Daniel's Gloves

I received this as an email, but thought it worth sharing here…thanks Connie!

  I sat, with two friends, in the picture window of a quaint restaurant just off the corner of the town-square. The food and the company were both especially good that day.

  As we talked, my attention was drawn outside, across the street. There, walking into town was a man who appeared to be carrying all his worldly goods on his back. He was carrying, a well-worn sign that read, 'I will work for food.' My heart sank.

  I brought him to the attention of my friends and noticed that others around us had stopped eating to focus on him. Heads moved in a mixture of sadness and disbelief.

  We continued with our meal, but his image lingered in my mind. We finished our meal and went our separate ways. I had errands to do and quickly set out to accomplish them. I glanced toward the town square, looking somewhat halfheartedly for the strange visitor. I was fearful, knowing that seeing him again would call some response. I drove through town and saw nothing of him. I made some purchases at a store and got back in my car.

  Deep within me, the Spirit of God kept speaking to me: 'Don't go back to the office until you've at least driven once more around the square.'  Then with some hesitancy, I headed back into town. As I turned the square's third corner, I saw him. He was standing on the steps of the store front church, going through his sack.

  I stopped and looked; feeling both compelled to speak to him, yet wanting to drive on. The empty parking space on the corner seemed to be a sign from God: an invitation to park. I pulled in, got out and approached the town's newest visitor.

  'Looking for the pastor?' I asked.

  'Not really,' he replied, 'just resting.'

  'Have you eaten today?'

  'Oh, I ate something early this morning.'

  'Would you like to have lunch with me?'

  'Do you have some work I could do for you?'

 'No work,' I replied 'I commute here to work from the city, but I would like to take you to lunch.'

  'Sure,' he replied with a smile.

  As he began to gather his things, I asked some surface questions. Where you headed?'

 'St. Louis.'

 'Where you from?'

  'Oh, all over; mostly Florida.'

 'How long you been walking?'

  'Fourteen years,' came the reply.

 I knew I had met someone unusual. We sat across from each other in the same restaurant I had left earlier. His face was weathered slightly beyond his 38 years. His eyes were dark yet clear, and he spoke with an eloquence and articulation that was startling. He removed his jacket to reveal a bright red T-shirt that said, 'Jesus is The Never Ending Story.'

  Then Daniel's story began to unfold. He had seen rough times early in life. He'd made some wrong choices and reaped the consequences. Fourteen years earlier, while backpacking across the country, he had stopped on the beach in Daytona. He tried to hire on with some men who were putting up a large tent and some equipment. A concert, he thought.

 He was hired, but the tent would not house a concert but revival services, and in those services he saw life more clearly. He gave his life over to God

 'Nothing's been the same since,' he said, 'I felt the Lord telling me to keep walking, and so I did, some 14 years now.'

  'Ever think of stopping?' I asked.

  'Oh, once in a while, when it seems to get the best of me But God has given me this calling. I give out Bibles, that's what's in my sack. I work to buy food and Bibles, and I give them out when His Spirit leads.'

 I sat amazed. My homeless friend was not homeless. He was on a mission and lived this way by choice. The question burned inside for a moment and then I asked: 'What's it like?'

  'What?'

 'To walk into a town carrying all your things on your back and to show your sign?'

 'Oh, it was humiliating at first. People would stare and make comments. Once someone tossed a piece of half-eaten bread and made a gesture that certainly didn't make me feel welcome. But then it became humbling to realize that God was using me to touch lives and change people's concepts of other folks like me.'

 My concept was changing, too. We finished our dessert and gathered his things. Just outside the door, he paused He turned to me and said, 'Come Ye blessed of my Father and inherit the kingdom I've prepared for you. For when I was hungry you gave me food, when I was thirsty you gave me drink, a stranger and you took me in.'

  I felt as if we were on holy ground. 'Could you use another Bible?' I asked.

  He said he preferred a certain translation. It traveled well and was not too heavy. It was also his personal favorite.. 'I've read through it 14 times,' he said.

