For those of us who are doing the 105 Bible reading plan (reading the whole Bible through in 105 days), we have been spending a lot of time reading the Psalms lately. It is certainly easier sledding than making your way through parts of Leviticus and Numbers! It also provides some powerful insight, some vivid background and “color” to the stories we read in the historical books of I Samuel through II Chronicles. It was the wonderful source of discussion in our small group study late night, as we read and discussed the relationship between the repeating human question of “How long?” and the repeated reassurance of his “steadfast love.”

Again this morning in my reading of the Psalms I was reminded of His love, His promises, and the futility of my worry. Strangely, there are times when I feel that I have the right to be worried and disturbed with what God is allowing in my life. Even more strange is the fact that at times I would rather childishly hold on to that worry in self pity than release it to His care. Thankfully, rather than a “slap along side the head” (which would be warranted at times) He just keeps speaking of His steadfast love until I release my worry and once again trust His care. God is good.

Hey…this Sunday…don’t forget…we have our ABF picnics after the Lord’s Supper. The plan for the morning service is fantastic. The temperature for the picnics is supposed to be in the low 80’s (not bad in the middle of our hottest summer ever)…just pray that the “scattered showers” are scattered somewhere else some other time! See you Sunday, Lord willing.

In Him,

P. Tim

Psalm 16:2, 5 “I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”…”The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.”

Out of a several Psalms I read this morning, these found a “front and center” place in my heart and mind. I’m not exactly sure why, but I suppose that it doesn’t really matter. The blessing or issue on my heart right now is the particular joy in seeing gradual, incremental “answers” or progress in matters of great, ongoing concern. The quick and immediate answers to prayer that come in connection to the many immediate kinds of needs that spring up from day to day are wonderful and refreshing for sure. However, we all have those deep, abiding, foundational, concerns or needs of the highest priority that we think about, worry about, and pray and pray and pray about…for years. These are issues that are fundamental it seems to life making sense, to our lives or ministries having true meaning. The answers to these life long prayers do not seem to be quick or immediate or instant, but gradual, ever so slow, step by step, little by little.

Today I am rejoicing in genuine answers, though little by little, to certain of my life long prayers. These answers are in matters that are deeply personal, so they will go unnamed, but they are deeply gratifying because they are clearly the work of God. They are undeniable testimonies to me of His love and power. Certainly my heart continues to crave, even to ache more answers, more progress in these concerns and certain others, but for now it is clearly time for me to stop and thank Him and praise Him for His powerful and personal kindness.

In Him,

P. Tim

There’s an old saying that goes something like, “A shared burden is half the burden. A shared joy is twice the joy.” Today, I’m going for the twice the joy part! First of all, after many months of spiritual growth and fearful consideration of “taking the plunge” in baptism, Tom and Josie Matty, who are a part of our Thursday night bible study, rather suddenly decided to go for it and get baptized last Sunday evening. It was a bit hurried and chaotic, but it all came together. What a joy to see new believers declare their faith in Christ alone. What a joy to see the undeniable and unmanufactured joy on their faces that came from the true joy in their hearts. It was great.

It has been a great joy this week to watch all that’s going on with VBS. A great number of you are personally involved in a great number of ways. The number of children coming has been a real blessing and watching the interaction between the children and the many volunteer workers, helpers, and teachers has been greatly encouraging. To this point things have gone quite well. The kids are having a great time and being influenced for Christ. Meeting the parents of many of our visitors has also been a great joy. I would like to sincerely thank all of you who are so invested in serving Christ in this way.

Lastly, I want to share an anticipated joy. In August, the Indiana part of our family is coming in for a visit. It’s always great to see them, but the anticipation is even higher since this will be the first opportunity that most of our family will have to see the newest member of our family, Isaiah Tamrat McDaniel. Marilyn and I got to meet him last February shortly after Joe and Sarah brought him home from Ethiopia. We haven’t seen him since, so we are all looking forward to the joy of getting everybody together again, even if it just for a short time and share some more joy.

See you Sunday, Lord willing.

In Him,

P. Tim

I was reminded this morning of a quote from an article that I came across almost 20 yrs. ago. I was sharing with a brother a foundational truth that God has been repeatedly teaching me over the years, at various times and at progressively deeper levels. The truth is that in order for me to learn to live more genuinely by faith, to truly grow in my relationship with Him and service to Him, God has to push me beyond my present ability to understand, to respond, or to handle my life. No matter how long I live or how much I grow, I will always need to be personally and powerfully reminded of my absolute weakness if I am going to trust and experience more of God’s amazing power and presence in my life.

