A long, wonderful summer is winding down, and it's "Back To School" time. Children everywhere are looking ahead to a new year. There is so much promise in a pack of unsharpened pencils, pages and pages of unused paper, and or course the look and feel and even the smell of new box of crayons. There is the uncertainty of who will be in what class. Will the new teacher be kind or mean? And, of course, which backpack will be chosen to carry all the new supplies.

As your Director of Christian Education, I have had the opportunity to be a part of the excitement of the backpack choosing. Our deacons have obtained a number of backpacks, our congregation has filled them with wonderful new school supplies, and I have had the joy of seeing the sheer delight of the children who choose one. And we have as a church been blessed in the process.

Children of all ages need our love and support as they head back to school. Isabelle starts to kindergarten. Hayley will begin middle school. Saralyn is now a college student. And Mike begins graduate school.

My nephew Sean is now in middle school. A teacher told his class to fill a small bag with things that represent their summer. Sean's first thought was to put a Bible in his bag since summer was a time of spiritual growth for him. But he is aware that others might make fun of him. He saw another student with a Bible at school and saw that child ridiculed. So along with other preparations for we school year, we need to pray for our students. Many prayer groups have formed around the country for the express purpose of praying for students and their teachers. We can't go to school with them, but God can and does! Happy new school year!

This is the time of year when we are all invited to attend graduations. We even had one in our family this year as our son-in-law Steve graduated with an MBA from Brandeis. It was a very special day because his parents who are missionaries in Africa were able to attend. But overall, graduations are not usually too much fun or too interesting. Often they are long, and we soon forget what the speakers say. We go because we care about the graduates and want to show our support for the effort and hard work that they have put into their program of studies.

However, on May 21st we went to a different type of graduation. Eugene graduated from a Salvation Army program in Cambridge, MA. He had moved through the phases of the program and had completed the final phase. His success in the program was an answer to prayers for him over a number of years.

I first heard about Eugene shortly after we came to First Baptist Arlington. At that time, we had a Tuesday night Bible study, and Bill often requested that we pray for his brother Eugene. The family did not know where Eugene was. In fact, they had not heard from him in years. But we faithfully prayed. Some time later, Eugene contacted his family and began to rebuild relationships. Then, unexpectedly Eugene had a stroke and needed help. Bill brought him to MA and helped him get medical help. During that time, Eugene took the Alpha course with us. I was sitting in class one night, looked over at Eugene, and realized that I was seeing the answer to our prayers; and I hadn't even realized it.

I think that there is a real lesson for us all in this story. First, we should pray and seek God's help with problems that we don't know how to solve. We need to trust God to care about those we are concerned with and to work in their lives in ways that we never dreamed possible. Finally we need to recognize what God in doing in answer to our prayers and to praise Him for loving us enough to answer our prayers.

As our Youth/Children’s Sunday approaches, I find myself thinking about all the things we learn from our children. First, when they are infants we learn how utterly dependent they are on us. We provide all the basic things that a baby needs – food, clothing, shelter, and love. At the beginning, they are incapable of providing anything for themselves. They have to TRUST us for their basic needs. In a similar way we have to learn to trust God for our basic needs. We see this in the prayer that Jesus taught us when we say, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Nothing that we can accumulate in this world is guaranteed to always be there for us. Money, jobs, houses all can be lost. Only those things that God provides are truly secure.

My youngest granddaughter Lily is beginning to walk. How precious it is to watch her first steps. She wants to keep up with her older sisters. She wants to walk, but at this stage of her live she keeps falling. As we grow in our spiritual lives we must learn a different type of walking. The closer we walk with the Lord, the less we fall and the stronger we become. If Lily is near someone who can hold her hand and help her walk, she is more secure. If we WALK with our Lord and follow his ways, we too can walk more securely.

My oldest granddaughter Isabelle was baptized last Sunday. By this act she made a COMMITMENT to identify herself as a Christian. She is very young, but I believe that to the best of her ability to understand, she followed Jesus’ teaching. Her mother and father have taught her about the things of God. Many of us were taught, too, as children and young people to FOLLOW JESUS. That commitment was not just for childhood but is for our whole lives.

