Well, the weather has gotten cooler, Praise the Lord. These clear and crisp mornings are a particular delight to me. School has started here at Calvary with a fresh wave of enthusiasm as our returning students mix with the many new students. The growing “international” flavor of our school is very encouraging as we have opportunity to minister to people we had thought were virtually impossible for us to reach. Awana has started again with eager young people ready for another year. TYC, teen youth chapel, started up again last night with 130 teens and a great group of adult leaders. It’s great to see so many young people be enthusiastic about fellowship, worship, Bible study, prayer, and of course fun, games, and food. Seminary is up and running with a good number of new students. The blend of young and not so young, new and returning, married and single students is really a great thing for us.

So, we’re off and running! God is good. Life is hard. Opportunity abounds. Obstacles persist. He is building His church. He is giving strength for each day. He is coming soon!

1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

See you Sunday, Lord willing.

In Him,

P. Tim

While anticipating that the weather will sometime soon begin to cool down because of the change of seasons (I can’t wait!), for the same reason the political debate is certainly heating up. It certainly is going to get hotter and louder, with a flood of talking and a drought of listening! As committed followers of Christ whose values and directions are set by God for us in His unchanging Word, there is much to alarm us and some things that encourage us. We certainly should be listening, praying, and voting this election year. I thought this would be a good time to remind us all of a few powerful texts from scripture that should influence our thoughts and actions.

Daniel 4:31-32
³¹ While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, ³² and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.”

Matthew 22:19-21
¹⁹ Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. ²⁰ And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” ²¹ They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Romans 13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

1 Timothy 2:1-4 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, ² for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. ³ This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, ⁴ who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Hebrews 11:13-16
¹³ These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. ¹⁴ For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. ¹⁵ If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶ But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

Something to think about over this Labor Day weekend! See you Sunday, Lord willing. Remember we are observing the Lord’s Supper together and having a “Project Acts” afternoon fellowship!

In Him,

P. Tim

I for one am a person who really looks forward to the Fall. Clearly, it is my favorite time of the year both personally and “professionally”. Personally, I love the cooler weather, I love the changing of the leaves, and of course I love to pursue the most important unimportant thing in my life, deer hunting. As your pastor, the Fall brings us all back from many of our summer’s wanderings to and fro, trips, vacations, and all. It allows us to focus on the year ahead. It gets us back on track, moving forward together in His service, for His glory. I’m really looking forward to it!

One exciting challenge for me, for us this fall is a series of Sunday morning messages on “What is truth?” (exciting, but a bit intimidating for me). Having finished our study of Hebrews and having committed a great deal of thought and prayer to the issue, I believe God would have me do a series of messages that focuses our attention on what the Bible actually says about the several current issues confronting our church and our society. Here a few topics we may address…

1. Eternal destinies: Is there really a literal hell? What is heaven really like?
2. When does life begin…and end?
3. What does the Bible say about same sex marriage?
4. How “green” is God?
5. Why is there so much suffering the in the world?
6. What does God think about the “N” word?
7. What should we be doing about poverty?
8. What does the bible say about wealth?

So, if you have any suggestions as to questions we should address, let me know and I will certainly take them into consideration. You can drop me an email, a note, a comment in church, or through the church’s facebook or twitter. Well, see you in church, Lord willing.

In Him,

P. Tim

So right now while I am (we are) right in the middle of the church and seminary budget process, the opening of the new seminary year, final preparations for the 2010/2011 school year, and ramping up for all ministries for this Fall and Winter, much to my delight, I am also in the middle of a visit from Joe and Sarah with our five Hoosier grandkids! So for a while we have the grand privilege of having all of our children and grandchildren around for a short, sweet, fun, loud, gloriously chaotic, priceless time. It has been great, absolutely great. It’s great to see each one and great to see the whole crew laughing, playing, eating, and joking around together. So this is me praising God in front of all of you for His great kindness to Marilyn and to me!

