Good morning!  


I hope you are having a great day.  I am enjoying the sunshine for a change.  I appreciate the rain (I haven’t had to water my tomato plants for two weeks), but it is really nice to see the sun.  The only problem is I have yard work that is getting way ahead of me.  My theory is it will get done eventually.  


This morning I thought I would follow up on Sunday’s message on Stephen being full of the Holy Spirit with a Bible promise and a story.  As a young man, Oswald Chambers, of My Utmost For His Highest fame, battled a persistent sense of barrenness in his Christian life.  He finally wrote:  I was desperate.  I knew no one who had what I wanted; in fact I did not know what I did want.  But I knew that if what I had was all the Christianity there was, the thing was a fraud.  Then Luke 11:13 got hold of me.


[In case you’re wondering, Luke 11:13 says, If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!]


To continue Oswald Chambers’ story, he attended a little meeting in Dunoon, where in the after meeting a lady asked them to pray and sang the song, “Touch me again, Lord”.  Oswald Chambers says, “I felt nothing, but I knew emphatically my time had come.  I rose to my feet.  Then and there I claimed the gift of the Holy Spirit in dogged committal on Luke 11:13.”

I had no vision of heaven or of angels; I had nothing.  I was as dry and empty as ever, no power or realization of God, no witness of the Holy Spirit.  Then I was asked to speak at a meeting and forty souls came out to the front!  I came to realize that God intended me, having asked, to simply take it by faith, and that power would be there.  I might see it only by the backward look, but I was to reckon on the fact that God would be with me.

From that point on, Oswald Chambers ministered with unusual power.  His words and writings touched people around the world, especially when he taught, as he frequently did, from his favorite verse, Luke 11:13.  And when Oswald died at an early age in Egypt during World War I, an old Australian soldier, whom he had led to Christ had a Bible carved in stone for his grave.  Its pages were turned to Luke 11:13.

I hope you are continuing to pray, as I am, for a fresh outpouring of God’s Spirit.  As we sang on Sunday, “Holy Spirit, Rain Down…”  Let’s claim the promise of Luke 11:13.  Oh, how we need His power!
Yours in Christ,


Pastor Barry
 
 
  Wow!  What a great weekend!  First of all let me say Thank You to all who made our community work day on Saturday such a huge success.  We had over 25 people (youth and adults) cleaning gutters, spreading mulch, planting flowers and pulling weeds at several locations around our city.  This is truly being the hands and feet of Christ.  Not only was this a great ministry, but we had a wonderful time of fun and fellowship.  We are already planning future “hands on” ministry events.  Its part of a theme you are going to be hearing a lot about this coming year—THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH MATTERS.
 
             All of this set the stage for a great Sunday of worship.  The youth and children’s choir did a great job on their mini-musical which focused on the cross as the “grace place”.  What a wonderful preparation for celebrating communion together.  Have you noticed how the Holy Spirit has just been putting things together lately?  It’s making Pastor Dale and I look like we are brilliantly organized, but in all honesty it’s the Lord.
 
             As I thought about our day of service I was reminded of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:16, “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”  Hopefully our light was shining on Saturday.  Yet, I am reminded that we have opportunities every day to be lights in an increasingly dark world.  Are we taking advantage of our opportunities?  How do we respond to a surly clerk at the supermarket, or a rude driver or a vision-impaired umpire at the little league game?  Our reactions often say as much about the state of our heart as our actions. Again, Jesus reminds us that “…the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man unclean. (Matthew 15:18).  As we go through this week, let’s ask God to make us aware of our reactions, as well as our actions.  May all we say and do point people to Jesus.  I hope you have a great week.
 
