Randy Greenwald

Jehovah-mekoddishkem

On September 4, 2010

As we continue to post the Sunday morning pastoral prayers from Covenant Presbyterian Church, here is the prayer from this past Sunday.
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Pastoral Prayer
Covenant Presbyterian Church, Oviedo, Florida
8/29/2010
Jon Boardman

Jehovah-mekoddishkem – “The LORD who makes you holy”

In the latter section of Exodus, Moses described the practical operations and implementations of God’s covenant, which began on Mt. Sinai and continued into the wilderness.

As the people of God moved on from Mt. Sinai, the place where God had revealed Himself and His commandments, they were headed for the unknown land of promise. They must have wondered: would God be with them on the journey?

God assured them that He would! He was the One who made provisions for his presence during their travels via the tabernacle and the priesthood.

Another such provision was the Sabbath, a day of rest, which was an important distinguishing feature between God’s people and the other nations. In Exodus 31:13, the LORD said to Moses, “You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for generations to come, so you may know that I am [Jehovah-mekoddishkem] the LORD, who makes you holy.”

We observe the Sabbath because God has set apart this day as holy, just as He has set us apart as holy. He is sanctifying us; he is making us holy. Why? So that He would be present with us along the journey to the Promised Land.

Let us go to Him with gratitude in prayer.

Jehovah-mekoddishkem,

we are deeply moved that You should make provision for us through Your Son, Jesus Christ, so that we might dwell with You and be in Your presence.

We are humbled by the fact that You saved us by Your mighty hand, You redeemed us from sin, and You set us apart as Your people.

We belong to You. We are Your prized possession. We take comfort in these truths, we take comfort in Your presence, and we take comfort in the provisions You give us in life’s journey.

We are especially grateful for the rest You give us along the way.

Each week we come together to worship You and build up each other.

Each week You give us the means of grace to live each day for You.

We thank You, LORD, for our church, our pastor, our elders, our deacons, our staff, our worship team, our youth and children’s ministry volunteers, Women in the Church, and the body of Christ.

We ask that all the people in Your church would be strengthened by You and would find rest in You.

Just as You taught Moses and the Israelites, we ask that You teach us how to worship You and walk with our holy God.

Help us to see that we cannot make ourselves holy; we can only trust in You to do so.

Grow in us a desire to please You and to trust You in all areas of this journey.

We pray also for the move and the transition teams. Grant us all the necessary means to make this move smoothly and without problems.

LORD, You who make us holy, have carried Your people “on eagle’s wings” and sustained them through the desert experiences of life.

We pray for those in our midst who are walking through the desert at this time and are in need of Your rest.

We pray for those who need rest from their pain.

For those loved ones who battle cancer, disease, illnesses, and weakness of the body, like Jim, Lisa, Joseph and others, we ask for Your healing touch and rest from the pain.

For Henry, Kedric’s brother, we pray for quick healing of his broken leg.

We pray for those who need rest from their fears and anxieties.

For Your people who have broken hearts and shattered lives, we ask that You would give them a sense of Your sanctifying work and Your putting them together into Your image – mend and restore them.

And for those who are in need of work and financial relief, we ask for Your mercy and provisions in having their needs met.

Give them and all of us Your daily bread.

Finally, we lift up Your people who are serving You all around the globe.

You are building up Your kingdom and You have called us to be a part of it.

Thank You for that honor and thank You for our missionaries and our evangelists.

We ask that You give them the rest and sanctification they need to serve You well.

We lift up our sister Carol as she ministers through EPI in Kenya and Uganda. Keep her safe and healthy in her travels and embolden her to serve Your people.

Lord, we acknowledge that You are making us holy and You are calling us to Yourself.

We need not strive; we need only to be still and to trust in You.

And it is in the name of Jesus, Our Holy Lord, the God of our Sabbath, and Sanctifier of our Souls that we pray.

Amen.

Irritated with Worship Songs

By Randy

On September 3, 2010

In Uncategorized

Occasionally there comes an article that I wish I had written. Such is this rant about worship music. The author pinpoints so many faults in current worship music that one is moved to return to exclusive psalmody.

Two examples which have bothered me for some time are these:

2. It’s so repetitive. I mean, come on, how many times can you repeat “His steadfast love endures forever” before you start thinking the song is going to go on forever? Examples: here and here.

4. There might be too much emphasis on too intimate a relationship with God, using first-person singular pronouns like “me” and “I” or second-person pronouns like “you” instead of words like “we” and “God”. This fosters a spirit of individualism, and it generates an atmosphere of religious euphoria rather than actual worship of God. Worship should be about God, not about us. Or what about the ones that use physical language to describe God and our relationship with him? Can you really stomach the idea of tasting God?