As a church family, we will end our summer and begin our Fall season with our next Fellowship Sunday on September 4^th. As we observe the Lord’s Supper together that morning, the focus on the worship will certainly be remembering Christ. Our special emphasis for the day will be having all of us, as a church family, help our children to appreciate, understand, and participate in the Lord’s supper in a real, personal, and understanding way. Pastor Frank, along with the pastoral team and music and media team, has been prayerfully and intentionally planning a service that won’t be a service just for kids, but will be a service where we intentionally teach our children the what, why, and how of the Lord’s Supper. You won’t want to miss this.

That afternoon, we are planning to kick off Project Acts for the Fall, by beginning our collection of “extra possessions” that we all have laying around so that they can be sold in our Project Acts sale. As you know the proceeds will go to help the families in our church and community who remain in great need, particularly because of the ongoing unemployment crisis. We’ll give you more information on this as we get a bit closer.

Well…see you Sunday, Lord willing.

In Him,

P. Tim

I was asked to lead a Bible study the other night on the text Proverbs 13:12, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” We had a great time together wrestling with what the Bibles teaches about disappointment, its causes and effects on our lives. Certainly the first part of the verse is sobering, serious, and is a present reality in all of our hearts and lives. While God has done many great things for us and while He has answered many prayers, there are some, often one particular hope, expectation, and prayer that remain unfulfilled, unrealized. This is certainly true in my life.

Today, however, I would like to focus on the second part of the verse, “desire fulfilled.” I would like to take this opportunity today to thank God for so many answers to prayer, so many gifts of His grace. So, to name a few…it has been a great joy to see two men and two ladies from our Bible study get baptized this summer, along with several others. It was a joy to see the first couple who got saved, baptized, joined church, grew in Christ, fell in love, and got married in our Bible study have their first child just last week. There have been a few significant personal, family type answers to prayer this summer. They are precious and encouraging. Lord willing, this next week, another answer to prayer, Isaiah Tamrat McDaniel, our grandson adopted by Joe and Sarah from Ethiopia, will be here with his whole new family to visit and meet many of his cousins, aunts and uncles for the first time…”a desired fulfilled is a tree of life.”

See you Sunday, Lord willing.

In Him,

P. Tim

Last night my wife sent me an email (so that I would get it here in my office this morning) with a link to youtube and this song. In the middle of reading this morning, I remembered she told me she had sent it, so I went looking for it. I found it, listened to it, and was blessed and encouraged by it. So, I thought I should share the song with you. I’m not sending you the link, but I’m sure if you’re reading my blog you are astute enough to find it on youtube yourself. The words are simple, clear, honest, moving, and spiritually “clarifying”, clearing the clutter of our minds. I am encouraged by Marilyn’s love for me. I am encouraged by His love for me. I deserve neither. I cherish both.

Grace Words and Music by Laura Story

Verse 1: My heart is so proud. My mind is so unfocused. I see the things You do through me as great things I have done. And now You gently break me, Then lovingly You take me And hold me as my Father and mold me as my Maker.

Chorus: I ask You: “How many times will You pick me up, When I keep on letting You down? And each time I will fall short of Your glory, How far will forgiveness abound?” And You answer: “My child, I love you. And as long as you’re seeking My face, You’ll walk in the power of My daily sufficient grace.”

Verse 2: At times I may grow weak and feel a bit discouraged, Knowing that someone, somewhere Could do a better job. For who am I to serve You? I know I don’t deserve You. And that’s the part that burns in my heart and keeps me hanging on.

Bridge: Patient with me, Lord.

Verse 3: As I work with You, I’m learning what Your grace really means. The price that I could never pay was paid at Calvary. So, instead of trying to repay You, I’m learning to simply obey You By giving up my life to You For all that You’ve given to me.

See you Sunday, Lord willing. I’m really looking forward to our fellowship, to the preaching of God’s Word, to offering up together our sacrifice of praise, to rejoicing with new believers getting baptized, and just seeing what great things God is doing.

In Him,

P. Tim

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