During the month of November, I will be taking a month-long sabbatical. This will be an intentional time away from the daily routines and obligations of life and an immersion into the presence of God – a time to give it all to God and let God speak to my life in a deeper and exclusive way. The sabbatical will be a time for God to “melt me … mold me … fill me … and use me,” as the lyrics of one of my favorite hymns, “Spirit of the Living God,” go. 

But I’m not sure that is an adequate explanation of what this sabbatical is all about. You see, things of God are hard to put into words. It seems that our normal way of speaking and using language isn’t capable of fully describing the way God works in my life and what it all means for me. This is the “ineffable” part of God, the part that is truly beyond words. 

But I have discovered a little secret way of speaking about God … and God’s creation … and life in God’s world … that I would like to share with you. It’s a form of writing known as poetry! Poetry is a way of using words that in some curious and unexplainable way, are able to touch the truth of things that normal language just cannot do. I am not a poet –at least in the formal sense of the word. But I have a group of real poets that I keep nearby in books of theirs. They stay close to me because they are able to explain things about God, and reveal other things about my relationship with God, that I just can’t find anywhere else. 

So, I thought I would offer this little gift to all of you — that might be a better way of explaining what this sabbatical is really about. Let me be clear: I am not going on sabbatical because I am worn out or spiritually empty. In fact, it’s just the opposite. My 2 years plus at Vine Street have energized me and stretched me spiritually in ways I knew it would. God led me here to be with you, and I am convinced God has a great plan for us. So in order to be the best Pastor I can be – for God and for you – I am withdrawing for a month so that God, and God alone, can do his work in my heart and on my soul … so that I am best prepared spiritually to serve you in whatever it is God has in store for us up ahead.

And while I am out, you also, as a congregation, will be examining God’s next call for Vine Street. I hope you will make it a point to attend the “Vision Luncheon” on November 10th after church. The Holy Spirit moves in powerful ways when 2 or 3 … or more … are gathered in the name of Jesus! But in addition to that, I also encourage you to take some “withdraw” time for yourself. Create your own Sabbath retreat or mini-sabbatical. Yes, it may be the hardest thing to do given your schedule – but it may also be the most important thing to do given your schedule. When I return for the First Sunday of Advent, we can talk about this further. 

But for now, I ask for your prayers – sincere, intentional, and focused prayers to God on behalf of your Pastor. I know that prayer works, and I will be asking God often to share with me the prayers that are coming from this congregation.

And now, here is my little gift of poetry to you. This poem is by one of my great spiritual guides, the late Mary Oliver. (If you want to know how wonderful she is, just ask my mom!) The poem is called “Invitation” – and better than I ever could, it explains the invitation I’m responding to during my time away. 

It takes 12 chapters in the Book of Genesis to get to the kind of life that we are called to in the 21st Century – a life of faith. Up till that chapter, we have had:

Adam and Eve – the life of trusting self over God

Cain and Abel – the life of works to earn God’s blessing

Seth – the life that calls upon the name of the Lord

The Generations In-between – the life of disregard for God

Noah – the life of the righteous family, who obey God for self – preservation

The Descendants of Noah – the life of competing with God for greatness 

That little summary is probably not something I would turn in for a Ph.D. dissertation, but I think it is a logical and useful way to summarize the kinds of relationships with God the people of the 1st 11 chapters of Genesis had. And as you will notice, each of those “lifestyles” still exist today in God’s people: Many of us still trust ourselves before trusting God; Many of us live our lives trying to earn God’s favor through good works; Many of us call upon the name of God, but have no intention of trusting God with our lives; Many of us have little, if any, regard for God in our lives; And many of us turn to God when we have nowhere else to turn and our lives are in a desperate mess. 

The 1st 11 chapters of Genesis tell me that God knows all about those various kinds of relationships that God’s people preferred, but still God was working in those lives: Picking up the messes; putting back together the pieces; cleansing the world and giving us a do-over. But it isn’t until Chapter 12 of Genesis that we learn about a way of life that can save us from ourselves and save the world as well! 

Meet Abram – soon to be renamed by God – Abraham. Seemingly from out of nowhere, with no hint of foreshadowing other than a genealogical lineage, this verse appears in the Book of Genesis: “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.’” 