So it is our joy and responsibility to teach our children, but we do also learn much from them. And in doing so we can glimpse the depth of love that God our Father has for us as his children.

There are things in our past that sometimes continue to cause us problems. The pain of losing those near and dear to us often lingers and emerges in our present to cause pain. The anniversary of a death or even a special time sadden us. But there are also wonderful memories of the past and joy from previous times. We have a rich heritage of family and faith to enjoy remember. Most of all we remember that God loved us so much that at a specific time and place in history he revealed himself through his son Jesus. We also have his written word in many translations easily available. Check out biblegateway.com to compare the wording of scripture passages.

We live now in the present. Today there are red and yellow tulips blooming in my yard. I saw the dogwood trees and forsythia blooming as I drove to church. I can only enjoy it today. Next week or so I can enjoy the green leaves that will follow. The past certainly affects my present, but today I have unique opportunities. I will strive to "seize the day" and appreciate it as a gift from God.

The future lies ahead. At times it seems very scary. When I glanced at the gas stations I also passed this morning, I was amazed at the high gas prices. Who knows how how high they will go and what affect they will have on our everyday lives. There are many things that concern us about the future. But those of us who follow Christ also know that he will be with us through all the difficult things that lie ahead. We can also trust him to provide much joy and blessing.

Christ's assurance of being with us always sustains us whether we are thinking about the past, dealing with the present, or planning for the future.

The time is approaching (April 21st) when runners will line up in Hopkinton for the 2008 Boston Marathon. I can imagine the excitement in the air - the eager expectations of the runners who have trained for months to make it to the finish line in downtown Boston. I can see in my mind's eye the bright colors of the runners as they stretch and warm up for the grueling miles ahead. The task is clear before them. They are ready to run the race. If it is raining, it makes no difference. If it is cold or hot, it makes no difference. The course is set before them them, and the race will go on.

It is interesting that the Bible several times
compares the Christian life to a race. The apostle Paul says, "I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I my finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace." (Acts 9:24) Later, he returns to the theme of the race. "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever." (1 Corinthians 9:24)

Runners for the marathon have a strict schedule of training. Much of it takes place in the cold, dark hours of winter. The runners in my family have put in many hours of training while most of us were warm and snug in our beds. But it was worth the price to them for the possibility of running the race.

As Christians we must also train to live as Christ has commanded us. We must study his word and seek his guidance. We must listen to the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit as he directs our lives. We must be obedient to a lifestyle that prepares us for the spiritual race ahead. Then at then end of our lives we can join with Paul who says. "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day - and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing." (2 Timothy 4:7,8) In these two verses Paul looks back over 30 years of labor as an apostle and compares his life to that of an athlete who has engaged successfully in a contest.

Happy runnning!

Lent is a the season of time to prepare for Easter. Growing up in a Southern Baptist Church, I don't remember there being any focus on Lent. When I went to New Orleans to teach school, I learned that Lent followed Mardi Gras. In fact, Mardi Gras was a wild celebration that happened before Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the somber time leading up to Good Friday. The people of New Orleans partied first and then focused on the serious business of Christ's journey to the cross.

We are in the middle of a series of Wednesday night Lenten services here at First Baptist. We meet in the small chapel in the east wing of the church. We sing hymns and listen to a speaker talk about Jesus' life and ministry. Then we reflect on what is said and discuss it. We ponder how to apply Christ's teachings to our own lives. It is a special time for those of us who attend.

Perhaps one of the hardest parts of Lent is preparing our own heart to remember Christ's death on the cross for our sins. It calls for us to repent of our sins. We don't like to think about that. At our first service, Pastor Jon talked about how hard the concept of repentance is for us. He said that when we are feeling good and happy and strong, we don't want to focus on those things that we have done that are wrong. We see ourselves as pretty good people. We like being "up" and don't want to admit that we have sinned before a righteous God.

On the other hand, when we are feeling "down" we don't like to think that our own sinfulness is what made it necessary for Christ to have to die on the cross. We don't like feeling guilty. It's not a comfortable place to be. However, unless we accept the fact that we are all sinners, we can't truly understand the cost of the forgiveness of sin. The Bible tells us that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

As we confess our sins, we realize the great gift that God gave to us when he sent Jesus to die in our place. Then we can truly look forward to Easter when we celebrate Christ's victory over sin and death. We can join with him and become free. Hallelujah!

