Have you discovered the importance of another? The one piece of advice I remember the clearest from my seminary studies was imminently practical: "Every person should be a mentor and every person should have a mentor." I have tried to put that advice into practice over the 25 years since I've first heard it, and the effort has been one of the best and most rewarding of my adult life. One cannot mistake the value of the other when we begin to invest ourselves in ways that count most--invest in humanity. Thomas Merton said it well in "No Man Is an Island": "Love not only prefers the good of another to my own, but it does not even compare the two. It has only one good, that of the beloved, which is, at the same time, my own. Love shares the good with another not by dividing it with him, but by identifying itself with him so that his good becomes my own."
(Dane Fowlkes, Pastor)
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Sunday, May 26, 2013
The Prayer of Jabez, Part One
Here is the study guide for today's message "The Prayer of Jabez, Part One":
Text: 1 Chronicles 4: 9-11
Open:
Someone once said there is really very little difference between people, but this difference makes a great deal of difference. Jabez doesn't stand astride the Old Testament like a Moses or David; instead, you'll find him hiding in the least read section of one of the least read books of the Bible.
The name of Jabez holds meaning--"pain."
Despite his dismal prospects, Jabez found a way out.
This simple prayer tells us that God really does have unclaimed blessings waiting for you. And with commitment on your part, you can live in confident expectation that your heavenly Father will give you a life of abundance.
I. Blessings Come to Those Who Ask.
"Oh, that you would bless me . . ."
1. Blessing is radical test.
- To bless in the biblical sense means to ask for or impart supernatural favor.
- Jabez left it entirely up to God to decide what the blessings would be and where, when, and how Jabez would receive them.
II. God Wants Us To Live a Larger Life.
"Enlarge my territory . . ."
1. This is a plea for God to enlarge our lives so that we may make a greater impact for Him.
- This was no simple desire for more real estate on the part of Jabez.
2. The Jabez prayer is a revolutionary request for more ministry.
3. When we start begging for more influence and responsibility with which to honor Him, God will bring opportunities and people into our path.
God always intervenes when you put His agenda before yours and advance by faith.
Close:
Asking for God's blessings and enlarged ministry is not selfish -- it is entirely in keeping with God's desire and delight for you. What remains is denial of self and a venture of faith.
(Dane Fowlkes, Pastor)
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Enemy of the Best
"Whenever right is made the guidance in the life, it will blunt the spiritual insight. The great enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but the good which is not good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best... Many of us do not go on spiritually because we prefer to choose what is right instead of relying on God to choose for us. We have to learn to walk according to the standard which has its eye on God." (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest)
When left to myself I choose comfort over commitment everytime. That is precisely the reason I cannot leave choices up to me--I must live the crucified life so that the choice is always up to Him. Death to self does not mean an unfathomable void ethically or otherwise; instead, crucifixion means fullness and spiritual altitude--life on a higher plane than I would have chosen for myself otherwise. In order to soar, we must first die.
(Dane Fowlkes, Pastor)
Thursday, May 23, 2013
The Highest Form of Living
There is a lot of bad news today and there has been for quite some time. While not minimizing tragedy, catastrophe, or heartache, perhaps it's appropriate to hear something positive for a change. Ready for some good news? Human beings possess a hint of the divine and that clue becomes clear in charitableness.
According to Corporation for National and Community Service data, senior volunteering hit a 10-year high in 2011, as more than twenty million older Americans donated nearly three billion hours of services valued at $67 billion. The data also indicates that one in three volunteers is age 55 or older; that the percentage of seniors volunteering increased from 25.1% in 2002 to 31.2% in 2011; and that 72.4% of older adults -- higher than the national average -- provided informal favors such as helping out a neighbor. Previous research has found that volunteering can have a positive effect on an older person's mental and physical health, with senior volunteers tending to report increased strength and energy levels, lower rates of depression, and fewer physical limitations.
I love that research shows what we've instinctively known to be true--serving is the highest form of living! And serving is tantamount to changing the world. As Anne Frank once said, "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
(Dane Fowlkes, Pastor)
According to Corporation for National and Community Service data, senior volunteering hit a 10-year high in 2011, as more than twenty million older Americans donated nearly three billion hours of services valued at $67 billion. The data also indicates that one in three volunteers is age 55 or older; that the percentage of seniors volunteering increased from 25.1% in 2002 to 31.2% in 2011; and that 72.4% of older adults -- higher than the national average -- provided informal favors such as helping out a neighbor. Previous research has found that volunteering can have a positive effect on an older person's mental and physical health, with senior volunteers tending to report increased strength and energy levels, lower rates of depression, and fewer physical limitations.
