Serve by Design

Since my teenage years, I have loved to get up early to see the morning sunrise! It started with those 3:30 am wake up calls by my squirrel hunting neighbor, Jim. He was around my dad’s age and served as a mentoring influence to teach me everything about hunting and gun safety. Jim would lightly tap on my window on Saturday mornings to rouse me. I was a light sleeper and would usually be anticipating the prompt. I would quickly get dressed, grab my rifle, and report to the truck. A Sherman Sunrise! We would go to a nearby 24-hour day restaurant for a bowl of cereal and then get into the timber in time to be set and in place when the squirrels began their early cutting of hickory and walnuts. It was always a treat for me to look out on the horizon and see the daylight peeping through the treelined woods. As the moments of sunrise progressed, the light would form into beautiful and brighter layers of purples, blues, oranges, and yellows until the rays were so brilliant I could not look d...

One of my first articles on this blog site has proven to be one of the most popular. To date, there have been nearly 3,000 pageviews of “Uncle Billy Moments!” It features the absent-minded uncle of George Bailey in the beloved seasonal film favorite, It’s a Wonderful Life . I think the reason we are drawn to Uncle Billy is because he represents the failings of so many of us! We see ourselves in him! When iPhone Meets Car Tires! It's Not Pretty! Well, I had another “Uncle Billy Moment” this past week. I don’t know what it says about me (or maybe, I do!), but it seems I am having these moments more frequently lately. I used to pride myself in being able to multi-task, but the ability to juggle multiple tasks simultaneously is getting harder to achieve with age! Last week was an unusually busy time with a doctor appointment, some Serve by Design consulting, church calls, and visits, preparing for a Sunday small group teaching assignment on top of the regular commitments of blog wri...

Our area has been in a persistent drought for most of the summer and now it is early fall. There are contractors digging up and down our street upgrading the natural gas line infrastructure. They must haul in large containers of water to enable their workers to dig and bore holes. Recently I engaged one of the project team members about how they thought everything was going. He said, “It’s so dry! We are used to finding some moisture at six feet. But it’s like rock and it slows us down!” This very dry season in our weather has many of us identifying with the Texas local who claimed that the four seasons ought to be renamed: drought, flood, blizzard, and twister! 😊 Lake Sallateeska I participated this week with a group of twenty-five pastors and church leaders for fellowship and spiritual refreshment. We met for two days of serious study and considerable “carrying on” at a Southern Illinois encampment that has a comfortable, but humble, motel unit and conference area. This year’s s...

It’s been a long while since I have participated in a revival service, let alone three consecutive nights long! Our Methodist church had such a renewal experience this week. Personally, it was spiritually refreshing. We had altar calls at the end of the services where there was soul searching and confession of sin. There were also prayers of recommitment to Christ, intercession for healing (physically, spiritually, and relationally!), and genuine prayers for revival both in our church and throughout our city, country, and the world. Image: stock.adobe.com On the first night, we heard Bishop Jonathan Franklin, founding pastor of the Mt. Zion Apostolic Church, and president of the Springfield Ministerial Alliance. He brought a stirring message from the Great Commission in Acts 1:8 and Jesus’ teaching to the disciples at the scene of the pagan temple of Pan in Matthew 16:13-19. Bishop Franklin spoke like a prophet when he said, “Our nation needs prayer! We have evicted God from our nation...

The idea of spiritual renewal has been on the minds of many believers in the wake of the recent outbreak of revival on the campus of Asbury University that began February 8th. The Asbury outpouring is still reverberating throughout the community and beyond after two weeks of non-stop prayer meetings that started in an after-chapel prayer service and spontaneously continued on. Photo credit: pixabay.com Driven by social media posts and live streams, estimates are that some 50,000 individuals descended upon the college campus and Willmore, Kentucky, with a population   of only 6,000 residents! Students came from more than 260 colleges and universities to pray alongside those on the Asbury campus. Many of those arriving on the scene were hungry to see what God was doing in that setting and hoping it would be replicated in their lives, churches, and communities. I had "a taste of revival" at the Second Baptist Church of Marion, Illinois in 1972. I was serving on staff as a summ...