Prayer for Father's Day 2008

Lord, Sunday is Father's Day. I praise You and thank You for the many blessing in my life. I know that no matter how disappointed or discouraged or tired I might get, I need to count my blessings.

• You gave Your own son Jesus to die a painful death like a common criminal to pay the price that had to be paid for my sin so that I could be with You for eternity.
  
• I am healthy enough to work outside in the yard for several hours in summer heat.
• My wife and children are also healthy.
  
• We have not been a victim of senseless violence.
• We have not had any horrible accidents.
  
• I have enough financial resources to provide all the true necessities of life plus several luxuries.

If it be Your will, I pray that You...

• Keep my faith strong.
• Make me responsive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit in my life. In particular, make me alert to anyone You put in my path for a reason. Tell me what to say or do that will help them come to accept Jesus into their life.
  
• Help me resist temptation to stray away from the straight and narrow road You have revealed to us in the Bible
• Give me a hunger for Your Word and for time spent in prayer with You.
• Show me how it is You would have me serve Your purposes in this life. Open those doors of opportunity and close all the other doors which would only distract me from Your purpose for my life.
  
• Bless me in my role as husband and help me be a blessing to my wife. Spread Your grace all around our home and remove all barriers which might come up between us. Give me joy in my marriage to her. Give her joy in her marriage to me. Prepare us for the time when all our children are grown and help us find new ways then to serve which fit Your plan.
  
• Bless me in my role as father and give me wisdom in family matters. Help me know when to step back and wait on You and Your timing.
  
• Bless my children thru me and help me set a Christian example for them. Put positive Christian friends, teachers, professors, coaches, ministers, youth workers, etc. in their path that will also be a blessing upon them. If it is Your plan that they should marry, I pray that You are this moment preparing a godly spouse for them that will love them always and be godly parents for any future grandchildren. Help each child also find their place of service to You and Your purposes.
  
• Bless me in my role as provider and help me take full advantage of every career opportunity which is part of Your provision for my family's financial needs. I pray that You guide me thru the changing economic times. Help me trust in You alone and not in my job title, credentials, salary, or 401k balance.
  
• Bless me in my role as employee and help me honor You in my work and show Your light in a dark world.
  
• Bless me in my new role as a manager and help me lead Your way and be a blessing to every person under me.

Lord, I also pray for similar blessings for all the other fathers on Father's Day. Help all of us be the Christian men, husbands, and fathers that You need us to be.

• There are probably millions of fathers struggling to provide basic necessities for their families that I take for granted. I pray You show them Your provision for their families.
  
• There are fathers grieving the loss of a wife or child. Show them Your comfort.
  
• There are fathers faced with career decisions which will affect both their ability to provide for their families financial needs and the time/energy they have to devote to their wives and children. Give them wisdom to balance the seemingly conflicting demands upon them. Help them be good stewards of their time and talents.
  
• There are husbands out there who just found out their wife has been unfaithful. Guide them as they must decide what to say and do next.
• There are husbands out there who have been unfaithful to their wives. Help them repent of their sin and live honorable lives from this day forward.
• There are fathers out there grieving over a son or daughter that has made horrible choices in life and are now suffering the consequences. Help them know Your will and comfort them.
• There are husbands and fathers who are being the spiritual leaders in their home that You intend. Supernaturally enable them to succeed.
• There are husbands who want to be the spiritual leaders in their home that You desire but there attempts have been rejected. Spread Your grace in their home, supernaturally enable them, and prepare the hearts of their families to hear and accept Your message.
  
• There are fathers out there that have let their children down. Lift them up and grow them into the fathers both You and their children need them to be. Help them also to live honorable lives from this day forward.
  
• There are fathers out there who are managers or business owners that have great influence on their employees and their families. Bless them as they honor You in the way they conduct their business.
• There are fathers out there spending their spare time with children and youth as coaches or Sunday School teachers. Lift them up so they are good examples of what it is to be a Christian man today.
  

God, bless all fathers on Father's Day

Amen

Copyright © 2008 by Philip Hartman - All Rights Reserved

Confessions of an Amateur Believer

Have you ever wondered if being a Christian meant you had to stop using your God-given brain and blindly follow something you didn’t understand without questioning? Have you come to consider thoughtful self examination of your beliefs something to be avoided? Think it is something you shouldn’t want to do? Is it somehow a sin to have doubts about matters of faith? Have I got a book recommendation for you! Check out Confessions of an Amateur Believer by Patty Kirk and see that you're not alone.

Patty Kirk gives us some revealing insight into her life from which we can all benefit. She grew up in the faith and had that beautiful child-like complete trust that there is indeed a God and that God is good. Then because of family problems and some traumatic experiences she came to leave the faith and doubt the existence of God. After years of persuing more and more education and life overseas, she came home and found her faith again. Even those of us who never left the faith of our childhood can still glean insight into the bumps in the road which may have driven our friends, family, or co-workers away from belief in God.

The book is basically a collection of essays about her doubts and how that God dealt with her doubts through the people around her and her experiences in life. Most of the time, a Bible verse (maybe even one she’d read many times before) struck a nerve. The Holy Spirit spoke to her and and put a bright spotlight on a particular passage and related it to some event or worry or hurt.