I love that research shows what we've instinctively known to be true--serving is the highest form of living! And serving is tantamount to changing the world. As Anne Frank once said, "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
(Dane Fowlkes, Pastor)
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Second-Wave Responders
Harry Smith and Brian Williams of NBC news stated clearly to the nation tonight something that many of us have known for many years--when a crisis occurs, churches and Christian people respond compassionately and courageously. Call them 'second-wave responders' but there is nothing second-rate about the way Believers put their faith quickly into action, assisting the dying, the hurting, the confused. Be it a force 5 tornado, a terrorist bombing, or a fertilizer plant explosion, faithful Christ-followers demonstrate unmistakably that knowing Christ changes everything. These are difficult days, but there is bright hope for any situation because the Body of Christ will be there, caring tangibly and embodying the Lord's prayer--"Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
(Dane Fowlkes, Pastor)
Photo: darkroom.baltimoresun.com
(Dane Fowlkes, Pastor)
Photo: darkroom.baltimoresun.com
Monday, May 20, 2013
Slow-Motion Crisis
According to an article in today's New York Times, a crisis of epic proportion lurks beneath a large portion of the country in the diminishing returns of the High Plains Aquifer, a waterlogged jumble of sand, clay and gravel that begins beneath Wyoming and South Dakota and stretches clear to the Texas Panhandle. The aquifer’s northern reaches still hold enough water in many places to last hundreds of years. But as one heads south, it is increasingly tapped out, drained by ever more intensive farming and, lately, by drought.
Vast stretches of Texas farmland lying over the aquifer no longer support irrigation. In west-central Kansas, up to a fifth of the irrigated farmland along a 100-mile swath of the aquifer has already gone dry. In many other places, there no longer is enough water to supply farmers’ peak needs during Kansas’ scorching summers. And when the groundwater runs out, it is gone for good. Refilling the aquifer would require hundreds, if not thousands, of years of rains.
This is in many ways a slow-motion crisis — decades in the making, imminent for some, years or decades away for others, hitting one farm but leaving an adjacent one untouched. But across the rolling plains and tarmac-flat farmland near the Kansas-Colorado border, the effects of depletion are evident everywhere. Highway bridges span arid stream beds. Most of the creeks and rivers that once veined the land have dried up as 60 years of pumping have pulled groundwater levels down by scores and even hundreds of feet.
The same may be said of spiritual drought--it is a slow-motion crisis. Born of long periods of neglect, we find ourselves bereft of any joy associated with our relationship with God. Prayer seems futile, Scripture falls flat, and worship is hollow. We never get to such a low place suddenly. Instead, what St. John of the Cross called "the dark night of the soul" develops gradually, but the result is deadly.
How should we respond when we become aware of the low level of our spiritual state? Refuse the temptation of turning to resources that tell about God, and accept no substitutes for seeking God himself. The remedy for spiritual drought is nothing less than a person--a personal encounter with Christ. When everything is stripped away and you find yourself clinging desperately to Christ like Jacob did the wrestling angel, then you will experience the torrent of spiritual desire and satisfaction rising. When He is everything and when He is enough, the spirituals clouds will form laden with life-giving droplets that will fall as refreshing rain upon your soul. In short, the remedy for spiritual decline is nothing less than a relentless return to God Himself.
(Dane Fowlkes, Pastor)
Vast stretches of Texas farmland lying over the aquifer no longer support irrigation. In west-central Kansas, up to a fifth of the irrigated farmland along a 100-mile swath of the aquifer has already gone dry. In many other places, there no longer is enough water to supply farmers’ peak needs during Kansas’ scorching summers. And when the groundwater runs out, it is gone for good. Refilling the aquifer would require hundreds, if not thousands, of years of rains.
This is in many ways a slow-motion crisis — decades in the making, imminent for some, years or decades away for others, hitting one farm but leaving an adjacent one untouched. But across the rolling plains and tarmac-flat farmland near the Kansas-Colorado border, the effects of depletion are evident everywhere. Highway bridges span arid stream beds. Most of the creeks and rivers that once veined the land have dried up as 60 years of pumping have pulled groundwater levels down by scores and even hundreds of feet.