 'I'm not sure we've got one of those, but let's stop by our church and see' I was able to find my new friend a Bible that would do well, and he seemed very grateful.

 'Where are you headed from here?' I asked.

  'Well, I found this little map on the back of this amusement park coupon.'

  'Are you hoping to hire on there for awhile?'

 'No, I just figure I should go there. I figure someone under that star right there needs a Bible, so that's where I'm going next.'

 He smiled, and the warmth of his spirit radiated the sincerity of his mission. I drove him back to the town-square where we'd met two hours earlier, and as we drove, it started raining. We parked and unloaded his things.

 'Would you sign my autograph book?' he asked. 'I like to keep messages from folks I meet.'

  I wrote in his little book that his commitment to his calling had touched my life. I encouraged him to stay strong. And I left him with a verse of scripture from Jeremiah, 'I know the plans I have for you, declared the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you; Plans to give you a future and a hope.'

'Thanks, man,' he said. 'I know we just met and we're really just strangers, but I love you.'

 'I know,' I said, 'I love you, too.' 'The Lord is good!'

 'Yes, He is. How long has it been since someone hugged you?' I asked.   A long time,' he replied

 And so on the busy street corner in the drizzling rain, my new friend and I embraced, and I felt deep inside that I had been changed.. He put his things on his back, smiled his winning smile and said, 'See you in the New Jerusalem.'

 'I'll be there!' was my reply.

 He began his journey again. He headed away with his sign dangling from his bedroll and pack of Bibles. He stopped, turned and said, 'When you see something that makes you think of me, will you pray for me?'
  'You bet,' I shouted back, 'God bless.'

 'God bless.' And that was the last I saw of him.

  Late that evening as I left my office, the wind blew strong. The cold front had settled hard upon the town. I bundled up and hurried to my car. As I sat back and reached for the emergency brake, I saw them.... a pair of well-worn brown work gloves neatly laid over the length of the handle. I picked them up and thought of my friend and wondered if his hands would stay warm that night without them.

 Then I remembered his words: 'If you see something that makes you think of me, will you pray for me?'

 Today his gloves lie on my desk in my office. They help me to see the world and its people in a new way, and they help me remember those two hours with my unique friend and to pray for his ministry. 'See you in the New Jerusalem,' he said. Yes, Daniel, I know I will...

 'I shall pass this way but once. Therefore, any good that I can do or any kindness that I can show, let me do it now, for I shall not pass this way
again.'

Fire from Heaven

 

In an earlier posting, I noted that I prayed that God would give me the faith of Elijah…you know the faith to call down fire from heaven.  And He did.  Through the recent process of trying to open a temporary homeless shelter in town, I realized I had been given that deep kind of faith.  And I believed it would happen.  When things were voted down, I was surprised and wondered what had happened!  But I was ok with the result, another gift from God I felt.  In fact, in some ways there was relief because the workload was going to be a lot less.

I decided I had failed in only praying for the faith and not the fire.  And my obedience, I reasoned, was in believing...the rest was God’s choice.  After all, I hadn’t asked to move any mountains. 

It took about a month and one day I realized I was wrong.  God had sent the fire.  You see, I was looking for the Old Testament fire like Elijah had experienced.  What God had sent was His New Testament fire…the fire of His Holy Spirit.  What God did through that process and more importantly through what was perceived as a negative vote and lost victory, was used to ignite the fire that burns deep inside of us.  He had awakened His people with outrage and a desire to do something.  A new awareness was awakened in the community.  People were spewing scripture publicly because of their outrage.  “Success” at City Hall wouldn’t have accomplished that.  Once again “failure” by man’s definition was great success for God!

A City of Compassion

Many of you are aware of the homeless battle going on in my community.  Since the common council voted down the proposal we brought before them, many things have happened.

You see this began a year ago with a phone call from my mother about a news story in the Milwaukee area.  I saw the idea as a way for our community to help others and proposed it to our senior pastor.  His one comment was, “I’d rather be a community of compassion than a church of compassion.”  And so I went to the city for their approval.