In one chapter entitled “On Barns” she tells of how the she and her husband have six barns on their farm in Oklahoma but they don’t really farm much any more. When beef prices fell in the 90’s he became a CPA and she became an English teacher. They were “barn rich and money poor.” While reading the parable in Luke 12 about the prosperous farmer who contemplates tearing down his barns to build bigger ones so he can store up enough to stop working and life the easy life, she took hard the fact that God chose that time to say “You fool! This very night you will die!” He hadn’t actually torn a barn down yet. He was making plans for his own future to be self sufficient without needing God anymore.

“I got to thinking about the fact that this rich guy hadn’t even carried out his plans yet when God told him he was about to die that very night. He was just thinking about it. And it occurred to me, suddenly, that this parable was not about storing wealth but about making plans and to-do lists, about living in the future tense instead of now.....

My barns, I got to thinking, are unpublished books, further academic degrees, things to write in future resumes or please for salary increases, courses yet to come, a clean house, a pretty yard, a place to rest. And my sin is not these things, many of which I already enjoy, but thinking about them, my secret yearning

for more job security and professional acclaim and some sort of future leisure in which to garden, read novels, and throw big dinner parties.

I have thought the rich guy’s thoughts....I work long hours, pour my energy and enthusiasm into my students and writing, and then snap at my husband and children when I get home and dream about a future in which this isn’t so.

Today I wish to consider the barns I am tearing down; my marriage, my two children, my faith in God to take care of my wants and desires. Jesus began his parable with a strange statement. He says: “The ground of certain rich man produced a good crop.” The story is about the certain rich man, his schemes and impending death, but the subject of the opening sentence is not the man but the ground – the land, the earth, the very dirt of which the man himself was made.....

Planning to build bigger barns is cherishing the future of our own creation rather than the good barns full of what we’ve already been given.”

She has this to say about the story in which Jesus is asleep in the back of the boat when a horrible storm comes up and the Disciples are terrified. They wake Jesus up as if to say “Why are you doing nothing to help us? We’re all going to drown!”

“Where is your faith?” He asked them, and suddenly I realized that shrieking to Jesus to help me and having faith that He would help take care of me were not the same thing. Faith, that elusive gift that I could not earn, did nevertheless require doing something, something very specific. I had to calm myself with the certainty that I was loved and would be taken care of. ‘Like a weaned child with its mother,’ I had to calm myself enough to let my Master sleep.

“Calm down,” I used to tell my little daughters when they were unreasonably upset or over tired. I reminded them that I was in charge but that I knew they had the power to calm themselves. I made them sit in my lap and take deep breaths. I stroked their hair. After a while, their tight little rebellious bodies would soften and lean into me.

Think of it! Jesus slept in that little boat while the dangerous storm raged. Giving my problems to Jesus is to let him sleep – and to sleep myself.

The Psalmist knew this: it is in vain that we ‘rise early and stay up late,’ he tells us in Psalms 127, “toiling for food to eat” – for the Lord “grants sleep to those he loves.”

There is a similarly wonderful chapter on that perpetual brunt of all kinds of jokes – the mother-in-law. Only this hits hard deep inside because it is based on scripture. Patty Kirk describes how she felt a sense of resentment against her mother-in-law despite all the free baby sitting, meals, and cars she let them buy from her at below market prices. She resented her because she wanted a more independent life for her and her husband and her mother-in-law’s constant “help” was a constant reminder of how interconnected they were.

“Eating a Mamaw’s meant surrendering one of my most precious retreats from the difficulties of life, my escape and solitude, my self-made and hard won identity as the provider of food for my family.”

Then she read the story of Naomi and Ruth with fresh eyes. Ruth’s words to Naomi:

Wherever you go, I shall go.
Wherever you live, I shall live.
Your people will be my people,
and your God will be my God, too.

Today regarding her mother-in-law:

“Hers is the fiber from which whole cloth is made, an inspiration for any would-be Ruth or striving Christian, a model of selfless love of herself, others, and life itself. As I get older and more sure of the choices Ihave made, for better or worse, I begin to see how one might come to cling to such a pillar in time of need. I already cling to her, in fact. More and more, when time is short and stressful, I seek her ease, her meals, her love for my children and attention to their demands.”

In the interest of full disclosure, I should point out that I received a free review copy of this book in the hopes that I would say something nice about the book. My first reaction was selfish I admit. I was glad that a real book marketing professional thought my humble blog would make good publicity for the book and that some of you might take my recommendation and pick up your own copy.

In hindsight, I must say that I was the one blessed in this process and I’m sure glad that I was given this opportunity because I’m not one to go to bookstores and pickup books from authors I’d never heard of before. But I have my own aspirations of writing a Christian book some day and I hope I can write something that will touch your soul down deep inside like this one touched me – and I exercised my God-given brain, too! I encourage you to go pick up your own copy of Confessions of an Amateur Believer by Patty Kirk.

Leaving the Comfort Zone to Experience God's Provision

Back in October I had a post Could This Be God's Provision? in which I described a quandary related to how I support my family. I was good at my work as a consultant designing software. Unlike most of my consultant co-workers, I actually had a local client and did not have to travel on business very much.