The same may be said of spiritual drought--it is a slow-motion crisis. Born of long periods of neglect, we find ourselves bereft of any joy associated with our relationship with God. Prayer seems futile, Scripture falls flat, and worship is hollow. We never get to such a low place suddenly. Instead, what St. John of the Cross called "the dark night of the soul" develops gradually, but the result is deadly.
How should we respond when we become aware of the low level of our spiritual state? Refuse the temptation of turning to resources that tell about God, and accept no substitutes for seeking God himself. The remedy for spiritual drought is nothing less than a person--a personal encounter with Christ. When everything is stripped away and you find yourself clinging desperately to Christ like Jacob did the wrestling angel, then you will experience the torrent of spiritual desire and satisfaction rising. When He is everything and when He is enough, the spirituals clouds will form laden with life-giving droplets that will fall as refreshing rain upon your soul. In short, the remedy for spiritual decline is nothing less than a relentless return to God Himself.
(Dane Fowlkes, Pastor)
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Removing the Curse of Aging
The stark reality of aging seems unavoidable these days. I’m not certain it’s due so much to another birthday come and gone (the fifty third such event for me), as to nagging frustrations arising from increased physical limitation. Why can’t I bend over in the morning without doing warm up exercises to prepare for the warm up exercises? Why can’t I eat what I want whenever I want without then carrying it out in front for the world to see and causing Jenny Craig to recruit me for her next before and after? Why does morning arrive too soon but the night too late? Why these crevices in my face where smoothness once ruled the earth? And then, if things aren’t bad enough in the wake of my most recent birth “celebration”, I read still another reminder in Scripture:
“Anyone can see that the brightest and best die, wiped out right along with the fools and dunces. They leave all their prowess behind, move into their new home, The Coffin. The cemetery their permanent address. And to think they named counties after themselves!
We aren’t immortal. We don’t last long.
Like our dogs, we age and weaken. And die.”
(Psalm 49:10-12, The Message)
Well, isn’t that special?! Thanks, Sons of Korah, for the pep talk! Talk about stating the obvious but tossing tact to the wind. But, honestly, it’s that kind of straight talk I need to hear to startle me out of spiritual lethargy and a holy hardening of the arteries. Get the paddles out—jump start me Lord! Shock me into a meaningful life of submission and service. Whereas my first thought once was of self-preservation, show me how to be used up for You and for the benefit of others. I’m not immortal. I repeat—I’m not immortal! Invest what’s left of my life so that something remains of me that matters when I lie down and join my dog. Make me a perpetual mentor, a teacher from the grave. Whatever changes are necessary, make them in me so that I will be for some a compass whose needle always points Godward: in private and public, the same; alone and in a crowd, no difference. A man of integrity and faith, of strength and grace; a “clutch man.”
No doubt I will continue to deteriorate, to age and weaken and eventually die. But, Lord, make old age an opportunity rather than a curse. Bring to life right now what will remain long after my body takes residence in its new home, The Coffin. Make mine a memory that speaks fluently the greatness of our God.
“By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.” (Hebrews 11:4, NIV)
(Dane Fowlkes, Pastor)
“Anyone can see that the brightest and best die, wiped out right along with the fools and dunces. They leave all their prowess behind, move into their new home, The Coffin. The cemetery their permanent address. And to think they named counties after themselves!
We aren’t immortal. We don’t last long.
Like our dogs, we age and weaken. And die.”
(Psalm 49:10-12, The Message)
Well, isn’t that special?! Thanks, Sons of Korah, for the pep talk! Talk about stating the obvious but tossing tact to the wind. But, honestly, it’s that kind of straight talk I need to hear to startle me out of spiritual lethargy and a holy hardening of the arteries. Get the paddles out—jump start me Lord! Shock me into a meaningful life of submission and service. Whereas my first thought once was of self-preservation, show me how to be used up for You and for the benefit of others. I’m not immortal. I repeat—I’m not immortal! Invest what’s left of my life so that something remains of me that matters when I lie down and join my dog. Make me a perpetual mentor, a teacher from the grave. Whatever changes are necessary, make them in me so that I will be for some a compass whose needle always points Godward: in private and public, the same; alone and in a crowd, no difference. A man of integrity and faith, of strength and grace; a “clutch man.”
No doubt I will continue to deteriorate, to age and weaken and eventually die. But, Lord, make old age an opportunity rather than a curse. Bring to life right now what will remain long after my body takes residence in its new home, The Coffin. Make mine a memory that speaks fluently the greatness of our God.