Success is measured many ways by many people.  After our six week plan was completed, we felt success.  And I thought we were done.  Our local homeless organization would probably have a permanent place by next winter, and we’d done what we felt we were “called” to do.

As time passed, we realized that there would be no solution for this winter.  My local church board approved my job to be that of organizing something for this winter in the community, provided the mayor was on board…they wanted “the king’s favor.”  We got it, found out the process, and started working on a plan.

After losing the request we’d submitted, I thought I was done.  Yet, I told my senior pastor that I knew it wasn’t done…didn’t know any more than that…but it wasn’t done.  Then the comments to the newspaper started coming in.  The anger and hatred that were hurled on line were unsettling.  Phone calls and emails to me became intimidating.  I was so done with this and had moved on…but I knew it wasn’t done.  I wanted it over with, but the comments kept being made.

Then an editorial and then another article.  Letters to the editor started, and more comments.  Then I started getting phone calls and emails from people with solutions to the problem.  A businessman willing to give us space for the cost of heat…churches asking if we couldn’t use their location…an idea for an already empty building as a permanent shelter. 

Again I went to the mayor and said that we might be able to solve the problem, but she would need to cut through the red tape of city hall, because the red tape meant that we couldn’t make anything happen until February.  That’s where we’re at today…waiting on the city staff to figure out a way to make one of these offers work in a timely manner.

But the biggest thing that happened through all of this is that we’ve learned that our community is one of compassion.  Most of the voices speaking out about the subject have been in favor of the project.  Many have said, “You can move into my backyard.”  Donations have started to come in.  Awareness has been created.  And I believe the words will become actions.  As I said to the council members who voted ‘yes,’ “any time a community is moved to act in justice for those less fortunate, it speaks volumes about that community.”  I believe Wisconsin Rapids is a community of compassion.

Victory in Loss

Many have contacted me since our common council voted down our proposal for a homeless plan for this winter.  People who were neutral have become enraged and supportive of the efforts.  Is that a bad thing?

Our local organization which has been working on a permanent solution to the homeless problem is quickly gaining momentum and support in a community which sometimes shunned and criticized them.  Can they have hope that their next attempt to open a home for the needy will be better received?

There appears to be a level of guilt in those opposing the plan as they wonder where to send dollars to help the homeless this winter.  Can that guilt generate enough money to make a difference?

When people ask me how I feel about all my hard work being for naught, I'm ok with it.  Nothing is in vain when it's what God has called us to do.  I find myself comforting others more than I need comforting. 

What have I gained? 

• I've been given the gift of deeper faith...the faith of Elijah to call down fire from heaven.  I know it sounds crazy because I didn't get what I'd set out for, but faith in something doesn't mean it's going to turn out how I expect or hope.
• I've learned that even as I age and tire more easily...God provides strength (maybe only "enough") to do what He's asking me to do. 
• That even when it appears we've "lost" a battle, God is still in control and will come out more victorious than we ever imagine!

Thank you everyone for your support and prayers.  Just watch and see what God has planned for this. . . .

The Agony of Decision

The churches in my community are working together to try to help the homeless again this winter.  We did it for six weeks last winter and when there was no plan for the community this year, we felt led to do the same this year, only for close to six months. 

We are working with the city this year to try to get a conditional use permit for one location, and have faced obvious opposition...does anyone want a shelter in their neighborhood? 

The public hearing was held Monday (see article.)  I wasn't surprised at the protests...they were even more vocal at the informational meeting we held two weeks earlier.  The surprise to me was the agony on the faces of the commission about the decision to recommend the proposal or not.  You see, they were in a no-win situation.  How do you say "no, we won't help the homeless," without coming across as cold and callous.  Then again, how do you ignore the very people who pay the taxes to keep the community functioning? 

It was a very difficult decision for them, and because we have told them our fix is temporary until someone else steps up with a permanent solution, they recommended the proposal for this winter only.