Then it happened. My boss' boss told me she wanted me to sell more consulting services vs. actually be the one to do the work. This began a couple of months of introspection about my career and God's provision. I was comfortable where I was and what I was doing. But was I too comfortable? In the last few years I have been trying to be alert to the leading of the Holy Spirit and I really wondered "Was I supposed to say 'yes' to this career change? Was there a reason this opportunity presented itself? Was this an accident? Is this a door of opportunity that has opened for a short time and I'm supposed to walk thru the door... without having to know the final outcome?"

In the previous post I told of several friends from church who found themselves no longer being able to remain employees and actually had to take a financial risk and make a leap of faith to buy out the boss and become business owners. I had every reason to believe they became closer to God and God's will in the process. I began comparing my situation to theirs and wondering if this was my time in life that God wanted me to get out of my comfort zone and take a leap of faith and trust in His provision.

Well... guess what happened?

Since October I talked to many different people. I made a point to talk to some self employed Christian men who had taken some risk in their work lives. I talked to trusted co-workers. I would say about 90% of the advise I got was to "go for it" (the change to marketing that is). I prayed for wisdom and discernment. I asked God to help me honor Him in whatever I was supposed to do as His provision for my family.

I work in a very matrixed organization so I have a lot of different managers and told them all I thought I wanted to make a switch to do more selling even if that meant I had to leave my comfortable, no-travel technical position. All were supportive. I had only one final phone call with the "big boss" who started the whole process by telling me to worry more about selling and less about delivery (doing it myself). I scheduled the call about two weeks in advance where I expected to give her my "Yes I'd like to do this. I'd like to change my job title. I'm willing to take on a sales quota."

Two days before my call, everything changed. I found out the very same boss who had told me to sell more only two months earlier had suggested my name to take a technical leadership role on a project with a major electronics company. I must admit my first reaction was that this was a very bad sign. She must have reconsidered and decided I couldn't sell.

Then I started to get more information. She didn't suggest my name to keep me from changing to a marketing post. She suggested my name to take a leadership position at one of her most important accounts. It turns out this client was not just any client but a client doing a huge amount of business with my employer. I wouldn't just be consulting. I would be working directly for an influential technology executive at this firm. I wouldn't just be working a couple of hours away from home. There was a very real possibility of a trip to China and Toronto, Canada. This "delivery" position had a huge amount of impact and visibility.

So now you know. I sought counsel from many Christian men I trusted. I prayed for discernment. I prayed for God to show me His will. I didn't switch job titles to go into marketing. I am genuinely excited about my new challenge and the many different people I will meet from many different cultures. I now look at the whole exercise about going into marketing to have been more about "am I willing to leave what is comfortable if that is what God wants me to do?" And.. I now leave Sunday morning for China. Ain't God good!

Copyright © 2007 by Philip Hartman - All Rights Reserved

I Closed My Business. Was I Correct in Discerning God's Will?

In the spring and early summer of 2005, I began wondering if God was asking me to take my interest in spiritual journaling and writing about my faith to a higher level. At the time, I was also very concerned about the impact of globalization on my career designing business software. I began to wonder if God was leading me to start a business "on the side" to both develop my spiritual gift of writing and provide for the financial needs of my family.

In July of 2005, I believed God wanted me to do it. I felt even if my business venture was not a financial success there must be something God wants me to learn from the process. My plan was to provide some inspirational material "for free" but also offer some Christian material available for sale as eBooks for a very nominal fee (eg. $2.95) and take payments using PayPal. I wasn't expecting to make a lot of money but I wasn't risking a lot of money either. I decided I'd rather try and fail than not try and wonder for the rest of my life whether I had missed out on serving God's purpose or missed out on some blessing He had in store for me.

I took a long lunch from work one day and drove down to the county clerk's office and for $20 took out a business license for Caleb's Publishing. The name is a reference to the Old Testament character Caleb who was one of the twelve spies Moses dispatch to scope out the promised land.
Here's what I wrote back then. (Click here for the original.)

About Caleb's Publishing™

Caleb's Publishing™ was founded by Philip Hartman in July 2005 as a "leap of faith." Like many men in their mid-40's I had achieved some success in my profession but began wondering if God had something else in mind. This then became a frequent topic in my prayer life for approximately 1.5 years. Along the way, I was introduced to the idea of combining a business with a personal ministry. I also began regularly keeping a spiritual journal and discovered I really enjoyed writing about matters of faith. What you see is the result of this spiritual journey so far. I don't know where this journey is going to take me, but that is part of the fun!

Incidentally, I highly recommend the book Halftime by Bob Buford to any man who is feeling the same way. Also, visit the halftime.org website.

I hope to serve the community by:

• Providing original and thought-provoking material to assist Sunday School teachers, small group discussion leaders, pastors, and anyone seeking a closer relationship with God
• Giving you the benefit of the many hours I have spent in research over the last several years reading various books, articles, and websites. If something was thought-provoking or convicted me, then I suspect it may have the same impact on you.
• Encouraging "regular Christians" who feel God may have chosen to use them for His purposes thru their gift of writing.
• Providing a wider, Internet audience for anyone who has a message or story to tell. I want to publish both unique Christian works and original secular works in fields such as history.

Where did the name of the company and website come from?

