Note from AJ Brooks in Afghanistan

Family and Friends,

Things are going well here at Camp Bastion. The attached photo was taken mid-day (when it is sunny, I don't have to wear a jacket!) near where we do much of our work in support of medical evacuations, re-supply missions and close air support to the Marines on the ground.

The little "Charlie Brown" tree I am holding is obviously a little guy with a lot of Christmas spirit.

I appreciate all the birthday wishes last month and the great Christmas cards and care packages. Your letters have been a real blessing.

Morale here with the Marines remains high -- largely because of the encouragement, prayers and support we continue to recieve from the homefront.

Please continue to pray for peace on earth-especially here.

Semper Fi and God Bless!

Capt Aaron J. Brooks USMC
MALS 40 BASTION
AVN SUP DEP
UNIT 78369
FPO AE 09510-0839

Lingering in Hope

Christmastime is a time for lingering: lingering with friends and family around the story of Christmas, a story of family traveling together and lingering together for warmth in the promise of God, in the hope of God, in a place provided by God. The place God provided was humble, by any means, and it was not where they, or we, would hope to linger:
Smelly place designated for harboring of animals;
Lack of privacy;
Lack of amenities;
Lack of running water, heat and A/C;
Lack of lobby and fireplace to visit with other travelers!
This was not a place where the holy family, or our own families, would want to spend Christmas Eve.

But consider how many times we have had to linger in places and circumstances that were not of our choosing? How many times would we wish for the comforts and accommodations to be better? Perhaps like we experienced at some point in the past? At times we have found ourselves living in quarters and working at jobs that we would not have chosen. Or we may find ourselves a part of a family that is less than perfect, or realized that our lives are less than spectacular, powerful or relevant to the great needs facing the world and our community crises!

Christmas is a time to consider the blessing of lingering – lingering in Hope!
Consider the story of an apostle named Thaddaeus. There is a legend that Thaddaeus was a little boy hanging out, lingering, with the shepherds on that night when the angels visited them in the fields with the Good News of a child, who was to be the Messiah, who was to be born in a manger in the city called Bethlehem. The legend has it that Thaddaeus traveled with the older shepherds to behold this miracle. After the shepherds left, legend has it, Thaddaeus lingered. As he beheld the glory of God in this little babe called Jesus, Mary, the mother of Jesus, smiled and gently placed the baby into Thaddaeus' little arms. All because he lingered. Getting to hold the hope of the world in your very arms!

Thaddaeus’ story doesn’t end there. Some thirty years later, Jesus sees him and there is a strange connection, one that results in Jesus choosing Thaddaeus to follow him and be one of the 12, one of the elite, one of the inner circle to witness the life, death and resurrection of the Son of God, the glory that the world hopes for, and hopes in.

Consider a few others who lingered in the presence and hope of God, after the pomp and circumstance was gone; others who took the time to hang out in the background, in places where they did not find immediate satisfaction or look for personal notoriety:
• the women at the tomb: lingered after the work and witness of Jesus, by all reasonable accounts, was all over!
• Matthias: the apostle that was one of the original 70 sent out by Jesus in Luke 10:1-20, and later is the one chosen to replace Judas as he lingered with the 120 in the upper room just before Pentecost (Acts 1:15)
• Anna and Simeon: after the church had failed to deliver the deliverer, failed to give them the hope and consolation they were looking for, yet they lingered in the church, in the place of prayer, hoping in God rather in religion! (Luke 2:25-38)

How about you? Is it possible that if you linger, not only after the pomp and circumstance is over, after all others have left and gone their merry ways, and if you linger in faith that the Word of God is love and that God’s greatest desire is to rest not only in your arms, but in your heart, do you not believe that even after the end you may encounter the glory of God, the hope and consolation made known in Christ?

I believe so! I hope so! I know so! And so, I linger!
In the Hope of God through Christ Jesus!