Now the Common Council will have to make a decision on their recommendation.  The neighbors have forced a 3/4 vote vs. a simple majority vote.  But I don't know that it is a bad thing.  This is a tough decision for our community, and it merits strong support.

And I believe we should all be agonizing over this issue.  What is the best solution to the problem...how do we keep people feeling safe in their own homes...how do we care for the needy?   I'm proud to live in a community where God's people are willing to do what He has called them to do (Matt. 25) and the residents agonize over the situation of people less fortunate.

Crabby Old Man

Though there are many stories behind the origins of this poem, I enjoyed it when I ran across it today.  Maybe it's because of my Sunday afternoon services...maybe because I'm just getting older.

Crabby Old Man

What do you see nurses?
What do you see?
What are you thinking
when you're looking at me?

A crabby old man,
not very wise,
Uncertain of habit
with faraway eyes?
Who dribbles his food
and makes no reply.

When you say in a loud voice
'I do wish you'd try!'
Who seems not to notice
the things that you do.
And forever is losing
A sock or shoe?

Who, resisting or not
lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding
The long day to fill.
Is that what you're thinking?
Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse
you're not looking at me.

I'll tell you who I am
As I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding
as I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of Ten
with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters
who love one another.

A young boy of Sixteen
with wings on his feet;
Dreaming that soon now
a lover he'll meet.
A groom soon at Twenty
my heart gives a leap.
Remembering the vows
that I promised to keep.

At Twenty-Five now
I have young of my own.
Who need me to guide
And a secure happy home.
A man of Thirty
My young now grown fast,
Bound to each other
With ties that should last.

At Forty, my young sons
have grown and are gone,
But my woman's beside me
to see I don't mourn.
At Fifty, once more,
Babies play 'round my knee,
Again, we know children
My loved one and me. ?

Dark days are upon me
My wife is now dead.
I look at the future
I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing
young of their own.
And I think of the years
And the love that I've known.

I'm now an old man
and nature is cruel.
Tis jest to make old age
look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles
grace and vigor, depart.
There is now a stone
where I once had a heart.

But inside this old carcass
A young guy still dwells,
And now and again
my battered heart swells
I remember the joys
I remember the pain.
And I'm loving and living
life over again.

I think of the years
all too few gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact
that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people
open and see
Not a crabby old man.
Look closer see ME!!

I Met God in the Morning

I recently shared the existence of this poem with a friend, and can't remember who it was...so I'm posting it here for you all to see.

"I met God in the morning"

I met God in the morning

when the day was at its best,

And His Presence came like sunrise,

Like a glory in my breast.

All day long the Presence lingered,

All day long He stayed with me,

And we sailed in perfect calmness

O'er a very troubled sea.

Other ships were blown and battered,

Other ships were sore distressed,

But the winds that seemed to drive them,

Brought to me a peace and rest.

Then I thought of other mornings,

With a keen remorse of mind,

When I too had loosed the moorings,

With the presence left behind.

So, I think I know the secret,

Learned from many a troubled way:

You must seek Him in the morning

If you want Him through the day!

By Bishop Ralph Cushman

Hypnosis in the Church

I just have to say something about this topic of Christianity and hypnosis.  A family member is getting into this latest New Age thing.  I’ve read many of the articles about it and the Christian pastors who hypnotize, and I’m sorry to say I do not find any solid biblical foundation.  I don’t claim to be a scholar of Greek or Hebrew, but I can use the lexicon and concordance, so here are my humble findings.

First of all, in the defense of this latest fad, they do not promote the entertainment version of hypnosis.  Hypnotism today is being compared to ‘visions’ in the Old and New Testaments.  If we want to agree that they are the same, here are some questions I have:

1.    In the instances I read about, God came to them, they were not going into a trance to find God’s message for them.

2.    These visions were never induced by another person.

3.    The visions were to see or hear/see Godly messages, not to cure a disease, act as an anesthetic, or break sinful habits.

