Private Prayer Retreat

As promised, here is a brief report on my 12th annual private prayer retreat. This year I went to a wonderful little place called "Pilgrims Rest." This private retreat facility is located about 20 miles south of Alvin and is provided free of charge by radio station KJIC. If you are interested in learning more about Pilgrims Rest click here. The accommodations are simple but not Spartan. The general manager lives next door to the radio station which is less than a 1/8 of a mile walk from Pilgrims Rest. Even though they were nearby everyone respected my solitude.


As I do every year I prayed through the church directory again praying the intercessory prayers of the New Testament letters over every family. I also prayed for each of the 80 or so prayer requests every day while away. I always feels a close fellowship connection with the Clear Lake Church as I read the sometimes funny, sometimes very personal, sometimes heart rending comments that are written on the prayer requests cards. It impresses me how many people desire to grow spiritually to be a stronger leader for their family or want strength to overcome some temptation that is threatening to overcome them. As I pray through the directory and through the prayer cards I often feel like Epaphras who was described by Paul as, "always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured" (Colossians 4:12). I deeply appreciate those who prayed for me while I was gone and was constantly reminded of that fact by several of you who wrote on your prayer cards that you would do so.

I also worked through a number of the Contemplative Prayer exercises we learned at our church prayer retreats last years. Finally, the highlight of my retreat this year was to read through my many journals and pray through my life. I've always been rather reflective by nature and nearing the half century mark has made me more so. I told God that I wanted to review my life with him looking for perspective for what needs to happen next. That was a wonderful journey and God and I remembered the heights and depths, deserts and gardens of my life. The one constant has always been God's presence. Whether I was in the pits of depression relating to Psalm 88 or on the mountains of praise singing the Hallel Psalms (113-118) God has been with me whether I recognized him or not.

Several years ago I wrote a paper encouraging ministers to take a prayer retreat. Several non-minister types read the paper and found it beneficial. If you would like to read this paper it is posted on our church web site and is entitled, "A Minister's Private Prayer Retreat."

David Rocks and Goliath Rolls

After the sermon today a young man approached me with two questions. The questions were not about the sermon I had just presented but about sermons in general. Both questions were reflective in nature so I will present them here with some of my thoughts.

Question #1 - What do you hope will be accomplished through your sermons?
Every sermon has a specific objective but these fit into an overall desire for my preaching. My desire is that my sermons would help people to know God better. God's greatest revelation of himself has been made through Jesus, so I want to lean heavily on that revelation, but God has revealed himself in others ways as well (such as the Old Testament). When people walk away from any sermon I hope that the message will resonate within them all week. I consider it a great compliment when someone says to me, "I've been thinking all week about what you said Sunday."

Question #2 - What do you listen for in sermons?
Unfortunately, I must be honest that for years I was a terrible sermon listener. I'm ashamed to admit that while listening to others I would often be thinking about how I might preach that particular message. That kind of thinking came out my own insecurity and arrogance. Thankfully, God has sufficiently humbled me so that I now listen to the sermons of others with a much more profitable attitude of mind. When I have the opportunity to hear others preach what I listen for is a word from God. That word might be found in the scriptures being read or expounded upon. I might hear a word from God in a particular illustration, or even in an off the cuff comment the speaker makes. The question I try to answer is, "What is God saying through this message?" If I can find that answer I have something to ponder and hopefully to use to help me grow in my knowledge of the Almighty.

God Doesn't Choose Sides

Today's sermon left me with a lot of unanswered questions. Accepting the fact that God doesn't choose sides but calls us to join Him seems a relevant application of Joshua's conversation with the angel (Joshua 5:13-15). But wrestling with exactly what that means in everyday life is troubling to me.

Should I protest the abortion clinic, strip club, or pornographic movie theater? Or, should I seek to build a relationship with the owners to understand them better and hopefully communicate the gospel? Or, should I simply help people in general come to know the Lord and grow spiritually believing that the only sure way to change culture is for there to be a radical revival that is orchestrated by the Holy Spirit?

How active should I be in the political process? Does concern for changing abortion laws really trump concern for the poor and needy? Is saving the environment better than saving jobs? I no longer believe the naive assumption that one political party stands for righteousness and the other for moral debauchery. It's much more complicated than that, and if it's true that God doesn't choose sides, then Christians have a much more difficult job than simply joining one side or the other and thinking God is for them.

I honestly believe the only hope we have in following God is to truly humble ourselves before him. It has been my experience that when I do this he leads me to people and places that I would have never been open to going to before. When Joshua fell on his face, removed his sandels, and asked what message God had for him -- he received the most bizarre set of battle instructions ever given. Following the leading of God will undoubtedly cause us to do things that we otherwise would not have done. This is the path of the cross.

So, I guess I should expect to have a lot of questions. The only one who has ALL the answers is God himself. Let's humble ourselves before him and let him be the leader of our lives.

Vacation

Spending a week not having to think about what I will preach on Sunday is a rare treat. Spending time with all my children at the same time is becoming a rare treat as well! The following is a brief travel log of our recent vacation.

We met everyone in New Braunfels and stayed in a rented house for the weekend. We were pleased to have Elizabeth's boyfriend, Jaime join us. We spent a day at Schlitterbahn and a half day floating in a very crowded Comal River. The most fun was just being together playing games, laughing, and catching up with each others' lives. The kids were kind enough to let me win at both Texas Hold 'em and Nerts!

After the weekend our plans changed since Ben and Elizabeth were involved in a car accident on the way to New Braunfels. (No one was injured but they had to leave the car in San Antonio to be repaired.) Liz and I, therefore drove them back to Abilene where we spent the night at Ben's before continuing our journeys as empty nesters on vacation. We went to Frontier Texas in Abilene which is an interesting presentation by the early settlers of the Texas panhandle. I say "by the settlers" because they appear before you in lifesize 3-D to tell their stories.

After that Liz and I took off with no destination in mind other than to visit little towns around the area. We spent one night in Coleman and one night in San Angelo. Along the way we visited such small places as Santa Anna (named after an Indian chief NOT the Mexican dictator), Ballinger, Robert Lee (named by two confederate soldiers after the war), Bronte, and Buffalo Gap.

Our favorite stop was at Fort Chadbourne which was built in 1852 to protect the settlers who were moving west. When the fort was no longer needed it was sold in 1874 and became part of the O-D Ranch which used the buildings as headquarters. The property has been in the same family ever since. While touring the restored buildings and grounds we were fortunate enough to get a private tour by Garland Richards who is the great-great-great grandson of the original owners.

Returning to Abilene we were thrilled to go to a banquet at the Alliance for Women and Children where Elizabeth works as a program manager. It was the concluding banquet for all the families of the girls who have participated in the summer camps that Elizabeth directed.

On the way home we stopped in Dallas for lunch with Jeremy and Adrienne. Liz is back at work today and I'll be in the office on Monday to get caught up on all the exciting happenings of Impact Week.

IMPACT Week

Even though this is being posted on Aug. 1 it was actually written last Sunday, July 26.

I just finished taping the sermon and am excited about what God is going to do in our community this week. Unfortunately, Liz and I are going to miss the entire week. Now that all of our children are adults, we've got the same scheduling problems everyone else has. It just so happened that the only week my entire family could be together this summer happened to be this week. After prayerful consideration, and consultation with our co-workers, we decided there's a whole church to participate in IMPACT week, but we're the only ones who can spend parent time with our kids. Know that we are thinking and praying for all of your efforts. I look forward to hearing the stories and seeing the results of what God will do through you this week.