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Dr. Dan

My Second Home-City

I’m in my second home-city this week – Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I first came to this beautiful city more than thirty years ago to lead a collegiate retreat. Then for eighteen years I brought a class of Southwestern Seminary students to Vancouver every summer on an Urban Evangelism practicum. Today, I am on the leadership team for the WestCoast Baptist Association, serving from my home in Fort Worth, Texas and leading numerous Vision Tours and Prayer Journeys to Vancouver. My granddaughter, Whitney, attends a Christian school in Fort Worth. Every year the students are required to participate in a spring mission and/or culture trip. She has been to Guatemala, Mexico and Kenya. This year she rejected all the school trips and asked me to plan her senior-year, personal mission trip to Vancouver. With the school’s approval, we are here, working, serving, and enjoying what one source has named for the past five years, “The World’s Most Livable City.” Yet it is a city of three million people, where less than 2% have any relationship with an evangelical church and 41% claim “No Religion” as their religious preference. It is believed that there are more Chinese in Vancouver than any city outside of China. Vancouver is said to have the largest Indian population outside of India. Hispanics and Persians are entering the city in large numbers. There are over 300,000 university students in Vancouver, literally representing the nations of the world. More than 74,000 people live in the inner-city core – making it the most densely populated area in North America. But, what God said about another city one time, could well be said of Vancouver, “I have many people in this city” (Acts 18:10). Truly, to reach Vancouver is to reach into the entire Pacific Rim and beyond. As far a mission trips are concerned, good choice, Whitney!

Join me this week in praying for the following global requests:
• Continue to pray for the relief work following Japan’s earthquake and tsunami.
• Pray for missionaries who are preparing for summer volunteer mission teams.
• Pray for Pastorless churches in Vancouver, Canada.
• Pray for Vancouver Island with a population of 750,000, half of whom live in the capital of Victoria. The Island is the homeland to more than 5500 indigenous peoples and is the second leading center of occult in the world. A major denomination on the Island is said to be closing 14 of their 59 churches.

Another Soldier has Gone Home

God doesn’t lie. That’s why not everyone who arrives in heaven will hear “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21, 23). Those who receive that welcome will be those who have done well; those who have served faithfully and good. As sure as I am of this truth, I am likewise sure that last Friday evening, Jasper Grigg heard those words when he arrived at his eternal reward. Reader’s Digest used to have a regular column entitled, “The Most Unforgettable Character I’ve Ever Met.” Jasper could have been one of those “characters” for me. He was every Pastor or Interim Pastor’s dream deacon. I was doubly privileged to serve as his Interim Pastor twice. Career military, long-time Sunday School teacher, father of two wonderful friends of mine, confidant and critic, I will miss him. But he has now answered heaven’s muster, passed inspection, and assumed his rightful place in the King’s Eternal Army. Janet Paschal graciously allowed me to use the words of one of her songs in a book I wrote. They were also quoted at my father’s funeral. They are appropriate again. “Strike up the band; assemble the choir; another soldier’s coming home. Another warrior hears the call; he’s waited so long; he’ll battle no more; but he’s won his wars. Make sure heaven’s table has room for one more. Sing a welcome song. Another soldier’s coming home.”

Join me this week in remembering the following global concerns:
• Pray for the thousands who’ve suffered in the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
• Pray for 124 Southwestern Seminary students who are preaching revival meetings across the nation this spring-break week.
• My wife and I are accompanying our granddaughter, Whitney, on her senior mission trip in Vancouver, Canada this week. Pray that God will bless her and her ministries.
• Pray for seminars on Servant Leadership to be held in Cyprus on March 14- 18.
• Pray for J and N as the anti-American hostilities increase in the place where they serve.

Keep On!

For twenty-two years, my annual assignment was to coordinate the training and placement of approximately 100 Seminary student, hope-to-be preachers into small churches located outside of the Bible-belt for the purpose of conducting spring-break revival meetings. The most difficult part was not the training of the students; it was knowing where to place them. So I fasted, prayed and read the Bible, sometimes for several days, waiting on God to give me a “Go” word, before making any assignments. I was not going to match student preacher and small church without the assurance that God was with me in the process. I’m not sure where in the Bible I started reading one year but I had made it all the way to III John and was beginning to wonder if God was going to give me my needed “Go” word. After all, only Jude and Revelation remained in the Bible. Then I read III John 5-6, “You do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren . . . if you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God.” With that “Go” word given, I proceeded to “send them forward on their journey.” Lesson learned and now passed on to you: Keep reading your Bible and praying. God is sometimes slow but never late.

