Immanuel, you are with us ...

"Glory to God in the highest!"

Where has the time gone! December has simply skipped by. Melissa, Roman & I have been swamped with Christmas celebrations, family gatherings, my birthday, our anniversary ... you name it, it happens in December for our family. But even with all the busyness, I've always loved Christmas. For my whole life it has consistently topped the list of holidays as my favorite. Every year I try to take just a little time and contemplate what it all means ...

From the vantage point of my wide, childish eyes, Christmas was filled with wonder, awe and mystery. The flickering candlelight, dark, rich colors and songs filled with words of joy yet tunes of sorrow. All of this to commemorate the most strange, unlikely event; the God of the universe incarnate within a young Middle Eastern virgin.

Take a second to ponder this ... the Lord Almighty, the king of Glory left his position of power, his position of authority, his position of privilege to become a man. The most royal and prestigious families of the Earth would have been unworthy to posses this child whose glory was unequaled from the beginning and until the end of time. However, the child wasn't born into a royal family but into an obscure one: A young, poor girl from Nazareth in Galilee. The Christmas story is filled with stories with this theme: Glory lavished upon obscurity. Think about it ...

• Wise men from a far Eastern land seeing a sign of glory in the heavens and spending a fortune to come and lavish royal gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh on a child whose bed was a manger.
• A host of glorious angelic beings sent to proclaim the coming of the child, not to world leaders but to a nameless band of shepherds.
• The promise of God to an old priest that he would meet the child Messiah.
• The King of Kings and Lord of Lords raised in the town of Nazareth in Galilee by a carpenter and a young woman who had to endure the shame of pregnancy outside of wedlock.

All examples of glory lavished upon obscurity.

When I'm thinking about such things, I must confess that the first thought that comes to my mind is "What a waste!" Why did men of such wisdom see the need to visit the baby Jesus at great personal expense? Doesn't that seem like a pretty bad investment? What use did Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus have for a chest of gold or flasks of frankincense & myrrh? Couldn't God's plan for the redemption of mankind gone on without the glorious announcement to the shepherds? Wasn't it kind of a waste of breath? Why does God lavish His glory upon our obscurity?

When you're talking about obscurity Altoona certainly seems to fit the bill. It seems that our city is filled with people who feel they have been discarded & abandoned. Communities that have rising crime and shrinking/aging populations are often written off as a "bad investment" or a "waste of time". Obviously attitudes like these contribute to the feelings of depression and loneliness that we've referred to so often on this blog. The fact that we serve a God who has a history of lavishing his glory on places like Bethlehem of Judea, Nazareth of Gallilee or Altoona of Pennsylvania should give us great hope! Yet the joy of knowing that God DOES lavish His glory on us can't compare to the joy we receive with we understand WHY He lavishes his glory on us.

"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Isaiah 7:14

Matthew informs us that this ancient name given to the Messiah means "God with us". It doesn't mean God is with us when we are powerful or that God is with us when we obey the rules perfectly. It means God is with the no name shepherds, he is with the blue collar carpenter, he is with us in our pain, our obscurity and, yes, even our sin.

"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" Romans 8:31,32

God is with us because he loves us. This is the message of Christmas. Let us carry this message into the new year, into Altoona and into the world.

Today:

• Pray that God would release us from our own feelings of abandonment and despair.
• Pray that Altoona's Christians would be God's grace and love with those who are lost.
• Pray for God's blessing on the year 2008!

Come, Thou Rod of Jesse ...

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel

We are right in the heat of the advent season now and as I wait for the Lord's coming I frequently find myself boggled by how utterly lost and in bondage we are to sin. This precious carol describes it so well as it describes our condition under "Satan's tyranny" and mournfully sings about our need to be saved from the very "depths of Hell".

Have you ever felt as if you were bound in an existence full of errors? Struggling under a load of sins piled so high that there is no way that you could climb out from underneath the crushing weight? Have you reached the point that these deadly patterns are so ingrained that you begin to wonder if there is anything left of you outside of what should be discarded.

Welcome to the life of the struggling drug addict. Satan has used substance addiction as an especially powerful way to deaden people's minds to the gospel and bind them with despair and hopelessness. If you know someone who is addicted to a substance, you know that addiction can take a person's "normal" bent for sinful self gratification and magnify it a thousand times. Every dollar of their income quickly becomes absorbed in to perpetuating their habit. Every relationship in their lives becomes a means to an end. Desperately lost, addicts will alienate most of the people who would normally care for them and will instead surround themselves by dealers who benefit from their progress down the path of death.

