HWC Prayer Room

Giving Love Away

Pastor Wes — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:39:49 +0000

On Sunday morning, March 14, I shared a story with our children in the 8:20 and 11:00 services. Some of you didn’t hear it; others of you might be interested in hearing it again. It is my version of Claude Steiner’s The Original Warm Fuzzy Tale.

Once upon a time, a long time ago, there were a group of very happy people. In those days everyone was given at birth a small, soft Fuzzy Bag full of little things called Warm Fuzzies.

When someone was feeling sad the gift of a Warm Fuzzy made them feel warm and fuzzy all over. When someone was feeling lonely the gift of a Warm Fuzzy made them feel loved. When someone was hurt and sick the gift of a Warm Fuzzy helped them feel so much better. But people gave Warm Fuzzies without reason as well because they loved making other people feel better. Receiving a Warm Fuzzy felt so good; giving a Warm Fuzzy felt good, too. They loved to give away Warm Fuzzies and there were always plenty to go around.

But one day, one of the men started to wonder what it would be like if they ran out of Warm Fuzzies. It scared him and made him feel a little jealous when he saw his family and friends giving away Warm Fuzzies to others; what if there weren’t any left for him? He stopped giving his Warm Fuzzies away; he never let them out of his little bag. When people asked him why he wasn’t giving away Warm Fuzzies he told them that he was afraid they would run out. That scared them, so some of them stopped giving them away. It wasn’t long before no one was giving Warm Fuzzies anymore. They were afraid, so they kept them all for themselves.

They didn’t realize that Warm Fuzzies have no other purpose than to be given away. When they sit in the little bag too long, they lose all of their warmth and fuzziness and turn into Cold Pricklies. Cold Pricklies sting you. Cold Pricklies hurt. Nobody wants Cold Pricklies. But trapped in the little bag, Warm Fuzzies turned into Cold Pricklies. It was very sad and very painful.

Then, one day a stranger came to town. He had a Warm Fuzzy bag just like all the townspeople, but he wasn’t keeping his Warm Fuzzies; he was giving them to anyone and everyone. He knew what they had forgotten: the more you give, the more you get and the more you give the better you feel. It wasn’t long before the people who had received Warm Fuzzies from the stranger were giving them away once again…and the people were happy once more.

That Sunday morning I gave the children little pom-poms and asked them to distribute these to people in the church. I in turn asked the people who received one to give it to someone else, either that day or soon after. I asked those people who received them to give them away as well. I have heard some amazing stories of warm fuzzies traveling all around!

You might not have a warm fuzzy, but you can give them anyway. A kind word is a warm fuzzy. An expression of appreciation is a warm fuzzy. A hug in a difficult time is a warm fuzzy. A gentle touch of the hand is a warm fuzzy.

I a number of stories have come back to me of people giving the warm fuzzies around Houghton and Fillmore. People have been deeply touched by this small act of love. We are called to love as Christ loves. How might you simply and openly share the love of Christ with others today?

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Wesley Oden

Senior Pastor

Houghton WesleyanChurch

9712 Route 19

Houghton, NY14744

585/567-2264

Loving Prayer for Our Church

Pastor Wes — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:59:24 +0000

In a 2005 Christianity Today article, “The Church—Why Bother?” Tim Stafford tells of Cyprian, a third-century, North African bishop, who wrote about a doctrinally orthodox but schismatic bishop named Novatian. "We are not interested in what he teaches, since he teaches outside the Church. Whatever and whatsoever kind of man he is, he is not a Christian who is not in Christ’s Church …. He cannot have God for his Father who has not the Church for his mother." Cyprian’s view-summed up in the slogan "No salvation outside the church"-gathered strength in subsequent centuries as the church countered heresies and divisions. It became the universal standard. You were either inside the Catholic Church, Christ’s body-or outside of Christ.”

He goes on to write: “Luther never intended to move that center of gravity. He wanted to purify the church, not defy its authority. Nevertheless, his protests led to schism. Lutheranism was followed by Calvinism, and Anabaptists were not far behind. Methodists and Baptists appeared. Once people started judging for themselves, it was hard to put an end to it. The next thing you know we had 20,000 denominations worldwide—and counting.”

