Hardened Ground

This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.'  But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry. Zechariah 7:9-12 (NIV)

Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a pool, the hard rock into springs of water. Psalm 114:7-8 (NIV)

Digging in Don Pedro in the Summer is neither fun nor smart because the scorching heat makes the ground rock hard and punishes the digger. How do I know? Plenty of personal experience. Some holes and trenches I had to soak overnight to make progress a few inches at a time. Bill Haas, a retired heavy equipment operator had literally spent his entire working life digging. I imagine, with a D-8 bulldozer he didn’t spend much time watering the ground before moving it. Moving Bill, however, was quite another thing. He literally went and got a shotgun the first time I went to his home to introduce myself to him and invite him and his sweet wife to church. He told me to stick my religion bs where the sun doesn’t shine and to get my #@&%* behind off his porch permanently.

I wonder what God is up to currently, do you? On both the large scale and in me personally. What is he trying to dig up? What does He keep pouring water on to soften it up? What has hardened but needs to be dug up? What wrong attitudes, opinions, and ways of doing things have grown so hard that even a D-8 can’t move them. Bill’s wife called me as the ambulance was rushing him to the hospital, asking me to please pray for him, “Preacher, he’s had a bad stroke,’ she said before hanging up to follow the ambulance. Knowing that he wouldn’t have his shotgun, and because the hospital wasn’t his porch, I went there as well, to sit with and pray with his wife as the doctors did their best to save his life and minimize the damage.

Bill lived and recovered with only minor damage. Yes, he was shocked to see the preacher standing at the foot of his bed. He couldn’t talk then, but you could see it in his eyes. God had softened Bill’s hard ground, had used that stroke like a D-8 to move what seemed immovable, had laid bare what Bill had covered under thick layers of life-hardened dirt. He eventually called on Christ to forgive him, to save his sinful soul, to change his heart, to give him eternal life.  For the rest of his days, he was a different man.

So, what is God trying to change in you, in our country? What hardened things is He pouring “water” on to soften it up? What difficult things is He allowing into your life to move what needs to be moved, to change your attitude, opinions, ways of doing things, and how you deal with people and God.

To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans

Disciple, Disciple-Maker, Witness, Sent Servant, Ambassador

• Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20 (NASB)

Being a follower of Christ, a Christian means being a disciple-maker, which means leading others to faith in Christ, to follow Christ, and to grow in Christ. It means to go out by the authority of Jesus to reach the entire world with the Gospel of Christ and training all those who turn to Christ for salvation, forgiveness of sin, and eternal life.Disciple-makers have to, first of all, be disciples themselves, learning and observing all Jesus commanded ourselves, being genuine and committed ourselves. This doesn’t mean you have to wait to be disciple-maker until you have it all down perfectly (you never will), but it does mean we have to be ongoing learners and practitioners all the time and everywhere.

• “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." Acts 1:8 (NASB)

Every disciple of Christ is also a witness of Christ, of the fact that Jesus is alive, that he conquered sin, death, and the grave. A good witness needs two things, a testimony and integrity, truth and credibility. Jesus told his disciples that through the Holy Spirit he would empower them to be his witness. Interestingly the Holy Spirit is called Holy, true holiness includes absolute integrity, it is spotless, The Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17, 15:26, 16:13). Since he empowers us to be Jesus’ witnesses, we can assume he will continually work towards us embracing holiness and truthfulness, to have a genuine testimony and integrity.

• So Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you." John 20:21 (NASB) "For even the Son of Man (Jesus) did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." Mark 10:45 (NASB, parenthesis mine)

Every disciple of Jesus, everyone who testifies of Jesus is meant to act like Jesus, to carry out the will of God like Jesus, to be a servant to both God and people like Jesus. We are on God’s, Jesus’ mission.

• We are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 (NLT2)

Christians are Christ’s representatives, ambassadors of God’s kingdom. We are meant to be about Christ’s interests, Jesus’ politics, Jesus’ message to the whole world.

• Disciple, disciple-maker, witness, sent servant, ambassador – GO!

 To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans      

Blood on your doorposts and dressed to travel - Your Passover reality?

