Listening, Learning & Linking to God & Neighbor

"Other" languages

2012-02-06T09:18:00.004-05:00

One of the clear signs of a Christian, an authentic Christian, is that he or she will speak in "other languages." I remember years ago engaging in conversation with a shopper at a local discount store in Richmond, VA. After hearing that I was a minister, she asked if I "had been baptized by the Spirit yet." I indicated that I indeed had. She then wanted to make sure that I knew that she meant "Was I able to speak in tongues." When I indicated that I did not speak in an "unknown language," she proceeded to relegate my faith experience as incomplete and said, "You'll really be something when God finally gets hold of you!" How arrogant! Any time we select some biblically mentioned gift of the Spirit and then impose it upon God and others as "the greatest of gifts" because it is mine, we are arrogant! Arrogance is not of God; rather it is of the Devil!
In Acts 2:1-13 we read the story of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit. All outside the room of believers were amazed that they heard the apostles speaking in their native languages; one's that the apostles clearly did not know only minutes before. Understand that these were unknown languages to the apostles, neither to God nor to some others.
I have come to believe that authentic Christians will indeed be able to speak in other languages accordingly:
1. God's language. Authentic Christians are filled with the Spirit of God, filled with Christ, and therefore see with new eyes and hear with new ears. No longer do we speak from a human self-centered perspective that only deals with I, me, my and mine! We begin to see the beauty and presence of God in all kinds of ordinary experience. We are filled with the desire to allow God’s will to guide our lives along in joy and praise, and in trust and obedience. Authentic Christians speak the language of love of God and love of neighbor, which leads to…
2. Neighbor's language. Authentic Christians develop an innate ability to listen to others -- what they are saying with their tongues, body language and emotions! One who is filled with Christ doesn't need to use other people, or creation for that matter, to fill a void through manipulation of resources -- people and nature!
How are you going to speak in other languages today? Can you speak with God's perspective in the forefront? Can you speak with God to the "other" that will cross your path today? If your words and witness doesn't build up the body of Christ, but instead promotes your own arrogant agenda, then your faith should be called into question!
Spend time in the Bible, in prayer and listen before you speak. Consider James 1:19
Know this, my beloved brothers and sisters: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;" (ESV)
Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. (MSG)

Green Board

2012-01-10T11:16:00.001-05:00

Lord, I saw a weather person standing before a blank green board explaining the weather on a map not visible to her. But the image is produced elsewhere and injected onto the screen that we view. Is this not similar to showing you to others. To the lost all they see is a blank green board that we claim shows your presence. But to those who follow You, your image is injected onto the screen of their experience by the power of your Holy Spirit. It really isn't there to the lost! They are indeed right! But to those who follow Jesus, it's not just a blank green board that we stand before. We stand in trust and faith that you, the Producer, reveal an accurate image of reality and life. It is our job to follow and point. It is your job to reveal and show! Thanks be to God!
In Christ,
Amen

O "Little" Town of Bethlehem!

2011-12-12T07:20:00.008-05:00

I have been reflecting on that dismal little town of Bethlehem. It is a dark dreary fortified city cut off from the rest of all important and powerful Israel! Today it is surrounded by a high and large wall that has military guarded gates limiting the flow of traffic for Arabs, nonJewish residents, who live inside this tiny financially destitute town. The Church of the Nativity where Jesus was reportedly born is owned and run by the Greek Orthodox. They have regular rituals of prayers and cleansing with incense. All must move out of the way when this all important ritual begins. The church has not been kept up well and you must walk to the front of the sanctuary and then descend into the basement where the Christ-child's manger was to have been.
Groups are channeled down the winding staircase for a brief look, bent over prayer, and then quickly shuffled out. Entry into the church is through a small door where one must stoop in order to keep from bumping one's head. I've been to the church twice and someone has bumped their head each time. Some believe that this is an example of the biblical cliche regarding a camel going through the eye of the needle (a supposed reference to a camelback warrior trying to ride through that narrow entrance -- virtually impossible).
I think about the unimportance of that little town now, and I think about the unimportance of that little town when Jesus was born there. No great five star hotels! Not the Hollywood strip or Wall Street or Pennsylvania Avenue, just a little town where God chose to grace the world with His incarnation. If we are looking up to God, listeing to God's call and following his signs, then we can walk circumspectly in the world without bumping our heads, losing our minds in the shuffle and hustle of what the world says is all important! I might think I have gotten that point by now.
The first Friday in December we have a luncheon at our church for seniors, many from the local nursing homes and assisted living centers. We fed about 275 this year on Friday December 2nd. I was relieved this year when our Sunshine Luncheon director indicated that children would lead the service and that all I had to do was introduce the beginning of Communion, The Lords Supper, and drive the minibus to collect residents at two of our facilities (they didn't have transportation). At Carebridge, the first of the two stops for me, I failed to look up. I failed to see the divine signs! The overhang outside the front of their entrace had a huge sign that read, "9 Foot Clearance!" Our minibus was clearly more that 9 feet and I pulled her into the woodword under the awning. I then backed back out dragging remnants of splintered wood with me and leaving a gash in the top of the minibus and my ego! Ouch!
When I fail to slow down, look around, but especially look up to God listening for His calling and following His signs, I am sure to bump my head, to injure my ego. Who am I without the "I am" of all life? Nada! I am glad that the church forgives me for my inadequacies, even as God forgives us all for riding in bumper cars through life. That was fun as a child, but not as an adult!
Hmmm!
Dr. Fitz

Following the Star during 2011 Advent

2011-11-17T09:37:00.002-05:00

This year our theme for Advent (the season where we prepare for the coming of Jesus) is “follow the star.” Clearly the language of faith is countercultural. We are challenged by God to take a little language coarse, like how we teach ESL (English as a Second Language) to some of our international church members and friends. Our understanding of star gazing is totally different that what the world thinks of when they search for stars.

Our culture is obsessed with following the star(s). Headline news covers great events like weddings and divorces of those we consider stars (Prince William and Kate Middleton), or Tiger Woods and his marital problems. Prime time television has an obsession with star watching too with great shows such as “Dancing with the Stars,” or shows that focus on individuals whose sole aim in life is to become a star, like the old original “Star Search,” or contemporary ones like “American Idol” and “The X Factor.” We wonder, “who might have “the X factor” to become the next great star that the world is looking and waiting for to make our lives so much better? Maybe it’s Kim Kardashian? Isn’t she your hero? Millions of people tune in to watch and cast their votes for their hero dancing or singing stars.

What is a star except a point in the universe that gives off light in the midst of a dark sky. What we now know is that when we gaze into the dark night sky we may be seeing light from a star that has actually burnt out and is no longer there! The light has travelled so far that indeed the object that emitted that light may, in reality, not really be there anymore! That is quickly the case with the cultural stars highlighted in the news or on prime time television. Here today, gone tomorrow! Where is the light and glow of their great illumination? Where is Ronald Regan now? Or John Wayne? Or Marilyn Monroe? Or Michael Jackson?

Contrary to cultural star obsession, our ministers will be leading music, devotions and sermons that focus on the star of heaven that shines to give light on the presence of God. The Bible notes that Jesus is the light of the world.
John 1:4,9 – “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.”
Jesus said in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Therefore, our Advent focus isn’t about worshiping stars, or the heavens, but allowing the heavenly star that originally guided people to Christ to reflect and direct us today to the light of life, the light that pokes holes in darkness and enables us to see the light in Jesus Christ, the incarnation of God. When we worship and receive Christ Jesus into our hearts and homes we invite light and love and life into the very center of our being and doing.

Follow the star with us this Advent and watch it reflect on the truth, Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, and thus we have a light that the world cannot see, doesn’t know and cannot snuff out.

Bridge is Out

2011-10-24T09:40:00.004-04:00

I was looking for images to place on our church website regarding "Bridge is Out" as it relates to Josh. 3:7-17 and Matt. 19:23-26. I stumbled across the one inserted above. It challenges us to consider if we'd rather spend the night in the wilderness, where we are, rather than move forward with God in trust and faith. Our God is never stationary, never static. Our God is a God of movement, not merely motion! Our God is ever wanting us to move deeper and deeper into communion with him, until one day, there will be no separation, no broken body that can only partially know of God's glory and love! I have moved 15 times since I got married almmost 30 years ago. Yet in those moves I see God's hand, God's leadership, God's love and God's challenge for me to commit my way to ever deeper experience and presence of God's image. To add to that, I have been blessed with missions all over the world that have enabled me to know how little my perspective really is. I am so excited that God is calling me to continue to move forward, leaving behind stuff that has too many strings! How about you? Up for another move? Ready to either pack your stuff or sell it at a yard sale? Jesus even called us just to take it to Pamlico County and give it to those who lost everything! Some of you have already been doing that! Could you give it all away? Even the new "stuff" that you are using in your everyday living? Could I? Hmmm!
Dr. Fitz

Accommodations

2011-09-19T12:15:00.001-04:00

As you reflect back over your life, what are some of the most unique accommodations you have experienced? As a child, youth or adult? Have you experienced less than adequate accommodations at one point or another?

