Days Journey

Here is a note to let you all know that Lincoln Brewster will be leading worship at The Oaks Fellowship on July 20th. I have provided the info below along with a link to Lincoln’s web site. Get to know this dynamic Christian performer and I hope to see some of you at The Oaks for a wonderful time of praise and worship!!

Lincoln Brewster

“Now I saw in my Dream, that the highway up which Christian was to go, was
fenced on either side with a Wall, and that Wall is called Salvation. Up this
way therefore did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty,
because of the load on his back.
He ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending, and upon that
place stood a Cross, and a little below in the bottom, a Sepulchre. So I saw
in my Dream, that just as Christian came up with the Cross, his Burden loosed
from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and
so continued to do, till it came to the mouth of the Sepulchre, where it fell
in, and I saw it no more.”

-John Bunyan; the Pilgrim’s Progress

As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent Me. Night is coming when no one can work. (John 9:4)

“Do not pray for easy lives, pray to be stronger men, do not pray for tasks equal to your power, pray for power equal to your tasks!”

–Phillip Brooks

Hi All,

My wife works with a family that has run into extreme medical situations. The mom and daughter work with my wife. The mom and son-in-law both have cancer and the daughter has used up all of her time off to be at the hospital with her mom and husband. My wife’s boss is holding a benefit night to help the family offset medical and living expenses. The benefit is Sunday, Sept. 23rd at 6:30pm at Park Meadows Baptist Church in Waxahachie Tx. There will be Praise and Worship music, a bake sale, and a silent auction to help this family. Thank you for prayerful consideration of this event. Come out and be a part of this ministry opportunity!! For more information please call 972-345-8546.

btw: Church info:

Park Meadows Baptist Church
3350 North Highway 77
Waxahachie TX 75165
972-937-0073

In our day to day lives as we go about doing all the things we need to do for survival, it is easy for me to forget that I am really in the middle of a huge conflict. Things are going well, I get side tracked in everyday living, then theres a small bump in the road. I don’t think anything about it and then theres another one. Then another, and they begin to happen more frequently and its like the Lord has to push me to get my attention and I realize whats going on. Why do I have to get so sidetracked before I open my eyes and see?

We have been called to a warefare and as soldiers we need to be ever alert. There are only 4 positions in war:

• offensive
• defensive
• detente
• retreat

Satan is only concerened when we are in the offensive position. I think about all the talk in our society about tolerance and not wanting to force issues because it make others uncomfortable. We have followed Satan into the valley of Ono to seek detente. However, our enemy will never be satisfied with co-existance. We need to move from the reactionary (defensive) position and stop talking detente and launch a new offensive. Pauls battle language states that our “wrestling is”, not was or will be, but is a continuing factor in our lives as Christians. If we truly believe that we hold the truth… what are we doing?

Last night I watched a special on CNN with presidential candidates John Edwards, Barak Obama, and Hillary Clinton.  It was entitled “Faith and Politics.”  The just of the program was to gain insight into the “faith” of each candidate.   What struck me was the complete disconnect between the candidate’s “faith” and truth.  Their “faith”, or personal way of approaching God was pictured as completed unrelated to any sort of ultimate and universal truth.  Each candidate was asked what they pray for, but none were asked who they pray too.   They could be praying to themselves for all we know.

What bothered me was the complete ignorance of the problem - that is, the lack of debate on the issue of ultimate truth.  In other words, none of the candidates, the moderator, or the audiences members seemed interested in what the candiates actually believed.  Further, they were not interested in how their “faith” would influence their decision making.  The whole program could have been an instructional video on post-modernism.

Tonight the Republican candidates are up.  I’m looking for more of the same.

Back in college, one of my professor’s used to precede a quiz, test, or sometimes the last class before the weekend with the phrase, “sufficient class…sufficient!” It took us a month or so to figure out what he was talking about and we kind of thought he rather enjoyed being vague anyway.
All that good old Prof. Cooper was doing was quoting Jesus (Matt. 5-6) from the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, and the Lord’s Prayer (the Lord’s instruction to the Disciples on how to pray). The Lord said,

“Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” (KJV, see also NET Matt. 6:34 “So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.”)

Over the years, what he said in those classes comes back to me much more than it did when I was back in college. Then, I was only really worried about doing well on a quiz, a test, or knowing that I’d be working on exegesis papers all weekend and had to get them turned in the first of the following week. Today, it’s a completely different story. Life, health, family, work, the challenge of priorities, deadlines, and you name it all challenge me to take my worries to the Lord, but just deal with it one day at a time. If the Lord tells me “sufficient Kevin, sufficient unto the day!” then I need to take heed. Yes, life, health, family , work, priorities, deadlines, etc. are all important, and we do need to plan ahead and number our days, but we need to take our worry to the Lord and find His grace in our time of need.

So class, sufficient! sufficient!

Recently I was in one of those shipping stores sending out a package. While we were waiting on the clerk, I was reading various greetings cards in a display. One card stood out. I’d seen it before, but it was a reminder. The front of it had a picture of a guy having to push a “broken down” 50’s era automobile to his destination. It was obvious the person was overdressed, discouraged, and it was a harsh environment that he was moving through. Opening the cover, the caption said something to the effect of “There is Joy in the Journey.” Some may find it humorous, as I did, and some may find it painful, as I also did, but the humor came from having been there and having pushed a few broken down cars in the “Journey of Life,” both literally and metaphorically. We are all travelers in life and we have to take it a day at a time. Few of us have the luxury of merely observing life from “the balcony overlooking the road,” rather, we stumble across it day after day, sometimes coasting down the hills, and other times climbing them, all the while negotiating the potholes.

Day’s Journey is a collaborative effort beginning with a few persons of faith in Jesus Christ who desire to express their faith and their humanity through music, art, and other creative forms, in the context of the “Journey of Life.”