Semester's End

It does not cease to amaze me how faithful God is blessing those who need Him most, such as your truly. Take, for instance, last Sabbath. My plan was to produce two manuscripts for the Easter series, Friday's and at least half of each of the following days. Well, I never got to the second set, so I went to bed tired and with a prayer: Lord wake me up at the time you know I need to prepare tomorrow morning's sermon.

Typically, this is not a good situation--preparing sermons the morning you preach them. Yet, that was my situation. At 3:30, God said, "it's time," and I went to the other room to work. One of my sources was a very good sermon (if I may say so myself) I had preached 12 years ago in So New England: What's the Big Deal About Shabbath? This morning, I was trying to answer the question: Why did Jesus rest in the Tomb (on Sabbath). Well, to make a long story short, it impressed even me.

A number of lifelong members commented that they'd never heard anything on the Sabbath so fresh, relevant, and compelling. What it did, is make believers in NET 11 out of a number who'd stayed on the margins to date. And, yes, somehow, in four and half hours, that Sabbath afternoon, while holed up in a baptistry changing room away from everybody, out came the next 11-page manuscript for the evening service. My intention is not to say "look what I did," but to say "look what He did with what I gave Him." God is simply amazing!

The meetings were blessed, but the attendance at the church concerns me in no small measure. If we have this trend continues, the live broadcasts won't be successful. We easily need 300 more people committed to simply showing up.

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Lisa and I came home yesterday afternoon, and I gave two finals today. I stayed for quite some time talking with students at the end of each period. And I prayed with a couple. I've had the privilege of teaching some great people this semester. God truly blessed. I made considerable adjustments to the Field Evangelistic Preaching course, and that clearly improved it. Students even clapped at the end of the last period. Last year, the story was quite different. Now, we have to finish grading projects and exams. I must turn grades before I leave next Monday.

As I recall, this is the first time in four years I'm in town for a May graduation. It will be a nice experience, and a good excuse to put on that doctoral garb we otherwise use so seldom. Over the last 18 years of teaching undergrad and grad students, I've seen some excellent talent come out of various educational halls. I've also come to know beautifully consecrated men and women of God whom He is bound to use for His glory. There are always some memorable classes, mostly because a group of people happen to confluence that really leave their mark. Education is a very worthy profession, even if I may not be able to give my best to it. I'm always surprised to see the impact made on certain students, impact that becomes a turning point in their lives. God uses us in spite of ourselves.

Next week is the big one. The Creation-Evolution is on. I have thought about sharing on this blog some of the serious trouble we've encountered on various fronts over the last few weeks. But it will give more glory to the devil I intend to give him. One thing I know, we must remain faithful, doing what God is giving us the opportunity to do, and then see Him at work. His undoing of the devil's schemes is something to behold.

Don't forget to pray for these meetings.  Pray for

1.  Tim and I to finalize the best content possible
2.  Good support from the SDA membership
3.  An encouraging turn out from the guests
4.  God to do something special for people during this time

"Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies,

For they are ever mine.

I have more insight than all my teachers,

For Your testimonies are my meditation."

Psalm 119: 98, 99

Back from California

The third major trip this month is about over. I should board my plane home in about an hour. Of course, tomorrow, another flight, this time to Nashville for the Passover/Easter mini-series. At least Lisa is coming with me this time.

Well, Tim Standish and I worked around the clock the past five days. We gave our Creation-Evolution seminar at the Beaumont Church in Southern California, and even though we have things to improve and tighten up, it went quite well, overall. I really think this seminar can be a blessing to people.

So, thanks for praying for it. Quite frankly, I don't know how we pulled it off. Mere hours before our time to speak we were often trying to figure content and order issues, and the PPT slides were only started. And yet, somehow, 120 slides of mostly coherent and almost surely compelling material emerged by the time we stood up to speak. If it wasn't for God, I don't know where we'd be.

Here is what we want to do with these meetings, to be aired live from Nashville, May 4 through 8 at 7:30 EDT.

1. We want to honor God by talking about what He did in the universe and the world
2. We want to acknowledge the powerful forces behind the evolutionary worldview and deal with it accordingly and with respect
3. We want to reach, especially, those young adults who may come from Christian backgrounds but have become steeped in evolutionary concepts and don't know what is what anymore
4. We want to reach the secular-minded educated person who never thought much about the creation and Flood stories in the Bible
5. We want to bring out facts from both sides that will be particularly enlightening to Joe Church in the pew with little science background

The agenda is ambitious and very challenging. Please continue to pray for us so the Spirit will take this under His absolute control. That is what we're praying for.

A second major request for prayer is the Passover/Easter series I start in two nights. The last six months have been non-stop for me, literally. Even though all the concepts and content are somewhere in my head, and I've done these meetings in the past, it is a new configuration and focus for this weekend, and I have yet to produce one complete sermon. Here are the titles, so you can pray each day for what's coming. This will only be of local reach, in Nashville only.

Series: UNCOMMING INSIGHTS ON JESUS THE SAVIOR

Thu, April 21, 7:00 p.m.  Why Jesus Died Before the Cross

Fri, April 22, 7:00 p.m.    Why Christ Did Not Think He’d Resurrect

Sat, April 23, 11:20 a.m. Why He Rested in the Tomb

Sat, April 23, 7:00 p.m.   Why Is Jesus the First-Born of the Dead

Sun, April 24, 7:00 p.m.  Why Christ Promised to Return

I had to file an extension for my taxes, something I hadn't done in a long long time. My last two days of teaching are today and tomorrow. So, lots of papers and projects to grade. Finals are next week. And then the Creation-Evolution broadcast. Beginning May 10, I will breath again for two days, before I start research for the book on prophecy.