Not unlike God’s request of Noah, God wants a particular person to do something very specific. For Noah, the underlying motivation was to save himself and his family – and, by the way, civilization! But God’s call to Abram is different – significantly different. This time, God wants the person receiving the message to trust God entirely … no questions asked.

Yes, there is a promise – a covenant – which God makes with Abram: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” And while that promise today may sound glorious … imagine Abram hearing it for the first time and thinking, “Well, that and a nickel will get me a cup of coffee!” 

I’m sure that thought, or something like it, went through Abram’s mind. But it didn’t stick. The trust that Abram had in his heart for God overwhelmed any doubt that emerged in his mind, so “Abram took his wife … his brother’s son … all the possessions they had gathered … and the persons they had acquired … and set forth to go to the land of Canaan.” 

This is one of those moments in the stories of the Bible when we have to stop … draw in a deep breath … and take a good long look at what is going on here and why. We are just 12 chapters into the first book of the Bible, and God shows us something new that will become the basis for people’s relationship with God till the end of the Bible, and beyond. God introduces the concept of FAITH … trusting in God’s word just because it is God’s word! 

From this point on, faith becomes the measuring stick whereby all those who appear in the Old Testament stories, and all who appear in the New Testament as well, will have their relationship with God defined by this one concept: faith. 

In the Old Testament, those who lived by faith in God were blessed in their lives, and those who did not were cursed. And just about everybody that appears are both! Their stories show us the great cycle of having faith and lacking faith, and our inability to overcome our self-trust to completely trust God with our whole life.

In the New Testament, God presents a remedy for the predicament we are in. Not being able on our own to shed the sin of self-worship, God comes into our world as one of us, only sinless, to show us how to live according to God’s way and to lift the curse of sin from our stained hearts and tangled lives and nail it to a cross. Only God could do this for us, and so Jesus becomes the bridge between our life of faith, such as it is, and finally reaching the promised land of God’s Kingdom. 

Faith becomes the key to life … and trust unlocks the door. With that, as Jesus says repeatedly, our faith has saved us. From a man named Abram … through generations of history, to this very day and your one “wild and precious” life, God still calls. God calls you today, and says to “Go” to a place where I will show you … it’s a promised land that I have prepared for you … and all I ask in return is that you trust me.” 

Let us begin the journey of faith together … today.

Following in Abraham’s path, I am,

Prayer is an issue for everyone. It is perhaps the most constant and persistent topic among all Christians. Prayer is something we all “do” – each in our own way – and yet we always are seeking more. Prayer takes us to God  … but hardly ever satisfies the need we have to become one with God. We are often left wondering if God has “heard” our prayers; if our prayers really make any difference; if we’re praying correctly; and, of course, if God is answering our prayers.

Prayer is the one spiritual practice that most of us do on a daily basis, and yet we still have plenty of questions about how and if it really works. 

In order to fully appreciate the miracle of prayer, we must first be willing to accept the mystery of God. If we keep waiting on God to respond to our prayers like other people respond to our requests, our needs, and our pleas, then we will probably miss most of what God gives us in response to our prayers. The truth is: there is never a right-way, or a wrong-way, to pray. But if you really want to connect with God and God’s living spirit, then some techniques and practices seem to work better than others. Yet even then, prayer is still a highly unique and personalized method of communication (communion) between you and God. 

This weekend I was browsing through a book on prayer that we studied in Seminary. The book, “Beginning Prayer” by John Killinger, claims to be a book on prayer for beginners. But I found it useful to re-read this weekend. Perhaps the truth is – we’re all beginners when it comes to prayer, and we’re all lifelong learners – wanting to learn as much as we can each and every day.

Here are some tips from Killinger, from the Conclusion of his book:

I periodically mention, but hardly ever write about the visions and signs that God lays in front of me. Today, I feel compelled to break away from this old habit and share some of what God has recently been showing to me and saying to me as we move forward from an initial phase of Spirit-led change into the unknown next phase. 

There are 5 “strands” of new visions from God that I can decipher. These strands are still in early stages of interpretation. As before, the ultimate interpretation will rely on you – the people of God – to let the Holy Spirit bring clarity, coherence, and action to them. I will be sharing some of this at the board meeting tonight, but in case you can’t make it, or are not on the board, I thought it important for all of our church family to be hearing of these new strands and praying over them. 

