Imaginary E-mail conversation with my Christian friend.

Dear Friend,

I am glad you had such a great Thanksgiving Day. We ate too much too and did our share of laughing around the table. In answer to your questions; we had both turkey and ham, blackberry pie for dessert, and yes – the Lions were pathetic.

My wife is busy de-falling our home decorations. By the time I get home tonight the living room will look like a pack of elves hyped up on sugar attempted to repopulate the earth with ceramic snowmen, fake pine branches, and nativity scenes. I’m really glad that pink and lime are not colors of choice for Christmas décor!

As we head to the Christmas season and I plan out sermons to end one year and start another I too find myself reviewing the year and wondering about the next.

We both certainly have had the ups and downs emotionally this year. I’ll never forget how excited you were when you got the news from your boss about your job, and then found the other extreme when you heard a week later from your doctor.

You’re right about needing to take everyday a little more purposeful. Maybe 2009 will hold new anointing from God for you and your family – I’ll pray for that… no, I really will.

In your note you asked me about prayer. You said that it has been quite flat lately, as if you were “habitually talking to the air.” I’m sorry you find yourself feeling guilty and discouraged about such an important part of our faith.

The truth is most people pray – but it rarely has passion. There are times that I find myself talking to God as if He were an invisible force rather than an awe inspiring relationship that I couldn’t take my next breath without. That’s not what God intended for our relationship with Him. We’ve got to bring passion back into prayer.

Read this quote from E.M. Bounds, “If prayer puts God to work in earth, then, by the same token, prayerlessness rules God out of the world’s affairs, and prevents Him from working. And if prayer moves God to work in the world’s affairs, then prayerlessness excludes God from everything concerning men, and leaves man on earth the mere creature of circumstances, at the mercy of blind fate or without help of any kind from God.”

I love the challenge in that.

God longs to do the miraculous through us, but I don’t know if we really believe. Too often we read a list of requests expecting little to nothing to really be different. We are more moved by the TV than we are by talking to God. Isn’t that astounding?

Hey, here’s an idea – what if you and I took the remainder of this year to really pray with passion? What if we committed to set a time aside every day to beg God to have His way with us? What if during the Advent season we stormed the gates of heaven with boldness and humility and asked God to make the end of this year a transformational one that prepares us for the New Year.

I have a hunch that if you and I did that we’d both be different and somehow God would be glorified! I’m not sure you and I are ready to enter this Christmas season with a new passion – but let’s try it! Let’s take it up a notch!

Say “hi” to your neighbor for me.

Your friend and God’s servant,

D. David Kessler

What Is Valuable

The whole point of being a pick-pocket is to be able to take something of value from someone without them knowing it, until it's too late.

Imagine standing on a subway (not the store, the story wouldn't make sense if you were standing on a building that sells 6 inch meatball subs) going to visit a family member or friend in Thailand. You're all alone except for the other 30,000 people in the 30 square foot area. The car comes to an abrupt stop and everyone lurches forward. The doors open and 14,385 of the 30,000 people need to get out. In the middle of all the "excuse me's" and "my stop's" people push by you as if you were a post with no sense of feeling.

When you get to your stop you gracefully push through the human wall and find your way to the street. It's then that you realize that your wallet has been taken from your back pocket or out of your purse. Twenty-seven credit cards, each with a $20,000 limit are gone – so are the thirty $100 dollar bills you had in the secret compartment – so is the ATM card that you wrote the password on the back of so you wouldn't forget it. The pick-pocket just got away with ¾'s of a million dollars(use your imagination) and a bunch of other stuff.

Panic.

What is valuable is gone.

There is no hope of finding the thief…

Your visit to Bangkok is ruined.

What have we allowed the enemy of our souls to take from us?

The economy is tight and he brushes by us lifting generosity without us even noticing.

There are a lot of issues that aren't the way they should be and now we can't find any asemblance gratitude.

It seems that we can't find the passion for Christ that we used to have.

Where did my hunger for the Word go?

Just then you notice a squirrely looking punk running from you down the road. "Stop that thief!" You call out. The punk turns his head around to grin at you and runs square into a man, bouncing off him like a ball off a block wall. The man takes hold of the runner's ankles and holds him upside down shaking him as if he were a dirty throw rug.

On the cement falls all of those things that were yours, the money, the credit cards, the picture of you on the top of Mt. Everest - and there's the generosity, and the gratitude, and the passion, and the hunger for the Word.

You thank the man for stopping your thief. He smiles and says, "My Father told me Lou (that's his street name) was after you again."

You start to bend down to pick up the stuff at his nail scarred feet when he lightly lifts you back up before you can get hold of anything and says, "My Father sent me to keep this guy from robbing what is of most value to you. He says you can only take back what you can't afford to lose."

There you are on the streets of Bangkok with Jesus, who's holding Satan upside down by the ankles, and a pile of stuff that used to be yours.

What's really of value that has been robbed from us?

What would we choose to claim back?

What would God choose for us?

Would God and I agree on what was most valuable?

Sunday we'll sew together the last banner.

Waiting for Spring,

Pastor Dave