The Eyes of Jesus Are Upon Me

When I got up this morning, I had this sensation that I was being watched. As I went to the kitchen to make the coffee...Hazelnut to be exact...I looked over my shoulder to see if anyone else was in the room.

As the coffee brewed I moved to the desktop computer to check news headlines. As my eyes were focused on the screen, I could sense other eyes watching my every move.

Then I went to the living room to begin this morning's quiet time with the Advent devotional guide compiled by our Children's Ministry at FBCP. When I closed my eyes to pray, somehow I perceived that other eyes were opened.

After a few more moments of praying for guidance, offering gratitude, and remembering the poor, the homeless, and those who are grieving during the holidays, I began to investigate the room more thoroughly. Everywhere I turned; there was Mary, Joseph, and a baby Jesus looking my way.

My wife, Amanda, loves to decorate for Christmas. We have four themed Christmas trees: a Santa tree, a music tree, a white ornament tree, and a favorite-ornaments-tree adorned mostly with ornaments given to us by friends, students, and parishioners. We also have an aging talking tree strategically located in the guest bathroom. Battalions of angels are also on display, including a chorus of wooden angels, tree-top angels, porcelain angels, crocheted angels, and a lighted angel atop the kitchen buffet who flaps her wings as if she is ready to launch.

Two fluffy stockings, one red and the other green, hang from the mantle below wooden block letters spelling J-O-Y and N-O-E-L. The other wooden blocks in the entertainment cabinet spell M-E-R-R-Y C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S! Assorted Dickens Village scenes are located on the shelves of the Entertainment Center and on the library table...all lighted and wintry scenes depicting a typical English holiday.

The Christmas cards that we receive are hung from doorframes and over the kitchen bar, some containing family photos, others portraying holiday scenes and inscribed with personal greetings. Our pink Christmas cactus is in full bloom on the computer desk and a few over-nourished Santas are scattered around like centurions guarding the Christmas goodies. One jolly ole Santa flips his lid because he is really a cookie jar, which, ironically, is empty.

The central attraction in our Christmas display is the nativity. As I surveyed our house in the quiet of the morning to see who was watching, I counted 13 manger scenes, each depicting a unique perspective on the real meaning of Christmas. Among the notable ones is a clear glass miniature grouping near the kitchen table. Another is a wooden set given to us by a Jewish craftsman in Birmingham. And the largest is a ceramic menagerie designed and painted by Amanda's mother, now neatly arranged on top of an antique sideboard under a spotlight in our foyer.

They're everywhere...thirteen editions of the babe-in-a-manger. It occurred to me that everywhere I go in our home, I see Jesus. But the more important epiphany is that everywhere I go, Jesus sees me. If my eyes are on Jesus, and the eyes of Jesus are upon me, I have no excuse for missing the real joy of Christmas this year.

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Advent

by Barry Howard

In early October when I made a quick stop in a local discount store to pick up a few general items, I couldn’t help but notice the strange combination of items in the promotional section near the front of the store. Half of the aisle was fully stocked with Halloween items…bright plastic jack-o-lanterns, various costumes and assorted Trick-or-Treat candies. The other half of the aisle was being stocked with Christmas items including miniature trees, boxes of lights, gift-wrapping paper, and colorful candy canes. To see the decorations of two separate holidays together on the same aisle seemed a little out of place.

Now, a month later, the turkeys have been gobbled up and the dressing has been devoured and we are in the week following Thanksgiving. Christmas music is playing on the radio, Christmas sale ads are blaring from flat panel screens, and bucket trucks are hanging aging ornaments on the light poles on main street.

In our home and on our church campus, multiple trees are decorated, lights are twinkling, and the aroma of scented candles fills the air. Just before our vespers service last Sunday evening, someone who was admiring the beauty of the décor said to me, “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.” “Not too fast,” I said. “It’s really beginning to look a lot like Advent.” We need the season of Advent to spiritually prepare for Christmas.

At my home church, a rural congregation who helped to shape and form my adolescent faith, we didn’t observe Advent. We proceeded directly from Thanksgiving to Christmas. In that tight-knit congregation, the sacred dates on our church calendar other than Christmas and Easter were Church Conference after worship service on the first Sunday, gospel singing on the fourth Sunday night, revival during the second full week in August, and homecoming the last Sunday in July. Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Passover, and Pentecost were not in my ecclesial vocabulary.

