When the Fasten Seatbelt Light Comes On

The sermon series I have been sharing the last month, "When the Fasten Seatbelt Light Comes On", has been very encouraging to me. I know that all of us go through times when we feel like we are going through "turbulence". In fact, as Christians we are promised that we will go through tribulation. Jesus said it explicitly - "in the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world." There are four things that we should do When the Fasten Seatbelt Light Comes On":

Pray - It seems obvious that we should pray, but the real key to "praying" is to ask God for "His will" to be done. We often ask God to direct us "around" the turbulence or to have the turbulence "go away". However, we are to pray and ask God to help us through the turbulence. It is not wrong to ask God to do those things, but we must not neglect asking God to give us "wisdom". James tells us that when we do that He will give to all men liberally. It also tells us that he will not "upbraid" us (or get aggravated with us) for asking. Step two - we should

Remember - We certainly need to Pray and then we need to remember. Over and over in Scripture we see that we should "remember" what the Lord has done for us. We know that the last thing Jesus did with his disciples was share with them the "Lord's Supper", and he told us to take the bread and cup in "remembrance" of Him. Throughout the O.T. we see the nation of Israel being told to "remember" how the Lord lead them out of Egypt. Moses stated that it is "vital" that the nation of Israel "not forget" how God had led them out of the promised land. We need to "remember" what God has done throughout Scripture and what He has done for us personally. Step three - we should

Seek - To "seek" we need to make an effort to really "take note" of our priorities. This was the emphasis of the "Sermon on the Mount". In Matthew 6, we are told not to "worry" as the Lord takes care of the flowers of the field and the birds of the air. He also made it clear that worry cannot even add an "inch" to your height. Step four - we should

Follow - The fourth step is that we are to "follow". As we progress through the steps of Prayer, Remembering, and Seeking, we become "proactive" by "taking up our cross and following" Christ. As we "focus" on Christ and trust Him through the turbulence we can reflect His "peace" and "joy".

Life is hard, but God is good!

Pastor Mike

Fall is Here!

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A Day at George Tiller's Office

The recent murder of Dr. George Tiller has brought to memory a visit I had with Dr. Tiller a number of years ago and the impact it made on my understanding of how someone could perform abortions on so many women. The abortion issue is certainly the question of our time as we ask “When should we protect life?” Years previously the thought was that the baby in the womb was just a “mass of tissue” – it certainly wasn’t “life” or “human life”. Yet, as we have pondered the question, most reasonable people must ask, if the baby in the womb is not “life” then what is it (after all it is growing – it is certainly moving and evolving)? If it is not “human”, then what would we call this “life”?

I was very much involved in the “Summer of Mercy” in 2001 and I was actually arrested in 2001 when I stood in front of Dr. Tiller’s office and was told that I was trespassing. When the State Representative for our district, Dale Swenson, contacted me and issued an invitation to visit Dr. Tiller’s Clinic (He was trying to lobby the Kansas Legislature for a law that would be beneficial to his clinic), I accepted.

I remember going into the clinic (which he had closed for the day) and going through the security, which was very similar to what we see in courthouses today. I remember going into the lobby where what was first noticed was a large picture of Dr. Tiller shaking hands with President Clinton. I also remember that all around the lobby were framed letters that patients of Dr. Tiller wrote thanking him for his services. I remember thinking how unsettling that scene was. It seemed that Dr. Tiller was trying too hard to find solace in the letters posted there.

I remember the tour and having the opportunity to ask questions of the staff. They seemed kind and conscientious and I wondered how they were able to cope working in such a place. I remember when I had the opportunity to visit with Dr. Tiller and I asked him when he thought “life” began. His response was that it wasn’t “his responsibility” to make that decision, that the legislature makes those decisions, and until they state differently he will continue to perform his “service”. I asked, "What is the difference between life immediately after birth to those babies aborted other than time?" Again his response was that that was not his “responsibility” to determine. As we continued our discussion I sensed that he had really “convinced” himself that he was doing a service and he did not think about the actual babies he was terminating. In fact, he bragged that he would baptize the aborted babies if the families wished. He described that he thought partial birth abortion was wrong and described the process of how he would “terminate” the babies in the womb and then they would be delivered.

He was clearly intelligent and articulate and I felt sad that a man with so much potential for good had taken such a horrible path. I wondered how he could find peace. Obviously he was involved in church, and while I cannot speak to the thoughts of the church, it was certainly not appropriate for one who was involved in such sin to be a “member in good standing”. I left that clinic with a feeling of profound sadness for the entire process: the babies, the mothers, the staff, and even Dr. Tiller.

After returning home I wrote Dr. Tiller a letter expressing my concern for him and what he is doing. I said I would pray for him (which I have often done since that day) and hope that he would find real peace. I never heard back from him, and often wondered what he might have thought about my response.

I remember when I heard at the end of our Sunday morning service that Dr. Tiller had been shot and killed in the foyer of the church he attended that I once again felt that profound sadness. I feel sad for Dr. Tiller’s family being brought into the violent end to his life. I feel for the church, while I disagree with their allowing Dr. Tiller to be a part of their church family, in having such violence happen in their church building. What a tragic situation.