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.1 Corinthians 5:6-8 (ESV)If you were in the direct path of a category 5 hurricane and someone told of a way to keep you, your family, and your neighbors completely save, would you pay attention? If that person told you that you not to board up the house but instead have a barbeque with some very specific ingredients and instructions, would you take her serious, or would you politely smile and get the plywood, hammer, and nails?A spiritual storm was brewing in ancient Egypt. The Egyptians had turned on people they once had invited, the Hebrews. Their solution was to oppress this growing minority who was threating to dilute all things Egyptian, so they reduced them to the status of slaves. What the Egyptians didn’t know was that God, for reasons only known to himself, has a special place in his heart for the Hebrews and for all who are oppressed. When the Hebrews demanded liberty, the right to leave, Pharaoh and the Egyptian leadership balked and cracked down harder. Even repeated calamities (known as the 10 plagues) that were unquestionably by the hand of God did not soften their hearts and change their minds and policies. (I wonder what kind of spiritual and political stubbornness, directly opposed to God’s will, besets you and me?) The last of the 10 judgments was that God would strike every male firstborn in Egypt dead. I wonder if the Egyptian leaders laughed in disbelief when Moses announced it to them. After all, how could that possibly happen? I wonder what the Hebrews thought when Moses told them of both the judgment and the only way to escape it. Which brings us back to the barbeque, better known as the Passover (Exodus 12).Passover is so called because those who observed the first Passover where kept save from the judgment of the death of the firstborn, the angels dispatched to carry out this particular judgment “passed over” every home with the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorjamb and lintel. Besides slaughtering, grilling, and eating sheep or goat yearling, they were also supposed to bake only unleavened bread, and supposed to be ready and dressed to leave Egypt for good. Every Passover since recalls and remembers this event, and that in the wake of it the Egyptians finally relented and let Hebrews leave.So, what did this have to do with Corinthians Christians (Greeks) 1500 years later, and how is this relevant to you and me 3500 years later? The greatest storm, the final calamity, the full judgment of God regarding all mankind, including you and me, is still to come, and we only have this life to prepare for it. There is no second chance after the night of death, “the day of the Lord?” We like the ancient Hebrews need both liberation and protection from God’s judgment, we need to leave the land of slavery and journey into God’s promises. Sin will not release its slaves voluntarily and God’s judgment will not just arbitrarily pass us by, we need salvation. Without the blood of Jesus Christ, the unblemished sinless lamb of God, sacrificed for our sins, without his blood applied to the doorposts of our lives, we will not survive when God will summon the living and the dead before his throne of judgment. The ancient Passover points to the ultimate Passover, Jesus Christ.So, in the ancient Passover the lamb is Jesus, the blood is his, the bread without leaven, Christ the sinless one. We are the ones dressed to journey, ready to live by faith, willing to trust the word and promises of God, leaving sin (leaven) and its slavery behind, ready to build a different kind of world, one that reflects the rulership, the holiness, and the heart of God.You would think that all of this is a no brainer, but it wasn’t for the ancient Egyptians, nor was it for the Hebrews, or us today. The Egyptians hung on to their gods, even when they were exposed as impotent and dead idols, just like we hang on to our own beliefs and opinions. The Hebrews constantly wanted to go back, they wanted something less challenging than a life of faith, even if it meant slavery. The Corinthians divorced religious ritual from affecting real life, they hung the traveling clothes in the closet and sang to Jesus while being morally corrupt gorging on leavened bread. And then of course there is us, you and me. What is, and what will be your Passover reality?T God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans.

Last Minute Stuff

The tickets were booked a long time ago but today is the last day before the trip, that means last minute stuff. I am always glad when I am finally in my seat and the plane is accelerating down the runway, I feel like I can relax at that point. Well, the relaxation point is still some hours out, which brings me back to last minute stuff. Obviously this pastor’s note is one of those things to get done before hopping in the car to drive to airport.There is something about time running out, invariably some things don’t get done because they have to be done, they’re just not that important. The level of important things that needed to be done and actually got done depends on how little you procrastinated and how well you prepared. The last minute stress level depends on how much last minute stuff you let pile up in relation to how little time is left. It also depends on how many people are depending on you. And it depends on how many unexpected things crop up at the last minute. A pig pile of last minute stuff drenched in a downpour of the unexpected will make your eyes twitch.All of our tickets have been booked, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” Psalm 139:16 (NIV). With each passing day everyone of is getting closer to our departure. Our upcoming trip has both a first stop and a final destination, that’s how it is with everyone’s final trip. The first stop, “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment”  Hebrews 9:27 (NIV). The final destination depends on who you booked with, but it will either be heaven or hell, "These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" Matthew 25:46 (NASB).I have been a preacher for over thirty years and it has been my experience that in general people do not prepare for the final trip. They leave messes their children and family have to sort out, they life lives with little or no thought of God’s judgment, they book trips into eternity depending on themselves, trusting in human philosophy, scientific enlightenment, and man-made religion to either avoid or prepare them for a complete accounting before God, believing good thoughts and sentimentality can both keep them out of hell and propel them into heaven. There is no peace, no assurance, no hope in any of that. The reality of being unprepared is that all piles up until it is too late, until not only the unimportant is left undone but also the essential. The truth is that anyone who books his or her journey into eternity through anyone but Christ is unprepared.Now Matthew 25 Jesus makes it abundantly clear that there are those who smugly and glibly claim Christ but their attitudes and actions reveal who they really have booked with. They fool themselves into thinking they are going to one place but will end up in another.I stood by the bedside of a dying man. He hadn’t expected for his final trip to come this soon. He’d gone church off and on. He could claim a religious episode, but he knew he was unprepared just hours before takeoff. He had wasted life on himself. Is there hope for someone like him? The answer is, YES! All of us will be found wanting at the first stop of the final journey, none of us has enough merit to stay out of hell, not a single one of us can pay for the ticket on the jet bound for heaven, Jesus Christ graciously and mercifully has paid for that. Book with him and live for him now, not later.To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans   