I devoted a lot of my spare time in the evenings over the coming months to creating a website, writing, editing some sermon materials I inherited from my father and grandfather, trying to figure out how to show up in search engines like Google, and more. I did learn a lot. I felt good about sharing my faith in this way. I was amazed to find from my website statistics that my little website got visitors from far away places like the UK, Australia, Canada, India, Finland, and more.

However, one thing I was not doing was making money. In hindsight, I have come to understand how much free Christian material is available over the Internet. (Like this blog.)

Without any real fanfare, I officially closed Caleb’s Publishing today as a business entity. The ISP still hasn’t shut the site down even though I never renewed the hosting contract.

Now I must wrestle with whether I was correct in how I discerned God’s will 1.5 years ago. Was he leading me to start the business as I thought? Does it even matter if I didn't make money (espcially if I didn't risk much money)? Was it vanity on my part? Was I right about developing my own writing but wrong about the publishing other people’s writing? Was God trying to teach me something that did not depend on whether the business made money? I guess I’ll never know for sure until I’m in heaven some day. For the moment, I'd like to think I did what He wanted. I took a chance for Him. I got out of my comfort zone. People on the other side of the world did read some of what I wrote. I might have had a positive impact.

God, have I learned the lesson about writing and publishing You wanted to teach me thru Caleb’s Publishing? Did I discern Your will correctly? If not, then I pray that You correct my ways and help me discern Your will properly. If I did, then I pray that You reveal to me what You would have me do to serve You next. Amen.

Copyright © 2006 by Philip Hartman - All Rights Reserved

Will Your Blog Be a Legacy to Future Generations?

We all have trials and tribulations in life. Like most of you I suspect, I have often wondered why God allows the bad things to happen to us. As I have matured in my faith I have tried to replace “God, why did you let this happen to me?” with something more like “God, what are you trying to teach me?” and when I’m feeling particularly strong “God, help me serve Your purposes in this rough time even if I don’t understand what that is right now.”

Back in October I was channel surfing and landed upon the History Channel and a show called 'Skeletons on the Sahara'. (Based on the book of the same name.) The show told the story of James Riley, the captain of the merchant ship Commerce which was ship wrecked off the western coast of Africa in 1815.

“In 1815, a Connecticut merchant ship runs aground off the west coast of Africa. Captured by Arab nomads, Captain James Riley and his crew are sold into brutal slavery and marched across the Sahara Desert, where skin boils, lips blacken and men shrivel to less than 90 pounds. Along the way the Americans will encounter everything that could possibly test them, but Riley and his men will also discover ancient cities, secret oases and a culture largely unknown to the modern world.”

I came into the documentary in the middle of the show but I saw a compelling story of how he and his desperate crew surrendered to Muslim desert dwellers who made them slaves. Captain Riley persuades his new slavemaster that he could make a healthy profit if he would only transport them safely to the nearest major city. There a wealthy American or English businessman or diplomat would buy their freedom back. Depending on your point of view this was either a huge gamble or a leap of faith. He had no way to know if this was really true but he staked his life on it. His master told him if it was not true, the slavemaster would slit his throat. When they arrived at their destination, the slavemaster required him to write a note in his own handwriting that he could give to the wealthy Englishman or American he found in the town. The note was full of prayerful references to God and the compassion of the reader.

The story has a happy ending. The Muslim slavemaster finds an English businessman who does indeed purchase the freedom of the Americans, by now only sunburned skeletons of men. Captain Riley made it home to his family.

I’m sure Captain Riley wondered “Why did God let this happen to me?” and his ordeal was certainly worse than anything that you or I are likely to face. What purpose might the suffering of James Riley and his crewman served? Could God have had a greater purpose that they knew nothing about?

You may have never heard of Captain Riley or his ordeal before, but let me give you the name of one person who did. You see Captain Riley wrote a book about his ordeal that was published in 1817. (Click here to see an historic reproduction.) According to one of the historians interviewed in the television documentary, Abraham Lincoln read the book and listed it as one of the most influential books in his life. The harsh description of how theses white men were treated as slaves in the Sahara is credited by some leading Abraham Lincoln to vigorously oppose the slavery of blacks in America.... and Abraham Lincoln was eventually elected President of the Unites States and served during the American Civil War.

Very few of us who try to honor God when things are not going well will eventually influence future Presidents. But.. you just never know. I offer this story also as encouragement to my fellow writers and bloggers. It is unlikely that Captain Riley would have influenced Abraham Lincoln if he had not taken the time to record his ordeal in his book. I hope and pray that the record of my Christian walk that I leave behind will have some positive effect long after my time on this earth is done. You have a story to tell too.

Copyright © 2006 by Philip Hartman - All Rights Reserved

Discernment ->Joy

DISCERNING AND ACTING on God's will does not mean you'll never have difficult days or feel lousy sometimes. But choosing to live in alignment with God makes you more joyful, compassionate, and peaceful, even on bad days.

Debra K. Farrington, Hearing with the Heart : A Gentle Guide to Discerning God's Will for Your Life

Are You Safer With the 11 Homeless Men?

I had a whirlwind experience the week before last in which I think God was trying to tell me something and prod me in the direction of ministry towards the homeless.

