This will not be the first time I’ve been out of the country on the 4th of July. In fact, I’ve been away several times. It never gets easier. It’s like missing the birthday of a loved-one. In fact it is missing the birthday of a loved-one – my beloved home-country. Home. Now there’s an interesting subject and a difficult one for me to discuss. In my lifetime, I’ve lived at twenty-eight different addresses in twelve American towns, plus spent extended time in four foreign countries. I really can’t go home again. It would take too long and some of the places are not even there anymore. What I can do is celebrate my home in Christ. The Message translates Jesus saying in John 15:4 “Make your home in me just as I do in you.” While others celebrate Independence Day in their home-country, I will spend July 4th celebrating my dependence on the Lord, my home away from home.

A new story has been added to the “Mud Hen in a Peacock Parade” feature on my web site. Check www.discipleallnations.org for “Baptism or Burritos?”

Join me in remembering these global concerns:
• Pray for me as I travel this week to Interlaken, Switzerland to teach each morning at the Summer Assembly of the International Baptist Convention.
• Pray for dozens, perhaps hundreds, of mission teams that will be serving somewhere in the world this week.
• Pray for American missionaries and military personnel who will celebrate the 4th of July outside of their home country and away from families.
• Pray for the annual meeting of the Canadian Baptist National Convention, June 30-July 2, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
• Give thanks for successful surgery and ongoing good recovery from cancer of the tongue for Carrie in Austria.

I love the line from a country song – “The road goes on forever and the party never ends.” In spite of the not-so-spiritual story included in the song’s lyrics, I’ve long wanted to make that line biblical. It finally happened this week. Early in the public ministry of Jesus, he attended a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. The host ran out of wine. I guess even back then, you never knew how many friends you had until your daughter got married. Nevertheless, the party was over whether the fat lady had sung or not. No more wine, no more party. Then Jesus took water and miraculously turned it into wine (John 2:1-11). I’ve preached all over that miracle story, but never realized that what Jesus actually did was keep the party going. Next time you’re having fun at a Jesus party, rejoice. That road goes on forever and that party never ends.

Join me in praying for these global concerns:
• Vacation Bible Schools (by any other name, still VBS) being held all over the world this summer.
• Pray for the upcoming 2010 Olympic ministry evangelism training sessions with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association of Canada.
• Pray for the eight couples and one single person currently raising support to go Vancouver, Canada to do church planting.
• Pray for missionary personnel from Central & Eastern Europe as they gather this week for their annual meeting.

We know that Jesus wept – over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41) and over Lazarus (John 11:35) – but did he ever laugh, smile, display a sense of humor? The Scriptures never say so directly, but it is often implied. How could he have wept in times of sorrow and not laughed in times of joy? Can you imagine Jesus not smiling when children crawled over Him as the disciples had a fit or when the host of a wedding feast in Cana, suddenly went from lots of water, but no wine to 600 gallons of wine and no water? Surely Jesus laughed at Simon Peter on several occasions. What about the spectacle of Zacchaeus out on a limb, desperately trying to see Jesus, as the wind blew through the branches? I believe Jesus had a great sense of humor. I also believe you and I ought to have the same. It’s part of being Christ-like. Click on http://www.star-telegram.com/religion/story/1431209.html and read a Saturday article from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on my new book, Mud Hen in a Peacock Parade. You might even want to order the book and have a few laughs.

Seriously, pray with be over the following global concerns:
• Pray for TEAM PORTUGAL this weekend, as they host their first ever American football camp. A team of 10 coaches and players from Texas and Arkansas will be leading the camp.
• Pray for Mary from Russia as she attends a conference in Greece on June 20.
• Pray for the Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary, Cochrane Alberta, as they seek to find strategic partners for the school.
• Pray for Joe’s ministry in The Republic of Georgia, one of the least visited countries by evangelicals in the former Soviet Union.

I dislike labels more than most people. I know labels are sometimes necessary. It’s just when we use them to slander another that bothers me. Someone asked me recently what I was and I replied, “I’m a male Christian Southern Baptist and depending on who you ask, I am a conservative, moderate, fundamentalist, or liberal, without enough points to be a Calvinist but not pointless. I’m a democratic Republican with independent thoughts, white, middle-class, suburban American, tax-paying, flag-waving, God-loving, senior citizen, retired, Seminary professor emeritus.” I wonder what God thinks of our categorizing people. Oh, here it is – “Do not speak evil of one another” (James 4:11). A disciple said to Jesus, “Master, we saw someone using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he isn’t in our group.” (NLT) Jesus replied, “Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side” (Luke 9:50). Whose side are you on? Whose corner are you in? Which camp do you live in? What group do you hang with? I just want to be pilgrim, on his way toward Christ-likeness.

If you haven’t already categorized me and quit reading, join me in remembering these global concerns:

• Pray for people moving into three new suburban housing areas west of Toronto, Canada where about 25% of the new residents are expected to be immigrants holding to a major world religion.
• Pray for the new Family Refugee Ministry in Thessaloniki, Greece.
• Give thanks for several visa renewals granted to Western Europe personnel.
• Pray for Stephen who is in Korea for 8 days working with a world-wide steering committee of leaders in oral teaching.
• Pray for the Kiev Mobile Ministry Team as they lead the Backyard Bible Clubs each afternoon this week.

Someone said, “There’s no free lunch.” While that may be true, there is free love, at least in a manner of speaking. God’s love for us is free, meaning it cost us nothing to receive it and nothing to keep it. God said, “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3). “Everlasting” means it lasts forever. Free, unchanging, eternal! What a love! The very fact that God’s love is based on nothing of our doing makes us all the more secure. We can do nothing to earn it, deserve it, facilitate it, support it, or maintain it. We can only receive it – and respond to it. Ah, there is the cost! Not to purchase, but to reply. We do not serve in order to get God to love us. We serve because God loves us with an everlasting love. In response to God’s great love, what service will you render this week?

Begin by joining me in remembering a few of God’s global concerns:
• Continue to pray for Carrie in Austria as she recovers from tongue reconstruction surgery.
• Pray for volunteer mission support for new work in Bryansk, Russia, an area southwest of Moscow about 250 miles.
• Pray for Refuge and Hope as they begin a project to serve youth who are either former child soldiers or who have been traumatized by the war in Democratic Republic of Congo.
• Pray for the intentional acts of kindness cookie outreach during the Gentse Feesten (Gent Festival) this summer in Belgium.
Pray for Steve and April and their family as they relocate to Prague, Czech Repub