What a Wonderful Change

“What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought, since Jesus came into my heart,” is what Rufus H. McDaniel penned. He restated what is true of everyone who opens his heart to Jesus Christ and follows him. “Later, as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him. Later, Levi held a banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor. Many of Levi’s fellow tax collectors and other guests also ate with them. But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus’ disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with such scum?” Jesus answered them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent” Luke 5:27-32 (NLT).Levi had traded one form emptiness for another, he had left the morally bankrupt form of Judaism that he grew up in for the morally, though vastly more lucrative, empty world of tax collecting. And he couldn’t point fingers, although he probably did, it does deceive and ease the conscience when you can indict someone else’s corruption, failure, and sin. I it also leaves empty.He had his own booth, he wasn’t sitting in someone else’s booth. He was in charge here, we like to be in charge. But how much was he really in charge of? More than some, and not much in the big scheme of things. We are good at forgetting how little we are in charge of.Wonder what Levi was listening to there in his own tax booth? Conservative talk? Probably not. Liberal talk? Maybe. Religious stations? Nah. Jewish country music? Roman rock? Classical from the time of David? Whatever he listened to it wasn’t along the lines Rufus H. McDaniel penned.He wanted change, he needed change. Chucking God was not the answer, great money wasn’t either, godlessness and the love of money don’t just leave you empty, they suck you into the darkness of evil. It wasn’t just that others were dishonest, he was too. It wasn’t just others who were self-righteous he was too.Then Jesus, the one who is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), walked by his tax booth. Levi had heard about what he did earlier that that, healing a paralytic, forgiving his sins. Now he was standing at the counter of his tax office, looking him straight into the eye and invited him to follow him.How long did it take for Levi to make up his mind? Not long. How long is it going to take you reading this p-note to make your mind? Levi got out his keys, put the money in the safe, locked the front door and followed Christ. He was changed right there, in that moment of making up his mind that and stepping out in faith to follow Christ he was changed, though not finished. I wonder if he would have agreed with Rufus H. McDaniel’s words? Undoubtedly.He couldn’t wait to introduce all of his tax collecting buddies and the people he cared about to Christ. So he invited them and Jesus to his house, they needed him as much as he did? That’s what happens when Jesus changes you; it’s too good to keep to yourself. You can hoard money, you won’t hoard Christ once he looked you in the eye and you took him up on his invitation to follow him, when he has forgiven your sins, when he reconciles you with God, and when he imparts to you new and eternal life. Levi had not been physically ill, but he was spiritually dead, like all of us, and “a wonderful change in his life had been wrought when Jesus cam into his heart!”I hope this true of you as well.To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans  

How Many Nails in Easter?

How Many Nails in Easter?The answer is five, Easter has five nails.On what do hang your hopes? Good luck? Your wealth? Your health? Your family and friends? Your own intelligence? An experimental drug? …?What nail does your future hang on? Your charisma? Some special ability? …?I have seen my fair share of rusty, bent, and failed nails - in hospital rooms, hospice beds, at crash sites, in treatment centers, living rooms, jails, prisons, counseling sessions, and at gravesides. I have not only seen them I have experienced failed nails in my own life, the pain, the confusion, the grief, and disappointment that comes with hanging life on the wrong nails.Those Easter nails are significant because they offer us our only shot at real hope, lasting life, getting it right before God. You hang your hopes and your life on anything else and you will in the end find it all broken on the floor like a picture that has fallen off the wall.Five nails. Three made sure Jesus really died. They fastened his hands and feet to a cross until every ounce of his life was drained out. On those three nails hang the redemptive purposes of God. God sacrificed his own Son so that by his death we might have life. One nail held Pilate’s sign posted above Jesus’ head, declaring “the King of the Jews.” Pilate made a common mistake. He didn’t think Jesus had any significance for him. He didn’t post his complete title, “King of Kings, and Lord of Lords." He, like you and I, should have hung his life on Jesus’ identity, but he relegated Jesus to only having significance for the Jews, good for someone else. He stuck with the rusty nails of his own beliefs. And there is the fifth nail, the one that nailed God’s indictment of each one of us to the cross of Christ, the one that lists our personal sins and transgressions, the one that renders each one of us guilty before God. Paul reminded the Colossians who had trusted in Christ, “He made you alive with Him (Christ) and forgave us all our trespasses. He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it out of the way by nailing it to the cross. Colossians 2:13-14 (HCSB, parenthesis mine). It is the nail that spells hope and life for sinners.This Easter examine the nails and make sure  your hopes, your future, your life hangs on the Easter nails.To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans   

Shriveled Thighs and Bloated Bellies

I wonder how many sermons have been preached on Numbers 5:11-31? That’s the passage the outlines the procedure of a jealous husband bringing his wife to the priest because he suspects her of adultery. She has to drink water mixed with some dirt from the sanctuary and the ink with which the curses were wrote down. If she is innocent no harm no foul, if she is guilty she’ll end up childless with swollen belly and shriveled thighs. If you are grinning I don’t blame you, because so was I on reading Numbers 5 again. I also felt this tremendous sense of relief that my pastoral duties do not include administering this procedure; I don’t want to have anything to do with women’s shriveled thighs and swollen bellies. I do however have some questions:

• How often was this actually practiced? Because what husband with even an ounce of smarts will subject his wife to this kind of humiliation. If she passes the test and emerges unshriveled I venture to guess that all kinds of things shriveled in her heart concerning what she feels about her husband.
• Why are there no repercussions for the husband falsely accusing his wife? I take that back, he will have repercussions. “Babe, can’t you just let it go? I only did it because I love you so much.”
• Why is there no equivalent procedure for the wife to put her husband through, to shrivel some of his parts? He probably will grow the gut all on his own.
• How would this fly in my own life? “Susie, you’d better not mess with me or else it’s some bitter water for you.” Nah, I don’t think she’d ever think that was funny. Can you feel the ice?

