On these cold snowy days, many find themselves pondering the big questions of life. Questions like: why am I so restless yet bored;  when will I grow up; why was I born at all; or why are my feet always cold? Sometimes the silly questions may reveal the most. The list can be endless unless we take serious time to find the meaning and purpose of our days. Seasons change and so do we. The circumstances of our lives today are in a different place than even five or ten years ago.   

I believe everyone has their own divine purpose for life. I found there are at least three steps to discovery: 1) an openness to the Holy Spirit of God; 2) an understanding of your spiritual gifts; and 3) an honest review of your life thus far. The first step is the spiritual work of prayer, worship and the Word. The second step can be discovered in the many available spiritual gift assessment materials and the spiritual graces that give you joy. The third step may be the most difficult—an honest review of your life. Some find it helpful to write down some key insights. Review your life by decades or significant turning points, starting with your childhood.  How have you changed? Remember the spiritual insights that impacted you along the way. How have you recovered from hard things of the past? How have you spiritually impacted others? Be honest before God and yourself. 

  Try summing up your life purpose in one sentence. Everyone has a uniquely divine purpose for living at this time in history, at their current age, in their current circumstances. How you live that out involves your call from God, your faithfulness today and your vision of tomorrow. This is hard spiritual work. Excuses come easily. It is not too late for you. God has placed you here for a purpose. Discover why, then fulfill it.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Live out your divine life. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

I met a real prophet of God once. I do not believe he thought of himself as a prophet. He just sought to live what Jesus taught. In doing so he influenced the course of America’s history. His name was Will D. Campbell. Born to cotton farmers in rural Mississippi, he was ordained a Southern Baptist minister at 17, served in the medical corps in World War II, graduated from Yale Divinity School, drank moonshine with friends from the KKK and was the only white minister invited by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to the founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957. A few months later he helped escort nine black students through angry crowds to school in Little Rock. He was in Birmingham in 1963 when the hoses were turned on the people. I met him in the summer of 1999.

Calling himself a “bootleg Preacher,” Will Campbell abandoned the politics of religion, yet he had a profound insight into the ways of ethical Christian living. True prophets of God cannot pastor local churches, theirs is a wider calling. He lived in rural Tennessee where he wrote his stories, believed that Christ died for the bigot and the devoted alike, and sought to bring reconciliation to all people. On his death in 2013, The New York Times wrote, (He was) a preacher without a church who presided at weddings, baptisms and funerals in homes, hospitals and graveyards for a flock of like-minded rebels that included Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Dick Gregory, Jules Feiffer and Studs Terkel. Most of his scattered “congregation,” however, were poor whites and blacks, plain people alienated from mainstream Christianity and wary of institutions, churches and governments that stood for progress but that in their view achieved little. We met at a Baptist gathering where he had set up a couple of leather chairs, two small tables and some of his books. He invited me to sit with him, and he asked a lot of questions about ministry in Oklahoma. He autographed a book giving me the challenge to Fight ‘em off!  I took it as an encouragement to stand for the truth, no matter what.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Stand true. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/05/us/will-d-campbell-maverick-minister-and-civil-rights-stalwart-dies-at-88.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

I have an old paperback book in my office called, The Gospel According to Peanuts, by Robert L. Short. It features many of the cartoon characters of Charles Shultz, but from the early years, before 1965. In one, Lucy has set up her 5-cent psychiatric booth to help Linus face his fears. Lucy tries to pinpoint Linus’ particular fear. “Are you afraid of responsibility? If you are then you have Hypengyophobia!” “I don’t think that’s quite it,” says Linus.  Lucy continues, “How about cats? If you are afraid of cats, then you have Ailurophobia.” “Well, sort of…but I’m not sure.” An impatient Lucy then says, “Maybe you have Pantophobia—the fear of everything.” “That’s it!” says Linus. The truth is we all have our worries and fears which too easily want to control us.

I am always moved by the words of Dutch resistance fighter, Holocaust survivor and Christian writer Corrie Ten Boom.  In her book Clippings from My Notebook, she writes: “Worry is carrying tomorrow’s load with today’s strength—carrying two days at once. It’s moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.” I attended a church luncheon in Tulsa many years ago where Corrie Ten Boom was the featured speaker. Her lesson that day came from a piece of needlework. When she held it up to show us, she displayed the back where all the threads were knotted and crisscrossed. She then held it above her head. She said that when she wondered about the suffering, hurt and all the confusing turns of life, she would remember that while we may only see the tangles and the knots, from heaven God sees the complete portrait of His love and purpose. Then she revealed the beautiful picture she was still sewing. “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”

Some of her other quotes include: “If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed. If you look at God, you’ll be at rest.” And this word about living in faith: “You can never learn that Christ is all you need, until Christ is all you have.” 

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Fear not. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

Reprinted from 2019

These have been very busy days of ministry, advancing the reach of our church. We experienced beautiful times of worship together each week, and served community meals weekly and on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s days. Our annual church meeting last Sunday, January 4, refocused the church budget to more fully address our church’s call to provide good food and groceries for our neighbors and opportunities for conversations and meaningful relationships to develop as we proclaim the Good News of God’s Love in a broken and hurting world. While still a challenge, the 2026 Church Budget represents an almost 12% decrease from last year.

In the other business at the meeting, our church has agreed to a ministry partnership, beginning this month, with a bi-lingual congregation, Preparing the Way Church, under the leadership of Pastor John Peńa and his wife Lisa. This active congregation is relocating from Broken Arrow, by way of 31^st and Mingo in Tulsa, to our area to increase their outreach to the Hispanic community. Many young families are included in this group of about 80 to 100. They are very excited. More details will be published next week.

Our Food Pantry Ministry room has been refurbished and reorganized with a new (for us) freezer and a combination refrigerator-freezer, and tables and shelving. Faith Stephens, our director, is hard at work developing new sources for obtaining consistently good food and produce. Our team is working to learn the systems for keeping up with needs of our neighbors and providing for follow-up and referrals. Volunteer training will be offered soon. The Clothing Ministry continues strong.

Thank you for allowing me to serve alongside some of the most faithful, hard-working people in the kingdom of God. All that lies before us must be bathed in prayer and met with faith. Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

I have a Bible passage to pray over you for this Christmas season. It is taken from a prophecy of the coming Messiah. It is a truth for today and promise for tomorrow.  

Arise, shine,   (name)   , for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.  (Isaiah 60:1-2)

I am committing to pray these verses with your specific name in mind, as far as I know it. I invite you to pray this for those you know. There is nothing magic in this prayer. It is simply the majesty of God at work through the hearts of His people. There is deep darkness all around us. Our God, who is Light, has brought His light to us through Jesus, whose birth we are celebrating. Embrace the Light within you.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Your Light has come.  And let’s experience the love and power of God together.