hand.  The others had their eyes closed so he did not influence them, but it was such an answer to prayer to see this young man come to Christ.  Later, as we prepared to leave, he presented Joel with a gift that the boys had made.  It was an amazing "God moment."



Our team with a few of the boys and the chaplain and his wife.

 We left the Prison knowing that almost half of the young men we dealt with today were set free from chains that bind them stronger than any prison cell ever could.

When we got back to the hotel, the Hill family and I decided to walk down to the Old Town area of Kaunas and get some supper.  We had some great pizza and then continued down the pedestrian mall among shops and restaurants.

It had a beautiful, European feel.  After spending the afternoon in the sweltering upstairs room engaged in spiritual warfare for the souls of those young men, it was refreshing to walk out in the open air and feel the freedom that God has given us.

Before we made it back to the hotel, it began to rain.  It was a slow, warm summer rain.  I found it to be rather romantic.  Unfortunately, the one that I would have liked to be walking with was 7,000 miles away.

Our trip is almost over.  It is hard to believe that we will only be here in Kaunas two more days.  I will be preaching tomorrow at the Evangelical Christian Baptist Church, then we will hurry to the gym for our camp.  On Monday, we will load everything up and check out of the hotel before the camp and then head out for Riga as soon as we are finished.  We will spend the night there and then board our plane on Tuesday morning for the journey home. Joel Hill and his son, Jordan, along with our media mogul, Justin, will make their way to Austria and Poland for two American Football camps in the next week or so.
Please pray earnestly for several things. First, for the young men that received Christ today.  They have a difficult road ahead of them.  Pray that the chaplain will minister to them effectively and they will grow in their walk with the Lord.  Second, pray for our campers, especially on Monday morning from 9 to Noon Lithuania time.  That is 1 to 4 AM in the states so I'm sure that God would answer your prayers if you prayed early. :0)  Pray that they will understand the Gospel and call on the Lord as well.  We hope to see one more great harvest of souls before we go home. Third, pray for us as we travel home and for the teams that will be going to Austria and Poland.  God is moving in a wonderful way.  Please keep praying.