I cannot help but pray and contribute as best possible to those in our community and particularly in Pamlico County whose accommodations have been devastated. Many have lost their homes, furniture and vehicles. Life is not very accommodating for them right now. Many are sleeping in tents, campers and/or on their porches and it doesn’t smell good. Have you been to some of those hard hit areas in Pamlico County since the hurricane? Word is that the mosquitoes are so large and populous that they are catching them in crab pots! Again, that is funny to us, but not to them if they are sleeping and living in such horrible accommodations.

I have voluntarily lived in a tent for a short period of time as a child and young adult on backpacking trips through the mountains or at the beach. I have also lived in a dirt floored hut without power in a squatter village in Zimbabwe, as well as a little hut in Chambuta refugee camp, a small cinderblock home for a month at the Baptist Theological Seminary of Zimbabwe, and then a four star hotel in Harare Zimbabwe. After living is such modest and meek accommodations with indigenous people of Zimbabwe for over four weeks I was unable to comfortably stay in the luxury hotel so I checked out and stayed in the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board Guest House for $3 per night. I gave the saved money to a local pastor who lived in 10 x 14 foot house with his wife and child. They had an old mattress on the floor and the baby slept in a stroller. That pastor subsequently earned a PhD from University of South Africa and became a professor at the Baptist Theological Seminary of Zimbabwe. He has authored several books. While I was working in the investment business for a decade I experienced corporate trips that enabled me to stay at places like The Lodge at Vail, CO and The Breakers in Palm Beach, FL. As I reflect over which accommodations have had the greatest impact upon my life, they are NOT the Lodge or Breakers, but the places where the Spirit of God enabled me to have communion with people from completely different regions and backgrounds. I have been welcomed lovingly and completely into the homes and lives of people who could have condemned and judged me negatively, but instead accommodated me and allowed me to listen to their story, try to learn something new about God and neighbor, and possibly link to my neighbor in a healthier manner.

I am also musing over the countless men and women who have come to assist the New Bern area through Disaster Relief post Hurricane Irene and how they have used our church for their accommodations. The floors are not soft. The Family Life Center hot water heater only has enough for about eight showers before it is empty and cold! Their days working in our community have been long and hard, just like the floors they sleep on in our church. Nights can be long and hard with so many sleeping in one room. Inevitably one or two individuals snore loudly! However, tought accommodations have not kept them away from God’s call to come and help, to come and love, to come and share the glory of Christ with those who have lost their accommodations to natural disaster.

Rev. 3:20 tells us that Jesus stands at the door of the church and knocks and wants to be invited into our worship services, into our work and witness in the world, into our fellowship and business gatherings. How are we doing at beginning and ending all activities with an invitation for Christ to come in and be at the center of all we are and all we do? Jesus tells us in Matt. 7:7-8, “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” Jesus will not come into our church or our lives as individuals unless invited! He does not push or manipulate his way into our hearts. Furthermore, Jesus wants to make accommodations for us that will enable us to be in communion with our Creator, God his Father. He promises us that he will go and prepare a place for us and that he will come again and take us to himself so that where he is we may be also (see John 14:3). We are offered accommodations that cannot be acquired with money or any worldly bartering. What Christ offers is permanent and perfect, after we invite him into our lives. The accommodations of Christ offer a place in the palace, the very presence of God’s glory. It turns dirt floors, hard floors, and mosquito infested yards into places of encounter and faith as we walk with Christ through this world. Jesus doesn’t offer four or five star hotel accommodations, neither do we when we invite him in. But he does offer his own home beyond the stars in a place of light that transfigures and transforms all who come in and share accommodations with Jesus, ours with him and his with us!

Dr. Fitzgerald

A Well Oiled Machine

2011-06-13T10:27:00.000-04:00

1 Cor. 12:1-14; Gen. 4:9-10
Lord, it sure is great when my car runs well or my A/C, or my computer, or my body and golf game (driver, long-mid-short irons and putter). Lord, when just one little part of any of these breaks down the whole thing is affected negatively. So it is with my body, with my family, and with my church. When one part malfunctions the whole system is affected!

You have created us such that we are to function like a well oiled machine, put together correctly and maintained properly. If either of these two primary tasks in not taken sincerely, then something inevitably will break down prematurely. Furthermore, if and when a part inevitably does break down, it is imperative that the broken part is repaired promptly and completely.

I am indeed my brothers keeper. What happens to any one part of the family system has ultimate significance on the whole system (see Gen. 2:15; Col. 1:17; Gal. 6:10; and Eph. 4:25).

Enough (Easter Sermon April 24, 2011)

2011-04-28T09:46:00.000-04:00

Enough!
John 14:8; 2 Chron. 31:8-10; Prov. 13:25
EASTER – April 24, 2011
First Baptist Church
Dr. Steven E. Fitzgerald

John 14:8 – Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”
2 Chron. 31:8-10 – 8 When Hezekiah and the officials came and saw the heaps, they blessed the LORD and his people Israel. 9 Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites about the heaps. 10 The chief priest Azariah, who was of the house of Zadok, answered him, “Since they began to bring the contributions into the house of the LORD, we have had enough to eat and have plenty to spare; for the LORD has blessed his people, so that we have this great supply left over.”
My extended family would spend a week at the beach July 4th week every year when I was growing up. I can remember by greatest desire during beach week, to grow tall enough to have my head reach the line that would allow me to drive the big boy go-carts! It seemed to take forever for me to become tall enough! By the time I finally reached the proper height to be able to drive the big-boy go carts, my sister had her learners permit and was getting to drive a real car. So then I became jealous that I just wasn’t old enough! I guess now I’m just not young enough? Haa haa!

Enough is a bad word within this world. It highlights the great void in life! We are just NOT:
• smart enough
• tall enough
• pretty enough
• skinny enough
• rich enough
• healthy enough
• strong enough; or
• we don’t have enough hair, or
• we cannot sleep enough, play enough, or vacation long enough!
Or my spouse, or our children, or our parents are just not:
• Loving enough
• Responsive enough
• Caring enough
• Giving enough
• Or they just don’t give me enough space, enough freedom!

We just cannot get enough! When we’re consumed with the cares and concerns of the world, there just never seems to be enough. This life is just a great void, like the days between Good Friday and Easter Sunday for those who had come to believe that Jesus was the Messiah, the consolation of Israel, the hope of humanity! What Jesus did during his lifetime just wasn’t enough!

Easter is a day of surprises though! On Easter, God reinterprets the word ENOUGH for us!

1. Easter is about the fact that God had had enough!
a. Enough of our crying out and then ignoring him
b. Enough of our inability to perceive his presence
c. Enough of evil and death apparently having the upper hand and final word in the world
d. Enough of signs and markers that were misread and misinterpreted

2. Indeed, God had always had Enough – with a upper case “E” – and I want to challenge you today, on this Easter of 2011, that Enough is the nickname of his only Son, Jesus!

This Jesus – “Enough” – was with humanity even in the beginning, in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve had Enough, but the liar lured them into focusing their attention on the need to have everything. Satan’s lie is to lure us into a life pursuing everything, to never be satisfied with Just Enough. The serpent said, “It’s not enough to know God, to be in loving and living relationship with God! You need to be like God and know everything like God does! Then you will be special! That’s more than enough!”

Satan’s alternate way it to try to reside in the house of Everything. Too often humans are duped into believing that they can have everything they want. All they need to do is to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. So they spend time, money, energy and attention on what new tricks will enable them to acquire “everything.” Everything is a residence that appears to be at the quiet end of a cul-de-sac. Satan sends you a free set of keys to this house in the mail, unsolicited I might add, and for free! If they fit, this house of everything is yours! The main problem is that as you approach the house at the end of the street, it mysteriously moves further away. It is like walking the wrong way on an escalator! You just go nowhere! It’s like paddling up creek in a swift river! Such is the search and labor to “reside with everything.” It is impossible. You can never have everything. You can never know everything. You can never be everything.

Humanity’s desire to have everything has led to incredible violence. Those who seek to have everything think that they can do so through gaining power and control over the masses. However, God rescued His chosen ones from the violence and influence of pagans in their midst over and over again.

Finally, God sent himself into the world, Enough, Jesus, to show us clearly how to live with Enough! Jesus never had much, but he always had enough, because He was Enough! Relationship with God above and within in order to bless those without was Enough of a job for Jesus’ life.

Just a brief touch of Enough gave new life and healing to people who had been starving and sick and lame. Just think, they were made whole without having to have everything, like the hemorrhaging woman who had spent everything trying to be healed, but was ultimately healed by just touching Enough of Jesus, through faith, to be totally healed, just the fringe of his cloak.

But those who had to have everything said that they were enough, so they had to eliminate Jesus and his description of Enough so that they could control something that they said was everything. Jesus said enough to let us know that their father was the father of lies, the very same one that had been in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve!

Easter reveals the futile attempt of the world to persuade us that secular leaders and religious dictators definition of something that appears to be everything is better than Enough from God! They couldn’t get rid of Enough to maintain power and control and they cannot do so now! God’s resurrection of Jesus is Just Enough, not everything, but Enough for those who don’t believe they have to have everything. Look at the lives of Jesus’ disciples after their resurrection encounter and empowerment with the Holy Spirit to see what happens when we become satisfied with Just Enough! Followers of Jesus have learned that God’s Son gives us enough to love, have joy, peace, patience, kindness and the other fruit of the Spirit.

