Had an e-mail from John Hall (of the John & Kathy show on 101.5 WORD.FM) last evening and was asked to come in this afternoon from 5:05-6:00 p.m. for a segment of "Ask the Pastor." If you have the opportunity, turn on your radio or listen on the computer! 

I'm not really used to it being more than 100 degrees everyday.  In sixteen mornings of running and praying here, there was ONE morning when it was "cool." That's the morning I ran ten miles, and God provided both cloud cover and a few drops of rain during that run.  I did my part by starting half an hour before daylight, so I would only have to run the last half of the time in the sun.  We've seen 108 degrees on our warmest day here, and let me say that those who say, "Yes, but it doesn't feel that hot because the humidity is lower," either haven't ever been in 108 regardless of humidity, or their bodies are just strange!  Today it was a balmy 98, but it didn't matter all that much, since I've been inside except for lunch, since I finished my run/prayer time at about 6:20.  Any of you who really like the heat, I recommend El Paso.  Personally, I'm looking forward to Cabot where according to the weather channel.com it currently feels like 66 degrees and the ten day forecast isn't calling for anything hotter than 83.  83?  That's about the 8:00 a.m. temperature around here.  I've loved my time away, but I'm looking forward to a morning run when I might even feel a little chilly.  Here, the only time the word chilly is used it's spelled "chili"!

What seemed like a long time away--22 days--has passed by so quickly that it is less than 24 hours until I will be back home in Cabot, and once again serving as a child of God, a husband of one wife, a dad of two daughters and the pastor of a great local body of Jesus Christ--the Lord willing of course.  I never presume that what I plan to happen WILL happen, but am grateful for the many times when it has, and for those occasions when it hasn't but God has provided something even better!  (For those times when it hasn't and what has happened seemed at the time to be worse, is another day's post!) The time away has been productive on many fronts--my daily times with God havebeen great; Emmy and I have invested many quality hours together; the week-long missions trip through Tapestries of Life was great; getting to know Quinn and Lisa Seamans has been a major blessing--their dedication to Jesus and to seeing "the children come home" at the TLM orphanage is inspiring; I've written drafts for six messages; and watched Men's Fraternity videos and Rick Warren/Crown Financial Ministries "Managing Money God's Way" video series and have been blessed and challenged by both; and I've gotten to "rest" in God in a way that hasn't happened in a long time.  Now, in less than 24 hours comes the test of God's transformation in me--continuing to live the life with all the obligations of the daily life God has given me.  I look forward to the challenge, because by God's grace I'm ready!

Many of you know that 20 of us from New Life (Actually 17 from New Life and 3 from Crossway!) participated in the Community and Family Mexico Mission Trip to the Tapestries of Life Orphanage in Guadalupe, Mexico from July 4-11th.  Here are a few updates from the week:

• 13 young people from the Bethany Presbyterian Church (Bridgeville, PA) that teamed with us responded to the call to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord at the close of Pastor Steve Brewer's message on Thursday night! (They had 31 team members in all, so our work team consisted of 51 Pennsylvanians!)
• We all got to participate in a display of "fuegos de pyrotechnica" (fireworks) on July 4th at the orphanage in Guadalupe!  (By the time the fireworks were over, the border at Fabens had closed so we had to drive to the Zaragoza crossing in Juarez/El Paso to get back to Fabens, which meant a LATE night for everyone.)
• We worshiped in El Paso and Guadalupe on Sunday, and experienced God's Spirit working in very different ways!
• 11 of our group were new to the TLM missions experience and each one contributed greatly to the team both in the work they completed and in the way they interacted with one another and with the total team!
• SOMEONE wrote "Go Pens" on the floor of the "Red Wings Room".  (Each room in the orphanage has a "theme") Alas, when the floor is tiled that message will be lost!
• We witnessed the "waterfall" at the center of the cross in operation!  When the orphanage is completed the waterfall will not only provide a beautiful aesthetic element, but will add humidity and cooling properties to the building, which is located in the Chihuahua Desert.
• We heard many amazing accounts from Pastor Steve of miracles that God has provided along the way as the orphanage has been constructed!  These came during the morning and evening devotions!
• A great deal of work was accomplished on the orphanage as several rooms received floor tiles, electrical wiring was extended throughout the building, the trim work was completed around the top of the center of the cross and around the waterfall, more drywalling and painting was completed and several more of the themed rooms received individual murals to fit their theme!

I will be adding some additional specific accounts from the trip in upcoming posts, and I'm sure that you've already heard some of them, if you're part of New Life, since the team returned to PA yesterday.  Please, pray that God will lead this week of study leave ahead, and that He will continue to conform me more and more to the likeness of Jesus that I may return this Saturday renewed and better equipped to serve as Pastor of New Life than ever before!