Blessings to all of you. God is good, and He proves it day by day. We praise Him for who He is!

"Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power;

for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created."

Revelation 4:11

Impossible, Yet...

April looked foreboding months ago, but now that I'm in the middle of it it looks impossible, particularly this week. I'm in Huntsville, AL, where yesterday I spoke to the GC Spring Council meeting at Oakwood University. The Lord blessed, as He always does, but it is taking three critical days out of an impossible schedule.

On Wednesday, I fly to Southern California, so Tim Standish and I present our Creation-Evolution program at the Beaumont Church, from Thursday through Sunday nights. Problem? We're 20% ready, if that. We've been working hard, but have simply ran out of time. I've sent only one nearly completed PPT script to Tim and Matt, our graphic designer. I have another four to do. If I can manage numbers 2 and 3 before I go Wednesday, we'll be doing well.

In the midst of all this are some academic e-mails and regular classes that cannot be ignored, and needed preparation for the following week's mini-series on Jesus for the Easter Evangelism weekend we plan for Nashville. But that's not all, somehow, I have to do my 2010 taxes this week. When? How? I honestly don't know. It doesn't pay to have someone else do it because I still have to do the grunt work of collecting all the data.

So, that's my week.

And my need is obvious. Yet, somehow, God is in control.

"And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

Phil 4:19

Creation and Creativity

What I love about life is seeing a plan come together. That is, seeing a God-size project work out where the whole is much bigger than the sum of its parts. This NET 2011 plan is much bigger than I or even those composing the planning committee.

Take, for instance, Creation. My last class in biology or physics was in high school, almost 40 years ago (I know, I only look young). And because I did that overseas, where high school education is stronger than at typical US schools, they waved all my science requirements once I got in college in California. In those days, however, I was a social rather than a real student. You know, one of those focused on friends, but with enough gray cells to pass with decent grades without learning much.

My point is that I'm in trouble trying to prepare for a series of nationwide lectures on TV about creation and evolution. It's like going to school once again, except this time I just love it. Cosmology, biology, geology, physics, what fascinating subjects they all are! Even though there are years of learning to process in just weeks, I wouldn't trade it for anything--except the assurance Tim (Standish, my co-presenter) and I will be ready. I've been reading fascinating books, and some not-so-easy textbooks. I've been watching magnificent DVDs such as the ones put out by Illustra Media. I recognize that I'd better let Tim, a molecular biologist researching at the Geoscience Research Institute, talk the science, but I can't wait to pitch in.

The truth is I've come to realize not too many years ago that my role in this world is to be an interpreter. Preachers must interpret the Bible to help listeners understand God better. Teachers must interpret data and make that palatable enough for students so they want to know more or perform better. Writers interpret reality and articulate it so readers make sense of their own world. What a joy and privilege to be about the business of interpreting the God of the Universe! And this series explores what God has done and is doing, revealing such amazing examples of His wisdom, foreknowledge, and care, that I for once, would want to find my seat on the front row.

But this business is dangerous. Interpreters are only a hair's breath from mis-interpreting. The safest thing would be to avoid it all together. And scores of people in the world do exactly that: "I'd rather not do something than make mistakes doing it." I would agree this is probably the best course of action about inconsequential or secondary things or even personal wants. But when it comes to something that really matters--and Creation, with its implications on the nature and the love of God, the Sabbath, the end of time, really matters--perhaps caution should not be the rule of the day, and casting ourselves in faith at the feet of Jesus for wisdom and ability, maybe the ticket to ride.

A hundred other speakers and a thousand other faithful can do better what, by the grace of God, I and others are trying to accomplish with this NET. But it is us who have the chance to do something big for God. And our prayer is that God may show himself strong in spite--and specially because--of our weakness and inadequacies.

Please pray for In the Beginning: Making Sense of the Creation-Evolution Debate. We have to accomplish in mere days what normally takes months to do well. Tim and I have committed to present an initial version of the mini-series at the Beaumont Church in Southern California, April 14-17, and we are not ready yet. I have been so busy with getting all the pieces needed for the Early Bird churches (just over 500 by the April 1 deadline--including equipping DVDs, manual, other resources, and the books on the Holy Spirit), plus other major training events (like the evangelism rally) and organizational needs, and article deadlines, aside from Seminary teaching responsibilities, etc., that this prep has really suffered. And to top it off, my graphic designer has been in Europe. It will take a miracle to do in eight days what three months may not be enough. But God, I believe, will be with us and the program. And this will be even more clearly demonstrated if you join me in prayer.

Today was the first of the fasting and prayer Sabbaths recommended by the GC's new initiative on Revival and Reformation. It had been a while since I last fasted. I used to do this regularly when pastoring in California. And I had forgetten the joy and the confidence in God that come with focusing exclusively on His will and power on our behalf. So, pray. Pray and fast, if you must. If you do it with the purpose of seeing God revealed in your life, He will not disappoint.

All this scientific reading and learning about Creation, along with deep reflection on the book of Genesis have led me to a renewed conviction that we serve a very big and wonderful God. One who created us for His glory, and for the everlasting joy of every creature. I cannot be silent about this. We shouldn't be silent about this.

"The heavens are telling of the glory of God;

And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.

Day to day pours forth speech,

And night to night reveals knowldge.

There is no speech, nor are there words;

Their voice is not heard.

[Yet] Their sound has gone out through all the earth,

And their uttenrances to the end of the world."

Psalm 19:1-4