The Phil Files

We joke that we have two seasons in West Texas — hot and hotter. In reality, we do have some cold weather in parts of December, January, and February. But we don’t have autumn: we call fall, football season or hunting season. Donna grew up in Ohio with autumn as her favorite season. With the rolling hills and big trees of southern Ohio decked out in a breathtaking array of colors, and the smell and feel of autumn in the air, I can understand why: it is a beauty experienced. However, Donna insists we don’t have autumn in Texas. We accurately call is fall. In her words, “It’s 95 one day, a norther blows through and it’s 25 the next night. On the third day, all the leaves fall off the trees and blow to Mexico.”

Our family, however, is going through a major change of seasons right now. Megan is begins Physical Therapy school. Donna has headed back to teaching for the year. I am geared up for the school year and it’s opportunities at Southern Hills — at church, we describe three seasons of the year (or ministry): Fall Semester, Spring Semester, and Summer Vacation.

But yesterday marked a huge change of seasons for us. Tiny, our miniature dachshund for 12 1/2 years had his back go out this weekend. Megan and I knew before we took him to the vet yesterday what the outcome would be, we just couldn’t talk about it. Tiny has been there for the kids journeys through high school, barking at everything that moved and never slowing down. Until the last two months, he would literally drag us on a two mile walk. It was a hard hour at the vet’s: they were kind, but we still came home without him. Lexi — our little black shy dachshund — looks lost without her guardian and keeper. With a bunch of other pressure, Donna’s start to school and continuing battle with IC, deep concern for a friend who is in the hospital ICU, the AC man stepping through the ceiling in the attic, and now Tiny’s goodbye, it’s been a rugged couple of weeks.

Changes in season are like that sometimes. We often romanticize how the summer slips into Indian summer, and then autumn gently falls upon us. But that’s seldom the way it is. Summer’s green gives way to winter’s chill with withering heat, then thunder, lightning, wind, flash-floods, and cold. We marvel at the flash, we are often humbled by the thunder, and we are rightfully fearful when the showers become torrents. Yet through the pandemonium of it all, we know we will emerge out of it into a new season of shorter days, cooler weather, and the richness of Thanksgiving and the joys of Christmas. So we, those of us in the Warehouse, wait for the flash, rumble, and torrents to pass and trust that somewhere beyond this time lies a great feast and the joy of Jesus.

In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly (Psalm 5:3 tniv).

In the morning, Lord!

So frequently, we act as if the Holy Spirit no longer works across cultural differences or changing times to make the word of God powerful and effective. I came across an image I liked and with a little work, it sure seemed to get the message across that nothing, not even time and culture, can stop the Holy Spirit from using God’s Word to reach people’s hearts. When coupled with 2 Timothy 2:8-9, the graphic seems to communicate powerfully. Let me know what you think!

This image is available in four different background formats in 1024 x 768 for desktop or PowerPoint graphics:

Full | Text | Title | Plain

Several days ago, I sat with a friend who was sick from a powerful chemo cocktail. This was the second round of this person’s battle with cancer. Though a person of strong faith, that faith was a battle every day because of the the physical illness, weakness, and emotional roller coaster caused by the combo of powerful drugs.

Several days after our visit and frank, but tender conversation, I found the image below. I was drawn to it for many reasons. One reasons was because we battled for years to find images of faith that pictured people of color — I have often used this as an example of “institutional racism” that us white folks often don’t notice. This image, however, is a powerful statement of faith, and it caught my eye immediately. A second reason I love the image, is the lighting — if you have ever been in a battle of life and death and experienced the grace of God’s light invading your darkness, you know what I mean. Finally, my meanderings around in the Psalms led me to this powerful verse (Psalm 49:15), which seemed to articulate for me, the prayer and faith hidden in the image:

But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself.

Here is a small version of the image. It doesn’t really do it justice, so I’ve included links to the full sized images that are prepared for Heartlight.org and the free Scripture graphics there.

You can find three versions of this image, Text (pictured above), Title (my personal favorite of the three), and Plain (only the image on a black background, but still very powerful).

You might, at first, think of this as a verse of resignation — giving up and saying, “OK, God, I know I’m going to die, but I trust you will bring me to yourself.” And granted, it can mean this and should offer us comfort. God will not abandon us to the grave. He will bring us to himself. Faith in the face of such things is a powerful and comforting blessing.

But I also think of Hezekiah, who found out he was going to die and then prayed with Isaiah, and God redeemed his life and granted him fifteen more years of life (2 Kings 20:1-6). I am also reminded of my friend, Saundra, whose liver tumors vanished “without explanation” between the time other malignant material was removed from her and her trip to MD Anderson in Houston to one of the few surgeons who could do the surgery she needed at the time. She is still alive today nearly two decades later.