I am an adult Sunday School teacher at my church, rotating every third week. My spot in the rotation happened to fall on Sunday, January 1, 2006. About five days ahead of time, I decided that I had better get serious about preparing what I was going to say. I dug out the “Exploring the Bible” material we are using from Lifeway and began reading the teacher’s material. This week’s lesson was based on Romans 12:1-8. I was struck by the first verse:

Romans 12:1 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
A Living Sacrifice
1 Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you (A) to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, (B) holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. [a]

I found myself trying to think of what it meant to “present your bodies as a living sacrifice.” I came up with several angles to discuss including

• taking care of your body for it is the Temple of the Holy Spirit
• providing acts of service to serve God, and
• being physically present where and when God needs you to be.

After making a first pass through the material, I decided to take a diversion and go check my email. I didn’t have any personal email messages, but I did have an email newsletter from “Christianity Today Daily Newsletter-HTML” that caught my attention. The subject line read “Philip Yancey: What the Homeless Taught Me About Prayer – CTDirect”. Philip Yancey is the author of one of my favorite books, What’s So Amazing About Grace. Also, several members of my Sunday School class are active in the “Room at the Inn” program at my church in which we let homeless men sleep on our gym floor one night a week during the cold winter months. So... I decided to open the email and take a look.

There were several wonderful quotes in the article which lept out at me as being perfect examples of “providing acts of service” and “being physically present where and where God needs you to be.” Perhaps the most important one was this. Quoting a man named John who had 25 years of experience ministering to the homeless.

John said, "the best ministry I can offer is a long-term relationship. I hope that over the years and decades street people learn to trust me as someone who can handle their secrets. I hope that trust will gradually spill over to God. I tell people who encounter the homeless that eye contact and a listening ear may be more important than food or money or Bible verses. They need to connect in some small way with another human being, someone who sees them as a person of worth."

The article also quoted the experience of Mike Yankoski, a college student who took 5 months off from school to live on the street with the homeless and write the book Under the Overpass. According to Mike, a quarter of the homeless people he knows have an active Christian faith.

The article ended with a wonder short poem by Rainer Maria Rilke.

Make it so the poor are no longerdespised and thrown away.
Look at them standing about—like wildflowers, which have nowhere else to grow.

At this point I was excited that I had something new and not in the Lifeway book to interject into our Sunday School Class discussion on Sunday. I was to get more than I bargained for.

When Sunday, January 1st arrived and I got up to give my lesson on Romans 12:1-8 and facilitate discussion, I read a good portion of the Philip Yancey article. The article had the desired affect and really got some good discussion going. It just so happened that the leader of our “Room at the Inn” ministry was sitting on the back row. She spoke up and asked “Do you know the new thing we’re starting a new thing at “Room at the Inn” tonight? (emphasis on tonight) In fact, I didn’t know anything about it.

She went on to explain that our church had been selected to get the same group of 11 men for 6 weeks in a row who were part of a program called “Odyssey.” This program provides on-going mentoring, training, moral support, etc. to the homeless men and tries to get them off the street into regular jobs and housing. The work with them to get them off their addictions, how to behave in job interviews, skills like getting up everyday on time to get to work, encouragement to stick to jobs they do get (and not quit after two weeks), etc.

This was sounding more and more like “being physically present where and when God needs you to be” and I made a comment, only half joking, that “I guess I was supposed to get that email this week when I did.”

We went on then to talk about some of the other verses in Romans 12:1-8 that talked about “not being conformed to the world” but instead being “transformed by the renewing of your mind.” We talked also about how we as Christians should “not to think of himself more highly than he should think.” Both of these points seemed made to order for the homeless ministry. The homeless no doubt need to “renew their mind” by focusing on God and God’s plan for their lives and we in the church should not look down upon our Christian brothers on the street and judge them.

I read from the Lifeway material a quote that “The safest, most wonderful place in the world is in the will of God.” I turned to them and asked them. “What do you think of that? Is that really true?” There was a lot of head nodding. I then asked “Where are you safer? In the room with those 11 homeless men at Room in the Inn tonight? Or... at home tonight watching football?” I saw several sets of eyes in the class get bigger and we got into a good discussion of what it meant to be “safer” and how God’s view and a worldly view could be quite different.

After the lesson was over and we dismissed with prayer, the leader of our “Room at the Inn” ministry came up and asked me if I would be willing to come back tonight and give a shortened version of the lesson which included our discussion of our bodies as a sacrifice, the renewing of our mind, and not to think to highly of ourselves. I remembered my joke earlier, “I guess I was supposed to get that email this week when I did.” I decided that for whatever reason, God must have wanted me to be with the homeless men that night.

I returned to church that night about 6 PM. The men and the volunteers formed a circle on the gym floor, we said grace, and had dinner. When the men were about finished eating, I got up to give my “shortened version” of the lesson. This group of men had been together for a while in the Odyssey program. As a result, they were not shy at all about talking about their struggles and the influence of God in their lives. As many of them had started their downward spiral due to “running around with the wrong crowd” they had a lot to say about being “transformed vs. conformed” in particular.