Drug addiction and substance abuse seems to have an especially tight hold over a higher than normal percentage of people in the Altoona area. Medium sized cities like Altoona tend to attract drug dealers because of their modestly large populations and relatively small police forces. Reliable sources say that approximately 365,000,000 dollars worth of heroin was sold in Blair County alone in 2005.

So, here's the point, addiction is powerful, we should know we all are addicted to sin as fallen beings. BUT addiction is NOT more powerful than the Spirit of the Living God! Consider the following biblical passage ...

"For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." Romans 6:5-11

The only one who can save us from Satan's tyranny is Christ himself. Let's appeal to the "Rod of Jesse" that he might free those who are slaves under the powerful bondage of substance abuse.

Today:

• Pray that Jesus would give men & women the power to reject their sinful addictions and turn to Christ.
• Pray for people who are not addicted that they might be filled with compassion for those who are slaves to this sin.
• Pray that we are all able to see our wrong and our sin as clearly as a drug addict sees his.

Pray for the Lighthouse ...

For many of us getting out of bed and making it to the office on time for work is hard enough, going to a meeting at 7am Saturday morning certainly isn't on our "top ten list"! Nevertheless, that's exactly what 120 to 150 Christian men from the Altoona area do every Saturday morning as they make their way to what they call "The Lighthouse".

What's "The Lighthouse"? Well, I'm glad you asked. The Lighthouse is a unique men's ministry in the Altoona area started by a local business owner name Dick Barr. Here's a clip of their history that I pulled from their website ...

"Back in 1995 Dick Barr, invited a group of Christian men to a Saturday fellowship and Bible Study held in a converted storeroom at his auto electric business. They had joined together for coffee, prayer and a time of teaching. They met around four folding tables and an old sofa and chair at the back of the room. At first there were 10 then 20 then 30 men regularly attending the group. They were rapidly growing beyond the capacity of their meeting space.

So Dick, looked to a piece of land where he was planning to build a house for his retirement. On this site Dick and some friends built a new and larger meeting place. It started out to be an enclosed picnic shelter. However, it was quickly changed into a full building with kitchen and rest room. It became “The Lighthouse Fellowship” because of the addition working lighthouse beacon on its roof).

Later additions to the building included a women’s rest room and storeroom. The front porch was later enclosed to act as a serving area for the coffee and doughnuts. And we are still growing!"

So, why is 130 guys getting together for fellowship and worship so significant? Good question. In many larger city environments you may be able to find men's fellowships and gatherings that are as large or larger than Altoona's "Lighthouse" but here are some reasons that this fellowship is particularly encouraging to me.

• First, The Lighthouse is completely independent of any individual Christian congregation in Altoona. It seems that many widely attended worship & fellowship experiences are promoted by a exceptionally magnetic church congregation.
• Second, The Lighthouse is attended by mostly middle-aged men and OLDER. Many of the "newest, hottest" fellowship and worship experiences are being geared toward a younger crowd while the older generations are either overlooked or unwilling to participate. The fact that the Lighthouse is mostly older gentleman seems very different and very significant.
• Third, The Lighthouse is completely non-denominational. Many who are familiar with the condition of Christianity in the USA know that we are particularly prone to divisions along lines of doctrine & tradition. This spirit is certainly alive and well in Altoona's spiritual climate. However, the Lighthouse has served as an example of how we as a community can rise above that trend.

Consider the following Psalm:

"Behold, how good and pleasant it is
when brothers dwell in unity!
It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down on the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down on the collar of his robes!
It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion!
For there the LORD has commanded the blessing,
life forevermore."
Psalm 133

If you would like to know more about the Lighthouse Men's Fellowship click here to view their website.

Today:

• Pray that the Lord would bless the Lighthouse in its attempts to bring Christians together.
• Pray that the Word of God would penetrate hearts and that lives would be changed.

Lord we await your advent ...

Could today be the day of His coming?

Getting up at 4am to buy a toaster, sitting in backed up traffic while trying to get to our favorite store, listening to "Have yourself a merry little Christmas" as it seems to play endlessly on at least 15 of the local radio stations ... Yep, we've definitely entered the Christmas season.

Christmas is, by far, the number one gift giving holiday. This makes the short winter days between Thanksgiving and December 25th the most lucrative of the year for retailers ... and Altoona has plenty of retailers. In fact, if there is one thing that Altoona is known for other than the railroad, it's shopping. The Altoona area's large retail district draws consumers from as far as two hours away as they shop for the special family celebrations just around the corner.

