Timing

I've been doing a lot of thinking about timing lately. The next couple of weeks are busy with personal stuff and ministry stuff. My wife and I are expecting our second child any day now. The Youth Ministry that I lead is doing the 30 Hour Famine Friday and Saturday. Then Sunday night is Veritas Worship. Then the following weekend we have Sr. High Youth Sunday. Then from May 10-23 I am scheduled to be in England on a Study Tour with 5 other pastors. But so much of this depends on when the baby comes. And I want so badly to control when it comes...to fit into my schedule. I realize that I have this issue alot in my life. I want Veritas to grow quickly. I want something to happen now instead of being patient and waiting on God's timing. I want our 2nd child to be born between April 30-May 4.

I need to reorientate my life and schedule around God instead of trying to have God/others reorientate around my schedule and life. If you read this, help me by keeping me accountable and asking how I am doing with timing in my life.

Ryan

Do Not Hold on to me

Yesterday at Hempfield COB (the church that sponsors Veritas) I preached at the 2 morning services. I preached on the text John 20:10-18 and talked about Mary Magdalene's encounter with the Risen Christ. I talked about Jesus wanting Mary not to cling to him so that the Holy Spirit could come and also that she would let him go and share the resurrection story with others. I talked about Mary being told to let go of the known (the resurrected body of Jesus) and to embrace the unknown. To let go of the tried, the true, the safe and to set out in faith and in risk. I used a song before the sermon and a prayer at the end of the sermon. The song is called “Painting Pictures of Egypt” and the prayer is the Prayer of Saint Brendan. These 2 things speak to me in profound ways. I hope they will speak to you as well.

Painting Pictures of Egypt by Sara Groves
I don’t want to leave here
I don’t want to stay
It feels like pinching to me either way
The places I long for the most
Are the places where I’ve been
They are calling after me like a long lost friend

It’s not about losing faith
It’s not about trust
It’s all about comfortable
When you move so much
The place I was wasn’t perfect
But I had found a way to live
It wasn’t milk or honey
But then neither is this

CHORUS:
I’ve been painting pictures of Egypt
Leaving out what it lacked
The future seems so hard
And I want to go back
But the places that used to fit me
Cannot hold the things I”ve learned
And those roads closed off to me
While my back was turned

The past is so tangible
I know it by heart
Familiar things are never easy to discard
I was dying for some freedom
But now I hesitate to go
Caught between the promise
And the things I know

BRIDGE:
If it comes too quick
I may not recognize it
Is that the reason behind all this time and sand?
If it comes too quick
I may not appreciate it
Is that the reason behind all this time and sand?

Prayer of Saint Brendan
Shall I abandon, O King of mysteries, the soft comforts of home?
Shall I turn my back on my native land,
and turn my face towards the sea?
Shall I put myself wholly at your mercy,
without silver, without a horse,
without fame, without honour?

Shall I throw myself wholly upon You,
without sword and shield,
without food and drink,
without a bed to lie on?
Shall I say farewell to my beautiful land,
placing myself under Your yoke?
Shall I pour out my heart to You, confessing my manifold sins
and begging forgiveness,tears streaming down my cheeks?

Shall I leave the prints of my knees on the sandy beach,
a record of my final prayer in my native land?
Shall I then suffer every kind of wound that the sea can inflict?
Shall I take my tiny boat across the wide sparkling ocean?
O King of the Glorious Heaven, shall I go of my own choice upon the sea?

O Christ, will You help me on the wild waves?

If you want to know more about Saint Brendan, let me know or do a google search.
Let’s take risks for the kingdom of God.
Ryan

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Go Out There And Do Something

God has put at burning for service on my heart. It started about 2 years ago when a guy by the name of Geoff Byrne asked me to come to the Prayer Room in Lancaster City. About 2 months later I did and I have been going ever since. I honestly have not felt closer to Jesus than when I have been meeting and praying with the people there. From week to week I might leave feeling great or my heart is aching for someone I just met.

What's the Prayer Room?
A very casual (that might be changing soon) prayer ministry of about 2 dozen people that meets at the 1st Reformed Lutheran Church in Lancaster city. The church sponsors a free community breakfast on Saturday mornings which brings in a wide variety people, some homeless, some with mental problems, some just looking for a free meal. As they come upstairs Geoff or I (we tag team this) ask if they would like to pray. If they want to, we point them in the direction of the room. Once in the room someone greets them and prays with them. My experiences have ranged from someone insisting they pray for me to the heart break of crying with a man whose 4 year old son died the day before (that cut deeply because my son is 4).

Since then I have looked for other opportunities to reach OUT. I highlight OUT because I realized something soon after I started going to the Prayer Room.

There was some "stuff" going on at our church that I was caught up in. It felt like we were feeding on each other if you know what I mean - all this energy being used in the wrong way. Now it wasn't the whole church, just a small group, but it stunk. Not that we are different from any other church with problems. We're all broken. When I started going to the prayer room I was facing OUT of the church and I found I wasn't focusing on the negative stuff at church because I had other things on my mind.

Over the past two years I have been focusing more and more on service outside the church: The Prayer Room, Books for Christ, the GAIN Warehouse, missions trips with the youth, and the latest: Adopt-A-Highway. The church has adopted a 2 mile stretch of highway to pickup trash on a regular basis.

I am constantly thinking about this stuff! God is working on me. I don't hear the quiet voice in my head (well, I have few times), but I have this burning to do something!

I also think of all these cheesy cliches:
- Just Do it!
- Less Talk, More Action
- [fill in the blank]

The traditional church can be a great base of operations with the members going OUT and serving others - not expect the people to come to us.

Ok...I've said enough for now.