e-Soundings

Worldwide Disasters - One common response

And now yet another disaster follows on the heels of all the rest. After the 225,000 dead from the Tsunami, the 1,200 dead from Katrina and Rita, comes the 41,000+ dead in South Asia.
We stand in stunned silence before the power of nature.

It’s hard to imagine the widespread destruction and the loss of life and what it will all mean to the local areas effected as well as the “global village” we have become.
And we have a new common thread: fear.

With 9/11, we joined the world in fighting random bombings and acts of willful destruction. With Katrina and Rita, we have joined the world in facing tremendous natural disasters as well.

It’s been said that disasters do not so much forge character as reveal it. Our dark side becomes as evident as our heroic side.

Our nation is now faced with a deep and abiding challenge that will reveal our true character. These events and how we respond to them will mark this generation in the history books. Will our future be filled with fear? ...or hope?

Wars of the last century were defined by troops and territory. We will be defined by our efforts at rescue and recovery.

One idea is to have a “National Relief and Recovery Corps,” structured like the National Guard and trained like the Peace corps. “Reservists” would be willing to respond worldwide on 24 hours notice to large and small disasters.
Such a Corps of people would bring a message of relief and hope around the world and give a new face to the compassion of the American people.

And it’s not up to our leaders anymore. We’ve learned that only a groundswell of interest and action will bring about such bold ideas.

It’s all up to all of us to take our prayer life seriously and use it as a way to listen to God’s deepest longings.
God’s Holy desires are calling us to be compassionate, reconciling and willing to lend a hand in rebuilding lives.

The future can be defined by such offering of help. The relations of peoples and nations can be changed.

Christ challenges us to move beyond our comfort zone and to “love God” and “love others as we love ourselves” more than we have ever loved before.

Are we willing? There has never been a better time. What ideas has God given you to change the world? Are you ready to leave behind fear and move into love?

A time for sacrifice?

Sacrifice.

It’s a word we don’t hear much about these days.

Once, it guided a nation, was the motto of parents, was expected to be shouldered by everyone in the society.
World wars were won because of shared sacrifice. Generations were educated because of sacrifice. Safety and security were assured because of sacrifice.

Now, it’s power seems to be found mainly in the military.

It’s time to restore this value in all our lives.

It was the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross that changed the world. It was the choice of God to become real and present to us that allowed us to be changed as well.

It is the challenge of sacrifice that now faces us and our nation as we begin to sort out the ways to respond to the deep and tragic destruction of the Gulf Region as well as to the challenge of Terrorism and the War in Iraq.

I invite all of you to take time and pray about what sacrifice means to you.

Perhaps you need a time of study and struggle about what God has done in Jesus Christ. Out of such and act, we learn that God is willing to sacrifice for us. And so we lean that to sacrifice for others out of our love of God is at the very heart of Christ.

Love God, Jesus tells us, with all your heart, mind, body and soul, and love others as you love yourself. (Matt 22:37)

It’s quite a challenge. It requires us to sacrifice.

Perhaps we need to realize that while finances are limited, other parts of our lives could be offered in terms of the time and talents God has given us.

Sacrifice could be in the way we examine our attitudes and work to change them to be more in line with God’s will.

Sacrifice could be in the way we recognize our own sinfulness, our desire to go our own way even if that means we leave God behind or marginalized.

Sacrifice could simply mean putting our life in God’s hands and trusting with all that we have.

Are you ready to consider sacrifice as a life style? Are you ready to see where God’s love might lead you?

Then Jesus told his disciples,
‘If any want to become my followers,
let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

For those who want to save their life will lose it,
and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

For what will it profit them
if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?'
(Matt 16:24-26)

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Terry Van Hook

Prayer for renewal in times of Crisis

On 9/11, which was also the week when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast and New Orleans, this prayer for renewal in times of crisis was offered at the end of my sermon.

"Allow yourself to become a new person in Christ.
In your heart pray these words:

Most creative and yet loving God.

I do not understand it all
but I know your heart is seeking the best for everyone.

I'm sorry I've let you become secondary in my life.
I’m sad I’ve let Jesus slip away.

I open my heart to you.

Change me and all that I do
into the loving person you want me to be.

Help me risk,
help me reach out,
help me offer hope,
the hope that only comes through Jesus
and his victory over death.

I give you my life, forever.

Amen.

The hard work of reconstruction...

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Now comes the hard work of reconstruction, rebuilding and reconciliation.

The crisis stage has passed, and while some families are still separated and others are in deep grief, many are returning to the place they called home and are asking: “what now.”

It will be all too easy for us to move on in our lives, trying to get back to normal without asking the same question.

We usually work hard to gain some normalcy in our lives. ...To have safety and security for us and for our family.

But the world has changed.

Just as it did on 9/11, our lives are now different, and we are called to examine our priorities, our hopes and our dreams.

Will God have a place in our considerations?

Will we invite Jesus into our hearts in a new and powerful way?

Before it gets to hectic again with Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, take time to sit and pause and put your life in perspective, evaluate where you are and where you want to go...

Your life can change and you have been given the power of God to make it change. Are you ready to do that? Are you willing to let God open you up to new possibilities?

Jesus has made it possible for us to engage the loving heart of God and make a difference in our lives.

It takes hard work, but it is the time of reconstruction, rebuilding and reconciliation with God for all of us.

Let’s make a difference and help the world God wants to see come into being.

Let's allow Christ to be at work in our lives, in our families and in the world around us.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Terry Van Hook

"Waiting for Rita"

Hi all,
Here's a poem/prayer from one of our great people in the national headquarters at Nashville, TN.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Terry

http://www.gbod.org/worship/default.asp?act=reader&item_id=14931

Hurricane Katrina & Rita

We all join in prayer about our brothers and sisters in the Gulf Coast, we search about for ways to respond.

You are invited to join our "Hope Disaster Response Team" which is currently focussing on the Hurricanes there.

It's found at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HopeHurricaneResponse

It's filled with plans and ideas for our response together.

What other links and connections do you have about this deeply tragic season of hurricanes?

How goes it with your soul?

Grace and Peace, Pastor Terry