Later, as a young pastor, I was introduced to the colors and candles of Advent and my journey toward Christmas was upgraded and enriched. Today, I am convicted and convinced that as mission-driven Christians who live in a market-driven culture, we need the reflective disciplines of Advent to keep us alert to stealth forces like materialism, busyness, greed, and indifference…those deceptive grinches who would love to steal the real message and gifts of the season and replace them with superficial slogans and glamorous counterfeits.

I love a festive and joyful celebration of Christmas. However, to begin celebrating Christmas in October, November, or even early December, is like a parent trying to skip labor and delivery to go straight to the nursery. For a Christian, Advent is our progressive, devotional journey that culminates in grateful celebration when the Christ candle is lighted and the Christmas Star shines over the manger in Bethlehem.

During Advent in our church, we will prepare for Christmas by re-visiting the prophets, singing the carols, re-reading the gospels, and lighting the candles that re-energize our peace, hope, love, and joy. Then we will be better equipped to empathize with the anxiety of Mary and Joseph, to feel the labor pains of God, to celebrate the birth of the world’s most pivotal newborn, and to recognize both the singing of angels and the sobs of Rachel weeping.

If we take the time to revisit the biblical stories, to reclaim the joyful promises, and rekindle the fires of our faith, we may find that we are more than ready to follow Christ from the cradle to the cross and beyond.

The decorations are in place. The music has started. The Bible is open…and so are my mind, my heart, and my soul. This week it’s beginning to look a lot like Advent.

(Barry Howard serves as senior minister of the First Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida.)

Why Teddy Roosevelt Went to Church

by Barry Howard

Some people go to church regularly, some go occasionally, and others seldom go at all. How important is church participation? Are there good reasons that I should go to church?

Actually, the Bible calls on believers to be the church, and not just go to church. But to effectively be the church, believers need to faithfully gather with the other members of the body of Christ for equipping and encouragement.

Theodore Roosevelt, the twenty-sixth President of the United States, believed in attending and participating in church. In 1917, in an interview with Ladies Home Journal, President Roosevelt offered at least ten reasons for going to church:

1. In the actual world a churchless community, a community where men have abandoned and scoffed at or ignored their religious needs, is a community on the rapid downgrade.

2. Church work and church attendance mean the cultivation of the habit of feeling some responsibility for others and the sense of braced moral strength which prevents a relaxation of one’s own moral fiber.

3. There are enough holidays for most of us which can quite properly be devoted to pure holiday making... Sundays differ from other holidays--among other ways--in the fact that there are fifty-two of them every year... On Sunday, go to church.

4. Yes, I know all the excuses. I know that one can worship the Creator and dedicate oneself to good living in a grove of trees, or by a running brook, or in one’s own house, just as well as in church. But I also know as a matter of cold fact the average man does not thus worship or thus dedicate himself. If he strays away from church he does not spend his time in good works or lofty meditation. He looks over the colored supplement of the newspaper.

5. He may not hear a good sermon at church. But unless he is very unfortunate he will hear a sermon by a good man who, with his good wife, is engaged all the week long in a series of wearing, humdrum and important tasks for making hard lives a little easier.

6. He will listen to and take part in reading some beautiful passages from the Bible. And if he is not familiar with the Bible, he has suffered a loss.

7. He will probably take part in singing some good hymns.

8. He will meet and nod to, or speak to, good quiet, neighbors... He will come away feeling a little more charitably toward all the world, even toward those excessively foolish young men who regard churchgoing as rather a soft performance.

9. I advocate a man’s joining in church works for the sake of showing his faith by his works.

10. The man who does not in some way, active or not, connect himself with some active, working church misses many opportunities for helping his neighbors, and therefore, incidentally, for helping himself.

Eighty four years have passed since that historic interview with President Roosevelt. And church attendance and participation is still vitally important to faith development and Christian service. The scriptures advise us “not to give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another, even more as you see the day of the Lord approaching.” (Hebrews 10:25)

Why not go to church next Sunday and learn to be the church in your community everyday?

(Barry Howard serves as senior minister of the First Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida.)

