Dr. Jay's Blog

This past week-end, I preached for the first time in six weeks. It was longest I
had gone between teaching opportunities in many years; in part because of our 'teaching team' approach to bringing God's Word, and in part because of travel.


The 'unexpected surprise' to me was not that I felt any loss in passion or clarity from the Spirit, (I didn't!); but that I did lose a bit of the discipline of bringing the Word in a timely fashion. 
Said plainly, I just rambled too much!  Let me be clear: I don't think there is any 'magic number' in terms of how long a message should be. Just about a month ago, I heard Pastor Rick Warren give a 'normal' Sunday message that was 55 minutes long. Other equally gifted guys can limit themselves to 25 minutes and be very effective.
In some traditions, the sermon is the central item in the worship service and is always an hour or more. In other, normally newer churches, it is always much shorter; believing that 'unchurched' folks have a 20 minute attention span because of television viewing.


What mattered to me was that, in reviewing the message, I had diluted the key points by adding to much unnecessary commentary. Fortunately, I had an opportunity to edit the message on Sunday morning, cutting the unimportant but not losing any of the essence of the text in Nehemiah 7-8. (How I thanked
God for another chance..!)


When it comes to sharing God's Word, 'less is more' most of the time; as long as you know you have brought the core truth in understandable terms. As for me, I'm going to work at 'keeping the rust' off; cherishing every opportunity to
preach/teach for the gift that it is..


If you care to see the 'reviewed version'; go www.northway.org and follow the prompts to 'watch the message'. How blessed we are!


Pastor Jay

After having shared a rather meaningful insight in to "truth" yesterday, I almost want to apologize for this; but life is full of balance, right?! 
This evening, not only do we have the Wexford Starlight Car Cruise, the largest
weekly Cruise in America, but we also have our third annual "Hot Dog Eating Contest" featuring Johnnie's Dogs. We had about 20 contestants last year; and even more expected tonight.
  It's rather hilarious to see folks 'eat themselves silly'; but it's for a good cause; the North Way Counseling Center, and it really is fun for the whole family. So, hope you can find your way to Wexford tonight: Cruise begins at
5:30 (well, people start coming at noon) and contest is around 7:00.. go
here to check it out:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmWM93NLQ7k


 Blessings!
    Jay
  

In my preparations for this weekend's message in Nehemiah I was struck by this quote from A.W. Tozer, well known preacher from early in the 20th century.  He wrote, "Truth is a glorious but hard mistress.  She never consults, bargains, or compromises."

In my conversations with different people over the past several months I have encountered just how much bright people resist the idea of absolute truth.  Everyone wants to be "tolerant" of other perspectives and the idea that there is an absolute truth and that it might be revealed to us in the person of Jesus is difficult for them to accept, if not offensive.

However, the application of this goes far beyond my perception of other people.  It also goes into the root of my own lifestyle choices, the way I spend my time, money and other resources.  It affects who I speak to, what I watch and read, and even how I think about the future.

The fact that God's Word is truth, means that it is pervasive in every area of my life and something to which I must have the courage to hold my life up to in order to see how closely I am walking in alignment with God's will and purpose.

On the other hand, God Himself is gracious and forgiving and when I do fail to walk in the light of the truth, He doesn't hold it over my head as a hammer, He lovingly forgives and restores me in a relationship of unmerited favor and blessing.

I wonder how many times I have selectively taken truth out of particular situations or decisions because I may not have wanted to know it.  In the end, it's the only way to build a life on a sure foundation that can't be moved.

Blessings,
Dr. Jay

  The past two weeks have been a bit frustrating for me as my normally reliable
laptop computer has suffered a complete meltdown. This took place just prior to my leaving for a week-long trip which gave me no opportunity to have the problem addressed.
    What I've been reminded of is that quite a number of you have been kind enough to express a desire for me to be more frequent in my efforts to communicate; and I purpose to do so, just as soon as the new equipment arrives (tomorrow!).
    Speaking of communication, though one might not think of Tim Tebow as
 the NFL's greatest QB, there's little doubt that few, if any athletes have done
a better job using their 'celebrity' as a platform to share their faith and values.
Please check out this story about Tim's Father's Day gathering where 26,000
folks showed up in San Diego (not Florida, or New York, or Denver) to hear
him share!


   http://www.christianpost.com/news/26000-people-flock-to-hear-tim-tebow-speak-about-his-dad-76809/
   
   Each of us have a platform to share what God is doing in our lives; whether
 huge or just very personal. I recently had one friend who said that he just
 started 'listening' to others rather than talking all the time, which has opened
 up a world of opportunity.
    
   So.. communicate friends! Share the grace and love of God, His work in your life, and His love for others every way you can. You'll be amazed at how much of a difference you can make!


    Blessings!
      Jay

Over the weekend, I went with our family to my 7 year old grandson's "Little League" baseball game which happened to be during a very warm and rather oppressive late day time slot.  By the end of the game, as we were walking back to the cars, a piercing outburst began to take place between a couple of the "coaches" (read fathers of the kids) who were clearly and rather violently upset about some sort of philosophical perspective about how the game was being played.  This was no minor disagreement but literally was coming to physical blows before others broke up the two dads and pushed them away from each other.

I had to chuckle because that same passion has been around sports all of my life and continues to seem to be impossible to "control" even with 7 year olds all around.

