If You Are Desperate Today

In the lobby of the Assemblies of God headquarters in Springfield, Missouri, there are four wonderful paintings that display the four defining truths of the Assemblies of God. They are: Salvation, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, Healing, and Second Coming. Ron DiCianni is the artist. You can see the four paintings here, AG paintings.

I love this story because it illustrates how much Christ cares for each of us individually. Matthew, Mark, and Luke each tell this story. Basically, this woman has had a female, hemorrhaging disease for twelve years. She had spent a fortune, actually all she had, and had gotten worse instead of better. Jesus is being followed by a large crowd. He is on his way to heal the daughter of Jairus, a synagogue ruler. This anonymous lady, pushes through the crowd to get close to Jesus. She knows in her heart that if she can just touch His clothes, "I will be healed.". I love how DiCianni portrays her on her hands and knees. She is in the position of surrender, defeat and desperation. The only thing missing from the painting is the huge crowd. As soon as the woman touches the hem of Christ's garment, she is instantly healed. Jesus sensed power leaving Him and asked, "who touched my clothes?" The disciples can't believe He is asking this question because the crowd is pressing Him, jostling Him, this is really a crowd scene. Jesus looks around and finally finds the woman. She falls at His feet and tells Him her story. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."

Today you may not need physical healing, but you might need emotion healing. Perhaps you have been caught in the present economic downturn and are desperate for God's provision. Maybe there is a relationship in your family that needs healing, or perhaps you need freedom from fear, bitterness, or anger. You may need deliverance from an addiction. Let this woman be your example, do whatever you need to do to get to Jesus, including crawling on your hands and knees. Touch Him with your prayer, your cries of desperation. He will turn and find you and say "your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering." He will find you, despite the size of the crowd.

All Things Work For Good

Here is a small portion of Max Lucado's book God's Story Your Story.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 

We know…There are so many things we do not know. We do not know if the economy will dip or if our team will win. We do not know what our spouse is thinking or how our kids will turn out. We don’t even know “what we ought to pray” (Rom. 8:26). But according to Paul, we can be absolutely certain about four things. We know…

1. God works. He is busy behind the scenes, above the fray, within the fury. He hasn’t checked out or moved on. He is ceaseless and tireless. He never stops working.

2. God works for the good. Not for our comfort or pleasure or entertainment, but for our ultimate good. Since he is the ultimate good, would we expect anything less?

3. God works for the good of those who love him. Behold the benefit of loving God! Make his story your story, and your story takes on a happy ending. Guaranteed. Being the author of our salvation, he writes a salvation theme into our biography.

4. God works in all things. Panta, in Greek. Like “panoramic” or “panacea” or “pandemic.”All-inclusive. God works, not through a few things or through the good things, best things, or easy things. But in “all things” God works. Puppet in the hands of fortune or fate? Not you. You are in the hands of a living, loving God. Random collection of disconnected short stories? Far from it. Your life is a crafted narrative written by a good God, who is working toward your supreme good.

Kathy had the idea of starting a "Blessing Jar", a place to write and save all of God's blessings as we continue our journey of faith. Yesterday I paid all of our remaining October bills, and had enough money to do that. November will be another story, but I have a real good feeling that God will take of November. One interesting thing is happening with our house. It's been for sale since July. August and September were disasters...5 showings in two months. In the last week and a half, it's been shown 4 times and today we have to leave so it can be shown again. I know that God's timing is His own. He rarely shares it with us. What does this increased activity mean? We'll find out. Perhaps it will be one of the more dynamic "blessings" that we put in our Blessing Jar.

Do-Overs

At times, we all do self evaluations, particularly about the major events in our lives. Sometimes we are tempted to spend time wondering what we would do if we could go back and re-live past events and do them over. Over the past 19 weeks, with a lot of extra time on my hands, I've thought about major events, both good and not so good.

Last week as I was wrestling with our budget, now that my severance pay has ended, I though about the 3 children that have adopted. As I was having a mini pity party, thinking about raising a second set of kids and all the expenses related to that, I thought about the fact that if we had not adopted our kids, we would have had several years as empty nesters. We could have doubled our retirement account and not be as limited as we look for a new ministry position without having to think about 3 teenagers and their needs. As I was thinking about this, I was reminded of a church service we had when Nicole was about 18 months old. The founders of the Royal Family Kids' Camps were our guests and Wayne Tesch was telling the story of one of the foster children that had attended one of the camps. As he described the horrible living situation this little girl lived in, and all of us were feeling so sad for this situation, the Holy Spirit whispered to me, "you rescued Nicole from a fate worse than this."  This little 18 month old had already taught me so much about adoption and fatherhood, and this was a great confirmation that we had done the right thing.

In a recent blog, Ronnie Floyd said, Adoption is one of the clearest pictures of the gospel we could ever see. In fact, the doctrine of adoption is the heart of the gospel. We were hopeless and lost, but Jesus brought us into God's family. Our adoption story started in 1980 as foster parents. We fostered children for 20 years. Nicole was our first child that had no where to go. None of her relatives could pass a home study and her birth problems were severe enough to scare away potential adoptive parents. Since she had been our foster daughter for over a year when it was determined her family could not adopt her, we decided to. That was 18 years ago. Nicole is now 19 and a wonderful young lady. Later we brought Sam, 17, and Shawn, 16, into our family.Even though we didn't attach a lot of spiritual emphasis to our decision, James said in his New Testament book, Religion that is pure and undefiled, before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction. Even though raising our adoptive children has been more challenging that our birth children, and there may be more challenges in the future, we wouldn't change a thing.