Living the D-R-E-A-M

by Barry Howard

While perusing a vacation and tourism magazine as I waited at the doctor’s office for my name to be called, I couldn’t help but notice the large number of ads for resort and retirement communities inviting prospective residents to “come and live the dream.”

What comes to mind when you think about the dream life? Winning the lottery? Living in extravagant luxury? An easier job? Marital bliss? Early retirement? Perfect health?

Whatever your perspective, most of us think of a dream life as an upgrade in our circumstances, a life with fewer challenges, and a greater degree of comfort and convenience.

Is this really God’s dream for you? What if the challenges you and I face are actually the opportunities we have to participate in making God’s dream a reality?

In describing the “latter times,” the Old Testament prophet envisioned a faith community that is motivated by God-inspired dreams and visions of multiple generations:

²⁸ "And afterward,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions. Joel 2:28 NIV

Are you living out God’s dream and vision for your life? Are you assisting your church family in living out God’s dream and vision for your congregation?

The word “dream” has frequently been used as an acronym. When I “googled” DREAM as an acronym, I discovered that in education, DREAM can stand for “Discover the Reality of Education for All Minds.” In communication, DREAM means “Dynamically Reconfigurable Energy Aware Media.” In computing, DREAM can represent “Distributed Routing Effect Algorithm for Mobility.” In local government, DREAM can refer to “Downtown Restoration, Enhancement and Management.” In Orlando, DREAM stands for “Disney Resort Experiences are Magic.”

What does DREAM mean for the church? As we rise to new levels of commitment to confront the opportunities and challenges of our day, I suggest that DREAM means “Doing Risky, Encouraging, and Authentic Ministry.”

Let’s break down the DREAM:

• Doing- Be doers of the word and not hearers only. James 1:22 KJV
• Risky- So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul— men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Acts 15:25-26 NIV
• Encouraging-Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. I Thessalonians 5:11 NIV
• Authentic-Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Philippians 4:8a MSG
• Ministry- But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. II Timothy 4: 5 NIV

Though we are conditioned by our culture to think of the dream life in terms of prosperity, we are commissioned in the Bible to aspire to a DREAM life in terms of purpose and mission. In other words, the dreams and visions that are generated by the Spirit of God give your life and mine genuine significance. Comfort and convenience can lead to complacency. Dreams and visions lead to proactive, mission-driven living.

As a follower of Jesus, you really haven’t lived until you have lived the DREAM.

(Barry Howard serves as Senior Minister of the First Baptist Church of Pensacola, Florida.)

‘Tis the Season

by Barry Howard

How would you describe the season you are currently experiencing? I understand Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 to be a contemplative poem about the seasons of life. Rather than letting the seasons pass meaninglessly and letting life become “vanity,” the biblical writer encourages worshipers to interpret the seasons and maximize the opportunities within each one of them.

In my own time of reflection, I think about the seasons many of us are experiencing right now. Like in ancient times, it is still true that, There's an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth: Ecclesiastes 3:1 MSG.

Actually life in the 21^st century may have more numerous seasons than in previous eras, and the changing of the seasons may occur more abruptly, even concurrently. Perhaps if the poem were being written today, some of the seasons included would remarkably resemble the season you are in right now:

A time to celebrate and a time to lament,

A time to be single and a time to be married,

A time to keep your job and a time to transition to another vocation,

A time to pray for healing and a time for comfort care,

A time of feasting and a time of famine,

A time to be gentle and a time to be firm,

A time of grief and a time of joy,

A time to be independent and a time to seek assistance.

A time to spend and a time to save.

A time to think things through on your own and a time to seek the counsel of others,

A time to plan and a time to implement,

A time to worship and a time to serve,

A time to be patient and a time to be aggressive,

A time to wait and a time to wait no longer,

A time to think and a time to feel,

A time to consider options and a time to make a decision.

A time to lead and a time to be led.

-A personal reflection on Ecclesiastes 3

I can hardly read Ecclesiastes 3 without thinking about Romans 8:28 which reminds us that, In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (MSG).

Remember that no one season lasts forever, including seasons of discouragement, grief, and lamentation. Live life fully and faithfully in the season you are experiencing now, refusing to let the emotions of a change in seasons thwart your spiritual vitality.

