Almighty and gracious Father, we give you thanks for the fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those who harvest them. Make us, we pray, faithful stewards of your great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and the relief of all who are in need, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!  What a wonderful time of year this is.   Sometimes life situations are not conducive to being very thankful.  If we look at Jesus we will find the greatest example of giving thanks in the toughest of times.  At what we call the Lord’s Supper, Jesus gave the Eucharist or communion to his disciples.  He gave thanks over the wine and the bread.  What He was actually doing was blessing his own death.  Yet we read later in the book of Matthew, Jesus prayed that “If it is possible, let this cup pass from me.”  Jesus gave thanks even when He knew that the situation would require His death.  I don’t think I will ever look at communion the same again.  Jesus gave thanks over His own upcoming death.  Of all the things I am thankful for this wonderful season, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus is the greatest.  That He blessed it is even greater.

I will be ministering at St. Andrew Charismatic Episcopal Church this weekend in the quaint little town of Covington Georgia.  My youngest brother, Randall, is the pastor of St. Andrews.  Needless to say, I am excited about seeing him and his family.  It has been a long time since I have been there.  Although it is a short trip, for I must return home as soon as possible, I am sure the Allen brothers will put a lot into this short visit.  In the midst of all this travel and visitation with family, there is the important issue of ministry.  This is the most important part of the trip.  Somehow touching God so that one can touch the people for God.  It is not that God is incapable of touching us without an intermediary.  It simply remains God’s chosen method of sharing the gospel through the foolishness of preaching.  My brother and I both were raised by a preaching father who believe in the integrity of the Word and it’s messenger.  This is one of the things that contributed to the power of his ministry.  We came away from the mentoring of our father realizing that ministry to the people of God and those seeking a relationship with Him was paramount to any accolades or notoriety one might receive.  To be known is not the goal.  To help others to know God is.  The words of John the Baptist have been forgotten by many in the ministry, “I must decrease that He may increase!”  There is no great accomplishment of this foolish process we call preaching than to leave each congregation we address in the presence of a living God.  It is not standing in our company that brings hope and healing to men, but that of kneeling before a merciful God.  Let us never get so caught up in our skills of eloquent speech and the accomplishments of our hands that we forget that it truly is not about us, it is all about Him.  Seeing Him, therein lies my salvation.  Hearing Him is my comfort.  Touching Him, I find my healing and deliverance.  Knowing Him, is to know joy.  The story is told of Charles Spurgeon, probably the greatest preacher of the eighteen hundreds in London, England, about a man who attended the Metropolitan Tabernacle where Spurgeon pastored.  This man had invited a co-worker to church repeatedly to hear Mr. Spurgeon speak.  The following day at work his friend asked him what he thought of his pastor’s preaching.   The response was, “I don’t know because when Mr. Spurgeon began to speak of Jesus, that is all I could see or hear.  I gave my heart to Christ.”  Oh, that we would return to such foolish preaching! 

  JUST A FEW SNAPSHOTS FROM SHOW TEENS RECENT BOWLING TRIP!

In my estimation, something wonderful took place this past week.  Safe House, which is predominately an Anglo church and Iglesia Evangelica Camino Del Rey, the Hispanic congregation that meets here at our location, went in together and sponsored a Kids Krusade.  Our guest speakers for this effort were Rev. Mike and LaDona Blue.  It was a great success.  The kids were blessed and so excited.  At a time when racial tensions are high and cooperation between churches is a rare commodity, we saw God bring two very different yet similar churches together.  It brought me a great deal of satisfaction to be able to do this good thing for our children and teens as well.  The tensions between differing groups of people are real.  At the same time they have been exaggerated by those who have to gain from our divisions, like hate groups.  This tension will remain until we as a people get tired of it and stop tolerating it.  There are those of us who can, if we will, do a great deal to bridge the gaps and bring people together for the common good.  Racism is not merely a white problem.  Anyone who works in the public sector can attest to that truth.  It is our problem, regardless of color or background.  If it is our problem, then it is within our power to fix it.  If you are waiting on the public school system to fix it, you are waiting in vain.  If you are waiting on the government to fix it, they haven’t fixed it yet and there is no need to think they will any time soon.  Those who sit in seats of authority may make laws to rid us of prejudice and hate, but they cannot legislate what is in our hearts.  We cannot start on Capital Hill and hope it will filter down to us.  It must start with us and withing our hearts, then rise to the highest authorities in the land.  In our homes, at our dinner tables, at the bedside of our little ones and on the porch swings, we must teach equality, love and acceptance.  We must teach them on our knee that division is not what God intended and we are all God’s children.  We who handle the Word of God, must stay true and faithful to the truth of the gospel to all peoples.  We cannot tolerate the hate and prejudice of days gone by.  There is nothing Christian about racism no matter who is spilling out the rhetoric.  Born again people do not hate people that Christ died for.   I have traveled to many places of the world.  No matter where I was, I have appreciated the people who opened their hearts, homes and churches to me.  Of a truth, some cultures took me by surprise.  Some things I could live with and some I could not.  But in every case, these were God’s people trying to live for God and give Him glory.  Who am I to not respect them as equally loved and important to my God?