As I finished what I was doing with our budget, I thought about how blessed we are to have been adoptive parents. God will take care of us all, because He loves these children even more than we do. Do-over? Never. Blessed and contented? Yes.

Technology and Keeping In Touch

New technology is wonderful. Watching the rapid improvements in televisions, audio equipment, computers and especially phones, is almost awe inspiring. It seems like using your phone to make calls is a minor usage of it. Instead, we browse the web, text, play interactive games, keep our calendar and a multitude of other tasks. If you can download apps, you have an almost unlimited range of things you can do with your phone. This is the upside. The downside is that personal communication is taking a backseat to the use of technology. Send an email instead of making a phone call. Text instead of hand writing a note. Write on someone's Facebook wall instead of paying a visit...

Yesterday, I experienced the use of technology and received encouragement and inspiring conversation from our son and a good friend. Josh called from Hungary and it sounded like he was right next door. He was calling to get an update on my job process. I love to talk with Josh, he is always encouraging and really cares about his mom and dad. Josh called on a European plan cell phone. The other call I got was from Figi. My good friend Rob Leacock called to see how we were doing. His wife, Lori, had read my "job update blog" and Rob was checking on us. Again, that was a very encouraging call and I enjoyed talking with Rob for a few minutes. That call came from the internet. It is amazing to me that for a country so far away, again, it sounded like Rob was very close. The only glitch was when Lori logged on her computer and the band width didn't support both the call and her web browsing. She logged off and Rob was crystal clear again.

Earlier today Kathy and I sat in Starbucks with Claudia Alexander for a couple of hours and worked on a project. That was a great time for Kathy and I, very inspiring. Just before we sat down, our son, Jason, called me to check on us. I love talking with Jason. Our older sons constantly bless us. Tonight I played the piano for a recording session. Dear friends, Craig and Cindy Young, were singing the vocals. We had a wonderful time doing the recording and then talking after the session. Again, an encouraging and uplifting conversation.

Sometimes technology doesn't do it. Sometimes we need the personal touch of a person we can sit with and talk, or talk person to person on the phone, even if it's from a foreign country. I need to remember that for myself. There are some people that need to hear my voice, or read a handwritten card from me. How about you? Is there someone you need to touch personally? I think I'll buy some note cards and envelopes tomorrow.

Looking For A Job In the Summer of 2011 - Another Update

My last job hunt update blog was posted on August 24th. At that time, I had already discovered some interesting things about matching my skills and abilities to specific church ministry jobs. Since then, here's a couple of things that have been confirmed. 1) While churches are hiring Worship Leaders/Ministers of Music, they generally want that person to have at least 3 years of experience and their age to be somewhere in the middle of the age range of the church. That means, in most cases, someone in their 30s or 40s. While I have been a Minister of Music for 31 years, with very wide and diverse experience, my age puts me outside the preferred range. 2) My other skill set is in Church Business Administration. I have found that I am competing with many former financial institution employees who are CPAs or MBAs and will work for reduced church wages until the financial situation in the USA improves. For instance, I made the short list at an Episcopal church in Austin, TX for the position of Church Business Manager. The position was filled by an out-of-work CPA in Austin for a substantial reduction in pay. This worked great for the church, they paid their budgeted salary and got a very qualified employee, and did not have to pay for relocation expenses. This is a fairly typical scenario.

Today marks the 18th week of my job search. The severance package from my former church ends this week. Since most churches exempt themselves from paying into their state unemployment fund, church employees who are laid off or terminated cannot get unemployment benefits. In other words, our income completely stops after today, with no unemployment benefits eligibility. I am taking advantage of our state COBRA insurance program to continue our health insurance, but after October, we will pay the entire family premium. With 3 teenagers at home and Kathy and I both having some medical needs, health insurance is a necessity. A recent statistic I saw was that people in my age group take an average of 33 weeks to find a new job. With churches, once the holidays arrive, rarely are new employees hired until after the New Year. That means unless I can find a job before the third week of November, the holiday weeks will probably be lost to effective job hunting.

So, where are we? First, extremely grateful for the tremendous support of our family and friends. Thank you for all the meals and encouraging conversation, phone calls, cards, emails, etc. Just yesterday, some dear friends took us to breakfast and then to Sam's to "stock up". This is just one example of God truly blessing us through our friends. Second, in my wildest imaginations, I would have never thought that I would be in this situation at this stage in my life. To be let go from a church where I had served for almost 9 years, and in the words of the pastor "done a great job for our church", and in the worst economic period since the Great Depression, is almost unthinkable. However, God was not surprised. Now that our safety net is gone, this is where the real trust in God will come into play. I have always taught and believed that God is our Source. He uses our jobs to provide income, but He is the Source. The Salazars will find that out in the next weeks, and possibly months. Our relatives and friends tell us constantly that they are praying for us, and many of them have sent scriptures and words of encouragement. Please keep those prayers going heavenward and the encouragement coming to us. While we may go through some deep water, I know we'll have a victorious story to tell when we reach the shore. If you read this long post and have reached the end, thanks for your interest, support and prayers. Blessings...