Join me this week in praying for the following global concerns:
• Pray for a Christian worker among East Asian people who is seriously ill. He is on a ventilator in critical condition. Last Saturday he underwent a 4.5 hour surgery to treat the situation. The next hours are crucial.
• It’s not global, but please pray for North Pointe Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas. Their Pastor was murdered in the church building last Thursday and the church’s Administrative Assistant was beaten and remains in serious condition in a local hospital.
• March 8th is International Women’s Day in Russia and some other countries. Pray for Mary and others who will be ministering to women on this day.
• Pray for Patricia as she leaves Cameroon on March 13 for two and a half months of “home leave” in the U.S.

God’s Requirements

Requirements are easy to identify in the world of education. Teachers make assignments. Students understand what is required. They are fairly easy to identify in the medical world. Doctors examine you and tell you what is required for you to do or take or undergo. In the athletic world coaches develop a game plan and show you what is required to do in order to win. In the business world, you study the growth charts and determine what is required to turn a profit. What about in the spiritual world? What does God require? That is the very same question that was posed in Micah and then answered in Micah 6:8: “What does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” It is required that we do justly before God, before others and before self. Not only what the law requires, but we are to love mercy, kindness, compassion, benevolence. How are we to carry out these requirements? We respond by walking humbly, under submission, in fellowship with God. Pretty heavy assignment for the week!

Join me this week in remembering the following global prayer concerns:
• Pray for Lew and Brandi as they gain fluency in French and for their possible re-location.
• Pray for missionaries who serve under threats against their lives in some countries.
• Pray for Wade and Laurie as they transition back to the U.S.
• Pray for Pastorless churches in Vancouver, Canada.

When Knowledge Trumps Action

It’s not what you know but who you know that makes a difference. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard that advice repeated. Still, how many times have you and I seen that proven to be true – in business, education, athletics, military, church, etc. The Old Testament people knew what to do to please God, or so they thought. One could please God by doing the right things – like making the correct offering. So they worked hard at doing the right things, making the correct sacrifices. And they prided themselves in knowing “what” to do. However God said, “I desire . . . the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6). I spent most of a career trying to do the right things. It has only been in recent years that I have decided that as important as it is to do the right things, it is extremely more important to know God the right way. Action is important. It gets the job done. But action without adequate knowledge is simply busy-work.

Join me this week in praying for the following global requests:
• Pray for Larry as he travels to China for a 4-day pastor’s retreat.
• Pray for Tommy and Beth as they begin their ministry in Lima, Peru.
• Pray for Melinda and Dano as they prepare for their move to Southeast Asia.
• Pray for believers throughout the Middle East as governmental protests continue.

Things of the Heart

Today is Valentine’s Day – a day to think about things of the heart. We speak of loving someone “with all our heart.” Hallmark will make several million dollars selling cards with hearts on them. Many floral arrangement with include hearts along with the flowers. Some of us broke teeth on candy hearts given to us by friends, with cute sayings on them such as “Luv U.” Long ago Valentine’s Day was named after an early Christian martyr, Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 500 AD. But even before all of that, hearts were a popular subject. One day God was talking with Ezekiel about hearts and said, “Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts . . . should I let Myself be inquired of at all by them” (Ezekiel 14:3)? In other words, if the heart is not filled with the right ingredients, God is not obliged to listen to our prayers. While Valentine’s Day is a good time to express the love of your heart for others, it is also a good time to check on any idols that reside in your heart. Their presence may be why your prayer life is hindered.

Join me this week in remembering the following global concerns:
• Pray for missionaries who will use Valentine’s Day to entertain nationals and share God’s love with them.
• Pray for believers in Egypt as they await the future direction of their country.
• Pray for a mission team from Virginia that will be working in Honduras this week.
• Pray for numerous Pastor-less churches in Vancouver.

Super Silence

It started two weeks in advance and escalated all the way to Super Bowl Sunday. It began again early on Sunday and continued right up to game time, resuming during half-time. It seemed that every former player, coach and want-a-be was sharing Super Bowl opinions, theories, observations – on talk show panels, in interviews, and via social networks. A few were insightful, some were interesting, most were hot air. I was reminded of one of my favorite quotes, this one from Plato, “A wise man speaks when something needs to be said. A fool speaks when he needs to say something.” Is there a religious lesson to be learned from this? Absolutely! One of the first verses I memorized (and I have long since forgotten why I did so) was James 1:19, “So then, my beloved brethren, let everyman be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” One of my recent Scripture favorites is Zephaniah 1:7, “Be silent in the presence of the Lord God.” There is a time for words. When that time comes, choose wisely. There is also a time for silence. Silence drives most fast-lane Americans crazy, but when the time comes, shhhh!

