Hanging up on God It annoys me when people use "God" as an expletive, even if one calls out, "Gawd". (Does stretching the word equal Reverence?) I worked on stamping out the thoughtless God calling at a Youth Group I led. Every time one of the teens called on the Almighty, I stopped the action and announced the beginning of a prayer by our invoker. I explained that one doesn't call on God and then hang up. I explained "There God is, working on peace in the mid-east or something, and you call Him and distract Him for no reason. Maybe that is why God can't get anything done." With a little coaching and the encouraging glares of those waiting, we managed to leave God a message instead of dead air (or worse!) Hope your calls to God are personal and not punctuational.

God's Calling Plan

Answer me when I call, O God of my right!
You gave me room when I was in distress.
Be gracious to me, and hear my prayer.
How long, you people, shall my honour suffer shame?
How long will you love vain words, and seek after lies?
But know that the Lord has set apart the faithful for himself;
the Lord hears when I call to him. - Psalm 4:1-3

What You Really Need A Boy Scout leader told me that a backpacking trip starts with unpacking. The youth bring their backpacks to the meeting place and the leaders take out what the scouts don't need. The leaders know how heavy packs can get. The things that are necessary become fewer with every mile they have to be carried. So they do the scouts a favor and remove items that they just think they need to carry around. What things do I carry around that just weigh me down for the journey ahead? Anger and perfectionism are two things that I'm working on not packing for every trip. (Our theme in contemporary worship is that we are pro-participation and anti-perfectionism.) What are you packing for the trip ahead?

Running Without Weights

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, - Hebrews 12:1 (NRSV)

TV's Saving Grace Has Some The TV program Saving Grace has an unconventional angel named Earl trying to save an unrepentant woman named Grace. This weeks show, "Mooooooo", was full of religion from Hasidic Judaism to a Room of Miracles in Brazil. One scene in the Room of Miracles, dealt with prayer. Earl the angel tells Grace the unbeliever that "the point of prayer is to prepare you to see God in any situation." Wow. Prayer focuses you for a God's eye view of the world. Not bad for a TV angel or a PC pastor.

Want to see more of God in the world? Trying praying more for the world and tune into God's broadcast.

Pray to See, Not to Be Seen

'And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.

But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.openly' - Matthew 6:5-6 (NRSV)

Twitter Makes Follower Popular Last week I was looking into the meanings of names for a Children's message and found that Christy means "Follower of Christ". This term has gain popularity over "Christian" lately because Christian has been plastered over political parties and viewpoints both here and abroad. Folks of other faiths often brace for impact when they find out someone is Christian; their defenses and fear are lessen when they hear that one is a "follower of Christ" rather than what they fear is a member of political party seeking power over others.

The popular social networking service Twitter uses the term "follower" to indicate one who signs up to get short messages (Tweets) from someone else. Folks can have many followers and can follow many other people.

I wonder if I follow Jesus like I follow Tweets from others. I read a sentence or two and then and think: Oh, that's interesting, then go about my business. This sounds like what George Barna was writing about in his book Growing True Disciples about being following Christ like we follow the Yankees, "When the Yankees lose a game I'm disappointed for a few seconds, and then I get on with my life."

I going to work on having Jesus' messages be more like a trumpet call that a tweet. Maybe I can live up to my name.

Click to Follow

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.' . - John 8:12 (NRSV)

When Your Home is in Heaven When I was in Atlanta, a friend of mine took me to the World of Coca-Cola. He had lived in the Atlanta area 20 years and never been there, (neither the current one nor the former World in Underground Atlanta). "There are some things you only see when you're a tourist." he explained. Tourists have different priorities and values than natives and this sometimes leads to friction. Followers of Christ attempt to follow the customs and values of their heavenly homeland and not go native.

Natives have their own ways and don't see why the foreigners can't act like everyone else. They forget that there are some things you only see as a tourist.

I hope you enjoy your visit and invite some natives to your home to see the sights.

Native Tourists

...They were glad just to see these things from far away, and they agreed that they were only strangers and foreigners on this earth. When people talk this way, it is clear that they are looking for a place to call their own. If they had been talking about the land where they had once lived, they could have gone back at any time. But they were looking forward to a better home in heaven. That's why God wasn't ashamed for them to call him their God. He even built a city for them. - Hebrews 11:13-16 (CEV)