“By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.” (Hebrews 11:4, NIV)
(Dane Fowlkes, Pastor)
Friday, May 17, 2013
Something That Matters
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Monday, May 13, 2013
What's The Point?
I read this morning with great interest the following from Jim Denison of The Denison Forum:
The rise of "atheist churches" is an oxymoronic fact in our culture. One of the fastest-growing is in London. Its leader asks, "Why is it that people who are atheists get married in a church?" He then answers his question: "There is just something about these places, it's a place of worship, where people have gone for more than 400 years and it's the sort of place where your heart can rise up to those inspired things which is great."
We might expect "atheist churches" in England, where Christianity has been in decline for decades. But what about Houston, Texas, arguably the "buckle of the Bible belt"? A group called Houston Oasis describes itself as "a community grounded in reason, celebrating the human experience." The group was founded by Mike Aus, a onetime Lutheran pastor who is now an atheist. He states, "We are open to any message about life as long as no dogmatic claims are made." However, Houston Oasis's website makes six such dogmatic claims. The first: "People are more important than beliefs." Is this a belief?
Dallas is home to several such "churches" as well. One seeks "to offer atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, and freethinkers all the educational, inspirational, and social and emotional benefits of traditional faith-based churches" but without God.
What can Christians learn from the growth of atheist churches? Even those who deny the existence of God (on the surface at least) acknowledge the need for and benefits of being part of a community. Even doubters want company in their denying! I suggest we view this positively and correspondingly strengthen the loving community we experience in our churches, while actively and enthusiastically worshipping the one true living God.
(Dane Fowlkes, Pastor)
The rise of "atheist churches" is an oxymoronic fact in our culture. One of the fastest-growing is in London. Its leader asks, "Why is it that people who are atheists get married in a church?" He then answers his question: "There is just something about these places, it's a place of worship, where people have gone for more than 400 years and it's the sort of place where your heart can rise up to those inspired things which is great."
We might expect "atheist churches" in England, where Christianity has been in decline for decades. But what about Houston, Texas, arguably the "buckle of the Bible belt"? A group called Houston Oasis describes itself as "a community grounded in reason, celebrating the human experience." The group was founded by Mike Aus, a onetime Lutheran pastor who is now an atheist. He states, "We are open to any message about life as long as no dogmatic claims are made." However, Houston Oasis's website makes six such dogmatic claims. The first: "People are more important than beliefs." Is this a belief?
Dallas is home to several such "churches" as well. One seeks "to offer atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, and freethinkers all the educational, inspirational, and social and emotional benefits of traditional faith-based churches" but without God.
What can Christians learn from the growth of atheist churches? Even those who deny the existence of God (on the surface at least) acknowledge the need for and benefits of being part of a community. Even doubters want company in their denying! I suggest we view this positively and correspondingly strengthen the loving community we experience in our churches, while actively and enthusiastically worshipping the one true living God.
(Dane Fowlkes, Pastor)
Friday, May 10, 2013
Who Rocks The Cradle
May 12 is Mother's Day. The holiday began with Anna Jarvis as a way to remember her own mother, the wife of a Methodist minister in Grafton, West Virginia. Two years after her mother's death, Anna held a memorial service for her on the second Sunday in May, the day she had died. The church was filled with 500 carnations, her mother's favorite flower.
Jarvis was so moved by the service that she started a letter-writing campaign to establish a formal holiday honoring mothers. In 1910, West Virginia officially recognized "Mother's Day." Five years later, President Woodrow Wilson signed the law making Mother's Day, the second Sunday in May, a national holiday.
Mothers still have a transforming influence on our lives and our culture. Personally, I cannot begin to describe the enormous impact of my mother on my life. I can certainly relate to Abraham Lincoln when he said, "All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." Dwight Moody agreed: "All that I have ever accomplished in life, I owe to my mother." Charles Spurgeon testified, "I cannot tell how much I owe to the solemn words of my good mother."
It was William Ross Wallace who coined the phrase, "the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world." The following is the poem that contains that prophetic line:
Blessings on the hand of women!
Angels guard its strength and grace.
In the palace, cottage, hovel,
Oh, no matter where the place;
Would that never storms assailed it,
Rainbows ever gently curled,
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
Infancy's the tender fountain,
Power may with beauty flow,
Mothers first to guide the streamlets,
From them souls unresting grow—
Grow on for the good or evil,
Sunshine streamed or evil hurled,
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
Woman, how divine your mission,
Here upon our natal sod;
Keep—oh, keep the young heart open
Always to the breath of God!