I am profoundly thankful for the wonderful retail industry in Altoona. I really think that it's a blessing to the area that many fail to recognize. However, during this time of year I get especially worried as I see the cars packing into the parking lots of the Logan Valley Mall, Logan Town Center and Wal-Mart that we are apt to forget the real & mystical meaning of Christmas. This season of shopping bliss between Thanksgiving and Christmas is the very season that the ancient church has called "Advent".

The Latin word "advenio" literally means "to come". In the traditions of the church, Advent began on the first Sunday after the last day of November and marked the beginning of the liturgical church calendar as the faithful awaited the nativity of the messiah. But for many in the church the season of advent has both the symbolic "waiting" for the nativity and a real "waiting" for the second coming of Christ. Here's an excerpt from an article that was published in "Focus on the Family Magazine" highlighting the similarities in the two kinds of waiting:

"My daughter brought home an interesting craft one day when she was about 4. She had an empty toilet paper roll she'd colored and decorated with stickers. She held it up to her eye, scanned the sky and announced she was looking for Jesus. 'Jesus?' I asked. 'Yes,' she said with absolute confidence. 'He's coming back, and I'm watching for Him.' Her certainty humbled me. Of course I believe that Jesus is coming back, but I don't have my daughter's kind of faith. Not a faith that looks up at the sky to check. Not an expectancy that says today could be the day.

Yet expectancy is precisely what we could have. The Bible pulses with it. In the Old Testament, the Jews watched and prayed for a Savior who would come and make all things right, hoping He would come in their life-time. In the New Testament, the early Christians lived with the firm conviction that Jesus would come again - any day." Focus on the Family Magazine December '07

In a world where the ceramic Santa Clause and the stuffed reindeer are right next to the nativity sets in isle 11, it's easy to start to losing faith. Do we believe that Jesus came to Bethlehem one cold lonely night to become the Savior of the World? Do we believe that he is coming again to Judge the World with his winnowing fork in his hand? How much we believe the first will ultimately determine how much we believe the second ... consider the Apostle's Creed:

"I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He arose again from the dead.He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead."

This season of Advent don't be duped into thinking that the fantasy world of Santa Clause and Rudolph the red nosed reindeer are anything like the world of the nativity of Christ. Pray that believers everywhere would truly believe that Christ came the first time as a helpless babe and that he will come a second time to rule the world.

Today:

• Pray that the people of Altoona would remember Christ as the ultimate gift to the world.
• Pray that the Holy Spirit would give our hearts a sense of eager expectation of his "second coming".

Pray for Ambition ...

Roman poses with a buck his uncle shot in archery season

Hello fellow prayer partners ... Melissa & I just returned to Altoona from our annual Thanksgiving celebration in Lancaster with Melissa's family. It was wonderful. The festivities included lots of food and lots of conversations with family: a perfect holiday!

Many of you who know Melissa's family know that Thanksgiving events are a sign that another highly anticipated day is right around the corner: the first day of deer season. For most of the men in the family (not to mention quite a few men in most families), the first Monday after Thanksgiving is greeted with an amazing amount of excitement and preparation ... let me explain.

Any man who desires to harvest one of these prized animals will undergo a litany of steps in order to prepare himself for the task. First, the prospective hunter will spend hours before the season starts scouting out the area where he intends to capture the animal looking for "buck rubs", "buck scrapes" or any other sign that the deer are present in the locations that he intends to hunt. After confirming the presence of the animals the hunter will sometimes setup a "tree stand" in the appropriate area, facing the appropriate direction according the signs he has observed in the surrounding woods or fields. As the day approaches the hunter will often invest a good chuck of money buying camouflage attire, deer scent, rope, flash lights, knives ... and the list could undoubtedly go on ... the night before the hunter will talk with his hunting buddies about his prospects for the following day, whether or not he feels his luck is up or down and the likelihood of him landing a "big one".

Finally, the day arrives. The hunter will rise at an amazingly early hour of the night (sometimes as early as 4:30am) in order to get dressed and be in his stand by daybreak. The preparation for venturing out into the dark is usually pretty exhaustive and includes putting on several layers of clothes, spraying yourself with deer scent, preparing your firearm, etc. Once the hunter is finally in his stand he will sometime sit there for hours in very cold weather and not see a single animal ... not one. I have heard stories of men who have repeated this process for years and have not landed one deer. All this done out of commitment to the rich hunting tradition (not to mention the hopes of landing that fabled "trophy buck").

