I am now sitting backstage at our annual Youth for Christ trip to Wildwood NJ and Austyn is wearing the pants this week that most think should have been burned a year ago. There is very little of the “pants” left….it is mostly patches of fabric and leather held together by dental floss. Yup, dental floss that is sturdier than the pants. I often wondered why my supply ran out so fast.

Whenever they get washed (rarely) they are put on the gentlest cycle and air dried. If they get wet and we cannot tolerate another washing they are laid out on the driveway on a sunny day….only to be run over or rained on again….all happening just last week!

Then the unthinkable occured….the pants came up missing! Oh, alas and heartbreak! What could have been their fate? Actually, I helped a friend sneak off with them for a “surprise.” Nobody knew what would ensue, but we arrived at the beach and Becca had made a near perfect facsimile for her petite frame and fooled me as well as everyone else making it look like she just put on his pair of pants. The twist was that her five-foot-nothing presence just didn’t jive with Austyn’s six-foot-plus stature.

The Wunk’s pants have now attained legendary status. Everyone knows about them and their legacy will continue to be played out for who knows how long….decades if Austyn has anything to say about it.

There was so much covered during this breakfast that it would be impossible to comment on all of it to any degree of depth. However, I would like to lay out several highlights from the three pages of notes that I recorded. (I could have taken ten pages of notes if I could write that fast.) His thoughts:

* In Matthew 24 Jesus responds to the disciples inquiry about the end of the age. There are many things he explains, but the key to discerning the times is not human activity, but what God is doing.

* Is America under God’s judgment? The first evidence was 9-11, then Katrina….in both of which God is speaking to His people more than to the nation in general. Along with that is the current economy–a great idolatry with God’s people. If God’s people are not responding to His activity, what will he have to do?

* We’ve lost our fear of God, therefore we’ve lost the fear of sin. Is there a trembling in the hearts of God’s people?

* What do you hold in your hand, that if released to God, could make an impact? You don’t have to be in vocational ministry to do so. Business people are actually in a better position in many places in the world to have an impact. (India wanted a store chain to start business in the major cities of their country. The CEO, a believer, said only if you give full sway to Christians, who were being persecuted, in those cities. The Indian government relented and gave them that freedom.)

* The Q & A time allowed me to ask, “What is the message we need to give to the church as a wake-up call?” He said that leaders and especially pastors need to be more aware of what’s going on. Many have lost their fear of God. The hour is late and urgent. Don’t tickle the ears…preach to honor God.

* God doesn’t take second-hand glory. He won’t bless our plans. We need to go with his plans. Let him take you where he will.

* There is no limit to what God can do with someone He can trust.

* Repentance doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going in the wrong direction. You need to go with Him…wherever that leads.

* To a CEO he said, “You need to spend unhurried time with God.” The CEO responded, “You don’t know how busy I am.” Dr. Blackaby replied, “You don’t know who you’re going to meet.”

Please take whatever time you need to allow these thoughts to penetrate your soul. It had a profound impact on me….it could do the same for you.

It’s time Christians got out of the antiseptic bubble and engage the world. Do the terms “salt and light” mean anything? The church in America is running a parallel universe with the world. For instance, I could stand in the middle of New York City’s Times Square at noon and yell out “Chris Tomlin” or “Casting Crowns” while seeing a few people turn their heads upon recognizing those names. Most would have no idea what I’m saying. Christians have their social structures and culture…and the secular world has theirs. Well, they’re not exactly storming the doors of our churches, are they? We claim that “all are welcome” on the sign out front, so why are non-believers staying away? They obviously don’t see any reason to enter our world. Some fear judgment (with good reason), some just won’t enter an unknown world and some have no clue as to what the church is or does.

The answer is to get out of the pews, off the sofa and be salt and light to your world…see Matthew 5:13-16. The world will not come to us. We have to go to them…maybe even into some unsavory circumstances.

However, each person needs to know how they can engage the world without compromising their walk with Christ. (For example, a recovering alcoholic probably shouldn’t engage in a bar ministry.) In whatever way God has for you to be salt and light you need to engage the world with your gifts. Jesus was hammered by the religious elite of the day for doing just that. They were separatists and would not be tainted by the sinful rabble around them. Jesus mixed with all of them and showed us how lives were changed.