All true trophies of the ages
Are from mother-love impearled,
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
Blessings on the hand of women!
Fathers, sons and daughters cry,
And the sacred song is mingled
With the worship in the sky—
Mingles where no tempest darkens,
Rainbows evermore are hurled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
(Dane Fowlkes, Pastor)
Jarvis was so moved by the service that she started a letter-writing campaign to establish a formal holiday honoring mothers. In 1910, West Virginia officially recognized "Mother's Day." Five years later, President Woodrow Wilson signed the law making Mother's Day, the second Sunday in May, a national holiday.
Mothers still have a transforming influence on our lives and our culture. Personally, I cannot begin to describe the enormous impact of my mother on my life. I can certainly relate to Abraham Lincoln when he said, "All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." Dwight Moody agreed: "All that I have ever accomplished in life, I owe to my mother." Charles Spurgeon testified, "I cannot tell how much I owe to the solemn words of my good mother."
It was William Ross Wallace who coined the phrase, "the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world." The following is the poem that contains that prophetic line:
Blessings on the hand of women!
Angels guard its strength and grace.
In the palace, cottage, hovel,
Oh, no matter where the place;
Would that never storms assailed it,
Rainbows ever gently curled,
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
Infancy's the tender fountain,
Power may with beauty flow,
Mothers first to guide the streamlets,
From them souls unresting grow—
Grow on for the good or evil,
Sunshine streamed or evil hurled,
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
Woman, how divine your mission,
Here upon our natal sod;
Keep—oh, keep the young heart open
Always to the breath of God!
All true trophies of the ages
Are from mother-love impearled,
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
Blessings on the hand of women!
Fathers, sons and daughters cry,
And the sacred song is mingled
With the worship in the sky—
Mingles where no tempest darkens,
Rainbows evermore are hurled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
(Dane Fowlkes, Pastor)
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Counted Worthy
"For which of you, intending to build a tower sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?" (Luke 14:28)
"Our Lord refers not to a cost we have to count, but to a cost which He has counted. The cost was those thirty years in Nazareth, those three years of popularity, scandal and hatred, the deep unfathomable agony in Gethsemane, and the onslaught at Calvary--the pivot upon which the whole of Time and Eternity turns (from Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His highest). Jesus has counted the cost and we are worth the sacrifice! The Cross was no knee-jerk reaction or hapless response to superior force. Christ's crucifixion was premeditated--purposed and strategized in eternity past. And the note of jubilance for us is that the plan was implemented for each one of us. We are the object of His inestimable love. We are the focal point of His grace! Relish today that love and grace that envelopes and undergirds you without limit and, then, experience the rush of His empowering Presence as you act out of that love in unfettered enthusiasm. We are free to love lavishly and serve extravagantly because He first counted the cost and declared us worthy.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Regret
Regret incapacitates, robbing physical strength and emotional resolve. Grace invigorates, restoring vitality of every sort and most importantly, hope.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Heart to Heart
Tomorrow morning, May 5, I will share another message in our special series of uplifting sermons at Bosqueville United Methodist Church. "Heart To Heart" will be the third installment in the series "Dancing With Father: Experiencing transforming intimacy with God." Taken largely from the Gospel of John, these studies focus on what it means in practical terms to enjoy a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
"Heart To Heart" deals with Jesus' intriguing statements concerning bearing fruit in John 15:1-11. In this study, we will carefully consider the following truths:
Discipline and pruning are acts of love from the Father's heart so that our heart belongs more fully to Him.
What God Wants--Mature Fruit. In order to produce this in each of us...
1. God Must Discipline Fruitless Lives. (15:2)
Hebrews 12:5-6
- God is the source of discipline.
- God disciplines all believers, but there are degrees of discipline.
- God always acts out of love.
2. God Intervenes So That We Will Be More Fruitful. (15:2, 4)
- Pruning is how God answers your prayers that your life will please Him more and have a greater impact for eternity.
- Pruning versus Discipline
- God doesn't work to take away, but to add.
- Prime points of pruning.
3. God Invites Fruitful Believers To Abide More Deeply With Him. (15:8)
- To break through to abiding, I must deepen the quality of my time with God.
- To break through to abiding, I must broaden my time with God.
Our worship begins at 10 am, and all are welcome for this time of celebration and reflection.