This process of being reminded of my absolute powerlessness does not become more pleasant with age. It seems to take more and feel even worse. I mean being reminded that you are in fact powerless without Him is one thing when you 16, or 26, or even 36, but being vividly reminded of this when you’re 56 has been in fact even more disconcerting, more desperate, more humiliating, and ultimately even more glorious.

So, back to that quote…I had read an article in a magazine titled, “We’re in God’s Hand”. It chronicles the personal diary of an older couple, lost in a blizzard in the mountains, as they face their last days on earth. It begins with some measure of hope for a rescue and ends with glorious acceptance, even joy in their home-going 18 days after being trapped in their car in the storm. Two days into their ordeal the woman wrote, “We have no idea what lies ahead…so here we are, completely and utterly in God’s hand!! What better place to be!!!” On March 6^th she wrote, “This will be our seventh night here. The gas is all gone, so no more heat. We have eaten one little packet of jelly between us, Rolaids and Tic-Tacks. Quite a feast!” At the very end she wrote, “I can’t find the dome light—writing by glove compartment light. Dad went to the Lord at 7:30 this evening, March 18. It was so peaceful I didn’t even know he left. The last thing I heard him say was “Thank the Lord” I think I’ll be with him soon…So much to say and so little time. I can’t see. Bye. I love you.”

What a terrifying, humiliating, glorious, wonderful, and transforming place to be…in His hands. I know I always am and always will be, but God knows how often and how intensely I need to be reminded. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

See you Sunday, Lord willing.

In Him,

P. Tim

I’m sorry, but I did miss blogging last week and I don’t intend this to be become a habit, but I guess we’ll see. Right now I’m sitting in my room at Family Camp at Northland in northern Wisconsin in the middle of a week of preaching and teaching. I’m at the end of a travel “spurt”, where I’ve had the opportunity and obligation to do a bit of traveling and preaching. I don’t travel that often or that much, but a couple of times a year I do have some traveling to do, often for the seminary and other times just to help churches. These preaching trips have provided significant blessings to my life personally. Certainly sometimes they are long, hard, and exhausting, with little measurable benefit. However over the years, through these trips I have cultivated a few incredibly precious, significant, and edifying relationships that I treasure. These friendships have provided perspective, encouragement, instruction, refreshment, the “faithful wounds” of a friend, and “iron sharpening iron.” These times away also provide fresh opportunities to read, reflect, plan, dream, and on this trip in particular…get away with my wife.

I think most of us came into summer exhausted. I know I certainly did. However after a week of vacation and a little preaching on the road, I am feeling a bit “revived” and see/feel some wind filling my sails again. It’s good. It’s from God. I’m thankful. So, on Saturday, my wife and I are planning to fly home. Then, the Lord willing, we are planning to worship and fellowship with you on the Lord’s Day as we observe the Lord’s Supper. It will be a bit of a different Sunday as we as citizens of the United States remember the cause and cost of obtaining our political freedom, while giving first place to the cause and cost of the purchase of our spiritual freedom, our redemption through Christ’s greatest sacrifice on His cross. See you there, Lord willing.

In Him,

P. Tim

It seems that while the summer schedule does become a bit more “fluid”, it actually is just a full as the rest of the year. It’s not as predictable, but just as packed full of action. The Lord blessed our family last week with a wonderful week of vacation down in Ocean City. Sixteen of us packed into the house and had a great time together for the whole week. The weather cooperated. All of the grandkids had a great time together. As adults we ate a lot, talked a lot, chased kids, played a bunch of games, spent some time on the board walk, made many new pleasant memories, and otherwise had great fun together.

This next Sunday our teens leave for a missions trip to Thailand. They will be staying and ministering with Jim and Kathy Hayes, our veteran missionaries there. Please remember to pray for them as they go. It’s a trip full of great opportunities, but there has been some political unrest lately. So, I would encourage you to pray. I would also encourage all of our church family to join in or continue on in the 105 project this summer. It has been a great encouragement to hear of so many of you joining us in reading the whole Bible through in 105 days. If you didn’t start with us last week, don’t sweat it…just join in where we are in the schedule and finish the beginning sections you missed at the end…or make them up on the way. There is something transformational about spending extended times reading God’s Word for each individual who does it, but also for our church family as a whole. It isn’t easy, but it’s doable and really worth it.

See you Sunday, Lord willing. Remember it’s Father’s Day!

In Him,

P. Tim

Mark 6:31-32 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.

So, that’s the plan! We’re going to get of town for a week to refuel, refresh, rejuvenate, revive, re-whatever! The longest hall of the year in my pastoral life is January till June. It seems to pick up speed, allow little rest, demand more and more, and get fuller and fuller. So, even though I’m not a sea-shore kind of guy, I’ve been aching for our family Ocean City getaway. It’s a fantastic family time. My wife does a wonderful job organizing things. It’s more recreational than restful, but it’s lots of fun…and even though it’s action packed, the early mornings provide some very refreshing quiet times for coffee, the Word, and unhurried conversations with God. So, in case you haven’t picked up on it yet…I’m really looking forward to going.