Along these lines is the issue that the church needs to again become the innovators in culture. Early in our nation’s history the church set the tone for and was the center of community life…including the arts and culture. Now we just react to what the world delivers…from rock and roll to rap, we just put out our versions of it. The church needs to take the lead in culture. Then you’ll see the world respond in more than a tepid manner (positive OR negative) to the church. Maybe again the world will come to us because we offer something more than judgment or rules.

Find your God-given gifts and God-given assignment and go change some lives!

On March 30 Glenn Schaefer was ushered into that reward, I am certain, by legions of angels. His nearly year-long battle with cancer was punctuated by great progress that was no doubt the result of answered prayer, but also by the difficulties of chemo and discovering that the cancer had spread into other areas. Throughout that time his children, Steve, Teri and Dave shuttled back and forth from their out-of-town homes to be of whatever assistance they could be for he and Mrs. Schaefer.

My connection with the Schaefer family goes back to first grade when Steve and I were in Mrs. McDowell’s class together at Elm Grove School. (He would often astound me by doing the daily Bible reading at the beginning of the day….yes, it was THAT long ago!) That connection became stronger in 9th grade when I first became involved with Campus Life. Little did I know at the time how instrumental this family was and would be in my life.

It was the Schaefers that were primarily responsible for bringing Campus Life into our community. At that time we were part of the Greater Pittsburgh Youth for Christ chapter. After only one year (during which I gave my life to Christ for the first time) our Campus Life director moved out of the area. Once again the Schaefers stepped in and talked the Washington County chapter (later to become Southwest Area PA or SWAP YFC) into taking on Peters Twp. They relented and Wes Lammay became our Campus Life Director. That’s when our club went from a handful of kids to a juggernaut program over the next three years. There were forty to seventy teenagers on any given Monday night showing up at (where else?) the Schaefer’s home! During those high school years Steve was my primary spiritual mentor.

In the fall of 1972 I went to Pitt with no inkling that I would be thrust back into YFC the very next summer. I became a volunteer with the Peters Twp. club and later that year became the Campus Life Director as a nineteen-year-old extreme rookie. I needed training (Wes provided that) and I also needed lots of spiritual development and seasoning. I would visit the Schaefers on nearly a weekly basis during those early years. Long conversations and much encouragement as well as an always open door had a profound impact on a promising young and still very green Campus Life staff person.

That investment played no small role in the development of two very strong Campus Life clubs in Peters Twp. and Bethel Park that had an eternal impact on thousands of teenage lives. Metro-Pittsburgh YFC grew out of those clubs in 1985 and is today one of the stronger Campus Life programs in the nation. Thus, the Schaefer legacy is still being tallied….and they continue to support and pray for me after more than forty years!

Many of you have had your lives marked by Campus Life (middle and high school) in those clubs and/or by the wider ministry of Metro-Pittsburgh Youth for Christ. The Schaefers have a part of every one of those names written in the Book of Life. We all should thank our God in heaven for their involvement and should pray that our legacy might approach that level of impact.

Here’s to you Glenn Schaefer!! You went ahead of us and will be greeting the fruit of your well-lived life for a very long time. I’ll be one of them.

Like it or not there’s at least one place in the Bible where God dares us.  In the last book of the Old Testament, The Lord speaks through Malachi and accuses the people of robbing God.  (Just three verses [Mal. 3: 8-10] should make anybody step back and examine themselves.)  Of course the people ask, “How do we rob you?”  God replies, “In tithes and offerings.  You are under a curse–the whole nation of you–because you are robbing me.  Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse….”

That should create much discomfort in our nation since only a relatively small percentage of American Christians actually tithe, that is give ten per cent or more of their income to church and/or some ministry.  A recent figure showed that 24% of evangelical Christians were tithing which is the highest percentage for any group of American Christians.  That’s still an anemic effort for the richest believers on the planet.

Read on a little bit more in Malachi.  “Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it…Then all nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land.”  Sound like a dare to me.

In so many ways we are already a highly blessed nation, but as Abraham Lincoln stated, “We have forgotten God.”  I fear that we are spending down most of the spiritual capital that our Founders and succeeding generations have built.  We have assumed that we deserve this level of existence because of our hard work or even our superiority.  That kind of arrogance has eventually destroyed every nation that has ever taken that posture.

If we would just adopt some gratitude we would realize that God says we get to keep 90% of what we make.  That ten per cent would make a huge impact on the world.  Americans give an overall average of about two per cent of their income to charity.  Can you imagine the needs that could be met in a hungry and hurting world if American Christians raised their giving to ten per cent?  I think the implication that God makes is that all basic human needs could be met if we simply tithed.