There probably were some good reasons for this section of the Old Testament Law. Jealous husbands can be impossible to deal with and this allowed an innocent wife to establish her innocence, “If you don’t believe me then take me to the priest.” More importantly, no matter how strange this ritual may seem to us, is the fact that God sees and God knows the truth about each one of us. He knows what we are innocent of and what we are guilty of. A jealous husband might make his wife’s life miserable for something she has not done, but God never does that to us. We can rely on God for truth, fairness, and justice.The complete truth about each one of us is that we are guilty, that we all have sinned (Romans 3:23), that we are all slowly shriveling up. That’s why we need more than truth, fairness, and justice, they cannot erase our guilt or deliver us from its consequences and penalty, for that we need mercy, grace, and forgiveness that only God can give, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:7).That dumb jealous husband dragging his wife before the priest has a dilemma. If she is found guilty he has to decide whether to forgive her or not. If she is found innocent he will need her forgiveness. The truth exposed will shrivel something, something that only mercy, grace and forgiveness can restore. “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32, NASB).To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans  

God Pressed the "Send" Key

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” John 3:16-17 (NASB)God loved, God gave, God send his Son to save – that is the reality of Christmas, it is the essence of the Good News, the Gospel. Out of all the messages you and I get throughout our lifetimes that’s the most important one.Maybe you are the kind of texter whose thumbs move as fast as the wings of a hummingbird, but I am dismally slow, keep hitting the wrong keys, and frequently manage to send my texts before I am ready. Ready or not, once the send button is pushed there is no stopping it, it is unleashed. Christmas is about God pressing the “send” key.Love made God do it, his love recognized the need, his love compelled him to give, his love pushed the “send” key. Real love is not blind, God’s love is not blind, it recognized that we are indeed perishing. Our mortality, our finiteness, our imperfection, and our sinfulness all testify to the reality that we are perishing. We are completely powerless, utterly impotent to change any of them. God could have sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to judge the world, you and me, but he send him to save us. The judgment we deserve the saving we need, his love made that decision.Maybe you are among those who think that you do not need Christ, that you have no need to be saved. Maybe you have decided that all of this is just a bunch of hogwash, religious baloney, or outright #^@#*! If so, that puts you at odds with no one else but God himself; it has you defining spiritual reality in complete opposition to God. It is vastly more probable that you are wrong and God is right. What is amazing that, in spite of our arrogance, denials, and outright rejection of truth and God himself, he still pressed the “sent” key; he still addressed our need, our helplessness, our perishing, by giving his Son.How many Decembers have you lived through? 10, 20, 30, 50, 90, or more? Did December ever have just 28 days, or 30? In my 54 Decembers it has always been 31 days? And nothing has changed about both our need to be saved and God’s love willing and able to save us through Christ. He pressed the “send” key, not accidently, but deliberately, and out his unfathomless love. All that remains is for you and me to receive the message and believe in his Son. That’s the wonder of Christmas. “But as many as received Him (Jesus Christ), to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name” John 1:12 (NASB, parenthesis mine).Merry Christmas, Pastor Hans  

I didn’t learn everything I ever needed to know in Kindergarten

I didn’t learn everything I ever needed to know in Kindergarten. I did start ditching though and I learned about bullying. I didn’t learn everything in first and second grade either, but I did learn to read and that there are some terrific teachers. I didn’t learn everything in grades three and four but I learned to both fear and respect Herr Weiermueller, aka Kaiser Red Beard, who was tough as nails and cared at the same time. After 4^th grade things seemed to spiral downward and it seems that if I had learned everything in Kindergarten then grades five through 10 would not have been such a struggle, but if you would have asked me back then I would’ve claimed to know pretty much everything and that my teachers, parents, and everyone who disagreed knew nothing (but there really were some dinkeldorfers among them). I learned a lot during my year as an exchange student but a far cry from everything I ever needed to know. College, graduate school, seminary taught me a lot, including stuff I never wanted to learn but someone thought I should.Besides all of this formal education, like you, I was enrolled in the school of life from the day the midwife spanked my behind which caused me to cry out, “Present!” However the school of life doesn’t teach everything either. It lets you make the same dumb mistake over and over, you don’t have to advance if you don’t want to, it might even turn you into a twisted, tortured, scared, and scarred soul. But I have enjoyed some of its courses tremendously, like being a husband, Dad, brother, friend, or hard work, helping, and enjoying good.Somewhere along the path of my life I learned to love learning. My parents played a part in that, as did my aunt, a number of teachers and professors played that role as well, as did my wife and my children. And there have been so many whose knowledge and skills I admired, and often needed, who were willing to take the time and effort to teach me simply for the asking. I learned that even though I might not be the brightest or most skilled, I could learn. What a tremendous gift.I almost missed learning what is most important, not because it was unavailable to me. There were two churches in my hometown, there were Bibles (God’s written word) in our home, we had “religion” as a subject in school, some of my relatives talked about it, but I wasn’t interested, I was distracted, I didn’t see much value in it. I did not understand the importance of knowing about God and Jesus Christ. Lots of people seem to live just fine without ever thinking about God, which is the exact opposite of what God thinks, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1). How important is it to know where we have come from? Where we are going? Who we are accountable to? What we are responsible for? What we cannot afford to ignore? Who has ultimate power? And who values and loves us more than anyone? We are stuck in our sin and the dysfunctional cycles of human history when we are disconnected from God. We are spiritually and eternally lost outside a relationship with God. We are poorer without him. We lack any true and lasting foundation for life, hope, and justice without him. It is possible to amass vast learning and miss what is most important. It is through God’s written word, the Bible I learned:“Start with GOD—the first step in learning is bowing down to GOD; only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning.” Proverbs 1:7 (MSG)“All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him (Jesus Christ).” Colossians 2:3 (HCSB, parenthesis mine)"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16 (NASB)To God be all glory; love you, Pastor Hans (a fellow learner)    