Join me this week with the following global concerns:
• Pray for the Upward Sports Conference in Ukraine and for the effective use of sports in ministry.
• Pray for local believers as well as those who serve in Tunisia, Yemen and Egypt.
• Pray for Darbi as she begins a Bible study with the women in Mapanza, Zambia.
• Pray for Trey and Elise as they complete their ministry in Croatia.

Reclaim and Return

“What one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace.” So said John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement. Years later, a sociologist enlarged the statement by saying, “What one generation despises, the next generation tolerates, and the third generation accepts as the norm.” Without citing illustrations, of which there are many, let me just say that I’ve lived long enough to see that become a reality. While some would call it progress, and others would call it deterioration, the Bible speaks of a generation where, “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6; 21:25). May I remind you that historians also labeled that time, “The Dark Ages of Hebrew History.” Our post-modern, new age society says there are no absolutes, no right nor wrong; if it works for you, it is OK. I spoke to nearly 100 student, want-a-be preachers last week as they began their course of study that will culminate in them preaching a revival meeting as a part of a program entitled, “Reclaiming This Nation.” While everything around us moves us away from God, it is time to reclaim old truths and “return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness” (Joel 2:13).

Join me this week in interceding for the following global concerns:
• Yesterday was the annual Day of Prayer for Corsica. It’s not too late to pray for those who serve God on this island.
• Pray for Patricia as she trains workers this week in Ombessa, Cameroon to translate the first four chapters of Galatians.
• Pray for CHAT, a new English club which will begin on Feb 9 in Ukraine.
• Pray for a team going to Honduras to build a church in the small community of Azacualpita.

Praying in Sleepless Weakness

It was one of those Saturday nights. The events of the week had created a scenario wherein my body was too tired and weak to sleep. Nor was my mind in very good shape either. I tossed and I turned but I did not sleep. To make matters worse, I had to preach twice the next morning. I kept praying to God that I really needed to sleep so I could be at my best on Sunday morning – for God’s glory of course. Still no sleep. My prayer slowly evolved to a request to be clear and focused in spite of the lack of sleep. I reminded God that I would be delivering sermons in sleepless weakness. I may have slept a couple of hours, but I eventually got up, got dressed, drove to church and preached twice – with clarity and focus. During the invitation, people came to the front to pray. More than the normal number of folks made positive comments on the sermon. So what happened between my late night/early morning sleepless prayer and the delivery of the sermons? Oh, that’s the good part of the story. As I often do, I awoke that Sunday morning with a song on my mind. That morning it was the old hymn, “Guide me, O thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land; I am weak, but thou art mighty; hold me with thy powerful hand.” Almost immediately, the verse came to mind from 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Then I went to my computer where a new Scripture verse greets me each morning. The verse for that day was from 1 Samuel 30:6, “David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” Need I say more?

Join with me in remembering the following global concerns this week:
• Pray for new ministry opportunities that are developing in Nicosia, Cyprus.
• Pray for Lance and Carrie as they lead a team of missionaries in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
• Pray for a team of missionaries meeting in Macau on January 24-27.
• Join Canadians on January 29 at 4:00 PM (EDT) to pray for the Military Christian Fellowship of Canada.
• Pray for those who minister to flood victims in Australia, Brazil, and Sri Lanka,

Public Issues and Heart Motivations

Southern Baptist trained, he obviously did not fit in as pastor of a Southern Baptist church, so in 1955 he went independent, maintaining the name “Baptist” since it provided some sense of credibility and acceptance in his conservative city. However, the “church”, consisting of mostly members of the pastor’s large family, is not affiliated with any known Baptist convention or association. Widely described as a hate group the “church” is monitored by various organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League. “Church” members picket multiple locations every day, including some events far away such as funerals of military and high-profile personalities, attributing their deaths to God punishing America for a variety of sins. Their latest protests were at the funerals of Arizona’s mass killings, yielding the protest at the funeral of a nine-year old girl in favor of a television interview. It is this yielding that causes one to wonder if their multiple protests are about public issues or about publicity. We are told that mass murderers often act as they do because it appears to them to be the only way to get attention, to make a name for themselves, to get publicity. See any similarities here? The Bible says of mankind, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). So who are these “church” people? The answer seems obvious. But let us also monitor our own heart motivations, lest we throw unbecoming stones.

Join me in remembering these global concerns this week:
• Pray for Living Hope Baptist Church as they meet next Sunday in their new building and as they try to reach the Zalytina region of Kharkov, Ukraine.
• Pray for the “More Than Gold” meeting on Tuesday as they prepare for the 2012 London Summer Olympics.
• Pray for the church start team in Pitt Meadows (metro Vancouver), British Columbia as they seek a permanent meeting place for Sunday services.
• Pray for Christians who are under persecution in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Dr. Dan describes his newest ministry opportunities in the Rio Grande Valley.


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