Jesus is Enough!

1. Jesus’ life gives me enough provision to feed my deepest needs on a daily basis (see Matt. 4:4) I can stop playing the acquisition game and find that I have an excess, excess that is to be shared with others in need. (see 2 Chron. 31:8-10)

2. Jesus’ death gives me enough forgiveness, by God’s grace and mercy, to rid me of living in unresolved guilt! I don’t need to spend my life trying to make up for my past mistakes (mortification). (John 4)

3. Jesus’ resurrection gives me enough hope that I can live my life without fear, thus enabling me to be more present for God and neighbor! I can begin focusing on what is best to bring lost sheep into the house of God rather than what keeps me comfortable. (John 21 – Peter)

The Good news of Easter is that Jesus’ life, death and now his resurrection is Just Enough for me!
• I don’t need to know everything, only enough (Jesus’ nickname).
• I don’t need to have everything, only enough (Jesus)
• I don’t need to be everything, only enough (Jesus) – know that “I am” is in me and with me!

Have you had enough… enough of the world?

Do you have Enough to be satisfied? (John 14:9-10)

If you have Jesus, you will have Enough for this life and beyond. Easter is the truth of God’s gift of Enough to promise us that!

Amen

Recharging my Droid Phone...

2011-04-08T09:52:00.000-04:00

I really love the features of my HTC Droid Incredible. It's like having a little computer with me at all times. I can check my email, surf the internet, access my personal and church calendar, have an HD digital camera and video recorder with me at all times and receive and send text messages by voice activation, not to mention Pandora Radio when I'm driving and the Google Maps Navigation feature that far outstrips my expensive GPS which never had updated roads! The main problem I have with this phone is that it runs applications in the background and I'm constantly utilizing an app killer to save my battery life. No matter what I do, the battery life is miniscule when compared to old phones that you only used occassionally for phone calls. The solution to much of this dilemma is that I have seperate power cords at home, in my office and one in my car that runs through the old cigarette lighter spot.

I have also realized that as I have gotten older and as our church has grown larger, I am running more and more applications of God's calling in my life throughout each day and week. Not only do I have to teach twice on Wednesdays, but also the big attempt to spend great amounts of time with God, pen and computer trying to fashion a sermon that will be truthful to God and relevant to those who listen hoping to have a living encounter with God and his grace, love and mercy. In the midst of these teaching and preaching events, I have more and more individuals, within the church and friends of the church, who desire spiritual direction or counselling, and then there are the many visitors that we have comeing to church now that I really want to visit with (meetings scattered on various evenings inbetween).

All of this is wonderful because this is my calling. However, like my cell phone battery, if I do not regularly recharge my battery, through Scripture focus and quiet devotional prayer many times a day, then I will burn out, just like Sharon, Barry and others. Perhaps the most emotionally exhausting calling is spending time with those who are hurting and afraid, those whose lives are falling apart. After time with them listening and learning, after trying to assist them to hear of God's presence in the midst of their difficult journey, I usually must have time to recharge immediately.

John Wesley said one time that he had gotten so busy that he was having to move his prayer time up to four hours per day. Why is it that we're the opposite? Too many times when we get "busy," we spend less time in prayer and at the feet of Jesus Christ. The story of Mary and Martha reminds us of the better way. It is to spend copius time at the feet of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. He is the charge of life, the love of life, the gift of life, the sustainer of life as the manifestation of God's very Word made alive.

Recharge frequently or you'll burn out! God's needs you to be running the applications of his presence to the world around you in the unique and specific ways in which he has called you!

Weaning

2011-02-07T09:10:00.004-05:00

I am studying for Feb. 13th sermon on the text from Paul's letter to the church in Corinth: 1 Cor. 3:1-9. Paul indicates his great frustration at the fact that he still has to nurse these believers like little babies. There comes a time for us to wean out children, a time to comfort them by removing them from our breast. This is always a time of anxiety and includes some painful withdrawal symptoms, but it is necessary for growth. Ps. 131:2 puts it like this, "I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me." The psalmist has in mind that there is a comfort after the pain. Eugene Peterson puts it this way, "The transition from a sucking infant to a weaned child, from squalling baby to quiet son or daughter, is not smooth. It is stormy and noisy. It is a pitched battle. But, to the weaned child his mother is his comfort though she has denied him comfort. It is a blessed mark of growth out of spiritual infancy."1
How hard was it for you to grow up beyond your parents support? How hard is it for you with children who are older, to let go of them and allow them to grow up? I am writing this mostly to me as I am wrestling with this having 26, 21 and 20 year old children of my own. I ask for your prayers as I try to work this out. I pray for the church as we work this out with God. There is a time to grow up, and it is NOW! Let's move beyond our jealousy's and our division making. We may not be able to change others, but we are responsible for ourselves! Let's start there!
Dr. Fitz

1. Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society (Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2000), pp. 155-156.

Losing your mind?

2011-02-04T09:39:00.003-05:00

Philippians 2:5 records, "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus," and then goes on to describe that state of emptying self and taking the form of a slave, or servant for God. God does the exalting when we are willing to empty ourselves into Christ. Martin Luther put it this way, "God made the world out of nothing, and it is only when we become nothing that God can make anything out of us." When Peter declared Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of the living God, Jesus told him that flesh and blood did not reveal this, but my Father in heaven (Matt. 16:16-17). Paul puts it this way in 1 Cor. 2:16, ""For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ."

Do we? Surely if we have the mind of Christ we are not living according to the cultural ways of self-preservation, or self-glorification. Yet that still seems to be the way that many in the church live! Why? Surely if we have the mind of Christ, according to the way Jesus lived and is described in Philipp. 2:5-11, then what are we doing acting with such arrogance and using manipulation as means to "our" ends?

During prayer in the spring of 1997, I sat alone in my den with the windows open going into a time of Scripture reading, meditation and deep prayer. I could hear the spring birds singing, feel a warm gentle breeze blowing into the room, smell the fresh azaleas and dogwoods, and it was in an instant that I was taken out of my mind. I literally left all my own conscious thoughts and soared out of the house and into the sky. I have subsequently come to fully believe that our minds and our own thoughts are prisons. To take the mind of Christ is to enter a different culture, a different world. I need to move beyond my own limited finite world and agenda. The wonderful experience that morning is not significant in and of itself, but the outcome is what matters. Due tot he peace and presence of God that I experienced then, and subsequent to that time, I have been given a deeper and more lasting peace. This stayed with me throughout that day, and can continue. Only then can I be truly available to serve God and neighbor without trying to use them for my own needs and agenda. I can more fully listen (which has always been a challenge to one who likes to talk so much).
The world of Christ is not one that we can create or recreate. It is one that we are invited to participate in, if we will become nothing, if we will relax and rest in the power, presence and love of God in Jesus Christ. There is no alternative that the world has to offer that compares to this experience. This is what God calls all of us to embrace: sincere worship and obedient service -- as Christ did and does! Through humility, grace and love!
Amen

There's No Time Like the Present

2010-12-17T16:29:00.001-05:00

There’s No Time like the Present!
Eph. 5:16

As we begin the New Year, the year of 2011, do so with a renewed focus on time. Start the year with celebration and worship. We hope to help you do that through our Sunday night focus that is designed this year to assist you in growing deeper in your intimacy with God so that your witness to neighbor will be more positive and Christlike. We will have four Sunday nights focusing on devotion time, time dedicated specifically and wholly to our personal relationship with God.
I had a unique lesson on time during the Christmas season when I visited my aunt and uncle (Barbara and Wint Wilks), who live in Madeira Beach, Florida. Aunt Barbara wasn’t shy to let me know how much she would love to have Debbie and me stay with them at their condo when Debbie went down for her winter on-campus master’s class at University of South Florida. We traveled down on a Thursday and Friday, spent Friday and Saturday nights with them, and then drove home the whole way on Sunday December 13th.
Each discussion with them was a learning experience related to time. You see, my uncle is at the point where he knows that he has Alzheimer’s disease and spends some days just crying for up to five hours. Therefore, Barbara quickly taught Debbie and me on Friday night, when she was able to speak a few seconds when Uncle Wint wasn’t looking or listening, that we don’t use the word remember, because he doesn’t remember. That word makes him anxious. We also don’t talk about the future, because they know what their future holds, and it isn’t good. I tried to listen, learn and link/respond according to her guidance. Therefore, for roughly 38 hours, we talked and lived ONLY IN THE PRESENT (as much as possible).
Aunt Barbara would be behind Uncle Wint making motions to me and moving her lips, “We don’t say that!” or “We don’t do that!” Debbie’s car wouldn’t start Saturday morning and she was already running behind in order to be on the campus in Tampa by 9 am. Barbara quickly let me know that any experience that has a “stressor” in it can drive him over the edge. Therefore, we calmly and quietly tried to get her car started (I had jumper cables, but their Cadillac doesn’t have a black battery terminal that is visible, or for me finable. Fortunately, Jack the maintenance man knew how to ground it elsewhere). My guess is that additional anxiety or new stress could cause him to cry or even, at some stage become violent. Did you know that anxiety and stress can immediately cause someone else near you to go over the edge? Hmmm!
“Look at those beautiful waves lapping on the white sand!” I said as we looked out of their second floor window onto the beach and gulf only 40 feet away. “Do you see any dolphins out there?” “Wave at the people! They are waving at us!” I never knew how hard it was to constantly and consistently live ONLY in the present! I made lots of mistakes and left feeling like a bit of a failure. It was like learning a new language for me! Debbie’s and my presence was not a waste, however, according to Aunt Barbara. On Saturday afternoon, I was able to stay with Uncle Wint long enough for her to go for a one hour walk on the beach. During that one hour Uncle Wint looked for her out the window, walked outside the condo door to make sure their car was there. He would ask where she was. He literally cannot be away from her without completely drifting into a state of fear. But for her, she received one hour of peace and respite! Just one hour evidently can make a world of difference!
What does all this have to do with us? We have some church members who are battling Alzheimer’s Disease. Many of us also have extended family who have to deal with this horrible disease. I am going to challenge us, during our four Sunday nights of January (9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th), to become much more committed and consistent with regular private devotional time with God – spiritual formation is another term for that. Brother Lawrence called it “Practicing the Presence of God.” This is similar to my feeble attempts with my aunt and uncle. We cannot do this with others if we don’t do it first and foremost with God in our own lives.
We will begin each Sunday at 5:30 in the Family Life Center with a meal and then gather in the sanctuary from 6 – 7 pm for focused time on learning to deepen the intimacy that we have with our living and loving God. Just 5 or 10 minutes alone with God makes a world of difference! When we do that, we will be more immersed in the presence of God in the present, the here and now, and then we will be a present of God’s presence to those around us, some of whom are living on the edge! We do make a difference! May our difference ever grow more in tune with the Spirit of Christ who offers peace to those who follow and know him!