You Can't Shop for God

You can’t shop for God.We are inundated with choices. How many different car brands are there? How many different models does each automaker sell? I have been looking for tires, luckily for the odd size I am looking for there are less than 100 choices. How many different brands and kinds of soda does your supermarket sell? What do you like? Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Vanilla Coke, Cherry Coke? Or are you a Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Throwback Pepsi, Pepsi Maxx drinker? Maybe you prefer Dr. Pepper, or Dr. Pepper 10, or Diet Dr. Pepper? Who knows it might be RC, Mountain Dew, or 20 different flavors of store brand for you? Maybe you are a water only kind of person? In that case you will have to decide what brand, what size, and what flavor. You can repeat this exercise in every aisle of the grocery store, department store, home improvement store, and at every shopping mall. And if by chance you do your shopping on line then you have simply exploded your choices a zillion times.Way back there was a commercial touting cat food for the finicky feline. Of course it came in numerous flavors. Since then the choices in the pet food aisle have multiplied. However, manufacturers and merchants have obviously figured out that we are the most finicky creatures of them all. We know what we like and don’t like. We know how sensitive our taste buds are, how delicate our sense of fashion is, and even what our tender backsides prefer in the restroom.So when it comes to God, to spiritual things, we like to go shopping. God has to taste right, feel right, fit right, and preferably be on sale. He has to match our preferences, our lifestyle, our morals, and appetites. He needs to be helpful but not too demanding, accessible but not intrusive, loving and forgiving but not requiring anything, and of course always ready to bless, even a mess.The problem is you can’t shop for God. Whatever we pick and choose in the aisles of religions, world views, and philosophies is not God. If God is defined by what we think he should look like, feel like, and be like then he is as small as can of cat food. If God fits in a shopping cart or neatly into our lives then he is as insignificant as six-pack of whatever is your favorite. You can’t shop for God, he is not for sale, there is no store or mind large enough to contain him.One God, One Savior, One Way, One Truth, One Book does not fit into our approach to life. “There has to be choice! – Right?” The answer is, “No.” There is only one true, living, eternal, and almighty God, and the only way to come near to him and live with him is through his Son Jesus Christ, everything else is futile shopping. “… there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me” Isaiah 45:21 (NASB). “This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us” 1 John 3:23 (NASB).To God be all glory, love you, Pastor HansP.S. A word to all of us who claim to believe in and follow Christ. Before we say, “Amen,” and shake our heads at those who do not yet follow Christ, let’s ask ourselves, How often do we go “shopping” when we read our Bibles, attend Bible studies, and decide on the shape and content of our Christian lives based on what fits us, feels good to us, and seems right to us? How often do we pick and choose and in the process end up with something far less than God, than Jesus has in mind?  

No Gospel for Gophers

Gophers and ground squirrels committing acts of subterranean terror, wood peckers in senseless destruction drilling holes into my house or by my office, ants trying to take over our home like Russia annexing Crimea, and termites like the NSA in cloaked secrecy chewing away on what is precious to me – my animosity, my loathing, my outcry over these is no secret.These critters are relentless, the damages attributable to them are significant, and their consciences don’t seem to be all that bothered. I wonder if there is a rodent hell, a wood pecker purgatory, an eternal lake of fire for termites and ants? If not, there should be. This kind of destruction, havoc, senselessness, disrespect, and lack of caring should not go unaccounted for. There should be some kind of justice, shouldn’t there?But what is our excuse? We are the creature with the most advanced brain, we are capable of figuring things out peacefully, we are able to empathize more deeply than any living thing. It is possible for us to make good choices that go beyond basic instinct, beyond emotion, beyond rage, beyond hatred, beyond what is just good for us. And yet no creature God has made is more  destructive than us, than mankind. We are politically destructive, ecologically destructive, economically destructive, emotionally destructive, personally destructive, and even spiritually destructive. Yet somehow we are prone to cry foul at the very notion that God would hold us accountable, that he would judge us for our evil, our failure to do good, are unwillingness to live for the highest ends of loving God and loving our neighbor.Another observance of Easter, the recognition and celebration of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, conquering sin and death and rising from the dead, is approaching. I wish there was a gospel for gophers and the like. However, there is a Gospel for you and for me, for people. Unlike me, who has trouble eliminating a few gophers and ants, God could have exterminated us all, and no one could have faulted him because our collective and personal history indicts us. He could have responded with pure and justified hatred towards all of mankind. Somehow he didn’t and instead of withdrawing personally and emotionally He drew closer, and engaged himself deeper. He chose to love, to offer hope, to provide atonement and forgiveness, to conquer what we cannot - our sin and the reality of death.I have no desire to become a gopher, to dwell among ground squirrels, to be part of a termite colony. As you well know, I have no love for any of them. But God in Christ chose to dwell among us, that’s incredible. On the one hand it brings incredible hope to our moral, existential, and spiritual dilemma; on the other hand it robs us of our last excuse of having no other option than to be who we are.“Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good.But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.” Romans 5:7-10 (NLT)To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans  

Your Christmas Temerature

He (Jesus Christ) was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:10-14 (NIV, parenthesis mine) For Don Pedro and its Central California location it has been cold, all the way down to the low twenties (-4 to -6  Celsius). I know that for some of you who hail from colder climates that might be considered downright toasty, but for us it is cold. I remember working a shift in the freezer at Alta Dena Dairy, it was kept at - 40 (-40 Celsisus), needless to say I was happy to return to my regular job in the cooler. Then again all these freezing temperatures are downright warm compared to what was recently reported as the coldest recorded temperature on earth, a whooping -135.8 (-92.3 Celsius ). You have to breathe through a snorkel that warms the air or else you’ll freeze from the inside out. I wonder if you pour out a bucket of water in that kind of cold if it freezes before it hits the ground. I certainly would not want to get hit with a spit-wad?Since cold, like all temperatures comes in varying degrees, we have different labels for it like chilly, frosty, bitter-cold, bone-chilling, or extreme cold. And generally we like to get out of the cold. Being left in the cold is not a good thing, neither is a cold-heart, or an icy cold stare, or being given a cold shoulder, or worst of all, encountering somebody cold-blooded.Cold is what God encountered when he became incarnate (embodied) in Jesus Christ. Doubt, apathy, arrogance, and outright cold-bloodedness are what he encountered. But don’t just believe me, read Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2  and check for yourself.Why are doubts, apathy, arrogance, and outright vitriol such common reactions toward God and Jesus Christ? Why is it so difficult to warm up to the truth of one true and almighty Creator God who loves us and has revealed himself in and through Jesus Christ? Why do we rather shop than worship? Why are we more comfortable with “Holidays” than “Holy Days?”What will your spiritual temperature of this Christmas be? Will the chill of doubt, apathy, arrogance, even cold-bloodedness toward Jesus Christ be felt? Will Christmas be about anything except God, his Son, and his love? Or will God and Christ find in you warmth, welcome, and worship?To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans

Stnking Woodpeckers - Don't Be Irritated with Jesus Christ

Stinking woodpeckers. They don’t even have any respect for the church (the church building to be more precise). And of all the walls to peck on they have to pick the one my office is on. No sooner do I sit down to work and the pecking starts. So I bang on my metal desk, yell “Get out of here!” But these acorn woodpeckers are stubborn, inflexible, a one track mind kind of bird, so I also have to get up and open my window and rattle the blinds. Then I watch to see if a bird actually flies away. I can’t tell you how often this little routine replayed itself the last couple of weeks. At this point I just want wring those little hammer-beaks’ necks. I‘ve invited them to take a look at the baptistery but I think they deciphered my intentions.Many feel about Jesus Christ as I do about woodpeckers. They are annoyed the moment they hear his name. They roll their eyes (if not outwardly then inwardly) and shift into a shooing off routine.Granted, Jesus Christ is invasive. He will peck holes into your world view, your philosophy, your spirituality, and your religion. He will expose your sinfulness and mortality.  He will ask you to follow him, to deny yourself, to devote yourself to live for his kingdom. He will demand of you to live a life of faith and love. He will relentlessly remind you that he is the Son of God, God in the flesh, who holds in his hands life, judgment, forgiveness, and salvation. He wants you to remember that he died to pay for your sins, that he conquered sin and death, and that he will return. He makes no excuse for telling you the truth that he alone can reconcile you with God, that he alone can keep your feet out of hell, and he alone is the way to heaven.Although I hope not, maybe your thinking “peck, peck, peck!” Maybe you’re kicking yourself for reading this far, for not chasing off this pesky preacher earlier. “These relentless Christians, always putting Jesus into my face.”You’re not the first person who wanted to get rid of Christ. Someone beat you to it. They thought a cross would silence him, a tomb would put him far out of sight and out of mind. They thought their lives were just fine without him. But God didn’t think so, because we are not just fine without him, we perish without him, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. …He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him" John 3:16, 36 (NASB).If someone kept knocking on house because it is on fire would you be annoyed with them? Maybe, at least until you realized your house was on fire. Jesus doesn’t knock on your door for the heck of it, to irritate you, or to annoy you, but because your house is on fire and ignoring him will cost you your life.Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" John 11:25-26 (NIV) Then he (Jesus Christ) said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels” Luke 9:23-26 (NIV, parenthesis mine) To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans    

Slacker Dogs and Watchmen/women

Dogs and Watchmen/womenOur dogs are napping more. Doing so means they are neglecting one of their two responsibilities they have. They are still doing a fine job greeting people, everyone is greeted with one dog squeaking like a toy and the other giving a hearty lick. But it’s the second task they’re slacking on. I can tell, the deer are chomping on stuff and in places they never have before, while our two well fed canines are snoozing their lives away. If it is true that one human year equals seven dog years then a two hour nap by my watch is a fourteen hour dog nap. Wow, I had no idea how bad that slacking thing has actually become until I just did the above math. These dogs are not just slacking a bit they are taking total advantage of the situation. The way this is going pretty soon they will install a bell so they can ring for us to feed them in bed.Don’t you wish you only had two responsibilities, you only had to watch over two things? Sometimes it seems like too much, all the things to watch over, to take care of, to be responsible for. I wonder if Ezekiel felt like that? When his wife got sick and died God told him to refrain from any outward, public acts of mourning (chapter 24). I bet he had to watch himself on that. Then God told him to be careful because God had appointed him, assigned him as a spiritual watchman for his countrymen, and that God would hold him responsible if he failed to warn people regarding their accountability to God, that they needed to change their ways while there was time or else suffer the judgment of God.And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, "Son of man, speak to the sons of your people and say to them, 'If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman,and he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows on the trumpet and warns the people, then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman's hand.'Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a message from My mouth and give them warning from Me. When I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you will surely die,' and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand. But if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your life” Ezekiel 33:1-9 (NASB).Now Ezekiel’s contemporaries could have cared less, his warnings went in one ear and out the other (read the end of the chapter). His warnings fell on deaf ears. At what point do you begin to be tempted to slack off when no one’s paying attention? But regardless of the responses of those around him they needed to be warned, as do the people around us, our family members, our neighbors, friends, class mates, coworkers, employees, and acquaintances. Those we love, those we don’t care for, and even our enemies need to know that now is the time to repent, not later, the judgment of God is on its way. This is what Jesus told people everywhere, "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" Mark 1:15 (NIV), and it is what he told his followers to do, “So the disciples went out, telling everyone they met to repent of their sins and turn to God” Mark 6:12 (NLT).Followers of Jesus Christ are watchmen and women, may those who he has assigned us to find us faithfully “blowing the trumpet.”To God be all glory, love you Pastor Hans 