The goal, of course, is for God’s will to be done. When we meditate and pray over the things that God is revealing to us, we always keep our focus on God’s will … not ours. Once our self-will enters the process, then the power of the Holy Spirit is diminished, and eventually vanquished. When that happens, then we’re back to making plans and doing things that are all about us, and not about God. And for any church with Jesus’s name on it, that is simply misguided and unworthy of Jesus’s name. 

Here are the 5 new strands that I am receiving from God:  

As we ponder, and pray over, these visions from God, let us not forget this “warning” from the Book of Deuteronomy to God’s people:  

When a prophet or visionary gets up in your community and gives out a miracle-sign or wonder, and the miracle-sign or wonder that he gave out happens and he says, “Let’s follow other gods” (these are gods you know nothing about), “let’s worship them,” don’t pay any attention to what that prophet or visionary says. God, your God, is testing you to find out if you totally love him with everything you have in you. You are to follow only God, your God, hold him in deep reverence, keep his commandments, listen obediently to what he says, serve him—hold on to him for dear life! (Deuteronomy 13:4 MSG)

In the name of Jesus, our Lord, I am,

Pastor <>< Bob

The truth of the “Noah’s Ark” story in the Bible, is that if we took away the ark, and the flood, and the man named Noah, we would still have the universal and eternal truth that the story is meant to convey.

Unfortunately, that part of the story, the truth part, usually takes a back seat, if it even gets mentioned, when the story is typically taught or preached to modern-day Christians. If I asked you what the story was about, the only reference point you would probably have is your Sunday School teaching as a child or youth. Every kid gets their dose of the story of Noah’s Ark in Sunday School. And yet, we still teach the story like we’re teaching it to children, even though we’re adults now – and presumably “we can handle the truth!” 

So, here is a little truth for you about the story of Noah’s Ark. 

You have probably been taught and led to believe that the story of Noah’s Ark is about one, or all, of those propositions. But of course, that would be a literal reading of the myth story that has a much bigger truth within it than any of those fairy tale/nursery rhyme reasons. And remember … the truths in the Bible are always UNIVERSAL and ETERNAL truths that are just as true today as they were when they were written in the Bible. In other words, the stories of the Bible are NOT about morals or truths that are confined to the time and place of the story itself, but rather the truths are bigger than the story. 

In the story of Noah’s Ark – it really doesn’t matter if the boat was ever built, or the flood ever happened, or even if there was ever a man named Noah. The truth is (can you handle it?) nobody really knows if any of those things are true. But there is one more part to the story, that everyone knows about, but it doesn’t get talked about much. And that little part, though not meant to be read literally, reveals the UNIVERSAL and ETERNAL truth of this story. This truth appears at the very end of the text I have suggested you read for this week. You’ll find it in Chapter 9 of Genesis; verses 8 – 17.

You see, the story of Noah’s Ark is about the covenant that God has made with all of humanity. That covenant is portrayed in this story by a rainbow in the sky. That “bow,” the story tells us, is to remind us that no matter how much we break God’s heart with our choices on earth, that no matter how bad we act or how much we ignore God, God will make “an eternal covenant with you and all living creatures” (Gen. 9:12) – a “permanent promise to you and all the earth” (Gen. 9: 13) – that God “will never cause a flood to destroy all human life.” (Gen. 9:15) Even though we will continue to break God’s heart constantly and consistently and will continue to break our end of any covenant or promise that we have with God. 

So, understand this: the story of Noah’s Ark is not about something God did to us to punish us by wiping us off the earth in a worldwide flood. Rather, the UNIVERSAL and ETERNAL truth of the story of Noah’s Ark teaches us that God will never do such a thing to us, even though we may deserve it. Instead, what God will do is keep God’s end of the covenant – to never leave us or forsake us, to always hold out a hand to rescue us, and to always be waiting for us when we decide we want to come back home to God. 

If you keep reading the Bible, all the way through, you’ll find out just how much God loves us. So much so that God sacrifices his only Son so that all of humanity, stuck in our sinful and wicked ways, can finally find a way back to our originally created self … in the garden. Jesus becomes the bridge that leads us home … and helps to heal God’s broken heart … one by one. 