Dr. Fitzgerald

Can you get a pulse?

2010-11-16T10:36:00.002-05:00

Countless times I have been witness to nurses checking a person’s pulse to determine their health condition, not to mention my own every time I visit the Urgent Care for some illness. Blood pressure, pulse and temperature are always checked to determine basic health conditions.

Recently I was listening to a science documentary on television when they discussed the Big Bang theory and the perfect place of our universe in the midst of expansion and contraction. This is life! This is God! There was a pulse from something or someone outside of what we know as our three dimensional universe and life came into being. The pulse is like a heartbeat, expansion and contraction. The heart shoots out life giving blood and brings it back to reenergize it, to run it back through the power mill of oxygen in the lungs in order to feed the rest of the body – brain, organs, limbs, etc. During the season of Christmas, will your pulse rate change? Based on what you feed your body, mind and soul? Keep Christ at the center of your life, your heart. Don’t get trapped with the pulse sent out by consumerism and the superficial stimulation of all that glitters, since you know the rest of that cliché (all that glitters is not gold).

The sound of the heartbeat is the basic rhythm used in all Native American drumming. Did you know that? I would challenge you that it is the basic rhythm that makes a tune pulse right or else it drives us crazy. If the beat is off, the rhythm doesn’t make sense, it sends our nervous system into some kind of shock! We cannot stand to hear a musical piece left incomplete, without the final note, the final pulse. Christmas music has a pulse of life, light and love! Do you feel it?

In the incarnation, God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, out in an expansion of himself to energize and offer life to humanity and creation. Then God drew Him back again. God then sent his Holy Spirit to empower our breath with His breath, our spirits with His Spirit, our minds with the mind of Christ, our hearts with the very pulse of life that enables perfect rhythm. God is at the origin and the apex of breathing in and breathing out, expansion and contraction.

Where there is no pulse, there is no life. Life is not experienced in a healthy way without going out and coming back in. Jesus is clearly described as life in John 1:3, “All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.” Jesus also puts it this way, as recorded in John 15:4a,9b, “Abide in me as I abide in you. Abide in my love.” Stay in Jesus during Christmas. Stay in His love. As we have a pulse, as we have life in us, we have the thread of life in us that is Christ wanting to not only give life to our bodies, but also to our minds and our souls. To “know” this, is to know the love of God made available in Jesus Christ.

So we go out into the world with life, with the love of God in Christ Jesus. We go out to share the good news and to give energy and sustenance to those who are starving for air, for breath, for a stronger pulse, for balance. We come back again into worship, into meditation and reflection on the living and written Word of God. Out and back in again. Breathing out and breathing in. The heartbeat! The pulse of life. Christmas music that pulsates with something indescribable! Life!

How’s your pulse rate? Put your finger on your wrist and feel. Do you feel the presence of God? Do you feel life pulsing through you? Do you feel the love of God manifest in your wrist, in your finger, in your mind, heart and soul? Joy to the World if so. If not, you’re dead!

Getting the Wind Back in our Sails!

2010-09-27T12:35:00.002-04:00

Do you ever feel like Elijah felt after God had been with him in loving, intimate and miraculous ways, and then all of a sudden on person sucks the wind out of his sails! I've felt like that numerous times in my life, including recently. What do you do? Seriously! Is it enough for us just to offer God little blurps of our time in the midst of other seemingly more important daily responsibilities? I am reminded often of what John Wesley said, "I am so busy now that I am finding it necessary to pray up to four hours per day!" We work just the opposite. We get busy and cut down on our "alone" time with God. Wesley had it right. The busier we get, the harder life gets, the more we get attacked from the left, the right, from up above and from down below, from the front and the rear... the more we need specifically time alone with nobody and nothing but God! We need to give carved out absolutely dedicated time, though, energy, mind, body and soul to God, to God's work, to God's breath/wind/Spirit. That's how we can get the wind back in our sails. It's is God's wind/breath/Spirit that moves us along the way!

Article about Situational Awareness

2010-07-26T21:58:00.003-04:00

On Sunday, July 25, 2010, I mentioned in my sermon an article from American Chronicle that covers a topic of "situational awareness." If you are interested in this article and how we are researching experiences like these, as well as remote viewing, ESP, and neurobiology and quantum physics as they relate to our ability to experience life from different times and places in the here and now, then click here for further reading.
SA relates to how some soldiers are better able than others to "perceive" IED's. The same thing happens to those who spend time reading and meditating on God's word; spending quiet time in prayer listening to God and the world around them. As we grow more mature in the depth of God's love, we grow more and more in tune with the fruith of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). We develop a spiritual awareness about when the fruit of God's Spirit is threatened by false gods, IED's of the world. We are more and more able to live in self-control rather than taking the bait that robs us of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
So may you develop more and more SA in your life!

Generosity

2010-06-29T11:09:00.002-04:00

I am musing on the blessings of God. My breath. My vision. The gift of God's very being/Spirit/Son. My family. My church. My ability to serve and be productive, and to grow. I often wonder why God has so graciously blessed me? It is a mystery, but my primary response is praise and adoration. Following that, I am compelled to be generous with my time, talents and money. All is but a gift of God's grace and mercy. I enclose a picture of one form of God's generosity to me and allow you to muse over why I posted this picture. What picture would you place here?

Living through disaster...

2010-01-19T15:22:00.001-05:00

Recent update from Hans Meinardus, out friend at Frontier Camp
See Pastor Gersan Valcin's heartbreaking update below...

ï¿½ There are so many exciting things to tell you about in Haiti. We have had the privilege of receiving several emails from Gersan and even a couple of pictures. These have all be placed on our Facebook Page. Anyone can visit the Facebook page and you can add your comments, pictures, etc. if you are a member of Facebook. We are so pleased that over 200 people have joined our group and are interested in the ministry of Gersan and Betty. We will probably start sending fewer emails and encourage you to visit the Facebook page often as there is up to date information posted there as soon as it is received. Please look under the Discussions tab to see the longer messages from people.

ï¿½ The leadership team met tonight and it was decided that the group will be referred to as ECC Haiti Recovery. ECC is for Evangelical Community Church which is the name of Gersan and Betty's congregation. So don't be confused if you start hearing that name.

ï¿½ Noelle was interviewed by a Houston TV station, you can see the clip online http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=7225548

This weekend in Haiti brought the beginning of the total reality of what families in Gersanï¿½s church, The Evangelical Community Church of Haiti, are now dealing with. A much smaller than normal group of believers gathered at church on Sunday. Through tears of grief, they also praised the Lord for many miracles that occurred. They shared their pain as they recounted the stories about those who are now on ï¿½heavenï¿½s sideï¿½ and also those for whom they are still searching. Gersan tells us best in his own words:

Friday the 16th

It's 9:30 pm and there is no electricity in the Port-au-Prince. It's unusually cold. Betty and I are in the van for our third night. All around us
on the street are people. Some are sleeping in their car and others just on the ground. We had a surplus of mattresses from last week
camp and we gave them all away. I keep in the Van one jacket just in case I might be called for funerals. So far, the situation is so bad that we don't have time for proper burials. People are just put in a common grave.

Out in the dark people are singing songs of praises making harmonies. I don't know how long they will sing, but it's beautiful.

Because of news about criminals breaking out of jail, we put cars on each side of the road and put a brigade overnight. We are fortunate to have water and so far the food we need for the day. We take one meal a day and save what we can because we don't know how long the situation will last. Each night

I pray for it not to rain. With so many people outside and no tent, it will be good not to have rain. God has been faithful to keep all the rains in Cap-Haitian area. We also need to pray for the people there because their crops are receiving too much rain and they will have a hard time this summer. We share everything and it's such a great testimony for the unsaved. One woman in our neighborhood starts to develop some interest in the Gospel. She realized how we as evangelicals we life our faith: how we care for each other and love each other. I shared the gospel with her.