Read the whole here. My link to this was here.

[Note: in glancing at the comments on the initial post, I realize, again, that some of us are ‘irony-challenged’. Read the whole and you will (should?) get it!]

The Future of OSX?

By Randy

On September 2, 2010

In Technology

Screen shot 2010-09-02 at 9.41.58 AM.png Mac users will understand the significance of this screen shot clipped from the release of iTunes 10.

Makes me wonder if the next release of the Mac OS will reflect the same change.

I know. Nothing earth shattering here. Time for Randy to return to sermon writing.

Win One for the —

By Randy

On September 1, 2010

In Sports

In light of my recent football themed post, and in light of the beginning of the college football season this week, this note:

The church I pastor is located near the campus of the University of Central Florida, a large university with a mediocre athletics program. Apparently to pump interest into the upcoming sports season, a Playboy Bunny, and I think alumna, graced the cover of a recent publication of the athletic department.

This led one online commentator to a local newspaper article about this to quip, “This year, let’s win one for the stripper.”

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[Those of you who are sport’s knowledge challenged will not find this funny, but for explanation, you can go here.]

Cracks in the Top

By Randy

On September 1, 2010

In Sports

One observation I’ve made over the years is that one cannot have unity in an organization if there is disunity in the leadership of that organization. I make this observation not to suggest that there is necessarily an intentional fostering of disunity in the body if there is disunity in the head. No, it simply is a reality that if the leadership of an organization is not united, that lack of unity, no matter how skillfully masked, will be reflected as a lack of unity in the organization.

An interesting illustration of this appeared in today’s Orlando Sentinel. Apparently, in the last years of Bobby Bowden’s tenure as the head football coach at Florida State University, there was serious disunity in the coaching staff.

Consider the scene after one practice early in October 2009. Former linebackers’ coach Chuck Amato gathered the media for an impromptu press conference. The reason? Amato wanted to dispute rumblings that he and Fisher had gotten into a fistfight on a plane (or in the team shower).

This is apparently just the extreme of what had been the norm. The result?

In years past Florida State’s divided staff created a divided team. The offense and defense rarely met together and rarely worked together. The locker room was separated by position segments, so that some offensive and defensive players rarely interacted.

That is surprising to me, but not so much when one sees the division at the top.

Gone, now, the article says, are locker room divisions. Why? Fisher’s explanation is that now “… everyone has a common goal and they don’t all think they invented it.”

Unity among the leadership will foster unity in the organization.

Fisher managed this partly by firing three guys and hiring some others. Organizations, such as churches, don’t often have that freedom. So, we have to work for unity.

To that end I highly recommend study and reflection upon this book by Patrick Lencioni: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

I long for churches to have “winning seasons” as much as some long for FSU to have one. May we who lead be those who have “a common goal and they don’t all think they invented it.”

Blended Orthodoxy

By Randy

On August 30, 2010

In Politics

Many have referenced or forwarded to me this well stated commentary on the rise of Fox News broadcaster Glenn Beck, as a spokesman for Christian orthodoxy. The blindness with which Christians so easily blend the gospel with a political position is a great sorrow to me, and it is one which this commentator, Russell Moore, exposes with sorrowful insight.

The church has walked this way before. Whenever we allow a person to meld Christian language with a political position, in the end, the Christian message will be harmed. All who support movement, in Beck, or any other, explicitly, or even implicitly by providing the audience, will share in the black spot which will befall the church when this blows apart, as every such movement eventually does.

What I have not seen others reference is Moore’s conclusion, printed below.

The answer to this scandal isn’t a retreat, as some would have it, to an allegedly apolitical isolation. Such attempts lead us right back here, in spades, to a hyper-political wasteland. If the churches are not forming consciences, consciences will be formed by the status quo, including whatever demagogues can yell the loudest or cry the hardest. The answer isn’t a narrowing sectarianism, retreating further and further into our enclaves. The answer includes local churches that preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and disciple their congregations to know the difference between the kingdom of God and the latest political whim.

This is convicting to the church, and challenging to pastors like myself. As many in our congregations mistakingly equate Christian orthodoxy with political conservatism, to critique that conservatism becomes an increasingly dicey proposition when such critique necessarily causes adherents to question the associated orthodoxy.

Nevertheless, we must have the insight, wisdom, and courage to do so, even if such puts us at odds with those who pay our bills.

Scribbling

By Randy

On August 30, 2010

In Uncategorized

I think I will change the name of this blog to ‘Scribblings’. Though it’s been some time since my last post, I continue to scribble notes for possible posts.

If all I had to do was post the scribblings, I’d be here with much greater frequency.

