Monthly Archives: December 2013

Prayer or Gossip?

When you share a prayer concern with another person or prayer group, is more time spent describing the issue than actually praying for it? If so, we might do well to question our motives and search our heart. Talking too much about prayer concerns is a slippery slope to gossip. Do we need to describe prayer concerns in a prayer group anyway? Might we not do just as well to start praying and invite others to pray supportively along with us? God knows every detail of our lives and doesn’t require a running narrative of our perspective of the situation.

Let us not think that God will be swayed by lengthy and wordy prayers or discussions about the need. Instead let our prayers be simple of heart and let our words be few. And while we are praying, let’s leave room for GOD’S will to be done in the situation and not simply a list of what WE think needs to be done.

Prayer is one of the most important things we do. May your prayer be powerful and effective in its simplest, faith-filled way.

“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Matthew 6:7-8

Beyond Discouragement

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Are you discouraged today? It is a common feeling even in the midst of the Christmas season. In fact, with so many unmet desires, it may be that more people feel down about life during the holiday season than any other time of year. Having just finished my first year on this long road with Leukemia, I’ve found more discouraging turns in the path than I had expected or hoped. But where there isn’t a cure (yet) to AML, there IS a cure to discouragement:

1. See how many people you can encourage today and you will find your own discouragement fade. It is a simple enough task. Simply pay attention to those around you. Show them recognition and value. Make a phone call or write a note to show concern. Scrape someone’s car windows without them knowing.

2. Make a list of the things for which you are thankful. With the temps below zero in Iowa, I am thankful for a warm house. I am thankful for my loving wife. I am thankful for those true friends who stayed close through this cancer journey so I wouldn’t have to go it alone. I am thankful to again find God’s Word always true and dependable, his grace indeed sufficient for my need, and his strength perfect in my weakness. My list goes on. How about your list?

As you speak your list of thanks out loud, if they are from the heart, you will find your discouragement dwindle. God inhabits praise and in his presence you cannot be overly discouraged for long.

“Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise.” Hebrews 13:1-2,15

How do you say, “Love?”

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Our good friends from new Orleans stayed with us recently and we found ourselves talking about accents and how w’all (sort of a personalized y’all) pronounce words differently:
Route – rhymes with boot or out?
Root – rhymes with boot or sounds like ruht?

My mom’s nurse asked her what a particular med was for. Mom told her it was to keep her heart under control. But of course being from The Boston region it sounded like she said to keep her “HOT” under control. 🙂 I figured out a long time ago there are just so many “Rs” in the world. The ones that are dropped in New England (where they “pahk the cah”) are found as extra letters in southern Iowa and Missouri (where they “warsh” the “carr”).

I find these things interesting since I live in central Iowa where it is a known fact that we don’t have any accent at all.

But joking aside, there is another factor of communication and that is, “How do we say ‘Love’?” Not how do we pronounce the actual word, but how do we convey love? After all, most would agree that when all is said and done, love is the primary stuff that makes up a meaningful life: to have loved well and to have been loved deeply.

I wonder how many times we ‘presume’ love is spoken by the lack of other emotion to the contrary. Like Goldie in Fiddler on the Roof when her husband Tevye asks her if she loves him: “Do I WHAT?!” she replies. “For twenty-five years I’ve washed your clothes, cooked your meals, cleaned your house, given you children, milked the cow, after twenty-five years, why talk about love right now?”

You may speak love with gifts, with deeds of service, with gentle and encouraging words, or with quality time. Sometimes there are no words and simple touch conveys love the best. However you speak love, make sure you speak it today. And speak it often.

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:1,13

Mean people need the Lord

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The new Sound of Music musical, featuring Carrie Underwood as the governess Maria, has not been altogether well received by the critics. In response to the critics’ cutting remarks, Underwood responds, “Mean people need Jesus,” and adds about her critics, “They will be in my prayers tonight.” She cites 1 Peter 2:1-25, a passage that commands us to “rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.”

I don’t know if the critics’ remarks were warranted or not, but Underwood got this part right: mean people do need the Lord, as do selfish, and thoughtless ones and we need to make sure we don’t hold onto malicious thoughts about others. That’s what I thought as the driver in front of me threw up her arms in disgust at the driver in front of her. I was thinking what a good reminder this was for me to be more patient and forgiving when I am confronted with the faux pas of another driver. I too have been there. We all need the Lord, don’t we? And we all need to find patience and forbearance in others when we act less than perfectly, especially in this season where love, joy, and peace should be our character.