Bless the Lord

I have been deeply grieving the news I received yesterday regarding a dear friend of mine, Bonnie Dixon. Bonnie and I went to seminary together in the first class of the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond back in 1991. We also were a part of the first mission immersion team to travel to Zimbabwe, Africa in 1993, along with one other student. I envy the fact that Bonnie has returned to Zimbabwe to help the folks there dozens of times, including a three month trip there this summer. I received word Thursday afternoon from Bonnie's son, Aaron, that she had developed paricarditis and was hospitalized in Raleigh. When I called yesterday they informed me that she had suffered a stroke and is now paralyzed on her entire right side and is unable to speak.
Psalm 135 is a psalm that reminds the people of God what to do in the midst of exile, in the midst of crisis, in the midst of pain, suffering and more questions than answers, "BLESS THE LORD." This is where Job was led to after God finally responds (in chapters 38 - 41) to his questions about injustice in the world. God doesn't respond with explanations about divine justice. Rather, God speaks of his power and knowledge of all that is going on and how God is Creator. Job is reduced to silence and repentance for speaking about that which he did not know (see Job 42:1-6).
Sometimes it is enough just to know that God knows. I will try to be like Jobs friends in the beginning of the story, when they visited Job without words and were simply present with him in his grief. It was when they tried to explain it all that they began to get in trouble with their bad theology -- that bad things happen to people because of something bad they have done or thought. I will remain silent. I will be in prayer. I ask you to consider the same for Bonnie and many others in times like these!
Steve

Hurricane Bill

Is your stomach queasy? Are you getting glued to the Weather Channel watching and waiting to see what Hurricane Bill will do? It's a major hurricane right now, fluctuating between a cat 3 and 4. Having lived through Hurricane Hugo when my family and I lived in Charleston, SC gives a different feeling to big cat hurricanes. I also like to watch the wave buildup, and of course, surf those waves when it's not just "chop slop." Sunday the wave action is supposed to clean up and begin rapidly dropping from double overhead (13 feet) to waist high for a period of about 6 hours. I'll probably be in church when the surf is best, but I still get excited about it and will rush to the beach just in case there are a few good waves left.

What makes your stomach get queasy? Anything, anymore? Dr's appointments? Potential job promotions? Upcoming vacations or trips? Flying? A weekend alone with your spouse? Thanksgiving or Christmas with family?

I hope that each and every Sunday you get a little bit of a queasy feeling in your stomach as you go to your church. To encounter the living God in worship, discipleship and fellowship. To be in the body of Christ with the people of God still makes me feel a bit queasy, not to mention having to preach before God and humanity.

Look around you today and see the sacred beauty of God's creation. Give thanks. Feel queasy as you consider the power of our Almighty God.

Steve

Strings and Spider Webs

Lord, the more surface things that I am 'attached" to, the more they "bind" me to the surface of life, keeping me in the realm of superficiality. It is as if I weave a web unique to my own life and journey. It is impossible to sever all connections to the physical world. That defies the message and life of Christ. However, only those connections that glorify you and offer reconciliation to the world through Christ ultimately draw me into the depths where life becomes metaphorical of your presence. I cannot control what lands in my web to feed me, but the winds of your Spirit are so much more active when my strands multiply in glorifying you.

I don't know which it is worse for, the spider or the person who accidentally walks face first through a freshly woven spider web. Neither the person nor the spider is fulfilled by the experience. We we secure ourselves and our web of relationships to the wrong things at the wrong place in the wrong time, it is a setup for disaster. Any one of the things of this world that we fasten too tightly to, if not for glorifying you, can surely bring us down -- the entire web! Fastening one's web to sexuality, or ambition, or leisure... can lead to our whole world falling apart, IF THEY ARE NOT GIVEN TO YOU AND TO GLORIFYING YOU. Lord, have mercy on us and enable us to be secured to your divine will and rightly to neighbor, as Christ leads!

Dr. Fitz

Who's (or What's) Up Front in Your Life?

Paul writes in Romans 8:14, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God." I am wondering about my own life, "Who is it that is up front "most of the time" in my own life?" It would seem to me that there are three common options: emotions, reason or others (Other).
Emotions remain with me, and you, based on a lifetime of relationships (good and bad) that impacted our development. I carry with me baggage from my childhood that may or may not have been confronted. I remember meeting a young lady who told me about her sister. When her sister was growing up, she regularly attended church, worship and children and youth activities, with her family. She was overweight and unattractive, and throughout her life was picked on, poked and joked at school. One day a group of boys from school (including a couple from her church youth group) beat her up with a baseball bat. As she grew up she rejected boys, church and found her only peace in Wicca, worshiping in the midst of nature (which in her experience didn't threaten or harm her). Not hard to figure out, huh? What's my (your) baggage regarding your image of God from family and cultural experience?
Others have rejected emotionalism altogether and turned to the mind as the greatest aspect of being human. Here we have remnants of modernity where man/woman/human becomes the center of the universe. Seeing emotions as immaturity, some have turned solely to intellect as their god. They can ONLY believe in a truth that is rational from and within the three dimensional world in which we live, breathe and have our being. Many of these folks become either cynics or skeptics. Skeptics would have a large lead over cynics. Skeptics believe there may be a "God," but don't think it possible for humanity to ever grasp the true understanding of that being (a bit more postmodern than pure cynics who are just cynical about anything unreasonable). I asked a skeptic recently, "What do you believes happens at death?" Answer: "The same thing that happened to me before I was born! Nothingness!" This person is still open for discussion, and I trust more in God's grace than my ability to "reason" someone into faith.
Finally, others may be up front in your life. Forbes latest poll on the most powerful entertainment figures listed Angelina Jolie as #1, just edging out Oprah, followed by Madonna, Beyonce and then Tiger Woods (click here for link to article). The other that we worship can be "The Bible," or "The Doctrines" (some little litmus test of items others must agree to with us), the "tradition" of our church, the "style of music" we listen to (church or secular), or Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If your answer is that you are led by the Spirit of God, what does that mean and how do you practice that? I'd be interested in your answers!
Steve