Saturday morning the 17th

I left home to drop a family member to a place where she can take a tap-tap. After I dropped them in Petion ville, I turn to go back home. 4 people get into my car and ask me to drop them to where they were going. As they were in the car, I took the time to hear each one story and each one had a family member that was under the wreckages. One particular man who was silent all along started to tell his story. 8 family members are dead under his house and he was going to try to find a way to get to them. When he started, there was no emotion on his face, but when he came across the house he broke in tears and pointed to the place: here is the house; here is the house he cried!!! Tears came down all over his face. I stop and let him step down the car. I stood there for a few minutes hopelessly and looked around; but there was nothing I could do. He turned with his hands up over his head in despair. He turned around at lease three times and looked for help; but there was no help. That was one of the most painful minute of my life! There is nothing as painful as hopelessness! After this crisis, there will be need for a lot of counseling. People that seem to be strong now, when face with the reality of their lost will probably lose their mind.

Sunday, Jan. 18
Today at church, few people show up as this is unusual for Haitians, we knew that something has changed. Most of the people are out of their home and not able to travel because their car has been damaged. We have heard many stories of how God miraculously spared the lives of friends, family and coworkers in spite of the disaster all around.

We have also heard of some difficult stories. One woman shared how her husband and three of her children were buried aive under the wreckage of her house and she stood there crying with no help around. They all passed away and she was at church to share the story. Another father stood with his baby girls with almost not cloth sharing how his wife and her mother died. A young girl Regine Michel raised her only moving arm in the air to give praise to God for saving her life. Her left arm was broken in two places and no hospital wanted to help her because her wound was not life threatening. We praise God for one congressman that was present and that took her to the DR boarder in the hope that she will find help and they will not have to amputate her arm.

Like a sister wrote in her news letter, ï¿½this event has reminded us, once again, how fragile life is. We can be called home at any time and so we should live in such a way that we will not be ashamed when we meet Him.

Nothing in my life and training prepared me for a tragedy of that magnitude. That was the opportunity to turn to the Word of God. We read the third chapter of Lamentations and shared some words of comfort from the 46th Psalms. In the day a head, we will conduct symbolic funerals for the dead ones. Thank you for your prayers and support!

(Sunday evening)
This is the sixth night and again it may rain. So far, God did hold it back, but it would be a disaster with all the dead bodies out there and so many people sleeping outside. We pray again for the rain not to come. As the sun come down each day, I go to the refugee cam at the church to pray with the people before they go to sleep. This is a time they all look forward to. Before I get there, a tap-tap driver plays some Christian music and they are ready for me to come and pray with them. Using the Frontier Camp speaker phone we sing and recite a psalm and pray with them. On Saturday night, I had to pick up a team of Haitian doctors in Petionville and I was not able to make it back to the church. To night, the people at the camp shared with me how they missed that time of prayer on Saturday night. As I pray with them each night they always clap at the end. This is a way to express their gratitude to the Lord for just being alive. I see a lot of strength in them and Iï¿½m glad that they get their strength from the Lord. In Psalms 46:1, it is said that God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. More and more people are finding their strength in God. I pray that Haiti will never be the same again!

Gersan

Share your experiences here...

2010-01-03T17:19:00.002-05:00

Today we kicked off our church-wide campaign to listen through the New Testament in 40 days. Feel free to comment on your encounters with God and others as you let words or texts envelope you, meditate on them and pray them deep into the fabric of your life. Today we listened, or read, Matthew chapters 1 - 7. Anything jump out at you?

Note from AJ Brooks in Afghanistan

2009-12-17T09:08:00.002-05:00

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

2009-12-04T08:47:00.003-05:00

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

2009-09-19T08:55:00.002-04:00

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

2009-08-19T14:26:00.002-04:00

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

2009-07-29T16:24:00.002-04:00

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?

2009-06-04T08:37:00.002-04:00

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...

2009-05-19T16:39:00.000-04:00

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?

2009-05-13T22:44:00.002-04:00

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?

2009-04-11T10:00:00.003-04:00

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?

2009-04-04T16:06:00.003-04:00

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"

2009-03-19T09:58:00.000-04:00

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!

2009-02-25T19:18:00.002-05:00

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

2009-02-21T15:31:00.002-05:00

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

2009-01-27T15:56:00.003-05:00

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

HDTV & HDXTY (HD Christianity)

2008-12-03T13:35:00.001-05:00

This past fall, my wife (Debbie) and I became empty nesters. We have three children, all of which are living outside of our home. Two are in college and one is recently graduated. Our children negotiated with Debbie (or Debbie negotiated with them), and the children ended up taking all of our television sets, living room and their bedroom furniture. Wow! What a setback to our pitiful home furnishings, but we love them to death and are helping them live independently.

We have put off buying a new television for years, surmising that there is not much worth watching on television anyway. However, in our newfound living conditions, we broke down and bought a new TV (plasma screen HD – high definition). The brilliant colors and the clarity of picture are amazing. It is incredible to watch a football game and see the blades of grass, the sweat on player’s faces, and actually be able to keep up with the ball during a televised tennis match. Just watching TV is amazing! Things that were previously not visible are now jumping off the screen at us.

It is time for churches to offer HD (high definition) faith in Christ. We need to give better clarification of the details of Jesus’ life and how that translates into Christlike living during this day and time. God gave us the highest HD vision we could get by taking flesh, becoming Emmanuel, God with us – clearly showing the Godlife available to all humanity. The writer of Hebrews puts it like this in 1:1-3a:
“Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, 2but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son,* whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. 3He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains* all things by his powerful word…”

Many people today can only describe their faith by stating what they do not believe in, what they are against, and who the “bad” people are. It is time for us to grow up, to mature, and to literally grow into the full maturity of Christ. Paul puts it this way in Ephesians 4:13 when describing the desired outcome of using God’s spiritual gifts to us:
“until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.”

When we describe our faith clearly, being highly defined (HD), then others are quietly challenged to become more clearly defined in what they believe. This is a great method of nonmanipulative evangelism. Enabling and challenging other(s) to define themselves is inviting and makes space for them to define their faith and beliefs in their own terms (usually different than what we would have imagined). Only when we clearly define ourselves can we engage in constructive conversation without becoming defensive.
Is your faith HD? Try it out! Others may find your clarity something truly beautiful, something worth taking the time to admire, observe and thereby seek higher definition for themselves. Only Christ offers the Highest Definition available!
Merry Christmas,
Dr. Fitzgerald

The Butterfly Effect

2008-11-02T17:42:00.003-05:00

Here is a copy from our home page related to my sermon today, The Butterfly Effect. The essence of my sermon was that one small act of faith, one simple and simplistic movement in tandem with God's word and will has cosmic consequences. Here is a copy of the info from the FBC, New Bern home page:
Click here for link to better understanding of how matter works on the quantum level of electrons. Click here to view a demonstration of how prayer/focused concentration on a single drop of water can literally change the structure of that drop of water. Biblical connection? Click here to listen to a video describing Chaos Theory that illustrates the sensitivity and unpredictability of our weather systems, and how a simple small act, even by that of a butterfly flapping its wings, can have major consequences in another part of the world some time later. Click here for a great short demonstration of the inability of science to figure it all out.
Be honest, let me know what you think about all of this!

Panic Attacks

2008-10-20T15:41:00.001-04:00

It is amazing how many folks are having panic attacks these days. I never even knew what a panic attack was until the mid 1990’s when one of my family members experienced this. We rushed to the hospital sure that one was experiencing a heart attack. Heart was racing. Chest and arm was hurting. Mouth was dry and face taught! This sure looked like a possible heart attack to me and the one experiencing this. This was accompanied by nausea and an upset stomach. Simply put, this is a horrible experience, but one that has more and more people becoming familiar with in this day and time.
Why? I am not a medical doctor, so I will not attempt to explain why good people of post adolescent age are experiencing these attacks in ever increasing numbers. What I do know is that these experiences are debilitating. I even know of one person who had three of these in one day. I know that some people will not ride across bridges because they know they will have a panic attack, and some will not even go out to eat in a public restaurant because they may experience one. I do not want to confuse this with agoraphobia, which I also know someone who suffers from this (and she cannot drive outside a fifteen mile radius of her home).
God seeks to heal us through both faith and science. God uses medical doctors, medicine and technology, as well as faith and prayer to deliver us from the land of slavery, the house of bondage. The word, “panic,” as used in the Bible (NRSV), is only found in the Old Testament. The first context of panic describes God’s infliction of panic upon the Egyptian army as they pursue Moses and the Israelites who are leaving Egypt. In all of the Old Testament contexts panic is used as a tool of God against unbelievers, even against the Israelites themselves when they turned away from God to pursue worthless idols. Panic is not God’s intention for humanity. Peace is! But how attuned are we to God today? Do we spend as much time in relationship with God as we do the secular news and concerns?
Our country suffered a sort of panic attack on 9/11/01. Wall Street experienced many days of panic during October 2008. Review the downward panic drops of the Dow Jones Industrial Average during the month of October. Consider how the media reacted to the Senate’s rejection of the first bailout bill – panic from the newsroom into your living room!
November is a time for us to focus on Thanksgiving. Spend time daily giving thanks to God for all that God has done, and all that God has promised! As God’s children, let us not be like the unbelievers who panic based on who wins this election, or what happens to Wall Street, or the banking industry, or the price of gas. Let us be the children of God we are called to be and relax because we know who we are and whose we are and who is in control of our lives. God has covered our past, taken care of our future, and seeks to fill us with his Presence in the present. Stay focused on the Good News and let that dictate your peace, not the nightly news!
In Christ,
Dr. Fitzgerald