“Test me in this…”  God has just dared you!  What are you going to do about it?

All of that is noteworthy, but you also had to see the installation ceremony. It lasted a little more than an hour and was loaded with biblical truth and inspiration. Several mini-sermons were preached, the Founders of our nation were invoked many times and virtually every statement was biblically based. John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court was quoted at least twice including:
“Providence has given our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as privilege and interest, of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.”
I don’t doubt that set many ears tingling. I recognized several of the officials and other well-known (at least in the Pittsburgh area) people in the room and I’m sure some walked out shaking their heads in disbelief. I’m okay with that. It’s good to let people see what made this country what it is…a biblical world-view and foundation. Too many Americans have no idea what our spiritual roots are and/or believe a bunch of deists and agnostics were our founders. The grand court room we were in (standing room only with a couple hundred people) was very ornate and loaded with biblical references and pictures which only punctuated the words that were delivered.

That’s why it felt like a time-warp. I’m guessing (an educated guess) that what we saw yesterday was pretty close to how it went early in our nation’s history. The Bible and Christian world-view were not just more prevalent in the culture…they drove virtually every aspect of the culture. That’s what gives me hope for our future. More and more believers are expressing their faith boldly and without apology. They are weaving their biblical world-view BACK into the fabric or every day American life. It’s a ground-swell that will do nothing but grow in the months and years to come.

Hang on and stay tuned.

Can reindeer really fly?

How can Santa Claus get to all those houses in one night?

No way he can eat all that cookies and milk!

Justin, our first-born was about six and teetering on the edge of belief and disbelief.  Could we get one more Christmas with Santa Claus out of this inquiring little mind?  It was time to act…and no chance to risk the results of a limited engagement.  We had to go all out.  There was too much at stake!

I had a lame excuse for a Santa outfit in the basement, but it would have to do.  After all, it was Christmas Eve.  Justin had been educated on the fact that he had to be in bed or The Claus will not make his appearance.  However, on this night full of clandestine operations and intrigue, some rules were broken.

Shileen and I had this little scam worked out and we executed our roles to perfection.  I went on the roof, made some noise. Then Shileen and Justin went to the first landing of the steps so he could see downstairs.  The stage was set.  The next five seconds may define forever if Santa Claus would continue to live for another year in a child’s mind or just go the way of all those other childhood fantasies.  I took a deep breath and began my epic run into history.

In a few seconds he saw it…a flash of red streaked by holding a gift up on his shoulder!  (Because that lame outfit had no beard and I had to cover my face!)  But it was enough to sell the program!

Never have I heard such a flurry of steps and giggling in my life.  Shileen said they sprinted into the bedroom and dove halfway across into bed, cackling like a middle school slumber party!  I quickly cleared out the Claus clothes and ran into the room to investigate…”What happened, what was that noise?”  “I saw Santa Claus, I saw him!!”  Justin’s adrenaline was at Mach 1 and we knew it could be a while until slumber revisited this little guy.

Shileen and I eventually went back downstairs with that smug “mission accomplished” smirk on our faces, but there was that touch of melancholy knowing that we probably saw the last of this fantasy coming true…and we don’t have the budget to hire Steven Spielberg for next year.

They were also all men and they were all white.  Thus came the school student retort concerning the study of American history….”What do I care what a bunch of dead white guys did 200 years ago?”  The fact that they were all men and all white is forced through a politically correct grid giving many to dismiss these Founders as less than relevant today.  Their gender and their color are not the issue.  Their ideas are the issue.  Let’s get past the PC baggage and look at what they stood for.

These men had the once-in-human-history privilege to invent a nation from scratch.  Because of what they did, based on their ideas, not gender or color, we enjoy a level of freedom never before seen in the modern world.  That freedom has been tested many times since the bold Declaration of Independence back in 1776.  Many despots and nations have wanted to remove that freedom from us ever since that declaration was signed by those fifty-six brave men.  Every time our military has seen to it that that would not happen.  In addition, there are those that would love to remove our freedom even to this day.

If you get a chance, thank a veteran today.  If possible, thank someone currently serving in the military.  They come in multiple colors, genders and ethnic backgrounds.  They know how valuable our freedoms are….they volunteered to defend them with their lives.  They do so based on their merit which has been proven for over two centuries.  That merit is based on the fact that the ideas are worth defending, regardless of the source.

Many thanks to you that guard our shores and ensure that we continue to enjoy freedom!

Team taught with Pastor WD Favour from Nigeria