Knowing that God is with us through all the seasons of life helps us to confront our challenges and seize our opportunities with courage and confidence.

(Barry Howard serves as senior minister at First Baptist Church of Pensacola.)

Starting with a Fury

by Barry Howard

Four years ago today, I made my first appearance on campus as pastor of First Baptist Church, a few days earlier than originally planned.

Amanda and I returned from a 24-day visit to China in late June of 2005. We made a few final visits with friends and family in Alabama and hit the road to Pensacola where I had been invited to serve as pastor at First Baptist Church. Our plan was to unpack and arrange our things in the missionary house on Lemmington Road during the week prior to my first Sunday. The church had planned for me to preach my first sermon on Sunday, July 10 and to spend my first day in the office on Monday, July 11.

The fireworks of Monday July 4 quickly gave way to the stormy winds of July 5. After the first day of unpacking, we awoke on July 6 to the howling of Hurricane Cindy, originally forecast to remain a tropical storm. To the amazement of local meteorologists, Cindy arrived as a category one hurricane.

As we were picking up limbs and sweeping the sidewalk awaiting the return of electrical power that was temporarily suspended by Cindy, all eyes turned to the rapidly forming storm cluster in the gulf that was bee-lining for the coast. On Thursday morning July 7, Governor Bush declared a mandatory evacuation of our new hometown. Hurricane Dennis was forecast to hit downtown Pensacola head on some time during Sunday morning.

After hearing the news on Thursday afternoon, I went to my new, yet unfurnished office and study at First Baptist Church and met with staff for the first time as pastor. After conferring with staff ministers and deacon leadership, my first official act, regrettably, was to cancel Sunday services, which to my knowledge was a first in the history of FBCP.

Because the repairs from Hurricane Ivan were not yet completed, there was a lot of work to be done to prepare the church campus for the approaching storm. The sanctuary and part of the music suite was still under a temporary roof and numerous leaks had yet to be addressed. We assembled an ad hoc work crew composed of staff and volunteers and began covering musical instruments, re-enforcing windows and doors, and assembling buckets, mops, and towels.

On Friday, the roadways were bumper to bumper as residents were leaving town. As our work force continued to fortify the campus, I met with officers from the Pensacola Police Department and learned of our church's tradition of housing officers and their families at the Christian Activities Center during storms. Because of its concrete structural integrity and its "higher ground" location, the CAC was utilized as a safe haven and temporary residence, allowing the officers to rest and refresh just a couple of blocks from the police department.

On Saturday, Pensacola was like a ghost town. Stores, businesses, and homes were boarded up but the sky was blue. Strong gusts and a high surf were the only signs that a significant storm was on the way.

After Amanda and I locked down the mission house, we took our air mattress, our sleeping bags, our flash lights, a stash of food, our short-wave radio, and a couple of changes of clothes, and we set up camp in the floor of the unfurnished pastor’s study on the church campus. Throughout the day and into the evening we were joined by 46 volunteers and staff members who were going to ride out the storm with us while trying to minimize further damage to the building.

I awoke around three o’clock on Sunday morning and went to room 220, a large adult classroom where we had set up a television and a few snack items. At that time I discovered that Dennis had intensified and could possibly hit downtown around noon on Sunday as a category four storm, much stronger than the category three previously forecast.

My imagination began to run wild. Having grown up in a tornado prone region of Alabama, I do not suffer from storm phobia. But as I listened to the forecast I was imagining the devastation a category four could inflict on the beautiful beaches of the Emerald Coast. I found myself wondering if the mission house, which was to be our temporary home, would still be standing and if any of our belongings would be found. I thought about the thousands of families who had evacuated the Panhandle and I wondered how many would return to be homeless. And then I thought about the stubborn and the foolish who were riding out the storm in wood frame waterfront homes, structures that would certainly not withstand a category four blast.

I don’t remember ever fearing for the safety of those riding out the storm on our campus. We are well above the flood zone. And the steel and concrete construction of our office space and lower education levels provides bunker-like security. However, I do specifically remember wondering whether the beautiful sanctuary, located atop the highest elevation in town, would survive the impact.

Around eight o’clock on Sunday morning, as our “storm troopers” were finishing breakfast, we began to spread the word that we would have a “come as you are” worship service in the chapel at nine. Six more local residents joined us on Sunday morning bringing our total attendance on campus to 56.