We do not know how this will impact the entire abortion question, but we have recently seen some change in how Americans view the issue (for the first time, more Americans describe themselves as pro-life). It is my prayer that we will see an end to abortion in my lifetime.

Get -Togethers

May is the time for fellowship; it is a very busy time for “get-togethers”. I had the privilege of speaking at the “Sunflower Fellowship Meeting” on May 5th at Buffalo Ridge Camp Ground near Ottawa, Kansas. What a relaxing camp ground. I have spent a couple of nights there over the last few months. The man who runs the campground, Sam Renfro, asked me to speak to preachers concerning the issue of preaching on finances. It was a wonderful day as a number of preachers were able to attend the conference and then enjoy some “Buffalo Burgers” (I hear they are very healthy). After the meeting Tyler, his girlfriend, and I attended a Kansas City Royals game at the “new” Kaufman Stadium. It is a beautiful facility, and we really enjoyed the game.
From May 11th – 15th I was able to enjoy “Fellowship Week” at Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri. There was good preaching and fellowship. We do need to pray for the college; it is going through some difficult times (both financially and in attendance). I was able to spend time with the first pastor I worked for and his wife, Ralph & Darlyn DeVore. They are very special friends and I am grateful for their investment in my life. Ralph has pastored in Siloam Springs, Arkansas for a number of years. His wife, Darlyn, is in poor health and I’m praying that God works a real miracle in her life. The graduation speaker at B.B.C. was my friend Jack Eggar, who is President of AWANA. He challenged the graduates to make a difference in the lives of others. He showed a video of the work at AWANA in Angola Prison in Louisiana. They had put a program together for fathers who were incarcerated to visit their children and share with them their desire for their children to not “follow in their footsteps” and to get involved in AWANA in their neighborhood.

Friend Day Finale

We had a wonderful day for Friend Day ’09. I was a little nervous since we had a number of our regular workers out of town, but I want to especially thank Stephanie & Andrew Albritton for their work in putting many of the details together. We had to arrange for feeding close to 200 people. I was pleased to have a good number of folks from Kelly Elementary. We had many more folks than last year, and we hope that we will continue to see our relationship grow with the school. During the service Principal Huffman made the “Good Apple” presentations to our workers. We also made a presentation to Principal Huffman from the church. I was also pleased to have some guests that I invited to attend our services present. My high school football coach, Jim Culberston, was present in our services. When I was preparing the message I thought of coaches who impacted my life and I thought of Coach Culbertson. I hadn’t really spoken to him in years, but I was able to find him over the internet and made a phone call and he was gracious in saying that he would attend. I was also pleased to have Wichita Eagle columnist and radio personality Bob Lutz as my guest. I love sports and often call in to the “Sports Daily” radio program where I am known as “Pastor Mike”, and we had others who listen to the station present as well.

After services and our lunch of hot dogs and chips we went roller skating and that went very well. After all of our counting it was clear that we had close to 300 in our services (counting all of the kids, etc.)! We hope to be able to make contact with many of those folks and see them come again and worship with us in the near future.

CEF Washington, DC Trip 2009

I wanted to let you know how our trip to Washington DC went. We left from Kansas City on April 24^th and arrived in Baltimore on Friday afternoon. After we picked up our rental car we began the 35 mile drive to DC and our Hotel. I was quickly reminded of my dislike for traffic jams. After the 1^st hour we realized that we were not quite half way. We arrived at 4:00 PM and we wanted to be at our hotel before the dinner which began at 6:00 PM. At 6:00 we were still well outside the city and we finally arrived at the hotel around 7:30 PM. The folks there were gracious in bringing us our meal and we enjoyed the speaker, Matt Stover, from Liberty Counsel. Matt was part of the group who represented CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship) before the Supreme Court to argue for equal access to public schools for after-school Bible clubs. The argument was that schools should allow Bible clubs the same rights as chess clubs, etc. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of CEF and since that time we have been given the right to host Bible Clubs for children in our schools.

I was able to share with the leadership there about our relationship with Kelly Elementary and our being awarded the “GOOD APPLE” award from USD 259 for our work with the school. Throughout the weekend we were challenged by tremendous speakers. One of my favorite was the Chaplain for the Washington Redskins who shared with us the impact coaches can make in the lives of others. I also enjoyed hearing from Brian Birdwell, who was a victim of the September 11^th attacks on the Pentagon. A large portion of his body was burned, and he shared how the Lord helped him through that horrible ordeal. I had a nice visit with Brian (who also happens to be a BIG KC Chiefs fan) and he was very gracious with his time.

After the conference was completed we were able to do a few things in DC. We toured the Capitol and the new visitor center. We also went to a Washington Nationals baseball game in their new stadium and we drove around looking at all of the wonderful sites of our nation’s capitol. It was an encouraging trip as we learned about the work of CEF around the world. We hope to visit their headquarters in Warrenton, Missouri later this summer.