Wisdom and Horses

I have been encouraging you to become a person who consistently makes wise and godly decisions. So you might as well know that I am taking horse riding lessons. With our youngest daughter off to college we were left to take care of her horse, and I determined to become more than a ranch hand, or more precisely, someone who feeds and shovels. I have to admit I am a fairly accomplished horse feeder and pucky shovelor, but I know absolutely nothing about working with, training, and riding a horse. So I am paying Rhonda Dumolt for lessons to one day earn the right to wear Wranglers®, a big belt buckle, snazzy boots, and a Stetson® hat. I suppose those four are somewhat like a drivers license when it comes to horses.Yes, what you read above is correct, I am paying to learn something that will cause me to spend more money guaranteed. Just today, during lesson number two I found out that my work boots are not ideal (I told Susie it was a big mistake to sell my cowboy boots at a yard sale twenty years ago). Yes, I am paying to learn to control a beast that has serious potential to hurt me. In fact I have heard it is not a matter of if but simply when. Yes, I am paying for something that makes me feel like when I was sixteen and learning how to drive. Who knows, by the time I get the hang of this equine stuff my daughter’s horse will be so messed up I will have to pay a horses psychologist to straighten him out. And yes, I have put the horse magazines my daughter gets with my car/truck magazines next to the toilet. This past week I was tempted to enter a contest in “Young Rider”.Before I started this pastor’s note I looked up horses in the Bible hoping to make a super spiritual discovery that would directly relate to wise decision making and justify my horse adventure at the same time. Alas, the first scripture that mentions horses (Genesis 47:17) tells about the ancient Egyptians giving up their horses in exchange for food because they were starving.However, the last horse mentioned in God’s Word (Revelation 19:11-21) is a white horse ridden by the “King of kings and Lord of lords” – Jesus Christ himself, executing judgment, triumphing victoriously. And I was reminded that the wisest decision of all is to trust and believe in him both in this life and for eternity, because the day will come when “at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” Philippians 2:10-11 (NASB).How I encourage you to not be among those who simply horse around with the unshakeable and unchangeable truth of Jesus Christ, or even more sadly dismiss it as a bunch of religious horse pucky. It is the most unwise and foolish decision a person can make. Commit yourself to Jesus Christ today.To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans

Growing disciples

 “…, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” Matthew 28:18-20 (NLT). “What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given.  I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” 1 Corinthians 3:5-6 (HCSB). Without Susie we would have fewer plants around our place. She brings home trees and shrubs, her friends give her trees and shrubs, and even our kids think giving Mom plants is a great thing to do. Once a new plant or tree arrives it becomes my job to find a place for it, and since I have been trying for years to get off the hose-dragging system and to a buried pipe (my dogs would shred things above ground) automatic watering system you can imagine that makes putting in a new tree much, much more work, especially in the hard and rocky soil of Don Pedro.A few minutes ago I ate a delicious homegrown orange, harvested off a tree I actually bought myself a few years ago. In fact we have eight citrus trees and four of them are mature enough to bear (much to our delight) a significant amount of outstanding fruit. It really doesn’t matter who got the tree, who planted it, who watches over it because the joy is in seeing the tree grow and harvesting its fruit.When it comes to the vegetable garden all I do is prepare the boxes. I add the manure, the compost, whatever else to improve the soil and then rotortill and level it all. That’s when Susie takes over, she’ll plant it and water it. But just as with the trees the joy is in seeing that little garden thrive. Is there anything like a fresh homegrown tomato right off the vine with a little salt on it?As a church our calling is to make disciples, it doesn’t matter who does what. One invites, the other welcomes, someone makes the coffee and cookies, another teaches, some preach, others pray, and … What counts is that unsaved people come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, believe, and follow him. The joy is seeing people grow in Christ and bear fruit to the delight and glory of God. It doesn’t matter who plants, or who waters, the important thing is that disciples are made.It is my hope and prayer that we as church, every group, every ministry, and each one of us personally participates in and commits to making disciples. That the making of disciples is our core passion, what we get excited about, what we delight in, and what dominates our conversations, our dreams, and our service. So bring in some new plants, let’s make the waterers sweat, and watch God grow people.To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans  

03-25-12 You're invited

You’re invited“Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see.” Matthew 22:9 (NLT)It’s one of the dilemmas of wedding preparation, and one of the reasons some just elope – who do you invite? The couple getting married makes a list, and starting with the closest relatives and their very best friends it spirals outward from there. What was originally a small intimate wedding can mushroom into the hundreds, and that’s before the mothers of the bride and groom get to check the list.“What you’re not going to invite the Nonnenmachers who were our neighbors when we lived in Coulterville?”“But Mom, we moved from there when I was four.”“But they still send us a Christmas card every year.”So the list grows, only to run into budgetary constraints. That’s when the folks who were going to be invited are being uninvited and they don’t even know it. And of course great attention has to be paid as to who will get their feelings hurt, and who has invited you in the past. Any misstep here can cause hard feelings that have the potential to linger for decades (I am not making this up).Long before the happy couple has to craft a guest list for their wedding they will have gained experience in this sort of thing going way back to kindergarten. Oh the headaches and politics of birthday party invitations. Since your Mom was in all likelihood very smart she probably said something like, “You can invite five friends to your birthday party.” See what I mean, because right there you were faced with a cut line. Sure, you knew you could squeeze a few more out of your Mom, seven, eight, and if you were really good even ten. Yup, I remember it well the social jockeying of those formative years. The girls, however, they had levels of drama and manipulation us boys could only dream of.I am glad I will never know how many times I have been scratched off an invitation list, aren’t you. And I know that unless something really crazy happens my name will not appear on Hollywood’s A-list, nor is it likely my name will appear on an invitation to the White House. I did get an invitation to appear in traffic court once.Somehow though my name, and yours, appears on the most important invitation list of all – God’s. Unbelievable you and I are invited to be part of the Jesus’ wedding feast in the kingdom of heaven. And in fact God is still sending out more invitations, we get to invite all of our friends, there is no cut line, no budgetary constraints, no politics to be played, no drama to avoid. All are invited, so let them know.What great words, “You are invited,” especially when they come from God. I am going, are you?To God be the glory, love you, Pastor Hans