It has been many years now since Dr. Norman Vincent Peal wrote has famous book, The Power of Positive Thinking. There are many other books out there which promote positive thinking. A recent check of Amazon showed almost 17,000 books available in that category. So there must be something to be learned from having a positive attitude.

People who have a positive attitude seem to attract others. But we usually try to avoid critical, negative, unpleasant people. We often don't even listen to their good ideas because they present everything in such a negative light. So I was surprised this weekend to hear on the news that Saturday was the Grumpiest Day of the year. The news article said that by this time in January, most people were unhappy that they had already broken their New Years Resolutions, that the holiday bills were in their mailboxes, and that the weather was gray and dreary.

I think that the beginning of a new year fills us with hope that things will be better this year. Some of the mistakes that we've made in the previous year are left behind. We have a fresh start. Disappointment seems to come when things don't change. We don't lose weight. We don't exercise and eat right. We don't save more money. We just continue to do things as we have always done them.

But I've already learned something about change this year from my 5 year-old granddaughter. She likes my exercise bike and has learned to sit on it backwards to ride since her feet reach the pedals that way. One day after pedaling away, she noted that no matter how much she pedaled the bike didn't go anywhere. She said if you want to ride just for the sake of riding, it's fine. But if you really want to go somewhere, you have to find a bike that can move. I made the switch from the bike to other things in my life. If I want it to make changes and go somewhere different, I can't just do the same thing over and over in the same place. I have to change my bike, or plan, to move forward. I want to try that in 2008. I want to move forward.

This applies to our spiritual lives and our church lives as well. We can use this year to try some new ideas about worship, about reaching out to our community, about ministering in the name of Jesus, and about doing church business. We can seek guidance from the Holy Spirit to move forward and not just pedal in place. Let's give it a try.

We are beginning a new series on Saturday morning with our Women's Bible Study. The group has decided to study the life of Paul. We are calling it Saul to Paul. We began last Sat. with the stoning of Stephen where we are introduced to Saul. We read the account from Acts.

As a part of the study we regularly name those we know who need prayer and commit ourselves to pray for them. Later we discuss how God has answered those prayers. One of our recent prayer concern's has been Maria's nephew who needed a heart transplant. We felt sure that God would heal him, we just didn't know how or when. We asked believing that that would happen. On Thanksgiving that prayer was answered. He has a new heart. We rejoice and praise God for answered prayer. When I say that he has a new heart, I mean that literally. So often when we talk about having a new heart, we mean it spiritually. God can create a new heart within each of us if we ask him to. When we ask Christ to forgive our sins, we does create a new heart within us.

Tracy pointed out that we have now been having this Bible study for two years. One of our first prayer requests was for a safe birth for her baby. Victoria was born in June of that year and has blessed all of our lives. Last Saturday, as the meeting ended, little Victoria folded her little hands to pray. As Tracy guided her, she prayed a simple prayer. She will grow up knowing that God answers prayers.
Praise God!

It's almost Advent. Secrets abound. Kitchens will soon smell of cinnamon and other rich spices. Christmas is coming!

When we think of Christmas, the story of the birth of Christ comes into focus. The time to act it out in our church Christmas pageant is rapidly approaching.

It will be Dec.9th at 10 am. Last year, one small angel named Hannah stole the show with her delightful dance down the aisle. This year my oldest two grandchildren will be angels. And my youngest granddaughter will be the baby Jesus. It's a lot of fun when we have a real baby in the pageant.

Somehow looking at a live baby, we can better imagine the real baby Jesus. We are all drawn into that miracle of God becoming human. It sharpens our focus to realize that God took on human flesh and came to live among us. Why would he do that?

The Bible teaches us that the creator God of the universe came to us in the form of a human baby born in Bethlehem. He did that to bridge the gulf between God and man that happened when sin came into the world. Jesus grew from the infant Christ Child, lived among us without sin, then sacrificed his own life on the cross of Calvary to save us from our sins. It's a powerful story that begins at Christmas.

Christmas is coming! Let's hear its story again this year.