Since we as a church were to get the same group of men back for the next several weeks, we went around the dinner table to give our names and to introduce ourselves. I was taken aback at how these men were almost eager to tell their story of their fall. Several made a point to take the blame for their situation on themselves for the poor choices they had made earlier in life. Most also expressed a level of belief in God. Many quoted scripture by memory. I silently accepted Mike Yankoski’s assessment that at least one fourth of the homeless have an active Christian faith as likely to be true and even more so for this Odyssey group in front of me.

Several of the homeless men’s comments resonated with me in particular.

• Several admitted to being alcoholics, with one saying he had been sober for 3 years now. The other homeless men seemed genuinely happy for him in this accomplishment.
  
• Several talked about drugs, especially cocaine.
  
• Some had been in jail.
  
• Several had good jobs and plenty of money before their fall.
  
• One didn’t know where one of his children was.
  
• There were bouts of depression.
  
• Several with multiple divorces.
  
• A couple who went into a downward spiral after a breakup with a wife or girlfriend they really loved.
  
• There were several health problems.
  
• Many cited coming from Christian homes.
  
• One talked about his sour attitude when faced with the prospects of switching from a huge amount of money selling drugs to making only $7 / hour in an honest job. (He talked of being in possession of drugs worth $165,000 on the street.)
• Some were veterans.
  
• A general inability to “stick to things”... for example, getting a job only to quit shortly later.
  
• The all seemed to realize they had squandered opportunities in life.

Each of the volunteers from our church also talked about ourselves. All of them but myself had been working with the homeless for a while and made a point to emphasize that while they may not have “done drugs” or “been in prison” we had our own sins and faults and needed God’s grace too.

A week later, I remembered that comment about “I guess I was supposed to get that email” and my question to my Sunday School class about “Where are you safer? In that room of 11 homeless men?” Some might wonder if I guilted myself into this. Or... was the Holy Spirit really prompting me to get more involved with these men and to be “physically present” and lend an ear “where and when” God needs me to be? I decided to err on the side of action and came back for a second week.

Most of the same men were back this time. After dinner, some volunteers went off into a quiet room to talk to any of the men who wanted to talk and get prayer requests. Not as many as I would have hoped came by. Some of them got distracted by taking a smoking break and shooting some basketball in the church gym. We did get a few who had a lot to say. We got the following prayer requests:

• Strength (to persevere).
  
• Submission (willingness to submit) to God.
  
• That the men would stick to the Odyssey program and finish what they started.
  
• To be able to go back to school and learn a trade.
  
• To be able to “stay the course”.
  
• To overcome selfishness in their life.
  
• Avoid binge drinking.
  
• Avoid binge spending of all their money.
  
• To be able to stick with a job.
  
• To better understand themselves.
  
• A tranquil mind.
  
• Eliminate worry about the future.
  
• One wanted to be able to return to Florida where he was from.
  
• Healing from depression and self pity.
  
• Avoid being financially irresponsible.

I hope you will join me in praying for this group of men trying to put their lives back together and get off the streets.

God, I pray that if it is Your will, You will bless these homeless men. Put a barrier around them to protect them from the Devil’s temptation. Put good influences around them to encourage them when they are tempted to go back to the life they want to leave. Use this group of homeless men who are sticking together in a mighty way make a positive difference in their lives. Heal them physically. Heal their broken relationships. Give them wisdom in the handling of their personal decisions and finances. Give them a peace that as they seek Your will they should not worry about the future. Give them the strength to endure trials and grow in the process. Grow their faith and help them to put Your will first in their lives and learn to submit to You. Above all, lead any of them who have not yet accepted Your Son Jesus as their Savior to seek You. Draw them all close to You. I pray also for all the volunteers who are ministering to them. Give us all the strength and wisdom and patience to help them. Use us to be a blessing to them. This we ask in Your name. Amen.

God, Make Me More Like Joseph

At this time of year when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, I want to remember the great example of Joseph as a husband to the Virgin Mary and as the earthly father to Jesus.

When Joseph got the news that Mary was pregnant (and he knew he wasn’t responsible), he could have ruined Mary’s life. Could he have had her stoned to death? Yet even before God let Joseph in on what was going on, Joseph had already resolved to divorce her quietly. Matthew 1:19 says:

19Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

Note that he was described as “righteous.” Also, in the male-dominated society of the day, this shows Joseph had a greater respect for women than was probably typical.

In the very next verse, we are told that God lets him in on the fact that Mary is pregnant by the Holy Spirit and that it is all part of God’s plan.

20But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[a] because he will save his people from their sins. 23"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"[a]—which means, "God with us."

What was Joseph’s reaction? Did he react cynically with a “yeah, right... she hasn’t been sleeping with another man... I wasn’t born yesterday.” Did he treat his vision as just a dream. A dream that could be safely ignored? Did stop to wonder what people would think? No! Joseph was obedient and quickly so. In Matthew 1:24

24When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.

Talk about a leap of faith! Would you have acted so boldly? Would I?

Joseph also had great commitment to God and great self control. The Bible tells us he took Mary as his wife but did not consummate his marriage to her until after Jesus was born. And in obedience to God’s instructions, he gave the Christ child the name Jesus. See Matthew 1:25

25But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

He knew the prophecies about Jesus’ virgin birth and he did not want to tarnish this part of God’s plan in any way.