At Home Anywhere

2008-10-09T10:10:00.002-04:00

Matthew 8:24, "A wind storm (literally a great earthquake) arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he [Jesus] was asleep."
The sea in the Bible was symbolic of chaos. So this story, which in some variation is also in Mark and Luke's gospels, indicates that waves of chaos were threatening the disciples. We can surely resonate with them today. Undoubtedly we feel as if our country, and the global economy, has experienced a great earthquake of seismic proportion. After shocks continue (waves continue to slap the sides of our boats/homes and destabilize our comfortable journey from one place to another).
Jesus, the Son of God who has no where to lay his head, is strangely able to sleep in the midst of certain terror and calamity. His actions relate to faith in all three gospel accounts of this story. Our God, Christ, is at home everywhere! He needs no earthly security to enable him to "feel" safe and "secure." We must cling to Him and to his faith during all times, but especially at a time like this. Some of our neighbors, friends and acquaintances are going to lose their "stuff." Stuff is not just the value of their savings and investments, but also their jobs and ability to feel productive and of value to others. We must recognize that Christ is in this boat with us! Christ enables us and challenges us to have great faith when great earthquakes hit us hard.
We will survive this. This can deepen our faith. We may need to wake up and realize that all of us have too much "stuff," and need to jettison some of it overboard as the sailors did in the story of Jonah when they were threatened by the storm at sea due to Jonah's disobedience. There is much corruption in corporate America, in government, and in humanity (you and me). We need to take responsibility for our part in this crisis and grow in faith and share the faith with those who will be, and are, looking for someone to awaken and save them. Christ is here! Christ is Savior! Call him! He'll be there for us in ways that will deepen our connection to God in ways that move us onto right paths, for his name sake.
Amen

Somebody Cares!

2008-10-01T11:58:00.002-04:00

I watched the lady leave the K-Mart parking lot with several hot meals in her front passenger seat. As I directed her around the corner and out of the parking lot, she threw her hands up in the air and emphatically proclaimed, "Somebody cares!!!"
I wondered what kind of frustrations she had already encountered in the immediate first 14 days since Hurricane Ike had ravaged her home and community. Who had she sought help from and found only frustration? Ours was only a meal. Our gift was only a warm offering to carry her through the immediate present to the next day. However, surviving one day because "someone cares" can be enough to get one past deep and destructive thoughts and behaviors when one thinks that "no one cares."
We care because God cares. What a great opportunity it was for our team to serve and average of 38,000 meals per day in Baytown, Texas. We did not ask people any questions about their morals, ethics, faith backgrounds or political beliefs. They were hungry, physically for sure; some mentally and spiritually. We offered to feed all three of these through our work with feeding teams, chaplains and Red Cross helpers, including mental health professionals.
It was great to see First Baptist Church, Baytown, Texas, Red Cross and NC Baptist Disaster Relief all work together so well! As the pastor of First Church, Baytown illustrated it on upcoming t-shirts, we are three cords of love and care woven together to help neighbor!
Three strands, God who is above and sees all, Son who is with us and comes to us as friend and Redeemer, and Holy Spirit who is inside us to guide us onto right paths for His name sake (paths of peace, hope, grace and mercy).
The lady got it right, "Someone cares!" God cares and we care as God's disciples!

Nothing Lasts Forever?

2008-09-18T12:55:00.001-04:00

Gen. 6:3; John 17:20-21

Lord, you have created this world according to seasons and cycles. Change is a part of that system of seasons and cycles. As the popular cliché goes, “Nothing lasts forever.” Is it good or bad that nothing lasts forever? Is it even true?
Surely there are many times in my life when I have been so graced by your presence and love that it has permeated all creation and relationships around me. I feel that even now as I sit on my deck having eaten a hearty breakfast followed by a great Quiet Time with you while my black lab, Mamie, sis at my feet. I encounter your presence and love through the sights and sounds of birds, dogs, trees creaking and leaves shuffling in the 65 degree morning breeze. Home builders work nearby in the neighborhood hammering and cutting as they repair and improve homes filled with life and imagination. Planes maneuver overhead as I breathe in your presence and love. I sip my Kona coffee flavored with Splenda and Caramel Vanilla creamer. The leaves dance and sway again with the passing of your Spirit, wind, breath. Surely I wish this feeling and this moment could last forever, but that would be narrow-minded and selfish!
I leave tomorrow for Baytown, Texas where I will serve in disaster relief helping prepare between 70,000 – 80,000 meals per day for folks who lost all material possessions in Hurricane Ike. I know of many others who live in acute or chronic pain and they pray for this time, moment, season or cycle of life to pass quickly! To freeze any moment of time would inevitably lock someone, somewhere in the world, in a circumstance and condition of permanent horror, pain and despair (especially some in developing nations)! I do not pray for time to stand still!
In Genesis 6:3 you clarified, after humanity sinned and became one with good and evil, that your Spirit would not dwell with humanity forever. We are sinful and broken. We suffer and cause suffering for creation, neighbor and self. In your divine mercy you set limits, seasons and cycles to govern life in time, space and matter on earth. Thank you, Lord, for you know what is right and best. I do not! We do not!
Jesus reveals your true and deepest desire for humanity in John 17:20-21 as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane for his apostles and those who would come to know him through their word,
“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may know that your have sent me.”
Lord, your desire is for humanity to be one with you, as Christ is one with you; perfect communion between you and us in body, mind and spirit. This is why we cannot remain in broken flesh forever. Broken flesh must be put aside in order to put on immortality and become one with utter and complete holiness. Here we know in part, speak and preach in part, but when the complete comes the partial will come to an end (1 Cor. 13:9-10). Sin will be destroyed. Praise be to You, O Lord of love, grace and mercy. Jesus said,
“I will come again and take you to myself so that where I am, you may be also.” (John 14:3)
Lord, may your Word last forever. May your love in creation and the church last forever (1 Cor. 13:8a) through Christ,
Amen!

What's in a tear?

2008-08-18T08:48:00.001-04:00

The Gift of a Tear
Eph. 4:11-13

Last week I visited with a wonderful man whose heart was failing. He has a beautiful family and his wife had requested my visits and prayers over the past month after meeting them in the hospital where I work once per month as a volunteer chaplain. I received a call from his wife that he was dying about 10 am one morning. I traveled to the nursing home where he resided and where he kept himself cheered up as the self-appointed “door greeter.” I had prayer with him and his family, always presuming that he could hear me, even though he was unresponsive. I left about 10:30 am.
I went back after lunch to see if he was still alive. I asked the nurse at the main nursing station (who was as sweet and compassionate as she could be) and she indicated that there was really no change. I opened the door to find the number of family and friends had grown. I indicated that I had spoken to the nurse and that she had told me that there was not much change. His wife indicated that his breathing had become much less labored. I spoke to him. I watched him take two short breaths and then I said that there was a long pause between breaths. He took no more. As he died a tear ran down out of his right eye onto his cheek where his wife collected that tear with her finger and placed it on her tongue. She then began to weep.
I met with the family two days later to plan the funeral. One final question I posed to them was this, “What did that tear mean to you?” Immediately one said, “That my daddy is no longer in pain.” (He had been battling heart attacks and mini-strokes for about twelve years). Another said, “That he didn’t want to leave us! I know how much he loved us all!” Then I asked his wife. She proceeded to get up and go to the refrigerator where she removed a small postcard sized poem written around a tear. The poem was given to her and her husband by the friend/lady who had introduced them to each other (for both a second marriage). The essence of the poem was a prayer that their union would be so complete and that when one cried the other could taste the salt. Wow! The wife said, as soon as I saw that tear I knew that I had to taste the salt!” There’s was a wonderful marriage of unbelievable communion and love, in spite of the health battles.
God brought his presence through the gift of that tear to each of us differently. To me, it was a tear of joy when he saw the kingdom of heaven open up before him – sheer ecstasy. That was God’s love and presence to me. To another it was God’s gift of love through a word of freedom from pain; to another it was God’s gift of love through a parting farewell, as tough as it may be to physically part until they meet again. Each interpretation was valid and each brought the love of God, the gift of God, the “building up” of the body of Christ.
I think of Michael Phelps, who just won eight gold medals swimming at the summer Olympics in Beijing. In particular, the IM (individual medley). It was nothing compared to this tear: this tear did the backstroke from heaven, releasing its grip from its Creator, dropping into the canal that would lead to a breast stroke to the exit of a tear duct in a dying eye, where it did the freestyle down the cheek of a father, brother, husband of love. Then it finished with the fly, the butterfly stroke, where it went through a metamorphosis of meaning to each gathered in that room. God’s love poured out in an event that Olympic Games and television just cannot capture. I’m glad I was there. I hope I have taken you there. God has an event that you are invited to today. Pay close attention to the IM’s that God participates in every day to build us up into the body of Christ. We are meant for relationship with God and other. What a blessing of love.
Dr. Fitz

How not to turn over in a narrow sea kayak...