People need the Lord. As much as is possible, let’s show Him to others in our path today.

Hearing and listening to God’s voice

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“My sheep listen to my voice. They know me and they follow me.”
Jesus in John 10:27

Have you ever noticed how difficult it is to truly hear another person’s point of view when you are so focused on making your own case? You try so hard to not forget the point you want to make that you fail to focus on what they are saying. We may HEAR their voice but we aren’t LISTENING to it. To be honest, we must admit we are more concerned with what is on our mind than what they have to say.

Are you having trouble hearing God’s voice today? Likely it is because you are not listening closely. ‘Hearing’ God’s voice requires that we have a relationship with him that distinguishes what he says from other competing voices. How else will we know his voice unless we spend time with him and in his Word?

‘Listening’ to his voice as a sheep listens to its shepherd, requires the conviction that his voice brings us protection and offers us provision for what is good. Do you know that God’s voice will always offer you one or both of these gifts? If so, you will be highly motivated to listen closely to and follow his voice. If not, you will think it a chore and more easily seek another voice.

All good things: wisdom, freedom, patience, power, contentedness, love, grace, joy. . . All these good things come from intentionally listening to and following God’s voice throughout your day. Beyond all your efforts to do great things, be content with being a sheep that recognizes and follows its masters voice.

Advent – preparing for ‘x’?

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Here we are in the beginning of the Advent season where we prepare for and commemorate the arrival of Jesus Christ. Fully God, yet He chose to come to earth as a fragile human baby. It reminds me of a conversation I had with God several decades ago:

God: Bryan I notice you’re getting ready for a holiday. Which is it?
Bryan: Why, it’s Xmas of course.
God: Xmas?
Bryan: Yes, you know, when Christ came to earth as a little human baby.
God: Oh you mean CHRISTmas?
Bryan: Yes, that’s what I said, xmas.
God: Bryan would it be okay if I just called you xguy?
Bryan: Huh? why would you do that?
God: Well, you know, to save time. Adding all those extra letters that represent the miracle of who you are is a real chore, you know.
Bryan: You’re being a bit sarcastic aren’t you?
God: Whatever best gets the point across to you.
Bryan: I get it. When I refer to ‘xmas’ I’m sort of taking a shortcut that depersonalizes the celebration of the real Jesus. But does writing CHRISTmas on my shopping list really make a difference? I mean, it’s not like anyone else will ever see it.
God: Does it cause you to pause a moment and think about the reason for this season of celebration and gift giving?
Bryan: Well, when you put it that way, yes.
God: Merry Christmas, Bryan!
Bryan: Merry, x…I mean Merry Christmas to you too. And God, thank you for this wonderful gift!

Maybe it’s a small thing. But how about we pledge to keep Christ in Christmas this year? In our written greetings, but more importantly, in our thoughts and heart. I’m not suggesting a worldwide campaign. I’m just wondering if we might ban “xmas” from our personal vocabulary. Certainly we have time to write five more letters in the word. Yes, I get the idea that the x might represent the cross, but that is another holiday. Let’s enjoy the advent season as one of anticipation of the arrival of Jesus Christ into our world and into our hearts. And let’s enjoy a very Merry Christmas!

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”
John 1:14

Go Light Our World – Investing in lives

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Go Light Our World (GLOW) works through the local church to provide accountable services to the needy, including beautiful people like Benita and her daughter Mariah who participate in the Josias program in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Benita is one of the faithful helpers at Josias as are most of the mothers whose children come to the program. Benita has five children (ages 2-12). The oldest, Christian, is also a leader in the program. That is one of the things I like about this program. It is not just about giving away goods, but it teaches literacy and leadership to help develop skills that will one day break the poverty cycle. Like many Quechuan families, Benita’s sells fruit and ice cream at the market and on the streets to earn money. Her husband, a brickmaker, sometimes has work, and sometimes doesn’t. Benita is also learning to sew at Josias, gaining more skills to support her family. Together, they live in a small two room house made of simple materials. Josias helps also with the fees so the children can go to school. $50 is all it takes to provide the materials for one semester of school for a child. When you give to GLOW, your $50 of designated funds go directly toward needs like this with no money deductible for administrative fees.

The literacy program now includes a mobile education unit where several students can work at once with caring instructors to learn basic academic skills.

Would you consider dedicating some time on a particular day each week to pray for the Josias project and those who attend? Will you ask God to help you see others through His eyes? And as He leads you, would you consider making a one-time or recurring monthly donation to support this vital ministry?

May God enrich your life as you look beyond it and care for His children.

‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Matthew 25:40

Go Light Our World – Giving

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In addition to the daily blog and active ministry work, Go Light Our World supports vital ministries with financial giving.

In Vetren, Bulgaria, one gift helped sponsor the first Public Christmas pageant since the fall of communism in that town. Gypsies who are segregated in that society were included in the pageant, along with the public. The mayor asked all the school children to attend with their families. When the children portraying Joseph and Mary walked into the auditorium carrying “the baby Jesus,” everyone attending spontaneously knelt down saying, “Hallelujah. Praise to God.” Another gift sponsored a child literacy program that continues to this day, with hopes of breaking the cycle of persecution and poverty. Related to this, another gift helped to sponsor the purchase of “Abraham’s Flock.” A sturdy stable was built, goats and chickens were purchased, in addition to a cherry tree grove. The gypsy children and their families are taught to work in the project, with a goal of having enough milk and eggs for all the children.

In Cochabamba, Bolivia, children like Esdenka who have no running water receive a warm shower, a hot meal, Christian and academic literacy training, preventative health care, and of course worship and prayer support. GLOW also works to support and encourage healthy families in a land where many families experience dysfunction and abuse.

In New Orleans, GLOW has supported discipleship efforts to grow effective leaders who also can shine the light of Jesus where they live.

GLOW also supports AIA, Athletes in Action, across 29 college campuses. This region’s AIA mobilized 70 college students in missions across the globe in 2013.

You can partner with GLOW by praying and by giving. We have no paid staff so your financial gifts directly benefit those vital ministries in the USA and across the globe. ($50 for food or medicine buys $50 of these supplies.)

Click on the Donate link to learn how you can make a tax-deductible gift to Go Light Our World, by check, PayPal, or credit card. Choose between a one-time or recurring monthly gift and enjoy the satisfaction you experience when you Go Light Our World!

Go Light Your World- Ministry

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In addition to the Daily blog, we (Bryan and Marcia Thayer) created Go Light Our World to encourage people to partner with us in our ministry (we are volunteers). We also encourage others to intentionally seek out ways to share God’s light with the world around YOU!

Like you, our work focuses where we live. That’s our first mission field. Our mission also extends to Bolivia, South America where we were headed and where we plan to return when my leukemia allows me to travel again. In the meantime we work weekly to encourage ministry efforts in Cochabamba, Bolivia, working with the disenfranchised, and poorest of the poor. The efforts of local workers help meet spiritual and physical needs. Examples include literacy, nutrition, hygiene, preventative health care, worship, prayer, and self-sufficiency programs. In Vetren, Bulgaria, we work with local ministry leaders to help bring ostracized Gypsy children out of the cycle of poverty. Programs include self-sufficiency training, literacy, and worship and prayer.

GLOW also works to encourage and support Athletes In Action, a ministry of Campus Crusade (CRU) and other select ministries that are working to shine the light of Christ across the world.

We will describe some of these projects in more detail in tomorrow’s post.

In the meantime, think about your potential to being light to the world around you.

Go Light Our World – the blog

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God has given each of us light to bring truth and hope to others around us. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” Our job is to make sure our light stays lit, encourage others, and to let our light shine in the darkness of others’ lives.

The primary components of the Go Light Our World Ministry are:

The daily blog – bringing truth and hope to others around the globe
Daily outreach – touching the lives of those nearest us
Funding worldwide ministries – spurring on ministries to reach society’s most marginalized people with the light of Jesus

This blog is one component of the ministry. The intent is to encourage others to draw closer to God and discover His best for them. You can click on a link to visit the original blog which started with our 2011 mission to Cochabamba, Bolivia, one of the ministries sponsored by GLOW. We will add other ministry pages in the coming weeks. There is also a link to previous months posts where you can browse a topic of interest to you. Additionally, you can share your comments and reflections with the Go Light Our World community of friends by clicking on ‘reply’ above or below this post. Finally, you can click on the link in the upper right to have the posts automatically sent to your email inbox. (Your email address, while required will not be displayed.) Over 150 people around the world have Go Light Our World blog posts sent directly to their email inboxes. People from about thirty nations stop by the site each month.

If you’ve enjoyed this blog, we hope you will share it with others: www.GoLightOurWorld.org. This website should be ready in the next week. Until then, the link to www.GoLightYourWorld.org is still functional.

By sharing this with others you may bring light to encourage your friends and family and also help build the Go Light Our World community. Our hope is that the blog posts will inspire folks to draw close to Jesus and BE His light into the world.

“When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12