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.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
Losing your mind?
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
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
Friday, December 17, 2010
There's No Time Like the Present
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
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
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Can you get a pulse?
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!
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!
Monday, September 27, 2010
Getting the Wind Back in our Sails!
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!
Monday, July 26, 2010
Article about Situational Awareness
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!
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!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Generosity
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?
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