Here's the point ... Many men love to hunt. Hunting takes skill, patience, ambition, energy, initiative, commitment and many other very admirable qualities. Yet in many places like Altoona I see a growing apathy in men. It feels that we are increasingly surrounded in our society by men who have failed to take initiative with their families, with their churches and with their communities. I sincerely believe that God created most men with an inherent desire to be ambitious, to dream big, to set high standards and to achieve them. Consider the following passage:

"But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:7-14

Let's pray for men that they would use their God given ambition, courage and commitment to seek, not their glory but the glory of God.

"He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury." Romans 2:6 - 8

Today:

• Pray that God would give men ambition for the gospel.
• Pray that God would allow men to strive for His glory.
• Pray that the Lord would protect men against selfish ambition.
• Pray that the Lord would protect men against apathy.

Thank God for Altoona, PA!

Altoona's beauty is just one thing for which we can be thankful.

This is a view gazing down the horseshoe curve valley.

For what do you have to be thankful? For what does our country have to be thankful? But here's the real question: For what does Altoona have to be thankful?

If you've met very many young people from Altoona & talked at any length about their feelings for their native city, you'll find one thing to be fairly true: they don't have many good things to share about Altoona! I remember one conversation that a good friend of mine had with a former resident of Altoona. It seemed that the person complained incessantly ... "people from Altoona are fat, people from Altoona are under educated, people from Altoona use bad English, people from Altoona are lazy, Altoona is an ugly city, Altoona is depressing" ... and the list went on and on.

The Word of God heavily warns us about the dangers of "ungratefulness". Not being thankful for what we've been given is listed as one of the signs of the absence of God's Holy Spirit & of the end of all things. On the contrary the presence of thankfulness is commanded and is a sign of the Spirit's working in our hearts ... consider the following passages:

"But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people." 2Timothy 3:1-5

"And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Colossians 3:15-17

This Thanksgiving season I've been blown away by how much we have to be thankful for here in Altoona & all of central Pennsylvania ... Let me share a few things for which I am thankful:

• I am thankful for the physical beauty of our area.
• I am thankful for our rich railroad heritage.
• I am thankful for the many God-fearing churches that we have in our area.
• I am thankful that, unlike many parts of the world, the gospel is preached in Altoona.
• I am thankful for the many people I know in Altoona (in spite of their faults).
• I am thankful that God allowed Altoona to be created for HIS glory and purpose.
• I am thankful that God has called me back to this place to minister.

Today:

• Pray that God would allow people in Altoona & Central PA to have hearts full of thanks.
• Pray that the Lord would do away with all bitterness, or ungratefulness we may have in our hearts.
• Pray that God would show you what you should be thankful for.

Pray against holiday strife ...

Colder weather serves as a harbinger of holiday family interactions.

Well, we are less than a week away from the great celebration of giving thanks and, before you know it, Christmas will be upon us. If you're anything like me, you can almost smell those pleasant & familiar smells (I don't know about you but I'm already feeling stuffed!). Food isn't the only thing that the upcoming holiday season will bring. For many of us these intimate seasons of celebration bring much needed time re-connecting with family members, co-workers & neighbors. Yet, in spite of all the joy that this season brings, holidays can bring painful reminders of the brokenness within Altoona's families. Let me paint a picture ...

Stew is the typical middle-aged man from Altoona that you might bump into on the street. The holidays are approaching and out of joy for the season you ask Stew if he's planning on spending time with his family. "Naa, probably not," he replies, "my family's too screwed up. I can't handle all the drama." Because you're a caring person (and somewhat curious) you inquire about what he means by "drama". What you find out is troubling ... Stew is divorced, Stew's parents are divorced and most of Stew's siblings are either divorced or have serious marital problems. The instability in these marriage relationships causes huge tensions in the family creating family crises on a monthly if not weekly basis. Whenever a portion of Stew's family does find it within their power to coordinate a family "get together" there is always fighting. Fighting about football, fighting about politics, fighting about religion, fighting about the spread for Christmas dinner. Then add alcohol into the mix ... watch out!

Here's my point: holidays are traditionally times when we can come together and celebrate but for many of the families in Altoona, holidays are a source of pain. Reminders of the brokenness of their lives are all around them. But we must remember that all of this brokenness comes from the sinful condition of our hearts. Consider the following passages:

"Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these." Galatians 5:19-21b

"For before those days there was no wage for man or any wage for beast, neither was there any safety from the foe for him who went out or came in, for I set every man against his neighbor." Zechariah 8:10

Let's believe that the Lord can use this upcoming season of celebration to mend broken families.

Today:

• Pray that the Lord would remove "enmity" between family members.
• Pray that the Lord would restore marriages to health.
• Pray that the Lord would curb the desire for drunkenness.
• Pray and thank the Lord for the family and friends he has given you.