2008-08-12T21:05:00.002-04:00

This afternoon & evening I went on a short kayak trip with my youngest daughter. She paddled the sit-on-top the first half of the trip. Then I asked her if she would like to paddle my 17 ft. narrow sea kayak. I warned her that it was easy to turn over, but that it also is easier to paddle and much faster than the wide plastic sit-on-top one. Here's how you keep from turning over, "Don't lean too far to the right or left!"
The same is true for walking steady with Christ. When we begin to lean too far to the extreme edges of our faith, or culture, then we begin to be defined by issues rather than relationships. Focusing on our call to be a relational blessing to God and neighbor keeps us upright as we journey through the seas (chaos) of life. I have learned how to balance my kayak better through practice -- paddling it for 3 to 5 hours at a time on many outings. I find that steady consistent strokes make the journey more enjoyable. I have also learned to take my nifty little 12 ounce parachute nylon hammock that I can quickly string up between two trees and take a brief rest at the midpoint of a long day of paddling. So too must I do in long days of service to church and community. I can just get tired out listening, learning and trying to link in ways that lift others into God's love, grace and mercy. I need a bit of a rest every once in a while. Steady consistent witnessing make the journey more enjoyable.
How's your journey going? Turned over lately and felt all washed up? Get back in the boat and practice with patience. Remember to take rest breaks and talk to God, pray to God, read God's word, before heading back into the deep water!
Happy kayaking!

Praising God...

2008-08-07T20:09:00.002-04:00

Wow! I'm in a state of bliss as my wife got word today that a course she took about 30 years ago (now I'm giving her age away) counted toward her last requirement for lateral entry into the teaching position at New Bern High School. That save us from losing her benefits (& our health insurance) for two months, not to mention that she would have gone to substitute pay for two months and had to pay $825 to take a six week online course.
God is faithful all the time. God would have been faithful no matter how this turned out and I praise God for the peace that comes from walking with Him through life. His beauty is what I seek to behold in all the ordinary experience of daily living. I surely do not deserve the blessings that I have received, the great love of God, of my wife, my children and an awesome church and church staff. Are you so blessed?
Steve

Peace

2008-08-05T18:10:00.002-04:00

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid." (John 14:27 NRSV)
I have had an incredible peace since late last week when I discovered the news about my wife, Debbie's, job. She did go find out that the worst scenario is that she must take one more course that is six weeks and doesn't end until mid September. She would be changed to substitute status, pay dropped substantially, and would lose benefits for that period of time. Our whole family is covered under her health insurance.
She has a number of advocates working for her to keep this from happening, but no matter what happens, God will carry us through this (even with one child moving and just starting college and the other returning for a second year, but in apartment living). God is good! God is great! Let us thank God for God's grace! Ultimate matters are not at risk here, only temporary setbacks and challenges.
How has God delivered you from times such as these?
Dr. Fitz

WYA2TM

2008-07-31T11:30:00.003-04:00

Gen. 28:15 was God's word to me this morning. Jacob has a dream where he sees a ladder between heaven and earth with the angels of God ascending and descending upon it. God stands beside him and says that He will bless Jacob with offspring that will populate the earth and be a blessing to the entire earth. He then says in v. 15, "Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."

Wow, I was so tired yesterday, and God had to remind me again what He said to me when He was calling me into ministry back in 1991. I sat in my car outside Ruby Tuesday's with one remaining week of employment as summer youth minister in Chesapeake, VA. I had no job lined up in Richmond, VA where I was called by God to attend seminary and no way to pay for seminary. You might say, "that was just poor planning!" and you would be right. But as I left Ruby Tuesday's, my parking brake was engaged and broken. I was late leaving the restaurant and was not sure how to find the seminary campus. I finally figured out how to disengage the parking brake and it hit me in the thumb causing me to think with expletives. I leaned forward, looked through the front windshield heavenward and cried out loud to God, "God, do you know who I am? Do you remember me?" I then inserted the key into the ignition and cranked the car. The radio came on and these words from the radio, "Goodbye Ruby Tuesday!" I immediately heard clearly in my heart and mind God say to me, "I know who you are and where you are! Trust me!" I began to cry! I received a new calling from a church in Richmond within the next couple of weeks and I received grants to cover all of my seminary expenses.

God has continued to remind me of this promise through the years since 1991. I wish I did not have to be reminded, but each crisis in life takes me back to the beginning, to the foundation of my calling and my life. I have a God, we have a God, who wants us to know that "God knows who we are and where we are. We are to trust God absolutely and completely!" (WYA2TM) As I sit here today, at this minute I do not know how things will turn out for my wife's career, or for our finances. We cannot live without this income and she may be done, according to someone at the school board yesterday. I place my faith in God. I'll let you know how this turns out. I have turned it over to God!! No matter what happens, God will be with me/us to complete the good work that He began. Phlipp. 1:6, "I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ."

Dr. Fitzgerald

I'm tired...

2008-07-30T15:18:00.003-04:00

That is what I hear from some individuals in the hospital when they have just had all they can take. Sometimes, after extending their lives far beyond what their length of life would have been, they just say, "Enough! I'm tired!"

This week has been tiring for me! Our three ministers, Richard, Barry and Sharon are out of town and our administrative secretary was out Monday, and Friday is her last day with us. We have received close to 100 resumes that I have to sort through, teach Wednesday morning and night, prepare a sermon for Sunday, visit the ill and infirmed, and be spunky for my family when at home (my wife found out that she is one course short of required course load to stay a teacher in NC public education system & there is no course offered between now and deadline -- meaning she has one more paycheck!). I'm tired right now. Does this sound like whining? Perhaps! Sometimes we pastors need prayer too! I encourage you to pray for Richard, Sharon, Barry and me, as well as our support staff here at First Baptist.

I am most blessed to have this awesome calling and to be surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses and faithful, obedient servants. I pray for you! Here's a picture of some of our group while in Germany. Some of them have not been able to sleep more than a couple of hours each night, and they have been there for four nights now!

Steve

Ten Flaws of Legalism

2008-06-16T06:24:00.003-04:00

I mentioned in my sermon yesterday that legalism was the cause of making the people of Israel feel harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Here are ten flaws related to a legalistic approach to the Christian faith and Bible:
(1) New laws continually need to be invented for new situations. (2) Accountability to God is replaced by accountability to men. (3) It reduces a person's ability to personally discern. (4) It creates a judgmental spirit. (5) The Pharisees confused personal preferences with divine law. (6) It produces inconsistencies. (7) It created a false standard of righteousness. (8) It became a burden to the Jews. (9) It was strictly external. (10) It was rejected by Christ. Outlined from Fan The Flame, J. Stowell, Moody, 1986, p. 52.
I would challenge each of us not to fall into the legalism trap. At times we can do that if rules become more important than relationships, if we live on tradition rather than out of tradition. Legalism is a major factor for the lack of church involvement from young folks who seek spiritual guidance today. Too many on the outside seeus as hard, cold, fixed and closed-minded. That is not true of all of us, but is true for some of us. It is time for us to repent and not let the legalists ruin the Chritian faith or church. We must remain steadfast in our absolute commitment to love of God and love of neighbor.
Dr. Fitzgerald

Softening the harsh impact

2008-06-05T09:41:00.003-04:00

Jesus came to absorb the harsh impact of a sinful and broken world on us. He took the burden of our sin, and its painful consequences, in order to bring us into communion with God, God's love, grace and salvation in body, mind and soul. We are to follow Christ in word and deed. How do you soften the impact of others as they journey through this harsh world, those close to you and those you don't even know? Click here to link to one web-story of Robert Cook (far left in picture), who harnessed himself to a first time jumper in order to soften her impact through the use of his body as he realized their plane was crashing. What Scriptures come to your mind as you consider this awesome story and act of personal self-sacrifice?

Bicentennial Kick-off

2008-05-20T08:48:00.005-04:00

We had a great start to our Bicentennial kick-off. Dr. Roy Smith (his wonderful wife, Charlotte Cook Smith was here with him) preached and gave us a wonderful historical message with the utmost contemporary relevance. He spoke of the heritage of our church with regard to pursuing religious freedom, the desire for an educated clergy and congregation, and the desire to participate in local and global missions. These have all been sustaining goals of First Baptist New Bern throughout the years. It is no less evident today with four full-time ministers, all of which are par-excellence. As senior pastor, I consider it the greatest blessing to serve with three godly men and women who are second to none in our country, Richard, Sharon and Barry. All of us are committed to religious freedom, theological depth and the sharing of the Good News of the Gospel with a hurting and hungry world.

As we wind our way through the coming year with multiple events, ask yourself how you promote religious freedom for all people. Ask yourself how committed you are to growing in theological depth. Ask yourself how you are participating in the mandate Christ gave us all to share the Good News of Jesus' saving love and grace with the entire world around us. This is not just a time to celebrate the past, but to live out of the rich tradition that a great cloud of witnesses left for us to carry on and enhance.