4.    The people were Godly people, and not heathen, Gentiles, unsaved, or whatever word you choose to use for ungodly.

5.    If you believe that deep prayer can cause a trancelike state, again, there is no outside influence taking you there.

6.    Despite the often quoted reference to Deuteronomy 18:10-11, I prefer to read how Ezekiel 13 warns against the false diviners/prophets.

When scripture speaks about soundness of mind in the NT, can that happen in a hypnotic state?  Yet ‘sound mind’ was the word used to describe those who had demons cast out of them.  Are the evangelical Christians so far off in accusing hypnosis of being of the devil since a sound mind is the opposite of demon possession?

When we’re told to love God with ‘… all our mind,’ do we have “all” our mind in a humanly induced trancelike state?  Or does someone else have part of it?  Are we to surrender any part of ourselves to a someone other than God?

On the road to Emmaus, Christ opened their ‘minds’…the same Greek was used repeatedly as understanding, reasoning, and feelings.  If God (Christ) opened their minds, won’t He do the same for us?

If we’re to have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16), can we find a time He was put into a hypnotic (trancelike) state?

My last comment is found in 2 Timothy 1:7.  It’s the only time I can find this Greek word used in the New Testament, but I think it makes a good case for avoiding hypnosis.  “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”   I for one won’t be turning what little mind I might possess over to anyone in the near future!

A Trip to Eau Claire

Today I spent time with a friend in Eau Claire who was showing me the behind the scenes activities of one of the best oiled non-profits I've ever seen...Hope Gospel Mission.  A faith-based organization which helps individuals go from homelessness to contributing members of society, the mission has a home for men, one for women, several businesses, and an education center.  Thanks Chris for taking time out of your busy schedule to show me all that God has allowed your ministries to accomplish.  May He continue to bless you and His work!

Ed

Ed passed away yesterday.  Oh, you don’t know Ed.  I can’t even say that I really knew Ed.  But still, I feel a sadness at his parting.

Ed is someone I would visit on Sunday afternoons when he missed the weekly services I hold at a home.  The home is for memory care residents, so it’s probably safe to say that Ed didn’t know me either.  But each week there was a comfort level that was growing, despite not knowing who I was.  And he knew it was Sunday when I showed up.  He always smiled and was ever so polite.

I can tell you that Ed liked car races.  He was very hard of hearing…this I base on the volume of his television and the voice I needed to use to talk to him.  And Ed loved his sweets.  I knew he’d accepted me when he starting offering to share some of the chocolate stars that always sat next to him in his recliner.  This last Sunday he even offered me cookies his daughter had brought him.  I politely declined, but he wanted me to get one for him.  Of course I did, despite the fact that he was within minutes of going to eat. 

That was my last encounter with Ed last Sunday.  He passed on Wednesday.  I’ll miss him.  It never ceases to amaze me the impact we have on each other’s lives, though the encounters may be brief.

Get Up and Walk

Did you ever witness a miracle? I mean a real, Jesus says to get up and walk, miracle? It’s been a very long time since I witnessed something like that, and even then the medical world was involved. This weekend I was privileged to be a witness to such a thing.


I know a woman who sustained a very serious brain injury from a car accident that she never should have survived. And though it’s been years, and though the doctors said she’d never walk again, she was determined that God would hear her plea. And that’s exactly what she showed me Sunday!


I stopped in to visit her after my Sunday afternoon service, and she welcomed me into her room. She then shared that the day before she’d felt this urging inside, and she pointed to her stomach area. You know what I mean…we’ve all felt it at some point. That deep, in the pit of your stomach, feeling. Then she told me that she got up and walked. I was happy for her, but she wasn’t satisfied until she could show me.


Let me tell you, I was nervous with her getting up a little tottery, and beginning to walk. I assured her she didn’t need to show me, and I didn’t want her to fall, especially when I was the only one in the room. But she would hear nothing of it and continued to walk across her room and back. There was a little stiffness in her walk, but it was an amazing walk for someone who’d been in a wheelchair for the past few of years.