Just a heads up kind of prayer request…after many years of doctor’s visits, treatments, medications, and delays, Mark Farnham is right now in surgery receiving the gift of a kidney from his brother in law. I spent the morning down at University of Pa. Hospital with their wives and other visitors. A part from normal delays in schedules, things are going very well. This is certainly and undeniably a specific and essential answer to prayer, for which we are all very grateful. Updates on Mark and Tom are being posted regularly on facebook…wherever that is! I have no idea.

Have a great day, a great week in the Lord!

In Him,

P. Tim

So, here we are looking at the start of another summer. Obviously, our view differs dramatically from when we were kids, when our view could be largely summed up in one word, fun, or its synonym…no school! Still, summer offers us a bit of hope for a change of pace, a bit of rest, and some long need extended time with our families. For most of us at least, it offers opportunity to do something different, something more, or something that’s been needing doing for some time. So, what are you planning on doing different or more or that it’s time to finally get around to doing? Plans are just that, plans. We don’t always get them completely done and rarely do they go exactly as we plan, but we still plan and should.

Let me encourage you to make specific, intentional plans to spend more time with your husband/wife in unhurried conversation. Let me encourage to make plans (not just plan on) creating some long needed opportunities for unhurried conversations with your children. Most importantly, let me encourage you to make personal, specific, and REAL plans to have more and more extended unhurried conversations with God. When we were kids fun wasn’t planned…it just happened, but now for fun, for rest, or for unhurried conversations to “happen” we must make specific plans, work those plans, and protect those plans from the many inevitable demands and obstacles that “stole them away” last summer and the summer before that.

A specific opportunity and challenge for this summer is to join your pastors and friends in the church wide challenge to read the whole Bible through in 105 days. This will take planning and commitment and 30-40 minutes a day, six days a week. This will give…extended time personally hearing God speak to you, wonderful occasions for us to share what He is showing us and doing in us through His Word, and certainly a life changing time of His powerful and personal influence in our lives. I’m looking forward to what it will do to me and what it will do to us. Hey, it’s a plan.

I’m really looking forward to our next study in Hebrews this week. I’m finding this portion of scripture uniquely clear and powerful in my life. I’m looking forward to our fellowship around our Savior. See you Sunday, Lord willing.

In Him,

P.Tim

So don’t faint, but this is twice in one week for me to blog! I was reminded this week by a colleague of the great benefit of getting “out of the building” from time to time to find uninterrupted time to study the Word in an undistracted way. I have often done it over the years, but lately I’ve been so absorbed into and by everything that I hadn’t done it for quite a while. So Tuesday morning, after an early bible study and prayer meeting I grabbed my stuff and found a place of quiet and coffee! Having focused on a few special themes in our services over the past few weeks, it was good to get back into my study of the book of Hebrews, actually it was great. It was greatly refreshing and invigorating to get so absorbed by the Word that I lost track of time. A part from an occasional break for coffee, I enjoyed 7 straight hours of study. Equally amazing is that while I have always hated “studying” in school, I have always loved studying His Word. I was powerfully reminded of a favorite verse on mine.

Psalm 119:162 I rejoice in your word like one who finds a great treasure.

So, I quickly made it a point to work through my schedule over the next several weeks to be sure to intentionally schedule more of the “off site” or “out of the building” seasons of study. I’m really looking forward to them! I’m really looking forward to worshiping together this coming Sunday. Obviously I’m a bit “pumped” about beginning our study of chapter 12! See you there, Lord willing.

In Him,

P. Tim

Deuteronomy 33:26-29 “There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the heavens to your help, through the skies in his majesty. The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And he thrust out the enemy before you and said, Destroy. So Israel lived in safety, Jacob lived alone, in a land of grain and wine, whose heavens drop down dew. Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD, the shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph! Your enemies shall come fawning to you, and you shall tread upon their backs.”

With all of the ups and downs, promises and predictions, optimists and pessimists, and conflicting forecasts for just about everything, it genuinely refreshed my soul to read these verses early Sunday morning at the start of my day. Certainly Moses knew more of these ups and downs than I have or ever will. What a grand reassurance of God’s presence and power in our day to day lives. This wonderful encouragement was followed up today as early this morning I was reading Joshua 1-6.

Joshua 1:5-7, 9 “…Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go…Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

One last passage for the day, Psalm 150:1-6 “Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!”…for those who were wondering about that tambourine thing Sunday morning!

In Him,

P. Tim