God be with you as you respond to the great task set before you by Jesus and His church.

Dr. Fitz

My cup runneth over?

2008-04-18T07:12:00.003-04:00

Ps. 23:5; Acts 6:3,5,8; 7:55-60

Lord, it is only when we are "full" that our lives can be totally transformed. When I invite you into my mind, body and spirit each morning I do so with the faith that Your Word and Love will fill me to the point that my thoughts, worries and concerns and even worldly desires will be lifted higher and higher into your presence until finally they spill out of my cognition. This only happens when they are replaced by your glory, your presence, your agape/unconditional love for me.

This is clearly possible, surely desirable, and greatly beneficial, not just to me, but to those who will be around me during the course of a day (my wife can tell you if I've had my Quiet Time with God or not by my disposition during the day). As your glory fills my mind, body and spirit, I have your glory to share with all the world around me, primarily by my mere presence, surely by my actions, and occasionally with my words which have been bathed in the glory of Your Word. As Stephen discovered, your glory spilling out of our lives will either bless those around us or horrify them. This depends on their relationship with you.

Consider the image of the new Kohler overflowing bathtub. This is a new item that you can have in your luxurious bathroom. The cost of one of these begins around $6,000 to $10,000. They sure are beautiful, but I guarantee this overflowing tub will not give you the results that you can get from inviting God into your life each morning and allowing God's loving Spirit and Word to fill you completely up, even until your own agendas spill out and are replaced with God's glory!

Steve

Desperation!

2008-04-05T09:29:00.003-04:00

I was awakened this morning at 6:30 a.m. by a collect call. The person on the other end of the phone was desperate. He mentioned the fact that Rev. Barry Templeton introduced him to me a few weeks ago when he visited our church. He had now been through West Virginia with his wife and children for a family funeral when his car broke down (likely story, but I just got through spending close to $5,000 on car repairs in the past few months, so I know it can happen with a used car).
He indicated that he was stuck in a tiny little town, Roseville, WV where a man, Mr. White, repaired his car. He needed less than $100 for repair fees that were over and beyond what had been estimated and Mr. White wouldn't accept payment by credit or debit cards (little mom & pop shop). This man, I'll call him the "traveler," indicated that from the beginning he and his family were called "colored people." Very soon thereafter, they were being called, "niggers." Finally, as he was trying to secure his car and get his family on the road he had supposedly been surrounded by 40 to 50 people calling them the "n" word and he had called the sheriff's department for protection. I supposedly talked to a sheriff this morning and wired the man $90 (cost me a bit more). The story gets a bit more bizarre, but here's my reflection and question:
Legitimate or not, the traveler sounded sober and desperate. I have only heard that kind of desperation a few times. He sure sold me (or scammed me). Whether or not it was 100% legitimate I don't know, but I know he was desperate for money for something.
Question: Should I have helped this man, that I don't know?
Does it matter what his desperation was, or just that he was INCREDIBLY desperate to call and go through what he went through trying to get less than $100 for assistance?
What is the most desperate you have ever been?
Desperation for what? Money? Housing? Grades? Job? Love? Friendship?
Could there be any greater desperation than that shared by my two acquaintances who were unbelievers, died, and then had hell-like experiences with pain beyond belief & they cried out to God -- and God rescued them, delivered them, answered their prayers. Could I have done otherwise? What do you think?

In the Father's Hands...

2008-03-31T15:15:00.003-04:00

A friend of mine, Janet Hauser, is an artist and poet. Recently she had a friend who gave birth to a new little girl. The friend had a picture of her father (grandfather of the newborn) holding her new baby. She discussed with Janet the possibility of painting her newborn, but could not decide on an appropriate pose. Within the past few months the grandfather developed colon cancer and Janet decided to surprise paint the baby in her grandfather's hands -- the hands of love, protection, nurture and promise. Consider these hands and how we are graciously caressed by the hands of God, our heavenly Father. What words come to mind in the best of nourishment that you received from your parents or grandparents? How has God shown to you true love, protection, nurture and promise?

Vindictiveness

2008-03-27T22:14:00.002-04:00

How sad it is when little children demand that they get their way, or else!!! Such has been the actions of the new fundamentalist regime in leadership of our Baptist State Convention here in North Carolina. When the WMU of NC (Women's Missionary Union of North Carolina) decided NOT to allow the new regime to change the rules and decide who the WMU could or could not hire, they kicked them out of their building. Now the regime at the convention level has told Ruby Fulbright, Executive Director of WMU of NC, that they will not publish on the State Convention website any mention of WMU NC, in spite of the fact that national WMU has a standing relationship with the International Mission Board and North American Mission Board to be THE supplier of missions information regarding Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong offerings. How childish, manipulative and mean-spirited, just because they could not change the rules and manipulate the women with their size and manhood.

Easter season gives us reason to move beyond fear and to define ourselves as above the silly childish games of our youth. "When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways." (1 Cor. 13:11). Evidently, some enjoy childish behavior, speech and actions. However, for others it became time to grow up and be concerned with the health and wholeness of a lost world rather than being consumed with self and ego.

Pray for the WMU of NC and efforts to stay on track as being a missions agency that educates and supports both national and global missions in the name of Jesus Christ -- for all Baptists in this North Carolina.

Prayer for Teddy Bear Ministry...

2008-03-25T16:57:00.003-04:00

Here is a prayer from the leader of our Teddy Bear Ministry:
Teddy Bear Rocking Chair Ministry Prayer

Dear Lord and Savior,
Please hear our prayer when we ask you to consider our work with the Teddy Bear Ministry of the First Baptist Church and guide us in our endeavor to assist the Coastal Women’s Shelter.
We are desirous of following your teachings in a most humble manner and only seek to provide relief and calmness to young children who find themselves in a strange environment through no fault of their own.
We pray that our efforts will lift their spirits and alleviate some of the pain and suffering of their parent(s)
Assist us in creating a Teddy Bear rocking chair that will remain in their hearts and minds as a lasting symbol of love, understanding, hope and safety for them.
Allow the chair to become a haven of peace, tranquility, and harmony for these innocent children.
Let our efforts teach these innocents that there is a higher authority judging our thoughts, actions and deeds.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful, Lord to have this outreach of love last through many generations and alleviate pain, suffering and heartache for these children and their children’s children?
We ask all of this in your Son’s name, Jesus Christ.

Amen

More to what is?

2008-03-24T17:10:00.000-04:00

Mary went to the tomb to cling to what was and discovered that there is more to what is. I find that my faith in God's presence in the midst of all ordinary experiences of daily life brings excitement and adventure to each and every day. In what ways have you discovered that there is more to an ordinary event that what appeared to be there at first (just on the surface)?

Bobby Swain funeral today...

2008-03-22T07:40:00.000-04:00

Today I will conduct the funeral service for Bobby Swain. Bobby became schizophrenic during late adolescence. He was a brilliant and handsome young man. Schizophrenia is a mental illness that affects more than 2 million American adults. Being diagnosed with this in the late 1960's was not an easy thing for his parents and family to live with, but they did so valiantly and courageously.
Sometimes the illness makes it hard for people to do certain things.
For example:
They may not be able to think clearly.
They may not know the difference between what is real and what is not real.
They may have trouble managing emotions.
They may have a hard time making decisions.
They may not relate well to other people.
What happens?
Here are some things that can happen in people with this disease:
They may hear or see things that are not there.
They may feel as if they are being watched.
They may experience a change in self-care or personal appearance.
They may experience a change in personality.
They may feel angry or fearful toward loved ones.
They may act in ways that are strange or out of place.
They may develop an extreme focus on religion or the occult.
No one knows the exact causes of schizophrenia. Experts have found that, like any other illness, some factors may increase the risk. These factors may be in a person's genes. Imbalances of certain chemicals in the brain are thought to lead to symptoms of the illness. Medicine plays a key role in balancing these chemicals.
In honor of Bobby Swain, and those who do not have the ability to focus their minds in a healthy way without the assistance of heavy medications, I challenge you to calm the noisy voices that compete for holy space in your mind and world. Maggie Ross says that, "the phantasmagorical [illsuionary/fake] world cannot bear silence, for silence reveals it for the delusion it is. It adores only what it can consume and lives for the adrenaline rush of power over people and things. It is this noisy world of delusion and lies that the humble Christ defeats by self-emptying silence." (Maggie Ross, Weavings, March/April 2008 Vol. XXIII, No. 2, pp. 18-19). Remember Bobby, honor God who reveals himself in the life of Christ and in Bobby, and spend more time in silence stilling the noisy voices of the world that lead us into consumption, arrogance and power plays. God's power is peace and prosperity that the world knows not!

Daily Reflections

2008-03-21T23:41:00.000-04:00

As we concluded our Good Friday service today at West New Bern Presbyterian church, I was blessed by the seven clergy from local churches and their musicians, as well as their congregations that spent three hours in worship on such a beautiful day. It demonstrates how much some adore Christ. In an essay by Maggie Ross in the March/April Weavings, Ross points out that "we are what we adore" (pg. 14). Perhaps that is why Mary Magdalene was the first one to find an empty tomb on Easter morning -- she adored Jesus so much that she did not care what others thought about her devotion to him, even in his death!
Lord, what is it that I adore the most in life? My time, energy and check book reveals it!