things I remember

Memorial day is a day for remembering those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom, but it is a good spiritual discipline to remember. I took some time today to just remember...just to sit and watch the bunnies in my back yard and some two kids playing baseball and just kinda praying, thinking, day-dreaming. Here are some things I remember...

I remember on a hot summer day like this that we would hear the ice cream truck and go running into the house to scrounge some change. the rich kids got the "bomb pop" - red,white and blue frozen ice. We paupers went for the 25 cent drumstick..and we were happy with that.

I remember throwing baseballs with a friend for hours on end. This is the way guys communicate. We would pitch back and forth and talk about everything - school, professional sports, God, rarely girls.

I remember wanting to be a preacher more than anything else in the world. Thought it would be the coolest if I could talk about the Bible for a living...still do.

I remember our church growing up going to McCormick Creek state park nearly Indianapolis for an all church picnic. It was a lot of fun and some adult usually broke some bone from playing too hard.

I remember that it is always hot on Memorial day and that there are a lot more American flags than usual. I'm a Christian first and then an American, but I love to see the red, white and blue. I'm the guy who gets choked up now when I'm at a baseball game and sing the star spangled banner with 35,000 people I dont' really know...oh yeah and go REDS.

I remember growing up poor and not caring about it and thinking our back yard was big (now that I've revisited it, it really wasn't - just like the church building, my high school and our street.

I remember coming to Eastview as a youth pastor and thinking that I'd be around for about three years and then I'd go preach somewhere...fifteen and a half years later, I'm coming up on my fourth anniversary as the senior pastor (June 1). I also remember more time to have casual conversations, going around town and not being recognized and not waking up at night thinking about stuff at church. All good, just remember before all of this.

Well, that's what I remember today...how about you?

Omar (and other muslims)

As I mentioned yesterday in my sermon, our Turkish tour guide was a guy by the name of Omar. He lives in a city of 17 million people, in a country that is 99% muslim. He of course, is a muslim guy leading a group of Christians through some of the biblical sites. I found him to be very respectful of our religion as we were of his freedom to follow Muhammed as well. Here's the question we lived out over the last five days of our trip: How do Christians influence Muslims without offending them?

I guess I should begin with "Should we try to convert Muslims to Christianity?" Well, yeah! If you believe anything that Jesus and Muhammed said you will find their religions and their teachings to be diametrically opposed. In other words, the notion that somehow you can synchronize both into being the same thing is silly! Muhammed completely rejects Jesus as Lord and God (which Jesus continually claimed to be) and Jesus completely rejects Muhammed as a false teacher (many will come and say, "i am he"). Let get past this societal teaching that somehow all teachings are the same. They simply oppose each other too much. So how do we influence those whose world views are obviously not Christian? Well, we do it as we did on our trip (I was so proud of our people) on hours of bus trip conversations! So with apologies for a silly alliteration. Here are three "L"s for interacting with Muslims:

1. Lead with questions, not statements. We asked lots of questions like: How do you get eternal life? What happens when you die? What do women get in heaven? Is Muhammed in heaven? What is Allah like? These questions usually lead to questions about Jesus and Chrsitianity which gives opportunity to talk about Jesus in a non-threatening way. simply telling Omar about what we believe and why we believe it.
2. Listen. You have to listen to a lot of stuff you don't believe and frankly don't want to hear. As Omar shared the founding of Islam over the microphone for about 30 minutes, I was really on edge. Basically he was preaching the message of his faith, but that courteous listening gave us a chance for him to listen. You simply won't win anyone (muslim or not) without listening.
3. Live Jesus. Finally, as we've said before; your first and best witness is the life you live. We showed genuine love for Omar. Laughed with Omar. Talked with him. Showed the fruit of the Holy Spirit and I think it genuinely affected him.