Pastor Bob

Have you ever just got fed up with life and in a moment of prayerful clarity blurted out to God, “Dear Lord … stop the world, I want to get off!” Or have you ever thought to yourself (and maybe said aloud at some point), “If everyone would just listen to my way, then all these problems would go away!” Those statements are both good examples of eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Our own self-centered thinking can convince us that the problems in our life, and in the world, are caused by other people. It’s always someone else’s fault when something bad happens. That serpent voice inside our head is constantly telling us that we know best … that our thoughts and ideas are the right ones … that our prejudices and biases are valid … and that we are the smartest person in every room we go into … just don’t flaunt it! 

This is what is called “stinkin’ thinkin’” throughout the Bible. No, that’s not a literal translation, but it is an accurate one! And it leads us to become convinced that the only way to escape our problems is to get control of other people in our life … or get away from them. Thus, we end up living a life with two main relationship priorities with other people: 1) CONTROL other people; and 2) ESCAPE from other people. For each situation in our life, those become our default strategies. 

Genesis 1 & 2 teaches us the basic flaws of this way of thinking. When God tells us what were not supposed to do, we immediately hear a voice inside of us that questions it, and then convinces us otherwise. Now, what God told us not to do becomes the most tempting thing for us to do … so we take CONTROL over God and our situation. 

Later, when we realize the consequences of this, the only way to live with it is to blame another person: the serpent told me I could do it; my spouse said it was ok; it looked so right and seemed so good that I decided it had to be OK with God. Take any situation in your life that’s not going well … and this is its fundamental story – with different details. 

By the time we get to Genesis 4, the issue of “other people” becomes real. We have been banished from living in paradise because we were unwilling to be obedient to God’s will, but still, God gives us life and a livelihood. It’s no paradise, but it sure beats the alternative! And at this point in the story, two other people appear. Cain and Abel are sons born of Adam and Eve – but they could be any of the key people in our life. And most importantly, they could be us – you and me.

One interesting facet of this story is that I have never heard any person self-identify with Cain. Cain is the older brother of Abel whose sacrifice to God was not pleasing to God, while little brother Abel’s was. This one mere distinction sets off a series of feelings and emotions between brothers that encompasses all we need to know about how we relate to other people. 

Here‘s what happens: Cain feels self-righteous in his relationship with Abel because he is the older brother. It could be a hundred other things for us – but we always have something in our life that makes us “better than” other people. Cain feels deserving … and entitled … to have a better relationship with God than little brother Abel. When things don’t work out that way, Cain’s expectations are left unfulfilled. And the universal and eternal truth of unfulfilled expectations is that they lead to resentment. 

Cain thought he was more deserving … entitled … and worthy. His heart burned with envy when Abel was blessed by God in his place (as he saw it). The serpent voice in Cain went to work and reminded him of the two options he could take: 1) CONTROL the other; 2) ESCAPE from the other. Cain decided on the ultimate response – he would do both with Abel. By killing his younger brother, he thought he took ultimate CONTROL over him, and ESCAPED from him forever. Or so he thought … 

And that’s the fallacy of ‘stinkin’ thinkin’. It’s not based on Gods’ truth of how things work, but rather it’s based on a perverted sense of justice and truth that comes from the serpent inside of us … which relies more on our self for truth than on God. So Cain found out that what he thought he was doing to Abel, God was actually doing to him. 

Cain didn’t acquire CONTROL over Abel by killing him. Instead, the spirit of Abel stayed in his heart, leading him to wonder, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Nor did Cain ESCAPE from Abel by killing him. Instead, Cain was marked for life as a killer and he was banished to live alone.

Right here, in the 4th chapter of Genesis, in just 16 verses, in a story about two brothers, we learn how God expects us to live in relationship. Unless we are willing to love the other person according to God’s will, we will always find ourselves having problems with relationships. Until we get over the stinkin’ thinkin’ that tells us that we are the most important person in any relationship, then we will never be satisfied in any relationship.

Even though our responses may not be as drastic as Cain’s was, we still continue to try to gain control over other people in our lives and when needed, find ways to escape from them. We constantly find ways to “murder” and “kill” other people in little ways every day. And never even stop to think about it. 

 But when God’s simple and transformational commandment becomes our commitment, then everything in our life changes for the good, and or sacrifices become more pleasing to God. 

Jesus tells us that there is one way to live … there is one truth to live by … and there is one life according to God’s will. 

Anything other than that can lead us to hell on earth. But in living this way, then we discover the “heaven” of other people.

In His name … according to His Way …