Lost and Found

For the Son of Man (Jesus Christ) has come to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:10 (HCSB, parenthesis mine)Hansel and Gretel would not have gotten lost in the woods if they would have had one (By the way that’s really a sad and gruesome story. No wonder those of us who grew up on that kind of literary fare are somewhat twisted).We, Mabel Tubbs, Joanna Allen, Mary Fleming, and I, could have used one as well. We were lost in San Jose, going to a funeral no less. And since this episode took place before cell phones were common, and since I had obviously read our map incorrectly, and being the secure male that I am, I finally caved to the collective pressure and asked for redirections at a gas station. I told the ladies, “The good thing is that they won’t start without the preacher.”Recently Susie and I were lost. We were trying to go to Saint Francis Hospital in San Francisco, but one wrong turn had rendered our Google Maps directions worthless. We tried to get back within the loop of the instructions, but to no avail. Finally, and desperately, we pulled over by an intersection and called our daughter Emily to help us. When we told her where we were she blurted, “What the heck, you’re almost in South San Francisco!” (I was tempted to tell her that it was her parents who had blessed her with that fancy GPS (Global Positioning System) device. But among other things, getting lost has a way of making you very humble). That wonderful child of ours, with the aid of her GPS, did get us to the Hospital in no time flat. And this past Christmas my children blessed me with my very own TomTom GPS – hello no more getting lost.In the 15^th chapter of his Gospel (would you get a Bible and read it) Luke records three parables Jesus told in response to those who criticized him for spending time with sinners (spiritually lost people) and tax-collectors (I guess they have never been popular). Jesus tells of a lost sheep, which in likelihood, just wondered off. He tells of a lost coin that got misplaced by the woman who owned it. And He tells of two sons, one who got lost in his rebellion and foolish choices, the other who got lost in the wrong values and his self-righteousness.It could be that Jesus is describing you. When you are lost it doesn’t matter much how you got lost. What counts is that you are found. The reality is that if you are a sinner (and we all are, Romans 3:23) you are lost. You can be stubborn and tell yourself that you’re not, but that won’t change the facts. The only one that can save a lost sinner is Jesus Christ. Why? Because He came from God and knows the way back. He is the guide, the rescuer, and the restorer - Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to (God) the Father except through Me” John 14:6.  One more thing, there is joy and celebration when what has been lost is found, when a sinner comes to God through Christ (Just for the heck of it, read Luke 19:1-10).To God be all glory, love you, Pastor Hans

Rain, weather, and changing people

Warning! In this pastor’s note you will be asked to help and to respond. So if you you’re saying to yourself, “I’d rather not,” then right now get up, walk away to do something else, but don’t read on. If you read this far and if you’re thinking, “I’ll read what that preacher has to say and then decide if I will respond and help,” consider yourself caught. From this point if you read on it is like when you have clicked the “next” button after you have checked off the license agreement on a computer. Well, I see you read even further, you obviously have no intention of walking away until you’ve read it all. I take that as a sign of good faith on your part, that I can count on you to interact and help.As you might know this rain season we have had not near enough precipitation here in Central California. It certainly has not been the first time or the last. I suppose this is the reason various cultures have invented a rain dance. Now trying to change the weather with my dancing skills would surely result in the opposite, an extreme drought. But yesterday I was reminded that some of my activities, in complete defiance of statistical probability, seem to be followed by rain. You ask, “What were you doing?” I sprayed weeds for several hours, and bam, by this morning it rained. The same seems to be true for planning a camping trip. Someone else told me that for them it is washing the cars. Would you email me (theGermanShepherd@juno.com) what seems to be your version of the rain dance.  And I apologize for having been so slack in spraying weeds and planning camping trips. All kidding aside, we have prayed for rain, and God who holds sway over all things has been gracious (Matthew 5:45).Thinking about the weather made me think about “things I cannot change.” It is astounding how many there are. The weather, gravity and other laws of nature, the time, my age, your age, the past, stupidity (stupid is always stupid), people’s hearts, … What would you add to that list? Yup, you guessed it, email me that too.God is in the people changing business, turning spiritually lost people into saved men and women, spiritually dead people into regenerated people, sinners into saints, enemies of His into beloved children of God, the broken into the restored, the hopeless into champions of faith, the violent into peace makers, the greedy into givers, the evil into Christlikeness (yes, email me what you would add to that list as well). And here you and I thought changing the weather was difficult. That’s why I am asking for your help. God has called us, you and me, Christians, the Lake Don Pedro Baptist Church into the people changing business, “follow me and I will you make fishers of men (Mark 1:17-18).” I am asking you that between now and Easter to join me in doing two things: 1. Pray for specific people to come to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. 2. Each week invite at least five people to join you in your Bible study group and in a church service. I am sure that as smart as you are you will email or give a list of the people you are praying for and a list of those that you want to invite.May God let it pour! Love you, Pastor Hans