I am convinced that at the heart of this mindset of division is not just attempts to maintain what we believe are theological purity, but our unwillingness to believe Jesus’ command to love each other. Remember that Jesus tells His disciples that the world will know that they belong to Him if they love each other as He loves them (John 13:35). We tend to think that people will know we’re His disciples if we hold to what we consider the truth or if we all agree on the subtlest points of theology or if our worship services are exciting. But despite the importance of these faith elements for our lives, Jesus says that it’s our love for one another that causes people to conclude that we are His.

So, how do we love other Christians the way Christ loves us? Can we find any clearer description than that which Paul writes in the second chapter of his letter to the Philippians?

In your relationships with one another, have the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had:

Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a human being,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross! (2:5-8, TNIV)

Risk, sacrifice, surrender are essential. But Jesus’ love is not sentimental mush; Jesus also confronts people who are moving down a path of destruction…but always because He loves them, not because they don’t agree with Him. Every thought, action, and reaction of Jesus’ life is love. I encourage you to commit with me to pray that God will fill us with this same love.

Loving Our Family

Pastor Wes — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:38:41 +0000

God establishes family for a variety of reasons. Family helps us understand God on a more emotive level. Family provides us with people to love and by whom we are loved. Family gives us a bond to people even if we feel no bond to anyone else. Family provides us with a built-in means of learning how to live like Christ.

I realize that family means something different to each of us. For some of us, family is just you. For some of us, family is husband and wife. For some, children are involved. Sometimes family is created by connecting people who are no longer part of a different family. For some of us, family is not about people to whom we are connected by DNA but people who love us and care for us and make us feel loved and accepted. For some of us, family is a source of joy; for others, family is a source of deep pain and anguish. The one common thread in all of our families, no matter what it looks like and no matter how we feel about it, the one common thread in all of our families is that we all have problems, we all have struggles, we all go through hard times, because none of us are perfect. It’s in the context of our family struggles that God can teach us much about living a life that looks like Christ.

It’s in the context of family that we are continually challenged to react with patience rather than impatience, with grace rather than retribution, with forgiveness rather than revenge, with compassion rather than gloating, with gentleness rather than harshness, with love rather than indifference. It’s in the context of family that we are continually challenged to treat one another the way Christ treats us—submission, sacrifice, respect, honor, obedience, kindness. Paul challenges the Philippians about their behavior toward one another with these words:

In your relationships with one another, have the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had:

Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a human being,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross! (2:5-8, TNIV)

Wouldn’t this admonition be most imperative for our closest relationships?

So, instead of arguing about who’s in charge or in control or possesses the power or maintains the strength, let’s approach our family—whatever that may be—the way Christ approaches us: by putting aside the power that may be rightly His and giving ourselves completely to one another. This mindset will reap benefits of joy and blessing beyond anything we can now imagine.

God Believes In You

Pastor Wes — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:47:31 +0000

Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel, “The Count of Monte Cristo,” which was made into a major motion picture in 2002, tells the story of Desmond Dantes who is unjustly arrested, beaten and imprisoned in a dungeon-like edifice for life. Eventually, Dantes encounters a priest who has also been imprisoned and together they begin digging a tunnel to freedom. One day, the priest is digging in the tunnel when he calls excitedly for Edmund. Edmund crawls to him and the priest shows him a long root hanging from the ceiling of tunnel, which tells them that they are getting quite close to breaking through. The priest estimates that they are perhaps only a few months from reaching their goal. Their excitement is short-lived. Seconds later, there is a cave in and the priest, who has become Dantes mentor and friend, is gravely injured.

Edmund pulls the priest back into the cell. The old priest, realizing that he is dying, tells Dantes the location of a great buried treasure and he tells Dantes that when he escapes to use it for good. But Dantes, who is so bitter for what has happened to him, says, “No. I will surely use it for my revenge.”