This reminds me of the fact that "sin is always crouching at our door" as the scripture says and even in circumstances where we think we should easily be under control, we're not.  We need to be fully yielded to who Jesus wants to be in our lives so that such situations just don't happen.  In today's reading in Oswald Chambers "My Utmost For His Highest," he talks about getting beyond "self-interest" and to the place where pride, self-sufficiency and self-interest have been completely erased.

I know I am nowhere near that place in my life, but watching these two grown men scream at each other reminded me of just how quickly life can get ugly when we chose to hold on to our "self-interest" and not look out for the interest of others.

In the end, the only answer to such pride is surrender to Christ and His plan and purpose in our life.  As we all know, this is a daily discipline, not a once only act, and the powerful internal drive to protect self-interest reminds us of that nearly every day.

The good news is that Jesus invites us to "come and see" how He does it every single day. John 1:38-39.

Blessings!
Pastor Jay

P.S.  Watch out for those Little League games. . . they can be lethal!

  Not many folks take the time to seriously consider how they will 'leave their
 financial legacy' to their families and those that they care about. It's not an easy
 topic to broach, so we opt to ignore and let the government sort it out in the end. 
    What's very unfortunate about that is that the law favors the government and
 so resources that could have gone "tax-free" to any ministry, charity or organization that shares your values; gets taxed and diminished significantly.
    Just yesterday, we were blessed to have the CEO of Hefron-Tillotson, a major player
  in personal financial planning in our area, give a clear, detailed and personal
 presentation on this topic.
    What became clear to me is that most people take the path of 'least
 resistance' and leave their estates; small and large to their families. This
 seems to be the right thing to do except when you consider the potential
 consequences of taxation.
     All resources given to any ministry or charity are 'tax-free'; and not
  subject to any 'inheritance' or 'death' taxes. If you want to bless a ministry
 that has blessed you or advanced a mission that you care about, then 
 why not designate something of your estate to them before you go?
     In fact, our guest encouraged the practice of 'giving with a warm hand'
 meaning "why not give of your resources while you are still alive to see the
 blessing you have been".  I wonder how much of a cumulative difference
 we would make if a great majority of us decided to do so!
     Not long ago, a very wealthy Pittsburgh industrialist gave about $350 
  MILLION dollars to two Universities in our city; Pitt and Carnegie Mellon.
 It was with a little fanfare, but certainly not close to what could have been
 made of such a huge personal gift. About a month later, this individual
 died rather suddenly. 
   I, for one, was glad to see the photograph of this generous man smiling
 before a crowd of appreciative students and faculty. He had given with a
 "warm hand", probably not knowing that within weeks he would no longer
  have that ability.
     May we all plan NOW for what we want to see at that time when our
  journey on this earth comes to an end. Even better, why not DO something
  while you can still experience the blessing!
    
      

  When something seems to be working, we should stick with it unless or
 until God gives a new direction. It seems that in our "information saturated"
 culture, many Churches and ministries are jumping around from one 'new
 thing' to the next even though what they have been doing for quite a while
 has been fruitful and blessed.
    I'm not making a case for never changing our 'packaging' or even some of
 of our strategies; but in the fundamentals of our DNA (or Totems as defined
 by my friend Robert Lewis in his book "Culture Shift") hold the line!


    I recently visited Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA, a place I've been
  to many times in the past; but not in last few years. There are a number of
 'packaging' changes; minor tweaks in how things are done, but fundamentally
  Rick Warren and his team just keep doing what has worked for the past 32 
  years. 
    Saddleback has gone 'multi-site' instead of building a huge auditorium
  on its Lake Forest campus, but the worship, teaching, and core values have
  not changed much at all. There are more 'hip' places all around in SoCal,
  but  I doubt that there are many that are more fruitful.


    The same could be said for our personal devotional life, our way of serving
   the Lord, where we are committed to a mission and so on. Faithfulness 
  over the long pull is the key to abiding fruit in ministry, in a Church, and 
  most important, in a life..


    Blessings!
      Jay

I just got off the phone this morning having had a very encouraging conversation with Emmanuel Pothen of "Influence International."

Emmanuel is the 24 yr. old son of Abraham and Molly Pothen whom we "adopted" as our national missionaries to India about 28 years ago!

Emmanuel and his wife Allison took a team from our Oakland campus to the nation of India and walked with them into the various villages, cities and particularly the compound where they minister to orphaned children and people in need.

Emmanuel was sharing how encouraged the team was by their experience and how affected they were by the magnitude of the challenge that we face in meeting human need around the world.

It's a wonderful gift to have someone of the spiritual capacity and intellect of Emmanuel Pothen and his father Abraham (who has his PhD from Fuller Seminary) on the ground representing the gospel on a day to day basis. 

It's the support of people at North Way and just a handful of others that have made this ministry an amazing and effective presence in the nation.  As we speak, over 40,000 people belong to churches that have been planted by the Bible school established by Abraham and Molly Pothen (which I personally visited some years ago) and the ongoing work of meeting the basic human needs of food, shelter and clothing of so many people.

We are talking in these days, at North Way, about social justice, but this is a different level of "justice."  This is survival at a human level and eternal destiny at a sovereign level. 

We are indeed privileged to be part of such things which are too grand for us to fully understand, but essential for us to pursue if we are to fulfill The Great Commission.

Please learn more by going to http://www.influenceinternational.net/ or reply to this posting and include your email (which will not be posted) and I will see that you connect with Emmanuel and his team.  (I applaud the people from Oakland who made the investment to take such an exhausting trip, but their lives will be changed and therefore so will ours!)

Blessings,
Dr. Jay