We sang a few hymns and I shared a message on “Listening for the Music in the Storm” from Isaiah 46. We closed with a prayer time for all of the persons affected by the storms.

As we departed the chapel, we were greeted with the face of Jim Cantori of The Weather Channel, standing underneath the “beachball” on Pensacola Beach, giving an updated forecast now projecting Dennis to hit as a category three storm, still aiming for downtown. Because we did not lose power until the eye was almost over us, we watched the approaching storm on radar, and noted the last minute joggle, which eventually re-directed the path of the storm over Escambia Bay. When the storm reached the more shallow waters near the coast, it actually made landfall as a category two. The news was getting better minute by minute.

Though damage to our community and our campus was minimal, watching the storm firsthand was an incredible experience. The first wave produced a fury of winds that shook the building. Utility poles were swaying like tall southern pine trees. Windows were rattling and sprouting new leaks due to the powerful wind gusts and the horizontal bullets of rain. Debris, including tree limbs, construction cones, roof shingles, displaced signage, and assorted garbage, was flying through the air in a multitude of directions. A portable restroom that had been located on the northwest corner of our campus for construction workers went air born like a missile, zooming toward our glass atrium doors before suddenly shifting direction, and landing harmlessly on its side in the east parking lot.

In contrast to Hurricane Ivan, which sat spinning over the Panhandle for hours, Dennis passed in less than an hour, and amazingly, left blue skies and sunshine in its wake. Our storm troopers left campus immediately following the storm to investigate the damage to their own homes, with most incurring minor afflictions. Because of the minimal damage, one news reporter dubbed the storm, Dennis the Menace.

Utility companies had most of the power restored to homes and businesses by Monday or Tuesday of the following week. Cleanup of the church campus began on Monday. By Wednesday we were ready for our Midweek Service. Evacuees returned home from adjoining states throughout the week.

On Sunday, July 17, as a much larger crowd gathered than on July 10, I became the first pastor in the history of the church to have a second first Sunday. And in retrospect, I can confirm that both first Sundays were memorable and significant in getting personally acquainted with the strengths of my new church family.

A Prayer for Independence Day 2009

Good and gracious God, you have given us the privilege and the responsibility of living in the most resourceful land in the world. From sea to shining sea most of us enjoy unparalleled freedom, comfortable homes, nutritious meals, preferred vocations, and unique religious liberty.

Even as we count the many wonderful blessings we share by living in this great land, we also sense that we live in times of heightened concern and anxiety. Our nation is engaged in a multi-national military conflict. Our economy is slowed by a recession. And in the past year we have elected a new president who needs divine guidance to lead our country.

These concerns remind us of our need to confess our sins, personally and collectively, and to embrace your plan for living life with purpose and integrity.

We confess that we have too often taken our freedom for granted and we have too frequently been negligent in fulfilling the responsibilities of our citizenship.

We confess that at times we are too quick to criticize and we are too slow to intercede prayerfully.

We confess that our self-interests have too often taken priority over your best intentions for our nation and for our world.

We confess that we have been negligent in our stewardship of health and wealth, often consuming compulsively when we should be managing carefully, investing wisely, and sharing generously.

We confess that we have too often trusted in our own initiatives and ingenuity more than we have trusted in you.

We pray with the psalmist, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.” (Psalm 51:1-3)

Therefore, as we prepare to celebrate this Independence Day, we ask you to, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10)

On this day, we pray for the leaders of our nation, our state, and our community that they will lead with moral courage, bipartisan cooperation, and wise discernment.

We pray for the men and women who serve in our nation’s military that they will perform their humanitarian mission with effectiveness and precision, and return home safely and soon.

We pray for our enemies that their swords, as well as ours, will be “turned into plowshares.”

We pray for the churches, cathedrals, and temples of our nation and our community that we will be lighthouses of grace and mercy, living our convictions with consistency, engaging our discourse with hospitality and civility.

Because you are the freedom-loving and grace-giving God, lead us to exercise our freedom responsibly and to pursue “liberty and justice for all” your children around the globe, especially the “least of these.”

We present our petition in the strong name of Jesus, the one who exemplifies the truth that makes us free indeed. Amen.