Bicetennial Day: Worship, Work and Witness...

It is hard to believe that our Bicentennial celebration has finally come and gone. It was a great day of worship, work and witness. It is what First Baptist Church of New Bern has done for two hundred years and what continues to define us so uniquely among Baptists of all brands.

We worshiped together in the traditional high church mode with awesome times of remembering our history and what God has done through the years, thanks to Miss Jane Marshall Jenkins. We also had wonderful liturgy so carefully honed out precisely by Rev. Barry Templeton and ministerial staff. There was never a worry about the influx of young families and what would happen to their infants and children with Dr. Sharon Bender and her husband Wade at the helm. The worship music, with organ fanfare and Dr. Perry Smith singing, as well as the newly commissioned anthem that was sung, as well as Bob Garver singing at the dedication of the Memorial Garden brought tears to your pastors eyes. Dr. Randall Lolley reminded us of our call to recognize the honor of being the First Baptist Church in New Bern, and what a wonderful and challenging message it was. Worship was inspiring. Contemplative and traditional worship has been a defining hallmark of our church through the years and continues to be so today, even in our attempt to make our nontraditional worship uniquely a service of thoughtful worship rather than “just” praise and singing.

Work was the name of the game for feeding the over four hundred members and guests that attended the event. I was so proud to gaze across the Family Life Center and observe the coordinated effort of so many youth and adults serving the host of believers that were gathered to share food and fellowship around the tables of God. Work has been a defining force of our church through the years and continues to be so today. Great work went into making the Bicentennial possible and the list of those who contributed is far too long to highlight here. The worship, the Garden, the food and the church plant are all testaments of honor to our God and Savior.

Finally, not only did we worship and work, but we witnessed to one another. From the witness of Scripture being read in the language of our new Chin refugees from Myanmar and in English, to the witness of theology proclaimed through music and prayer, to the proclaimed word by a former seminary president in our state, we witnessed the power and presence of God Almighty. Ken Bryant reminded us of the miracles God still performs in the lives of those who seek God with all their hearts, minds and souls. Again, tears filled my eyes as Ken shared his story of misdiagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and then the correcting diagnosis and treatment that not only gave him back his mind and body, but increased his witness. Our worship and work only inspire us to go out into the world for as many years as God allows to share our witness of the love and power of a God who will not let us alone until all the sheep have come home to pasture in His fields.

Thank you Lord, and people of God for a day to remember, a day of Worship, Work and Witness that challenge us to live so in the days to come.

Graduation?

Do we ever "really" graduate? We certainly can be proud to earn degrees from academic institutions that indicate that we have demonstrated a set of skills that reveals our ability to do well on a variety of tests. However, is that the only graduation needed? Academic endeavors? When do we ever "graduate" from marriage school, or from parent school, or from relationship school with those who are adversarial in our community and even in our church? Do we ever demonstrate that we have "mastered" the necessary ingredients to be proficient and expert at ALL relationships? I think not! There is always more to learn, more disappointments to experience, and more joys to celebrate when we experience unity and communion even on rare occasions. Go ahead and get used to studying. You will need to learn to love learning and listening in order to become more and more proficient at seeing the breadth of God's Spirit and the breadth of humanity's brokenness!
In Christ,
Dr. Fitzgerald

Who will roll away the stone?