                                                                              Yours in Christ,
 
                                                                              Pastor Barry
 
 
           Good morning, Parkway congregation.  I hope your week is off to a great start.  I’m still trying to recover from our short trip to Indiana.  We had a great visit with our daughter, Jennifer, her husband Jason, and of course the golden retriever, Durden.  On Saturday, Jennifer, Jason and I ran in the Indianapolis 500 Mini-Marathon (1/2 marathon or 13.1 miles).  About half-way through the race the course includes a loop around the Brickyard where they run the Indianapolis 500 car race the end of this month.  It was cold and windy, but I was still pleased with my time of 2:07:54.  Rosemary enjoyed a grande cup of Chai latte tea and a read her book at Starbucks while we ran.  
             I was pleased to hear that you had a great Mother’s Day.  From all reports, Pastor Pam did a great job with the message.  I hope all of you Mom’s know how important you are.  Your job is without question the most important job in the world.  
             I’m reminded of the cute story about the second grade class that had a science lesson about magnets.  The next day on a quiz the teacher included this question.  “My name has six letters.  The first one is m and I pick things up.  What am I?”  When the test papers were graded the teacher was astonished to find that over 50% of the children wrote down the word MOTHER.
             Although I am sure at times many of you may feel like all you do is pick things up, in reality you do so much more.  Only you can heal a “boo-boo” with a kiss.  Only you can comfort a frightened child with a hug or heal a broken heart with cookies and milk.  You’re the one who always listens, who constantly offers encouragement, and who gives sage advice.  And Mom, perhaps your most important role is that of pointing your children to Jesus.  Not only do you do that through your words, but by your example.  My question to you this morning is how are you doing?  If your children followed you, would you lead them to Jesus or somewhere else?
             I love the words of Hannah, Samuel’s mother in the Old Testament.  She saw her children as a gift from the Lord.  She says, I asked the Lord to give me this child, and he has given me my request.  Now I am giving him to the Lord, and he will belong to the Lord his whole life.  (I Samuel 1:27-28 NLT)  Hannah was willing to sacrifice everything to see her son serving the Lord.  May we have that same kind of passion.  May we be faithful in praying daily for their spiritual as well as their physical well being.  Let me say again Mom’s, nothing you do in life is more important.  
             Hopefully, all of us took time this past weekend to honor our Moms and Grandmoms, realizing that whatever we did, it probably wasn’t enough.  Find a way this week, when it’s not expected, to let her know how much she is loved and appreciated.  
           
                                                      Yours for Christ,
                                                      Pastor Barry 
 
 
             It was great to be back at Parkway this past weekend.  We enjoyed visiting a small, historic (circa 1898), community Methodist Church on our vacation, but it wasn’t the same as home.  Parkway is truly a special place.
 
             For those who may not have heard, we had a great local church conference Sunday afternoon.  I think we finished in record time, and the fellowship meal was great.  I was in coconut heaven—coconut crème pie and coconut cake.  It doesn’t get any better than that!
 
             I was reading this week the story of Abraham interceding for the city of Sodom.  This is the first extended prayer recorded in the Bible.  What is interesting is that Abraham clearly believes that God may listen to his request.  He structures his argument carefully believing that he can possibly change God’s mind.  So he asks, “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?  What if there are fifty righteous people in the city?  Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?”  (Genesis 18:23-24) The Lord responds, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”  (Genesis 18: 26)  Abraham continues to negotiate, whittling the number down—forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty and finally ten.  In the end God spares Lot and his family even though there are only four of them.  Such is the power of prayer.
 
             Thomas Merton, as a young man, pursued with great success a career in literature.  But for reasons he did not fully understand, he felt drawn to spend some time in a religious community with men who devoted much of their days to prayer.  He wrote that when he left he was struck by the haste and anxiety of “normal” life: “My heart sank within me.  I thought:  ‘What am I getting into?  Is this the sort of thing I myself have been living in all these years?’”  The thought occurred to him that in some real way these few men devoted to prayer “are doing for their land what no army, no congress, no president could ever do as such:  they are winning for it the grace and the protection and the friendship of God.”
 
             None of us may know the true effects of our prayers this side of heaven, but prayer truly changes things!
 
             That’s why we are planning a special pre-National Day of Prayer service on Wednesday night.  Instead of our normal Bible Study we are going to devote the hour to worship and intercessory prayer.  We intend to pray for our nation, our leaders, and our church.  Even our youth and children are going to participate.  We hope you will plan to join us.  Exciting things happen when God’s people meet to pray!
 
 
                                                                              Have a great week!
                                                                              Pastor Barry