Unleashed: As You Go – Pray

“Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. 2 Timothy 1:4-5

Three generations of believers making a difference; a godly grandmother, a loving mother, and a young man. Grandmother Lois and Mother Eunice poured into young Timothy’s spiritual life strengthening his walk with God. Timothy would become a close companion of Paul and a leader of the growing church. The influence of parents and grandparents can never be underestimated on the generations to follow.

A West Virginian grandmother felt a similar burden to publicly acknowledge the role of grandparents in the next generation. Marian Lucille Herndon McQuade became passionate about honoring seniors as she spent time with residents in nursing homes. Realizing the importance and impact on families, she began a campaign to establish Grandparents Day eventually witnessing President Jimmy Carter sign the proclamation on Aug 3, 1978. Part of the proclamation stated:

“Each American family is similarly shaped and guided by its forbears. Just as a nation learns and is strengthened by its history, so a family learns and is strengthened by its understanding of preceding generations. As Americans live longer, more and more families are enriched by their shared experiences with grandparents and great-grandparents.”

Mrs. McQuade, President Carter, and all grandparents fully understand the importance of providing a godly influence on the next generation. Some of the greatest societal impact you can have is praying, teaching, and modeling a Christ-centered life on the next generation. We can encourage our children and grandchildren as Paul did with these words; “For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:6-7

I am thankful that the first Sunday after Labor Day is officially designated Grandparents Day. However, it is the other 364 days of the year that will truly impact our children and children’s children to walk faithfully and steady for God. I find it hard to believe that I am old enough to be in the category of being a grandparent, yet I am. It is my prayer that I may influence my grandchildren through the same manner of godly influence that Lois and Eunice had on their Timothy.

I never knew my paternal grandparents, and my maternal grandfather only briefly, but I was blessed to have many years with my maternal grandmother. She was a woman of practical wisdom who made a difference in my life.

Together let us pray for our children, grandchildren and young children everywhere to walk in “a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.”  On Grandparents Day I shared this prayer for my grandchildren:

Father, you have greatly blessed me as a father and now as a grandfather. I pray Lord for my grandchildren today that You would: –

Grant them tender hearts that seek You daily and are always open to know You.

Grant them discernment in an age of confusion, distortion and lies.

Grant them eyes to see a person’s heart first and not the color of skin, nationality, material things nor anything external.

Grant them ears to listen before their mouths speak.

Grant them a country to live in that doesn’t make you a motto, but a nation that places you first.

Grant them a passion to touch their world for You.

Grant them a tender soul that never grows hard or bitter because of the evil they see in this world.

Grant them courage when they must face difficulty, suffering or pain.

Grant them wisdom to use their skills, abilities and knowledge for Your glory.

Grant them joy that flows from being with You and use them to encourage others.

Grant them perseverance to run the race You have set before them.

Though they will lose the innocence of childhood, may they always look at life with faith, hope and love.

I know I can’t make their world easy, solve their problems or protect them forever, but I know I can pray for them.

Amen

God is great,

Pastor Lynn

Unleashed: As You Go – Pray

Unleashed – As You Go – Pray

“By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” Hebrews 11:8

Dozens of cars hoping to find a quicker route around a crash in Denver last year found themselves in a muddy field, hopelessly stuck because they followed their GPS. After Google Maps suggested an alternative route that would take them off the interstate to bypass the crash. One lady, when interviewed, said, “My thought was, “Well there are all these cars in front of me so it must be OK. So, I just continued.” Upon seeing the road ahead quickly turn into a slick, muddy mess she explained, “That’s when I thought, ‘Oh this was a bad decision.’” There was no turning back once they were in the mud.

I had a similar situation in Kenya, but with a different outcome. Our family was going to attend a worship service in one of the Maasai villages outside of Nairobi.  I knew the road out to the church would be difficult if not dangerous. The difference was that I was following a person who had made the trip hundreds of times. He knew every turn, pothole and ditch going out to the village. It is amazing the difference when you are following someone who knows the way as it allows you to get to your destination.

The same scenario could be said of a lot of people spiritually. It is so often a struggle to decide the right way to go when in fact if I keep my eyes on Jesus, the way forward is less important than the destination. However, I have come to know that if I take my eyes off Jesus, what looks like the smoothest, most direct path of life ends up to be a treacherous road.

Staying focused on Jesus allows us to weather the storms of our lives. You may think that the best way forward may look great but you quickly realize it is the most dangerous way since you are following the wrong direction. As we wrap up another summer season that has been anything but usual, we may feel a little like the drivers in Denver, stuck in the mud.