Finally, it's the Holy Spirit's job to do this spiritual work. Omar has asked for a copy of our video teachings we did in each Bible location which we will when we get it edited. We will also make this available for small groups to study soon at church. In the meantime, keep playing.

last day reflections

Seriously? I was awakened at 11:45 by an earthquake. Woke up and the bed was shaking sideways and I woke sara up and walked to the window and no one was freaking out...so I went back to bed. Pretty wild though.
Went to Pergamum today. Ancient city built in 300's BC and with Zeus' altar built in 180's bc (probably the Satan's throne referred to in Revelation 2). We only know one Christian name from this ancient city - Antipas. I always feel some strange connection to this early church martyr who according to legend was roasted inside a brazen bull. Gave his life for Jesus and in many ways I want to do the same thing. Here are some final reflections on our trip:
*have a sermon ready for Sunday...sore back from typing sideways in the bus
*loved seeing the Erastus stone in Corinth - another Bible brother in the Lord
*Istanbul is a great city...enjoyed several nice meals with some old and new friends here amidst the nightlife after long days of discovery and reflection
*Two weeks seems like a month...really miss home and the people I love
*The Bible really comes to life when you are able to walk the paths and streets of those mentioned in Scripture
*a starbucks and mcdonalds in the middle of nowhere Turkey can be a very soul-refreshing thing. You should have seen the excitement on our faces. It was the perfect rest area. If you think this is shallow...that's o.k. - it's just a fun touch of home when you're far away.
*If you are at Eastview, see you Sunday

Ephesus and Smyrna

Today we woke up early and headed for Ephesus and after it rained all day yesterday, it was another beautiful sunny day. We had an hour and a half to do two video shoots in first century Ephesus and so we moved quickly to the Arcadian Way (or Harbor way) that led from the theater to the ancient harbor. We set up and J.k. began his teaching and as he got through his introduction and was ready to read his Scripture some loud production music began for some period acting thing they do from the Roman period so we stopped. After the production was over, J.K. picked right back up and finished his deal. Then we moved north towards the theater and got in position for another filming. I went through the teaching and then the same production kicked in again - God worked in perfect timing to let us get the teaching done. Then after we left the first century site; it began to rain and then hail - crazy hard, but we made our way back to the agora of ancient Smyrna (Izmir) and the rain stopped. We saw some security guys, but we began to shoot anyway. The minute we finished a security guy came up and said we could use a tripod. So we said "o.k." and then left - our work was done. the point is that Jesus was with us and helping us accomplish this good work which we hope to share back home some day.

It has been a really great time of seeing the biblical sites and hanging with some great people from church, but I'm ready to be home. Sermon is baking and coming together as I'm in this inspirational place. Tomorrow we hit ancient Pergamum on the way up to Istanbul and then home on Saturday. In case you're wondering, there is a plan in case I don't get home. And when I'm preaching at 11:30 a.m. central time on Sunday, my body will think it's evening - jet lag sermon oughta be fun...don't miss it.

Nicea and Omar

Maybe I've already told you this, but our guide in Turkey is Omar. He is Muslim (at least like Americans are Christian - meaning he says he is) and we have been praying for the Spirit to use our group to show Christ in real ways. This is gentle work. We aren't the only Christians he has guided and I'm sure some well-meaning and over zealous people have let him have it. Anyway, our trip south today from Istanbul was to take a swing (120 miles out of the way) through modern day Iznik (nicea from olden days). So we get close and he is simply going to let us off at some beach location for ten minutes of photos and then on to our destination of Izmir. I asked him if he could get us to the church and he wasn't sure where it was - had never been. Well, after some questions and narrow streets on a big bus we found the aya sofia (same name of church as in Istanbul). The remains of a 5th century church are to be seen built on the site of Nicene Council that met here in 325 AD. Who cares? If you are a Christian, you should. Here are three major things that original group of church leaders accomplished.

1. They agreed on a creed (latin - credo - believe). You can google the Nicen creed - same things we believe after all of these years!
2. They agreed that Jesus was in fact in substance God. This is important because a guy named Arius said he wasn't. Praise God Athanasius and others followed our Lord's description of who he was - God in the flesh, the word was with God and was God!
3. The method for determining Easter each year (equinox, blah, blah, blah)
4. They confirmed the 66 books of the Bible that were in circulation and accepted by the early church as authentic. The Bibles we read contain these books. IMPORTANT: they didn't choose the books or put them together for the first time. This was not arbitrary work. They simply confirmed the authenticity of authorship, writing, and church usage of these 66 writings.