I find it interesting that in Mark's account of the Easter story (Mark 16:1-8), the women went very early in the morning to honor the body of Jesus. They went in adoration and worship of the one that they thought was their Messiah. "Who will roll away the stone?" they pondered. However, earthly impediments to their mission didn't squelch their journey. How about us? There are many stones placed in our paths to block the way to God, to hinder our ability to live in adoration and worship of what God has accomplished in Jesus, the Christ. We all love to blame the world for robbing us of our ability to worship God as school and at work, or in public. However, the greatest stones blocking our ability to live in pure adoration and worship of God are the ones we create ourselves. We are enamored with success and fearful of being considered "failures." Maybe the women had nothing to lose. Maybe we have too much to lose. What does that say about what we really have and what we're really missing in our lives? Who will roll away the stone? God rolls away the stone when we honor God through humility and God offers miracle in the midst of mystery (note the women in Mark do not encounter Christ, only the promise and command to accomplish a new mission: to go and anoint Jesus' disciples with the Good News: He is Risen and He will appear to you in an appointed place). Too many stones in your path for you to experience miracles these day? Ask yourself, "why?"
Happy Easter!

Your roots?

I was talking with a young friend today about how he went spelunking into a cave beneath a tree trunk in the Dominican Republic. He said that they had to literally climb underneath and through the roots of a large tree that led into a cave full of stalactites and stalagmites. Once inside the cave they discovered a ladder that went further down. They slowly descended this ladder that had thick mold covering each of the rungs as if untouched by humans for years. At the bottom of that ladder they discovered a beautiful crystal clear flowing river. It was like entering a new world, only visible with squeezing and carrying of a light to show the way through the darkness.
Above is a picture of cypress knees formed from the roots of the cypress tree reaching and growing toward light and hope. Such are our lives. Beneath the roots of our lives, somewhere deep through and beneath the darkness that pervades the week of Jesus' passion, lies the source of water that springs forth with eternal life. We must use the light of God to reach "down" rather than "up." When we keep looking up we miss finding Christ who is best found in the dirt of the human journey, beneath the foundation and roots of all that exist and live.
What do your roots look like? Are they poking forth from the surface of life stretching for hope? Is there some mysterious new world lurking just beneath the surface of your existence waiting to be found? God has already been there! The way has been arranged for you to find this place. The steps and rungs of the way gather mold awaiting your journey to the depths of life, through the darkness of Good Friday and toward Easter Sunday!
Dr. Fitz

"Test Failure"

Deuteronomy 8:3; Luke 4:1-13

I recently received a phone call from Atlantic Security at 1:30 a.m. indicating that there was a “test failure” for our alarm system at the church. This same call has been made at least a half a dozen times to names on our “security call list” during January, February and March. This is a test run from the security headquarters to make sure our security system is working properly (something we want in case of a fire or robbery). After receiving a number of these untimely calls, the church staff called Atlantic Security and asked for them to come fix the reason for “test failure” so that we would have it working properly. We also asked not to be called anymore during the wee hours of the morning for this signal (as they indicated we could request). They sent a technician to the church who reported that he discovered just what the problem was and that he would have the problem fixed by the end of the week (well over a month ago). Our church staff has not seen the technician since his diagnosis and the phone calls during the wee hours of the morning continue. Therefore, I got a call at 1:30 am to tell me we had a “test failure,” essentially telling me that Atlantic Security has not done their job and I needed to be aware of that at 1:30 in the morning. I was not a happy camper and could not go back to sleep until 4:00 am and then had to arise at 5:00 am that particular day. The security system that we have is not working as was intended. So goes the people of God. Frequently we who call ourselves “children of God” do not function as designed and intended!
The Israelites were led out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery by God’s presence, power and promise. They were called to be a holy people, wholly dependent upon their Creator, YHWH, for worship and life. However, they did not function as intended (see Numbers 13:26 – 14:45). They doubted and preferred slavery to trust, faith and obedience. Free will was too much for the children of God!
Who is ultimately responsible for our security system not working properly? I say it is the installer! Who is ultimately responsible for our failure as children of God? The One who installed us with free will? While installers, business owners (AIG), government officials, and greedy consumers do not like to take responsibility for their mistakes, God does take responsibility for His creation and humanity, even after we sinned and sought equality with God through eating from the tree of knowledge (of good and evil). Our sin and disobedience, our “failure to test,” led to the incarnation of God in the flesh and the crucifixion of God on a cross. God took free will upon Himself and passed the test for us, the one that we keep sending out in the wee hours of darkness a distress signal identified as “test failure.” In Christ, we have victory! Jesus overcame Satan in the wilderness when he did not flinch from suffering through hunger. Jesus overcame rejection when tempted to use spectacular miracles and divine calls for angelic intervention when tempted by Satan to use Scripture for His own benefit to test God. Jesus overcame the life of power for the life of monotheistic worship of God when tempted by Satan to bow down before him and receive the world’s power and wealth. Rather, as He told his disciples that it is necessary for the Son of Man to suffer, be rejected and die, and then rise again after three days, he demonstrated his commitment to God and God’s will alone for the direction and purpose of His life. He passed the test. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). In Jesus we have “test success” through the love and grace of God! God, the owner of all that is, was and ever shall be, does not wither from His love for us and what it takes to offer us life eternally! Praise God, in the wee hours of the morning and all hours of life!