The priest whispers, “Do not commit the crime for which God has said, ‘Vengeance is mine.’”

Dantes says, “I don’t believe in God”

Then, with his dying breath, the priest answers, “It doesn’t matter. God believes in you.”

I believe that this truth is at the heart of who God is and of our ability to truly surrender ourselves to God.

When we sin, we feel shame and think that God will no longer accept us. The enemy of our souls attempts to convince us that we are unlovable and that God is too holy to forgive us much less want to be near us. But this simply proves that the evil one is the father of lies.

The story of The Prodigal Son is Jesus’ means of telling us that God seeks us and wants to be near us—even when we reject him—because God loves us. The Christ Event—Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension, Second Coming—are God’s ultimate declaration of His love. There is nothing God is unwilling to do that is best for us. We may not understand that what is happening is best, but we can be sure that God is always acting in love and therefore, in our best interest…no matter what we have done or have not done.

Our behavior cannot affect God’s love for us. Our behavior might bring punishment from God. Our behavior might bring reprimand from God. Our behavior might bring consequences upon us. But our behavior cannot change God’s love for us. If our behavior could change God’s love for us, then we are in control of God, and we know that this is simply not true.

The Scriptures confront us with two vital questions: Do you believe in God? Do you believe that God believes in you? Your life of prayer hinges on your answer to both.

Prayer and Work

Pastor Wes — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:31:36 +0000

In his insightful book, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, Richard Foster writes about prayer in action. He says that many today see their vocation as a hindrance to prayer, as something that gets in the way of our prayers. But Foster says that our vocation is an asset to prayer because our work becomes prayer. Our work becomes prayer in action when we offer our work up to God. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.”

Foster then tells of helping to build the first high school above the Arctic Circle. It was backbreaking labor, particularly the task he had been assigned: digging a trench for a sewer line in a world of frozen tundra. An Eskimo man whose face and hands displayed the leathery toughness of many winters came by and watched him for a while. Finally he said simply and profoundly, “You are digging a ditch to the glory of God.” It was an unforgettable word of encouragement. Foster remarks, “Beyond my Eskimo friend no human being ever knew or cared whether I dug that ditch well or poorly. In time it was to be covered up and forgotten. But because of my friend’s words, I dug with all my might, for every shovelful of dirt was a prayer to God. Even though I did not know it at the time, I was attempting in my small and unsophisticated way to do what the great artisans in the Middle Ages did when they carved the backside of a piece of art, knowing that God alone would see it.

Anthony Bloom writes, “A prayer makes sense only if it is lived. Unless they are ‘lived,’ unless life and prayer become completely interwoven, prayers become a sort of polite madrigal which you offer to God at moments when you are giving time to Him.” And Foster adds, “We glory God in our labor because we most closely approximate the Creator when we engage in the creative activity of work.”

Our prayer vigil is an opportunity to make our work and activity a part of our prayers. As we pray, we sense God leading us to take our prayers and turn them into action. As you engage yourself in the prayer vigil, ask God to show you ways in which your prayers make come alive in your work, in your relationships, in your leisure, in your life.

Prayer Vigil Preparation

Pastor Wes — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:37:06 +0000

Our Lenten prayer vigil is less than 10 days from beginning. After such amazing success with the first vigil, I am excited to see what God is going to do for us this time. I believe that these 46 days has the potential to blow the lid off of our church in ways that we simply cannot imagine right now.

But I have to admit that I am also a bit nervous: I’m wondering if we can regain the momentum that we built last fall. I worry that I haven’t prepared us enough. I’m concerned that I don’t assume that everyone is now on board whereas last time I felt the need to get everyone on board. I’m uncertain as to the amount of interest that is now being generated in our congregation for this prayer event.

Will you pray with me that God will set us afire once again to pray and that out of our prayers will come a spirit of love that will lead to acts of love? I am convinced that this is life-changing stuff that we are handling.