Joseph was called upon to take quick action a little latter in life as well. In Matthew 2:13-14 we find that after the visit of the Magi:

13When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." 14So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt,

Did he worry about the affect of leaving town abruptly on his carpentry business? Did he argue that the timing isn’t good. Was he so deep in debt that he couldn’t give up his steady income? No! He knew what God wanted. He did not hesitate. He did not flinch. He got up right that moment and got out of town that very night. Disaster averted!

The same thing happened once again in Matthew 2:19-20.

19After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead."

So... Joseph continued to do his part in God’s great plan of salvation.

God, at this time of year when we celebrate the birth of Your Son Jesus, I pray that you will mold me and make me more into a man like Joseph. Help me make myself available to You to serve Your purposes. Lead me to know clearly Your will for my life and how You need me to serve You. Give me the courage and wisdom to obey promptly and not hesitate when You call me to do something. Give me the discipline I need so that I do not hinder anyone else from coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus. Amen.

Unceasing Anguish? Me?

I was reading in Romans 9 tonight and found myself feeling my commitment to spreading my faith inadequate.

Romans 9:1-5 (New International Version)

God's Sovereign Choice

1I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit— 2I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, 4the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised![a] Amen.

Notice how Paul describes how he feels about his fellow Jews and how they have not accepted Jesus. “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.” Paul’s statement made me question myself and my level of commitment. “What sense of urgency do I feel about spreading the Good News?”

I am not talking about a brute force approach and level of commitment. I am not talking about beating total strangers “over the head” with my faith. I believe that their salvation has very little to do with me, how “in their face”, or how competent I am at presenting the Gospel. I believe that true salvation is the work of the Holy Spirit drawing the person close to God.

That being said, how badly do I want the Holy Spirit to use me? How much energy do I expend in prayer asking for the Holy Spirit to work in the lives of the non-believers around me? How badly do I want to discern when the Holy Spirit is prompting me to say something, be somewhere, or do something which might help someone in their journey to come to accept Jesus?

It is just too easy to get too busy. Being available to the Holy Spirit can be inconvenient. Schedules can be unpredictable. And heaven forbid that the Holy Spirit might whisper in my ear “I want you to pack up your things and take your family to the other side of the world and become a missionary.” Am I committed enough to say “yes” when called upon? Well.. maybe a week-long mission trip instead.

God, help me make Your priorities my priorities. Use me in in a way that suits Your purposes. If You need me to make big changes and sacrifices, prepare my heart. Give me the faith I need to say “Yes” when You need me. Amen

The Christian Life is Not

The Christian life is not about our life being a succession of one happy day after another. It is not about our comfort or a low-stress lifestyle.

Instead, it is entirely possible that God may want us to leave our comfort zone and embark on a journey of faith. God may lead us towards something which seems impossible for us to accomplish on our own. Usually, that is the point! God, and not us, deserves the all the credit for what is happening. Perhaps He just wants to know whether we will really trust Him. Perhaps He will only reveal the path before us one step at a time. He may place us on a path where we can rarely see what lies over the next hill or around the next corner. At times it may seem like walking alone in the dark with a light that only illuminates the next footstep. But.. God is always right there with us.

The Christian life is not being well thought of by our neighbors.

Your neighbors may think you are narrow-minded. They may think you’re “not very smart” or “intolerant.” They may make fun of you behind your back. “Can you believe that guy? He actually believes that stuff!”

The Christian life is not our ticket to material success in career and life.

We cannot negotiate a contract with God. “Ok God, I agree to worship You and only You. In return, You God will provide me with an above average income and protect me from financial upheaval. Sounds like a fair bargain to me God. Is that a deal?” God is not a Las Vegas slot machine that gives us preference on winning the big jackpot. God rarely tells anyone the winning lottery ticket number ahead of time. Instead, He wants us to be willing to depend on Him for what we really need... not what we say we want.

The Christian life is not a way to banish the Devil and his temptation from our life.

In fact, the more we step out in faith to serve God, the more threatening the witness of our life becomes to the Devil. When we allow God to use us for His purposes, we attract the Devil’s attention. We are likely to get more temptation and difficulty than ever before. After all, the Devil doesn’t need not waste his time on us if we live our lives outside of God’s plan for us.

The Christian life is not a one-time event after which nothing more is required of us.

We should not act like we’ve gotten our ticket to heaven and then just wait around to die. God wants us to grow. God wants us to mature. He wants to have a continuous and on-going relationship with Him. He wants us to enjoy the time we spend with Him in prayer and Bible study. When prompted by the Holy Spirit, He wants us to be willing to step out in faith without having to know the final outcome ahead of time. He wants us to be willing to take chances to serve Him.

The Christian life is not about getting God’s blessing on our plans and the choices we’ve already made.

It is more about asking God to reveal what plans He has for us and asking that He equip us for those plans of His. It is more about being willing to alter our plans to align them with God’s plans. It is more about asking for His guidance so that we make our choices according to His will... and seeking His guidance prior to making the decision.

Copyright © 2005 by Philip Hartman - All Rights Reserved

The Sin of Being Too Busy

I got the following in an email today. I'm afraid I don't know who the original author is but as I read it I found myself thinking how true it must really be. I'm curious what you think.


Satan called a worldwide convention of demons.

In his opening address he said,

"We can't keep HUMANS from PRAYING."