A few years ago we had an interesting incident at the Allen house.  We heard a noise coming from the small furnace room.  When I opened the door, I could hear a rustling in the flue.  I knew immediately what it was.  A bird had somehow gotten trapped inside the flue and was desperately trying to get free.  So, I immediately went into action to rescue the bird and rid us of a potential problem  In the garage I retrieved the old crab net left over from our days in Virginia Beach.  Joanne opened  all the doors so if in the rescue process the bird got loose it might by chance see a way of escape and fly out one of the doors to freedom.  When Joanne pulled back the blinds to open the patio door, we found about a dozen or so wrens sitting on our patio near the door.  They seemed to be excited or maybe even agitated.  When Joanne opened the door they moved a little but did not leave.  With my net in place I slowly opened the damper and sure enough it was a wren.  Before I could move the net to catch him, he saw the opened patio door and bolted toward freedom.  Out and away he flew with his little friends quickly following.  I marveled at what I had just witnessed.  I saw a group of common birds show an extremely advanced socialization.  Their friend was in trouble.  They somehow knew that he was in the house and that he may come through the opening on the patio.  They gathered to wait and maybe fuss a bit about the situation.  Just as soon as he flew free, mission accomplished, the left.  A recent study done with birds (mainly a group identified as Norvids, crows, ravens and the like) has proven the intelligence of these creatures.  What strikes me is how thee birds cared for their friend.  I don’t know how long they would have waited for him, but it was evident he was the reason they were there.  His release was the whole point of their display.  We humans are supposed to be the most advanced in every way among all of God’s creations.  Yet there are times that we seem to forget that includes caring for each other, especially for those of us who have found faith in God.  Maybe this very small bird can teach us a lesson about friends sticking together and not abandoning each other when they get in trouble.  Could it be that they instinctively understand a Biblical principle that even defines our relationship with Christ that we often forget, that a real friend is one “that sticks closer than a brother.”

One of the things most important to me is my collection of Bibles.  I have nearly fifty in my study alone.  As far as resource books for research, I have collected some forty translations  of the Scripture.  Among these are some very old copies of God’s Word.  They are treasures to me.  Just this week while cleaning up my garage, I found two boxes of books that had been misplaced for several years.  In one of these boxes were several Bibles that I knew were missing but had not been able to find.  It was like rediscovering some old friends.  With joy I gave them their place in my study.  Yesterday while destroying some old  files, I found a ticket stub from 1994.  I had surprised Joanne with a romantic evening.  I had taken her to dinner at a fine restaurant and then to a concert by one of the world’s most celebrated musicians.  Every other paper in that file box was shredded except that one old ticket stub.  A few months ago Joanne and I went north of Dayton to visit a youth camp.  There were no children from our church attending yet we had heard some old friends of ours were the guest speakers.  They didn’t know we were there.  After service we went forward and reintroduced ourselves.  There were a few tears and hugs and a lot of catching up.  Later we realized that it had been over twenty years since we had seen each other.  Mike and LaDona Blue, our newly found old friends, will be at our church this month for a Kids Krusade.  The Bibles that were found were misplaced among all the stuff that had been hastily shoved into the garage when we moved into our home some ten years ago.  The ticket stub, a reminder of such a wonderful evening, was just simply lost and forgotten until it popped up in a 2000 file box.  And for our friends, different directions in life and ministry is to blame for the years without contact.  I rejoice in finding all of them.  I rejoice for what they have meant to me and what they mean to me now and in the future.  I rejoice for those things once lost can be found.  Things get lost in the stuff of life.  They get lost through neglect.  They get lost because of the decisions and directions of our lives.  But with a little effort, they can be found again.  Remember the words of  Jesus, “I came to seek and to save that which was lost.”

I was preparing to go to work when I got the call that my Aunt Carol who had been in the hospital had taken a turn for the worse.  I immediately changed my schedule and Joanne and I made our way to be with her and my Uncle Biff.  I had been there maybe ten minutes, standing beside my uncle when she breathed her last breath.  The room was filled with family.  It was sad and yet a great tribute to how loved she was and how she loved.  I didn’t say much.  I just watched as they grieved, occasionally reaching over to pat a shoulder or touch a hand, a simple gesture to reassure someone that I was there and that I cared.  Sometimes it is the simple things that help the most.  Many of us, especially those of us in the ministry,  feel as though it is our job to fix everything.  There are those things that are not fixable.  These are the things of life that we must learn to deal with.  At times life throws situations at us that are earth shattering to us personally, yet common to the human experience.  These are things such as the loss of a loved one, broken relationships, disastrous accidents, physical decline as a result of aging.   These and many others are common and many are irreversible.  The ability to fix these things is divine, well beyond the human grasp.   Being so limited in these most difficult times is not a sign of us being powerless nor is it an excuse for uncompassionate behavior.  It is our chance to be as human as possible and identify with those who are suffering, for we have all been there.  And if you haven’t been there yet, should you live long enough, you will.  This is our opportunity to step in and lend a hand by offering reassurance, guidance and loving support.  What good are our experiences if we cannot learn from them and offer help to others through what we have learned?  Hard experiences that we refuse to learn and grow from remain in our minds only as a bad memory, useless and tormenting.  Most of us have a wealth of experiences.  If we can learn to use them as our own personal living library to draw from, we can improve upon our own existence and be of help to others.  I have heard it said that truly the best teacher is the experience of someone else if you can learn from it.  Without having to say, “I remember when”, I have this week had many opportunities to pull from the shelves of my own library and offer some help.

Safe House of Worship celebrated the fall with a free festival for children.  The number of children attending doubled from 2008.  Thanks to all Safe House workers for giving so freely of your time and efforts.  A special thank you to Bobby and Donna Estes for the donation of a baby quilt and a handmade lap quilt given away as adult prizes.  Thanks to Vicky and Kevin McCoy for directing this outreach.  So many of Safe House workers gave so freely and helped set up, work the games and tear down after the festival was over.  You are the best!  Hope you enjoy the slide show below of a few memories of this day.