Listening Prayer Resources

Pastor Wes — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:05:35 +0000

I mentioned last Sunday that I would post some resources about listening prayer. Here are some books with specific chapters highlighted. I recommend each of these books as a tool to enhance your prayer life. Some of them are very practical; others are more devotional. Some talk about prayers that are common to us; others take us in directions that we might have experienced before. All of them are written by godly people who are committed to learning how to pray and have given themselves to learn. I commend them to you. I have noted the chapter or chapters that are especially connected to Heartbeat or Listening Prayer.

Marshall, Catherine, Adventures in Prayer (Chapter 4)

Foster, Richard, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home (Chapters 12, 13, 14)

Woodley, Matt, The Folly of Prayer: Practicing the Presence and Absence of God (Chapter 10)

Koenig, John, Rediscovering New Testament Prayer (Chapter 6)

Speaking Well of Grace

Pastor Wes — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:45:38 +0000

In the words of John Koenig, thanksgiving is ‘speaking well of grace.’ Are we taking time today to think about all the ways in which God is gracious to us, from being alive to being able to think and do? The busyness of life blinds us to the millions of ways in which God is gracious to us. If we don’t look for them we will miss them and in missing them we miss the joy of knowing God’s love to us.

Thankful people are free; unthankful people are miserable. Thankful people realize that everything is from God who loves to give good gifts to His children; unthankful people believe that everything comes to them because they have earned it and the only way to keep it is to hoard, grasp, clutch it. Ingratitude breeds stinginess; stinginess breeds ingratitude: it’s a vicious cycle spiraling downward to a miserable life.

I’m asking God to open my eyes to his acts of grace—in the extraordinary things, but even more in the ordinary things that I have a tendency to take for granted. Will you look for those things in your day so that you and I can live our lives speaking well of God’s grace?

Pray for Haiti

Pastor Wes — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:56:06 +0000

The headlines today from Haiti this morning: “Most of Port-au-Prince is destroyed.” “Haiti’s national palace ruined.” “U.N. peacekeeper compound destroyed.” “There was no place to hide.” “‘Flimsy houses’ no match for quake.” According to CNN, the quake, which happened shortly before 5 p.m., was followed by at least 18 aftershocks, averaging a magnitude of 5.0, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The devastation is difficult to comprehend. We do not know how many have died nor how many are seriously injured. But we do know that the city is in chaos and that fear is griping the nation. We need to pray for the people, the leaders, the relief workers, the nation at this terrible time.

But there is another headline, carried by CNN: “Prayers, songs rise from rubble.” The manager of the Oloffson Hotel in Port-au-Prince said that almost four hours after the initial quake he could hear people gathered in the distance singing prayers.

This desperately poor nation has a strong Christian influence. The church in Haiti is now being challenged as never before to be a beacon of light at a dark time. We need to pray for them and we need to help them. I encourage you to contact the relief or mission agency known to you: give what you can and pray for God’s help, for strength for the people and workers and for this to be a time when God’s presence is revealed to the needy people of Haiti.

Praying for Our Leaders

Pastor Wes — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:35:12 +0000

I have been appalled at the way in which many Christians are speaking of our president. It’s much the same language as I heard from Christians on “the other side” about President Bush. I recognize that we have the “right” to speak openly about our leaders; my concern is that we are not doing so in the spirit of Christ. We have the right as Americans to do many things, but as Christians we give up rights to do what we want in order to do what Christ would want.

We may disagree with our president, members of congress or any other leaders in our nation, but as Christians how we disagree is what sets us apart from all others who have something to say about our leaders. Without Christlike language and behavior, the rest of the world simply sees us as another PAC not as people of God who are trying to change the world for Christ.

We have been engaged in an extended time of prayer; we are beginning preparations for another extended time of prayer. As we begin this new year, whatever opinion we may have of President Obama or others in leadership, let’s commit ourselves to pray for them—for God to bless them and their families, for them to be open to God’s Spirit, for them to experience anew the love of God in their lives, for them to be willing to let God use them in the most profound ways for the good of the people of this nation and of this world. May God be glorified by our gracious support and by our gracious opposition.