Yes, we are all going to eventually die. But my whole being believes that God does redeem our lives from the power of the grave. He does this sometimes by rescuing us from immediate death and brings us to himself, bringing healing and granting us more years on this earth. He also does this sometimes by rescuing us through death and bringing us to himself to await the glorious day of Jesus’ return. Paul says it well, and I will end today on this note:

Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christi and to die is gain (Philippians 1:18b-21 tniv).

Today, we’re also joining Randy Elrod with Watercooler Wednesday — How to Recycle a Church?

For several days, the weather forecasters had warned that last night could be a rough one. It seemed fitting that this might be true, since our family’s had a bit of a rough road with medical issues for the last several weeks. Yet last night passed without the typical spring thunderstorm fury we’ve come to expect out here in west Texas. The morning broke bright and clear with a touch of cool in the air and sun streaming down. What a beautiful morning!

As I worked on images and meandered around some Bible verses for my own quiet time this morning, the Lord led me to this verse from Psalm 143:8. It seemed appropriate and it fit an image I was working with for Heartlight graphics:

Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.

The image below is much small version of the image I posted to Heartlight’s PowerPoint background Scripture graphics (you can use the search feature to look through thousands of images that can be used in worship or as your computer wallpaper.) This small image gives you the idea, but I hope you can make the prayer your own whether the image interests you or not. Blessings for the weekend and for seeing the way the Lord wants you to go!

You can find three versions of this image, Title (picture above), Text (with the Scripture), and Plain (only the image).

The wise one said it powerfully and clearly:

Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God (Proverbs 14:31 TNIV).

A photo from a recent trip to Africa called to mind this passage. The color, shadowing, and sunlight called me to this message. But this image is more than that for me. I can still remember the smell of that moment … the smell of the fish being cleaned about fifteen feet to the left of this picture, the smell of the morning cooking smoke still hanging in the air, the smell of human waste barely detectable in the breeze, and the aroma of baby spit up smelling like moldy soy. I also remember the emotional smells: a faint aroma of hope celebrating the intervention of Compassion into the lives of a twenty-two year old married HIV positive woman of with two young children and the clean, prepared, and loving tenderness of the project worker who shared scripture and love, as well as her expertise on health and nutrition, with this family a world away from where I live.

Now if I can just live to honor God in this … I so want to be a person of honor, who honors, the LORD who has been so gracious with me, by being a real, tangible, fragrantly pleasing aroma of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:15). To bet a part of culture change, as Randy’s Watercooler Wednesday suggests, I’ve got to keep all the odors as images in my heart and then act personally.

While I like the Scripture graphic (aka PowerPoint background) with the text, of the three related images, I like the one without any text or title most of all. All three — the Bible text, the title, and the plain image — can be downloaded free from Heartlight.org. Check on the latest images, or use the search for color, Bible reference, or key theme. Here’s a small version of the real image:

 

Whew! What a rough, but incredible several weeks we’ve had at Southern Hills! We’ve had four funerals, several weddings, and the “normal” range of church stuff.

This past Sunday was especially challenging and powerful. Chad Higgins came in to lead worship and did a great job helping us design a service that gave us the full range of emotions in song and Scripture we needed to address our broken hearts and our steadfast faith. Chad interned at Southern Hills a number of years ago. We’re proud to have contributed a little bit to what God has done through Chad. His use of Scripture, his care in selecting and leading songs, and the Spirit’s work through him helped make this a powerful day.

The sermon focus, determined months ago, was rooted in Romans 8:18 and entitled, “Hope Beyond Heartbreaks!” Little did we know that we would need this message so much.

With a number of our key people gone, we had no backup for signing with our deaf ministry. So, to Chad’s right as he led worship and to my right as I preached on this topic, was Kathy, our key person who in the deaf ministry. Her husband unexpectedly passed away in the middle of a meeting of key bankers in town. He left behind a loving wife, two sons in their twenties with special challenges, a cadre of banking executives who deeply respected him, and two church families that deeply admired him. This was more than a shock, it was a lifequake. How Kathy could play such a key role, digesting every nuance of the service to communicate it with those who couldn’t hear without her signing, was an amazing blessing to so many of us. This was a Sunday morning I will never forget.

As part of my sermon, I shared the following image that I used trying to communicate the promises of Isaiah 26:7-8 and Revelation 7:16-17. This is the small version of the image, but if you click on it, you can see the larger background image for PowerPoint, your computer wallpaper, or just for your blessing. I hope it speaks to you as it did to me. (There are also two other related images you can find in the Heartlight PowerPoint backgrounds section using the search feature for Revelation 7!)

If you have favorite passages that speak to your heart in times of grief, I’d sure love to know what they are!