One morning while I was running and praying, on the long, straight road that runs west out of Fabens, I was reflecting on how many changes were going on in my life at that very moment.  Then I realized that life is really an extended series of changes or transitions.  I started reflecting on the lives of biblical characters and how they responded (or failed to respond) to changes and transitions in their lives.  Suddenly, a "formula" came to my mind, a formula that I have no doubt reflects the truth of God as found in His word. Here it is:

Transition - Transformation = Death             Transition + Transformation = Abundant Life!

As we go through transitions in our lives, God intends to use them to transform us by His indwelling Holy Spirit.  That transformation yields the abundant life Jesus told us He came to bring in John 10:10.  As I reflected on Biblical characters that demonstrate this "formula" two Pharaohs came to mind. The first was the Pharaoh during the life time of Joseph.  You may remember that Pharaoh had a dream, which disturbed him and which no one could interpret.  Joseph was brought out of prison to interpret the dream, which he did.  He told the Pharaoh that his dream meant there would be seven years of prosperity followed by seven years of famine.  The Pharaoh faced a tremendous transition.  How wold he respond?  He allowed the news to transform him, put Joseph in charge of a grain storage program and the result was that not only Egypt, but surrounding nations including the family of Israel experienced LIFE during the seven years of famine.

Then there came a second Pharaoh who didn't remember what Joseph had done.  He forced the Israelites to become his slaves.  God heard the cries of the Israelites in their bondage and sent Moses to demand that the Pharaoh release the Israelites.  The Pharaoh faced a time of transition.  He would be losing hundreds of thousands of workers, but it was God who called Him to this change, this transition.  He said --- "No!"  which meant that he was not transformed.  In due time not only he but also his entire nation faced death instead of abundant life.  As you read through the Bible you see the reality of transition bringing the opportunity for tranformation repeated over and over again. What about our lives?  As we face transitions how do we respond?  The formula is true whether we want it to be or not.  That means when we face transitions, we must call out to God to fill and empower us with the Holy Spirit so He may transform us, then we will experience abundant life in and through the transition.  That doesn't mean we'll like it.  It doesn't mean everything will always be easy.  It DOES mean that whatever happens in our lives, God can use it -- and will use it if we give Him control -- to give us abundant, Christ-centered life!

Remember those days when you were in school, and after summer vacation the teacher would have you write a brief essay titled "What I Did On My Summer Vacation!"?  (Am I dating myself as belonging to the prehistoric crowd?)  Anyway, here are some of the highlights of what I did during my first week in Fabens, Texas:

• Visited an orphanage in Anapra, Mexico, and saw twenty-four precious children whose lives suddenly have hope!
• Ate burritos at "Burritos Chavez" in Guadalupe, Mexico, and realized that you really can't judge a book by its cover or a store by it's outside appearance!
• Watched 10 Men's Fraternity vides in the "Winning at Work and Home" series that we will be using at New Life this fall, and was blown away by the wisdom and practical application offered by Robert Lewis in those videos!  I'm already a better husband, dad and worker just for watching them.
• Had a special night out with Emmy at Whataburger (our favorite place to eat in Texas!), and realized once again how great it is to be a husband and dad in a family where Jesus is first!
• RELAXED.  Really!  I realized that it had been a long time since I had a week with no real scheduled activities, so I "scheduled" renewing activities all week long, and none of them involved wheel barrows, mulch, trees, lawnmowers, etc....
• Read and re-read the Gospel of Mark a number of times.  Realized again that the life of Jesus (and His death and resurrection) IS truly the most amazing life ever lived, and reason enough for me to live in and for Him!
• Ate at WhataBurger again! 
• Took naps during the hottest part of the day, and appreciated the invention of air conditioning more than ever!
• Realized once again that God instituted the concept of Sabbath for US not for Him!

I've now been away from home for sixteen days, and away from blogging for nearly four months.  I've logged perhaps four posts in that time.  Why the dirth of posts?  It hasn't been for lack of "grist" for the "mill"!  Life has been going 90 miles per hour.  Until, sixteen days ago that is.  Emmy and I left for Fabens, Texas and Guadalupe Mexico then, with Emmy scheduled to serve on the Staff of Tapestries of Life Ministries for three weeks, and me "scheduled" to take a week of vacation, serve on the New Life Community and Family Mission Team for a week, and then close out the three weeks away with a week of study leave.  At the two thirds point through the three weeks, I've discovered something--or I should say I have RE-discovered something: God speaks more clearly when I slow down and focus on Him!  Actually, God speaks clearly ALL the time. It is when I slow down that I HEAR Him!  I've been running and praying throughout my time away, logging sixty miles and ten hours of prayer time during those runs.  Getting up at 5:05 each morning and then heading out for a run and prayer before it gets light and before it gets HOT, has SLOWED my life down tremendously!  During that 30 to 100 minutes of prayer time, God has spoken clearly and often.  I'll have a new "formula" to share in a future post that adds to the one with which New Life folks have become familiar:

      Information - Application = Information, but  Information +Application = Transformation

You may wonder why it is that if life has slowed down so much during the past sixteen days, that it took until the sixteenth day for a post to appear.  That would be a good question to ponder.  The answer to that question is that I have prayerfully been considering whether blogging is the best use of a portion of the twenty-four hours God gives us each day. After all, since I can't add to that finite number of twenty-four hours each day, I must consider how each of those hours (and even minutes) is invested.  After all, if I want to continue life in the "slow" lane--that is life with ample time for God each day when I return to Pennsylvania this Saturday afternoon, then I must be more intentional than ever about building "margin" into my life. 

This much I know:  When I return to Pennsylvania there won't be fewer challenges to guarding my daily time with God, but more.  There will be 24 hours in each day as there have been here.  The key will be to do what I've done here:  Keep God first; plan each day--remembering that all of us tend to overestimate what we can do in a day, and underestimate what we can do in a year; and remember that in the end my having a healthy and growing relationship with Jesus will determine whether I have a healthy and growing relationship with my family and my church family, and whether Jesus can trust me with greater responsibility in every area of my life.

A few questions for you:  Are you putting Jesus FIRST each day?  Is your relationship with Him growing?  Is there enough time in each day to do what He wants you to do?  Are you DOING what He wants you to do?  Is there a SCHEDULED time of Sabbath (rest and renewal) in your life, ensuring that you have an hour each day, and a day each week resting and renewing yourself with the Lord?  God has been asking me those questions over the past sixteen days, and I've been finding that the more of them I can answer, "Yes!" the more like Jesus my life becomes, and as the New Testament reminds us from beginning to end that IS the goal of our time here after He becomes Savior and Lord of our lives!

Join us Sunday as we focus on the greatest reality of God's salvation in Jesus Christ: FORGIVENESS!  The message title is "Forgiven and Forgiving!" and it's the fifth of a seven-part message series focusing on the Lord's Prayer.  God's forgiveness to us is the most powerful spiritual weapon ever.  In fact, When Martin Luther penned the great hymn, "A MIghty Fortress Is Our God," he wrote, "...The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him.  One little word shall fell him."  What is the word?  Some would say, "Love!" and that would be a good word, but there is a word that causes the devil to tremble even more:  FORGIVE!  After all, as Jesus received the nails in His hands and feet on the day of His crucifixion, He did not say, "Father LOVE them, for they don't know what they're doing."  He said, "Father FORGIVE them, for they don't know what they are doing."  We all want to be forgiven.  In fact, our eternal future depends on God forgiving us, but as we'll see on Sunday, once we have been forgiven God EXPECTS (and DEMANDS) that we will forgive others!  I hope you'll be there as we see how to do just that!  (If you have friends in for the weekend---BRING THEM, TOO!)

Even for me, a 40+ day hiatus from blogging is a long time.  So many good things have been going on during that time, and I've missed the opportunity to comment on them, but I learned a long time ago that even God doesn't change the past, so instead of dwelling there, I'm moving forward with today!  Part of my Sabbath reflection today has been on the coming fall and all it holds for New Life.  In particular, I've been praying about and reflecting on what Sunday mornings are going to look like, since starting in late August, the focus is going to be moving steadily toward the "campaign" for funding Phase I of our Campus Development Plan, which will culminate in November.  We have operated as a "nomadic" church for so long, that looking forward to the day when we will have a mission outpost from which to share the New Life of Jesus Christ with the World--one person at a time--day in and day out-- is fantastic! Since our staff invested a week with Harvestime in March, and since 50+of you participated with me in the 10-100 Prayer Challenge, God has been blessing us in so many ways. If you are part of the New Life family and community, I thank you for your faithfulness!  If you are a new guest who has been part of the influx to our family over the past couple of months--welcome!  If you are an "outsider," right now, I want to invite you to join us, and be part of a great move of God that has started slowly and is gradually building momentum among us.  Whoever you are--may God's blessings be upon you in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ!  Join us as we move through a summer and fall like no other in our life together--and one that promises to be the launching pad for reaching our community with greater love and effectiveness than ever.  May it be so!

Since New Life didn't have a Good Friday service yesterday, Nancy, Emmy and I decided to go to Northway's Good Friday Service.  It was powerful!  They celebrated baptisms and the Lord's Supper during the service.  At first, I thought having baptisms was a little strange -- on Good Friday, but as Pastor Kent reminded us when we are baptized we are "buried" with Jesus, what better what to remember His death AND to remember that the moment Jesus died one of the miracles that took place is that many people who were dead CAME BACK TO LIFE!  Jesus death has been producing new life from the very moment it took place!  What an awesome and powerful reality!