Recently I had the privilege to attend a breakfast meeting with one of the preeminent spiritual leaders of our time. Henry Blackaby was in Pittsburgh and has a message for our city and our nation. I have read a few of his books and have been through the Experiencing God study. It is all quality material. Dr. Blackaby believes that Pittsburgh is very ripe for revival. We have a responsibility to pray for and cultivate that potential.

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.

The privilege of being associated with high-caliber men and women of God is one that I am able to enjoy on a regular basis. My job and ministry often place me in that lofty atmosphere. To our mutual loss, one of those saints has been promoted to his eternal reward.

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.

Patty McCullough and I have been good friends since our days at the University of Pittsburgh so it was a real privilege to attend her installation yesterday as a justice on Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court. It’s an appeals court that hears civil cases. Her election was a call from God that she was hesitant to pursue, but you can see his hand was all over it when you know how it came to be. She spent less than $1000 on the primary (for a state-wide race) and would not take any money from lawyers or any other special interest. There were no lawn signs…it was mostly her criss-crossing the state and supporters passing out flyers, yet she took first place out of all of the candidates (the top two of several were elected).

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.