(Dane Fowlkes, Pastor)
"Heart To Heart" deals with Jesus' intriguing statements concerning bearing fruit in John 15:1-11. In this study, we will carefully consider the following truths:
Discipline and pruning are acts of love from the Father's heart so that our heart belongs more fully to Him.
What God Wants--Mature Fruit. In order to produce this in each of us...
1. God Must Discipline Fruitless Lives. (15:2)
Hebrews 12:5-6
- God is the source of discipline.
- God disciplines all believers, but there are degrees of discipline.
- God always acts out of love.
2. God Intervenes So That We Will Be More Fruitful. (15:2, 4)
- Pruning is how God answers your prayers that your life will please Him more and have a greater impact for eternity.
- Pruning versus Discipline
- God doesn't work to take away, but to add.
- Prime points of pruning.
3. God Invites Fruitful Believers To Abide More Deeply With Him. (15:8)
- To break through to abiding, I must deepen the quality of my time with God.
- To break through to abiding, I must broaden my time with God.
Our worship begins at 10 am, and all are welcome for this time of celebration and reflection.
(Dane Fowlkes, Pastor)
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Restoring the Original
In an interview with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Gloria Estefan describes her efforts in building and community restoration:
"I came to the U.S. when I was 18 months old and we, the Cuban community, in essence, have tried to transplant our culture here in Miami, everyone thought originally that we would be going back. At least our parents did. And as we grew and became part of the city, it was important for Emilio [her husband] and I both, to be a part of its growth in the business community and culturally as well. So through our music and our restaurants that we do we’ve tried to extend our Cuban culture that way and tried to preserve it.
I always used to come to the beach with my grandfather, every day practically, because we loved it. So when we first made some money I told Emilio I thought that it was important for us to invest in Miami Beach because I thought that you can’t recreate that Art Deco jewel that we have there.So we started buying different properties on Miami Beach. The first building that we bought was an old apartment building from the ‘30s; we restored that. We bought the Cardozo Hotel; we restored that. We bought a building in Lincoln Road; they had really done a number on that building, it was from 1929 or something like that if I remember correctly, and we restored it. We put back the balcony, we put back the courtyard -- everything that was there, we put it back to its original place. We had pictures of the whole thing and actually some plans too."
Reading this causes me to long for personal restoration--to be restored to what God originally intended for me to be: To think the way I was created to think, to love the way I was intended to love, to act the way I was fashioned to act.
"Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." (Psalms 51:10 KJV)
(Dane Fowlkes, Pastor)
"I came to the U.S. when I was 18 months old and we, the Cuban community, in essence, have tried to transplant our culture here in Miami, everyone thought originally that we would be going back. At least our parents did. And as we grew and became part of the city, it was important for Emilio [her husband] and I both, to be a part of its growth in the business community and culturally as well. So through our music and our restaurants that we do we’ve tried to extend our Cuban culture that way and tried to preserve it.
I always used to come to the beach with my grandfather, every day practically, because we loved it. So when we first made some money I told Emilio I thought that it was important for us to invest in Miami Beach because I thought that you can’t recreate that Art Deco jewel that we have there.So we started buying different properties on Miami Beach. The first building that we bought was an old apartment building from the ‘30s; we restored that. We bought the Cardozo Hotel; we restored that. We bought a building in Lincoln Road; they had really done a number on that building, it was from 1929 or something like that if I remember correctly, and we restored it. We put back the balcony, we put back the courtyard -- everything that was there, we put it back to its original place. We had pictures of the whole thing and actually some plans too."
Reading this causes me to long for personal restoration--to be restored to what God originally intended for me to be: To think the way I was created to think, to love the way I was intended to love, to act the way I was fashioned to act.
"Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." (Psalms 51:10 KJV)
(Dane Fowlkes, Pastor)
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Pray for Pakistan
It's good to remember that our praying makes a difference. We can pray for matters far removed from our homes and have confidence that God is at work and that intercession is critical. Today, I ask you to pray for an entire nation--the nation of Pakistan. You may have heard that history was recently made in Pakistan, because for the first time since the beginning of the nation, a civilian government completed its term without a takeover by the military or another group. The whole country is now anxiously awaiting the elections that are scheduled to take place on May 11. Please pray for the people of Pakistan as a new government comes to power, and petition for peace in the days leading up to and following the elections. Ask that the new government will enact positive changes for the country. And pray that whatever happens with the government, God will be glorified as more and more people in Pakistan hear and respond to the Good News.
(Dane Fowlkes, Pastor)
(Dane Fowlkes, Pastor)
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