Thank You & God Bless You!

I want to say thank you to all who have been praying for me as I have wrestled with my horrible right eye problem. I finally got the implanted glaucoma device "turned on" today in Raleigh. I love my godly MD, Leon Herndon & highly recommend him to any and all who suffer from glaucoma. The procedure today was less than exciting and I had to skip Ash Wednesday night church! Sorry church folks! However, I am now well on the road to recovery and would not be doing as well as I am were it not for the many prayers, cards, calls, food and love from both God, church and nuclear family. I do not know why I am so blessed to be immersed in such love, but I am most grateful for all that I receive, undeservedly, both vertically and horizontally.
God bless you all and thank you from the bottom of my heart,
Steve

Clothing and Sandals that never wear out? Deut. 29:5

I was just thinking about the Israelites who wandered through the wilderness for forty years without their clothing or sandals wearing out. I have just been twenty-six years since I was first diagnosed with glaucoma and now my right eye seems to have literally worn out. When taking the patch off my eye the day after surgery, on February 10th, it was like peering out on the world from the inside of a Vaseline jar. I wasn't expecting that, nor to have an extremely high eye pressure. A battalion of drops haven't helped the pressure, so I've had my eye pressure relieved by needle each of the past two weeks. In another week or so I'll have an implanted device turned on so as to permanently lower the pressure in my right eye. Will vision return, or is that eye just shot/gone/worn out?
What happened to the sandals and clothes when the Israelites crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land? Was it like a Hollywood movie where their clothes and sandals just all of a sudden turned to dust? Or did they just begin to quickly fall apart, needing to be replaced with the newly found resources provided by God for living in a new land flowing with milk and honey?
If God allows my eyes to wear out, along with knees, hips, etc., will God not also provide resources that enable me to live in the place where I am called to reside? Is the Promised Land a literal place on earth, or is it more of a state of being -- immersed in grace and mercy, praise and thanksgiving? It is kind of hard to be filled with praise when you've just lost your vision, or when you are screaming in pain from a torn ligament or ruptured body parts. I praise God that we do not stay in the same place forever. No matter how good I feel right now, someone, somewhere, is screaming in pain for hope, help and change. Someone, somewhere wishes they had adequate sandals and clothes and food (milk & honey), while I still have plenty!
May the resources that God gives us as gifts for the journey provide out ability to make it all the way across the river, and may we offer those same resources, through our God, to all others in this world!
In Christ!

The Greatest Knowledge

As I read 1 Cor. 8:1-13, I recognize that the word knowledge, or its root, is used ten times. There is a knowledge embraced by all those in the Corinthian church: that of food sacrificed to idols. Some folks could not eat this food due to its negative impact upon their seared conscience. Then there is a greater knowledge: knowing that there is really only one God, the Father, who is the One for whom all things were created and for whom they exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created and through whom we exist. This is a great knowledge that should relieve our conscience when eating foods that really have no ultimate impact upon our relationship with God. There is yet a greatest knowledge: for God to know us. In vv. 1-3 we read that 'knowledge puffs up, but love (agape love) builds up." We also read that anyone who loves God is known by him, and then in the rest of the chapter Paul goes on to challenge us not to take for granted the weakness of some of our brothers and sisters in faith. Even though we are free in Christ, to do some things might cause a weaker believer to stumble.
It is in the love of God and love of brother or sister in Christ, and the exercise thereof, that God gets to know us!
Matt. 7:21-23, "No everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?/ Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers."
So here is the question for you and me: how well does God know us? Only as well as we are practicing unconditional love for Other/others. It is in this act of loving and giving ourselves away that God knows us. John 17:3 reads this way, "And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Is our knowledge great, greater, or greatest? When it becomes greatest, we stop trying to be so smart and imagine that we really know anything. What matters is being known, known by God and Jesus Christ!
Dr. Fitz