Unfortunately, millions are out of work because of the pandemic, thousands of shops and business have closed their doors. The anxiety and stress of these days pour out onto the streets of our nation’s cities. Politics is dirtier than ever. Our churches have had to re-imagine how best to minister to people. Our schools have struggled to find new ways to educate our children.

Yet our hope is not in the ugly events of the day, but in Jesus. The road may be filled with obstacles but in Jesus we have a shepherd who guards his flock, a friend who understands our needs, and a Savior who has given us life.

Oswald Chambers, in one of his devotional thoughts, said, “A river is victoriously persistent, it overcomes all barriers. For a while it goes steadily on its course, then it comes to an obstacle and for a while it is balked, but it soon makes a pathway round the obstacle. Or a river will drop out of sight for miles, and presently emerge again broader and grander than ever. You can see God using some lives, but into your life an obstacle has come and you do not seem to be of any use. Keep paying attention to the Source, and God will either take you round the obstacle or remove it. The river of the Spirit of God overcomes all obstacles. Never get your eyes on the obstacle or on the difficult. The obstacle is a matter of indifference to the river, which will flow steadily through you if you remember to keep right at the Source. Never allow anything to come between yourself and Jesus Christ, no emotion, or experience; nothing must keep you from the one great sovereign Source.”

The traffic anchor for KMGH Denver said of the GPS induced wrong turn, “You are driving. Google Maps is not driving. Google Maps is not perfect. You need to know where you are going and, if it does not look like that’s where you should be going, turn around and try again.”

Good advice for drivers, but also a good reminder for us spiritually. The world has much to say about which road to take but turn around because it will take you where you don’t want to go. The way Jesus leads will bring us home safely.

God is great,

Pastor Lynn

 

Unleashed: As You Go – Pray

Unleashed – As You Go – Pray

“The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.” Revelation 1:13-14

This summer has been filled with lots of interesting events. Among them have been the push to remove paintings and statues dating back centuries of the “white” Jesus. Unfortunately, the movement doesn’t have anything to do with being Biblically correct, it has all to do with the new “cancel culture” movement sweeping our nation.

Thankfully Jesus chose a time in history when his disciples couldn’t pull out their iPhones and snap a selfie with him. The Bible doesn’t say a lot about Jesus’ physical description. A very powerful description of Jesus is found in Revelation 1:13-14 written by his good friend John, but equally powerful is John’s follow up description of Jesus. “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” Revelation 1:17-18

We now live in a very ego-centric age that is totally self-absorbed with ourselves. We have at our finger -tips information about anything and everyone. We have access to more books, more pictures, more video clips than all the combined generations who lived before us. We are information statured but drowning in self-righteous indignation of the past. It does cause me to wonder how I would have depicted Jesus if I had been an artist living in a by-gone age without access to the internet, TV or modern printing capabilities; if I lived without the rich interrelationship of other cultures, ethic groups and languages; if I had never left my home town. Yet I wanted to share with my little world a reflection of the One I loved deeply, the one who had given me life. What would my Jesus look like on canvas? Somehow the finished piece would probably resemble the people in my world.

Connie and I have a fairly extensive collection of nativity sets from around the world. They are sets collected from the Maasai, Kikuyu, Shona, Tswana, Thai, European, Chilean, Peruvian, and countless other people groups. A most interesting feature common to each of them is that they picture Jesus looking just like them. As I take each set and unwrap each piece at Christmas I never get tired of marveling at the beauty and variety of the cultures of the world that call Jesus their Savior.

Billy Graham once shared a story from Cecil B. De Mille, a movie producer from an earlier era. Graham wrote that “Cecil B. DeMille once told me that his picture “The King of Kings” made during the silent-movie era, was seen by an estimated 800,000,000 people. I asked him why he did not reproduce “The King of Kings” with sound and color. He replied, “I will never be able to do it, because if I gave Jesus a southern accent, the northerners would not think of him as their Christ. If I gave him a foreign accent, the Americans and the British would not think of him as their Christ.” He said, “As it is, people of all nations, from every race, creed, clan, can accept him as their Christ.”

The writers of scripture didn’t concern themselves describing the physical qualities of Jesus, they solely focused on his character, his nature, his message to mankind. The problem comes when we expect every Jesus to look like us instead of us looking like Jesus.

We look like Jesus when we wash the feet of others who are struggling, broken and defeated.

We look like Jesus when we bring peace into the midst of conflict.

We look like Jesus when we take a loaf of bread to our neighbor.

We look like Jesus when we care for the sick and offer comfort to the dying.

We look like Jesus when we tuck our children into bed at night.

We look like Jesus when we share the love of Jesus with a lost world.

We look most like Jesus when we let Jesus take the brush from our hands, and he paints the picture of what He looks like for the world to see. A portrait where “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)

God is great,
Pastor Lynn Burton