I’d prayed with her about her physical limitations and her faith over the past few months that I’ve gotten to know her. But I never believed she’d walk. In my mind she was in denial of the facts. Thank goodness God didn’t need MY faith for His work! I told her she was a New Testament miracle. She was one of those that Christ said, “take up your bed and walk” people. She was certainly one of the “your faith has made you whole” people.


And let me tell you about her faith. Despite all the trials she’s faced, she believed. And she shouts the glory of God to everyone who’ll hear. And even during her times of depression, she was easily calmed by the reminders of God’s love for her. We would pray and she would be recharged.  I know that her testimony was the reason God healed her. My prayer joins hers in that her husband may come to the Lord finally. And woe to the staff at the home she resides at…all they are hearing about is how God healed her. And if I thought I was nervous when she got up in front of me, I understand that the staff followed her with the wheelchair when she walked all the way from her room to lunch that day!


Lord, forgive me for my lack of faith. Thank You for hearing the pleas of one of Your children. And thank You for allowing me to witness such a miracle! Now take the glory that is so aptly due You, and use this to bring even more people into Your kingdom! Continue to bless this precious woman and reward her faith.

Crossing Paths

I spoke to someone from a lifetime ago today. She’s dying and has been for two years. I was so humbled after the conversation that I had to blog about her. You see she kept saying how she believes people’s paths cross for a reason.

Now we hadn’t talked in years, and I was in fact quit surprised when she sent a friend request on Facebook awhile back. She and her husband are still married after more years than most last these days. We were never close or good friends. I knew her mostly because I taught her children as preschoolers in Sunday School (the kids came through our bus ministry.) And then I sold her Avon once in awhile.

Today for the first time I believe I got to really know her. She shared how she’d been raised a Nazarene preacher’s kid, rebelled as a teen, came back and rebelled again. Her life wasn’t an easy one, due a lot to choices she made. But her love for God is so deep today and radiates so brightly that I hope my little beacon is even a fraction of what she shines.

All of our kids have grown and moved on. I divorced; while she and her husband remain together and are both critically ill. Today she lives two doors from where we raised our family, and she said she thinks about me often. And I wondered why. But then again I think about one of her daughters periodically, even though it’s probably been 25 years.

I hope I was half the blessing she was to me today. She’s been told to put her affairs in order, which she is doing, with the faith that it’s too early to do such things. She’s younger than I, so way too young to die. But without insurance, she’s unable to receive the next treatment plan for her cancer…. I guess I have to agree with her in that God allows every one of our paths to cross for a reason. Today I took the time to thank Him for the many, many, many people whose path has crossed with mine. I think I’m going to pay a little better attention to those new paths from here on out.

Pure Ministry

I have come to realize ministry in its purest form. My church does services during the week at homes that typically house the elderly. The one I lead is for people with memory issues. I've only been doing this for several months, but have come to understand the meaning of pure ministry.

You see, there is nothing to be gained by ministering to these people. They won't make any life changing decisions. You can't predict their behavior from week to week. Sometimes they don't even know who I am. Some can't communicate...many can't hear you very well. Once in awhile someone will sob uncontrollably for no apparent reason. Yet ministering to them has become one of the most meaningful experiences of my life.

I recently equated it to caring for a baby. You do nothing but wait on an infant 24/7. The result of that care is maybe a dirty diaper. But don't we love those precious little bundles! I've come to care that deeply for my little congregation that I serve every week.

Why don't I approach all my ministry work the same way? The only conclusion I've reached so far is that I have no expectations. I'm a new face every week I come for many of them. Yet they bless me. It has nothing to do with them and everything to do with my attitude. Now to change that attitude in every aspect of my life.

I think too that I've gotten a glimpse of God's love and care of me. I fall far shorter of what I could be, yet His compassion remains. Can there be a purer love!

Sharing the post of a friend....

The Eclectic Company: "I Was Naked and Ye Clothed Me"