"We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and
knowing the truth."

"We can't even keep them from forming an intimate
relationship with their savior."

"Once they gain that connection with GOD, our
power over them is broken."

"So let them go to their churches; let them have
their covered dish dinners, BUT steal their time, so
they don't have time to develop a relationship with
GOD.."

"This is what I want you to do," said the devil:

"Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior
and maintaining that vital connection throughout
their day!"

"How shall we do this?" his demons shouted.

"Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and
invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds,"
he answered.

"Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow,
borrow, borrow."

"Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and
the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours
a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles."

"Keep them from spending time with their children."

"As their families fragment, soon, their homes will
offer no escape from the pressures of work!"

"Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear
that still, small voice."

"Entice them to play the radio or cassette player
whenever they drive." To keep the TV, VCR, CDs and
their PCs going constantly in their home and see to
it that every store and restaurant in the world
plays non-biblical music constantly."

"This will jam their minds and break that union with
GOD."

"Fill the coffee tables with magazines and
newspapers."

"Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day."

"Invade their driving moments with billboards."

"Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order
catalogs, sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter
and promotional offering free products, services and
false hopes.."

"Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines and
TV so their husbands will believe that outward
beauty is what's important, and they'll become
dissatisfied with their wives. "

"Keep the wives too tired to love their husbands at
night."

"Give them headaches too! "

"If they don't give their husbands the love they
need, they will begin to look elsewhere."

"That will fragment their families quickly!"

"Give them Santa Claus to distract them from
teaching their children the real meaning of
Christmas."

"Give them an Easter bunny so they won't talk about
his resurrection and power over sin and death."

"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive."

"Have them return from their recreation exhausted."

"Keep them too busy to go out in nature and reflect
on God's creation. Send them to amusement parks,
sporting events, plays, concerts, and movies
instead."

"Keep them busy, busy, busy!"

"And when they meet for spiritual fellowship,
involve them in gossip and small talk so that they
leave with troubled consciences."

"Crowd their lives with so many good causes they
have no time to seek power from GOD."

"Soon they will be working in their own strength,
sacrificing their health and family for the good of
the cause."

"It will work!"

"It will work!"

It was quite a plan!

The demons went eagerly to their assignments causing
Christians everywhere to get busier and more rushed,
going here and there.

Having little time for their God or their families.

Having no time to tell others about the power of
Jesus to change lives.

I guess the question is, has the devil been
successful in his schemes?

You be the judge!!!!!

Does "BUSY" mean: B-eing U-nder S-atan's Y-oke?

Leaving Our Comfort Zone for Him

I think the quote below is a great illustration of how God wants us to grow, mature, and “stretch” as we trust more and more in the leadership of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

A saint’s life is in the hands of God as a bow and arrow in
the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the
saint cannot see; he stretches and strains, and every now
and again the saint says, “I cannot stand any more.”
But God does not heed; He goes on stretching until
His purpose is in sight, then He lets fly.
We are here for God’s designs, not for our own.

Oswald Chambers

My Purpose This Week? And Yours?

My Sunday School literature asked a really deep question as I was reading tonight, “What purpose does God have for you this week in your family, in your job, in your social relationships?” For some reason, this really struck a chord with me. There are so many possible answers. Here are some answers I thought of:

• God wants me to be a good example for my children this week.


• God wants me to love my wife unselfishly this week.


• God wants me to honor Him in the way that I do my job this week.


• God wants me to show Christian love and respect to my co-workers this week.


• God wants me to be a Christian friend this week.


• God wants me to allow a Christian friend to hold me accountable for the way I live my life this week.


• As they have given me permission, God wants me to hold my Christian friends accountable for their lives this week, too.


• God wants me to avoid temptations which draw me away from Him this week.


• God wants me to be a good steward of the financial blessings He has put in my care this week.


• God wants me to live below my means and return a portion of my financial blessings to Him and the Church this week.


• God wants me to give thanks to Him this week.


• God wants me to praise Him this week.


• God wants me to want to have an even closer relationship to Him this week and not just because I want Him to do me a favor.


• God wants me to live my life this week so it is a positive witness to anyone who might be paying attention.


• God wants me to pray that the Holy Spirit would lead me to someone whose heart has been prepared to hear about Jesus this week.


• God wants me to pray that I will be ready and willing to respond when the Holy Spirit prompts me to take action this week.


• God wants me to offer encouragement to someone who needs it this week.


• God wants me to forgive someone who has done me wrong this week.

I would love to hear some of your responses.

Who Moved My Cheese?

Here is one of my favorite quotes ever:

Many read the Bible the way a mouse tries to remove the cheese from a trap without getting caught. - Kierkegaard

To me this quote strikes us at our core beliefs with several penetrating questions:

• Do we really want to know God better?
• Do we really believe that the Bible is God's Word revealed to us?
• Do we accept that God has authority over us?
• If God tells us through the Bible we are wrong, are we willing to do something about it?

God, I pray that You will speak to me through Your Word in the Bible. Convict me where I ignore You. Build up my faith so I want to be closer to You and want to do Your will. Strengthen me as I make tough choices and make the changes You are calling me to make. Amen

Copyright © 2005 by Philip Hartman - All Rights Reserved