As most of you know, on Tuesday a magnitude 7 earthquake struck the island of Haiti, creating one of the greatest natural disasters of our lifetime.  There are several factors that make this disaster so terrible.  The epicenter of the quake occurred in a densely populated area, where poverty levels were high, and the quality of building construction wasn’t.  At present, the Red Cross estimates that 50,000 people have been killed.  More than a million people are now without homes.  Access for aid workers is difficult, because Haiti is an island, and the port was destroyed. Lines of communication have been seriously disrupted. And on top of everything, many of the responders are also victims—people who have lost their homes and their loved ones
Most of you are asking: WHAT CAN I DO?  Our government and first responders discourage us from going.  At this stage in the process, we need leave these efforts to the professionals, because most of us would just get in the way and become an additional resource drain.

But there are two things we can do as followers of Jesus: We can PRAY.  We can GIVE.

At all three of our weekend services, we will receive an offering for our partner on the ground in Haiti—the Convoy of Hope.  The Convoy of Hope is a humanitarian organization with resources leveraged around the world to help those in need.  Their ministry in Haiti feeds 7000 children each day, and I’m thankful that their warehouse was restocked just before the earthquake.  This enabled them to establish a command center just outside the capital city of Port-Au-Prince within 24 hours of the disaster.

But they need help.  They need our prayers.  They need our money.  Right now.  When you come to church this weekend, please come prepared to give generously for our friends who really need our help.

www.convoyofhope.org

Here’s a link from MSNBC with a reference to our partners:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34846230

Through our study of the Psalms at our weekend services, we’ve seen again and again the important of honesty in our conversations with God. A few weeks ago, I quoted C.S. Lewis who said, “We must lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us.”

Here’s a quotation from a seventeenth century believer who has similar thoughts as Lewis. Whatever you do—just keep talking to God!

“Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one’s heart, it’s pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell Him your troubles, that He may comfort you; tell Him your joys, that He may sober them; tell Him your longings, that He may purify them; tell Him your dislikes, that He may help you to conquer them; talk to Him of your temptations, that He may shield you from them; show Him the wound of your heart, that He may heal them; lay bare your indifference to good, your depraved tastes for evil, your instability. Tell Him how self-love makes you unjust to others, how vanity tempts you to be insincere, how pride disguises you to yourself and others.”

“If you thus pour out all your weaknesses, needs, troubles, there will be no lack of what to say. You will never exhaust the subject. It is continually being renewed. People who have no secrets from each other never want for subject of conversation. They do not weigh their words, for there is nothing to be held back; neither do they seek for something to say. They talk out of abundance of the heart, without consideration they say just what they think. Blessed are they who attain to such familiar, unreserved intercourse with God.”

Francois Fenelon
1651-1715

This weekend we talked about being people who delight in the teaching of the LORD (Psalm 1:2a), and I wanted to give you a practical way to learn to do it. One of our favorite axioms around Capital is “We don’t just work through the Bible. We allow the Bible to work through us.” I’ve found one of the best ways to do that is to practice the spiritual discipline of scriptural meditation (Psalm 1:2b).

Most days I will take a short passage of scripture and pick it apart. I dwell on it, asking God what he means. I ask him how it applies to me, and I invite him to work the truth into my heart and mind. Then I try to take it with me through the day, remembering it on the drive time or between meetings. I don’t rush the process. I don’t take on massive amounts of Scripture. Sometimes I’ll spend 3-4 days on one passage. I’ve found this to be one of the most powerful ways God speaks to me.

If you click the link below, you will find a list of suggested verses. I encourage you to read through the list and choose one that especially applies to your life today. If you’ve never done this before, you may want to start slowly. Perhaps spend just five minutes of focus during the least distracting part of your day. Then take it with you. You may want to print them onto a small card, so you can refer to it throughout your day.

May you allow the Bible to work through you, sinking into your heart, mind and soul, that you may know Him more!

Psalm 119:11 – I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

LINK: Meditation Verses

Psalm 19:1-5

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun,
which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.

Did you see him?  This morning, when you drove to the office—did you see him?  While you were mowing your lawn this weekend—did you see him?  Theologians speak of omnipresence: God is everywhere.  But too often, I race through my day distracted by to-do lists, appointments, meetings and messages.  I want to see him.

Psalm 19 gives a voice to creation.  Our planet sings a song about the essence of God.  Every tree, every rock is the ceaseless proclamation of who God is and what he’s doing.  This proclamation transcends language; it transcends dialects.  There is no location on the face of the earth that can escape that cry of the cosmos declaring God is here and God is good.

I want to see him.  If I see him—truly see him—then I cannot help but be changed. I cannot help but be inspired to be a better husband, father, pastor and friend.  So why am I so easily distracted by the mundane?

Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote:

        Earth’s crammed with heaven,
        And every common bush afire with God;
        And only he who sees takes off his shoes.
        The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries

So may you stop settling for blackberries.  May you take off your shoes and open your eyes to see the glory of God all around you.  May he give you eyes to see and ears to hear that you might discover the presence of God in your life today.
 

Recently I came across a book of prayers from Walter Brueggemann. Brueggeman is Professor Emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary where he served for many years as Professor of Old Testament. In my years as a student, both in and out of school, I’ve found his works to be some of the most intellectually satisfying—and often poetic. Earlier this year I picked up Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth—a collection of his prayers. I’ve found them to be an inspiration on my journey, and I thought you might enjoy them as well. The following is a prayer prayed during an Old Testament theology class on November 12, 1998:

God before and God behind,
God for us and God for your own self,
     Maker of heaven and earth,
     creator of sea and sky
     governor of day and night.
We give thanks for your ordered gift of life to us,
     for the rhythms that reassure,
     for the equilibriums that sustain,
     for the reliabilities that curb our anxieties,
          We treasure from you,
               days to work and nights to rest.
          We cherish from you,
               days to control and nights to yield
          We savor from you,
               days to plan and nights to dream.
Be our day and our night,
     our heaven and our earth,
     our sea and our sky,
          and in the end our true home. Amen.