We had a chance to share all of this on the bus microphone and guess who was listening? Omar continued to ask many of our group questions and even showed interest in the Bible. Dave Doran gave Omar his Bible and it made his day! The Holy Spirit continues to work..so pray for our diligence, patience and alertness to Holy Spirit moments! Other than that it was a rainy day, so a good one to be in the bus...9 hours to Izmir (Smyrna in the Bible). We arrived at the hotel around 9:15 and went for a quick supper at a local cafe'. Ready to hit the sack..but first gotta send my sermon outline back to the church office. I spent much of the day working on what I will preach this coming Sunday from Acts 11. Looking forward to it and looking forward to Ephesus tomorrow.

Istanbul

I'm in the lobby of the taxim erisin hotel enjoying a starbucks coffee (three blocks from our hotel) and wondering where I am and what time zone I'm in. We had a long day of travel yesterday driving by bus from Thessalonica to Istanbul, with stopping by Philippi along the way. We literally had the entire ancient site of Philippi to ourselves...truly awesome. Scott and I hurriedly went to the prison cell of Paul and Silas to set up for our first teaching time there and the rest of the group caught up and we recorded the lesson. It was moving sitting in the place of Paul and Silas' suffering. I noted that they didn't respond to hard times like we Christians often time do: complain, wonder where God is, blame others, doubt, throw a pity party...they prayed and sang!

Then we went by bus, just a short trip, to the river outside the ancient city to where Lydia was baptized. Here, J.k. spoke and many got in the water and took pictures. Again very inspiring. Then we were on a bus for 9 hours (with stops and crossing the border which took about an hour or so) arriving in Istanbul around 9:00 p.m. Monday (1:00 p.m. central Illinois time). Even though we were tired, we wanted to get out and see some stuff, so we walked around this incredibly large city (17 million - 110 mile drive from east side to west side! - they grow by 300,000 every year!) and took in the sights and sounds and smells of this place. Though we don't have any record of Paul being here, we know that when he travelled through this area, the town that was Byzantium (started by Bisas - some king dude) was here and though not as large, it was still a huge city! His heart must have been stirred at the lostness of the place as was ours. The country is 99% muslim and our guide is as well. Because of some (I think ill-placed) questions from our group, he explained the resurrection and life after death according to the Koran. His take was this...it will be a day of judgment and people will be running around scared and have to answer for everything they have done. this is quite the contrast between Christians who have hope that Jesus has washed every sin away and our names are written in the book of life. We look forward to that DAY.

Anyway, we are here today, just checking out some of the sights of Istanbul: aya sofia, the spice market and ancient bazaar. Update you later.

church by the waterfront

This morning we went all over Thessaloniki, mostly on foot checking out a cool 5th century church where St. Demetrius ministered and then we went to several locations throughout the city built in the 2nd Century Roman period which outlines the city walls as Paul and Silas would have experienced them. I decided last night that we would wait until after lunch to have our worship service and so we made our way to the Starbucks down by this plaza filled with thousands of people just hanging out for the day (beautiful by the way, blue skies and 80 - sorry it's not been so good in Normal). I chose this location because I love to drink Starbucks half a world away, but also because it represents the variety and hecticness of a city that Paul would have encountered 2,000 years ago. The majority of the group headed straight to the plaza to get seats in the umbrella-shaded cafe' area and Scott, Phil and I headed back to the hotel to pick up the video equipment and the bread and wine for communion.

When we got to the place we began setting up the equipment, lots of people stared, some stopped and listened. I preached not only to our group, but also to many strangers -felt very Paul-like (though I don't hold a candle to him) - I got to preach in Thessalonica! Wow! Thrill of a lifetime. By the time I had finished my teaching from Thessalonica, i closed with a benediction Paul wrote to the first Christians here in chapter three of I thessalonians. J.K. led us in prayer and there watching the sea we celebrated the Lord's supper just like those Christians of old. It was special and I got emotional (surprise, surprise) as I prayed for Joel, Matt, and everyone at Eastview (church in Normal was one hour from the first service - it was 4:00 p.m. here). The night was very laid back as we all went our separate ways for dinner. A group of us grabbed a little cafe' in old Thessalonica and enjoyed a great dinner as the sun went down and the little lights of the restaurants and street musicians came to life. Tomorrow is an early day for us...so after some study for the Phillipi lesson tomorrow, I will hit the bed early. We have a long day tomorrow, heading to Philippi in the morning and then to the border crossing hotel in Istanbul!