At this point I have exactly 100 scribbled but undeveloped blog posts on the computer, several literally scribbled on notes of paper, and one or two in my head.

I have a friend who says that I should not take too much time in preparing blog posts, but that the nature of the medium means I am to just, in his words, ‘let it rip’.

As fun as that would be, it is a scary thought. I can get in enough trouble when I’ve carefully thought about what I want to say. Shooting from the hip for me leads to shooting myself in the foot. Can’t go there.

I’ve not had any time to really even ‘let it rip’ though. In my new world, there is not the margin in my rhythms that blogging once filled. I will find them again.

Jehovah-rapha

By Randy

On August 21, 2010

In Prayer

Here is the pastoral prayer from Covenant Presbyterian Church in Oviedo, Florida for last Sunday, August 15, 2010, which ruling elder Jon Boardman has consented to share with us. Even if you do not know the stories of the people named, this prayer is a good reflection on our Father’s heart for us.
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Pastoral Prayer
Covenant Presbyterian Church, Oviedo, Florida
8/15/2010
Jon Boardman

Jehovah-rapha – “The LORD who heals”

When Moses led Israel from the Red Sea into the wilderness, the people wandered the desert for three days without water. When they came to the waters of Marah, it was too bitter to drink.

However, God made the water sweet, and the LORD made a decree: “If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am Jehovah-rapha [the LORD who heals].”

God is in the business of turning the bitterness of life into the sweetness of redemption. Our souls are sick, yet God heals us. Sin casts its mortal wound on our souls, but Jesus, the Shepherd and Guardian of our soul, has restored us. He is the Great Physician, the Balm of Gilead, and our Great Redeemer.

Let us seek his mercy and healing hand this morning.

Jehovah-rapha, we come to You this morning in great need of Your healing touch.

With the psalmist we declare: “Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases; he redeems my life from the pit and crowns me with love and compassion.” (Ps. 103:2-4).

It is to Your love and compassion we look.

We carry wounds with us that only Your loving, surgical hand can mend.

We have deep spiritual wounds, emotional and mental wounds, and physical wounds. Yet no wound is too great for You to heal.

This morning we pray for those with deep spiritual wounds.

Ours sins are many, but many of us carry sins and guilt that weigh us down and render us hopeless.

There are those in Your midst who live with secrets in their hearts that they even try to hide from You, but You know every area of their souls.

We pray for those who grapple with abiding sin or addictive behaviors.

We ask that you break the bonds of addiction, pornography, gambling, gossip, bitterness, unforgiveness, and hatred.

Often times our hearts are full of rage; they are overwhelmed with doubt; they are rebellious, blemished and lonely.

We fail to come to You because we feel shame for our sin and we feel contempt for ourselves or for You for not freeing us from it.

But You do have the power to free us from both our guilt and our condemnation.

Help us to know and trust the power of Christ and to know the truth that “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.”

We pray also for those with deep emotional and mental wounds.

There may exist bitterness due to unforgiveness, spite due to betrayal, hardness of heart due to ill-treatment, and deep anxiety due to abandonment.

Many of Your people have been deeply wounded by earthly relationships — by those who have abused rather than protected, by reckless fathers, by indifferent mothers, by jealous siblings, by prejudicial people, by malicious peers, or by careless friends.

We ask that You turn their sorrow into gladness and their fears into confidence.

We affirm the words of the psalmist who said that the LORD “heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”

We pray especially for those who are grieving the loss of a loved one.

Bind up their wounds and mend their hearts. We ask that as they walk through the valley of the shadow of death, they would find comfort and confidence in You.

We pray for those who have physical wounds. We know that not all physical illnesses are the consequences of personal sin, but some are.

If there is sin in our lives that brings illness, bring it to light, and help us to repent. Forgive us and heal us.

If the illness is due to other causes, we ask for Your mercy.

We ask for relief from the pain and anguish that disease and illnesses bring to our bodies.

Specifically, we pray for Lisa, Jim, Joseph, Rod’s grandson (Scott), and many of our loved ones who are wounded by such illness.

Turn their bitter diseases into the sweetness of life.

We also pray for our covenant children who face the prospect of being inflicted by so many wounds from sin, the world, and the devil.

As parents we cannot shield them from such wounds, but we trust in our Heavenly Father to protect them and heal them as they are confronted with the harshness of this side of heaven.

As our children return to school, public, private, or home, we ask that they would grow in faith and trust in You.

For all of us, we ask that You heal us and save us.

For You are our praise.

For it is in the name of Jesus we pray.

Amen.

Old Shuttles Never Die

By Randy

On August 20, 2010

In Uncategorized

They just fade away into a museum. In the case of the soon to end space shuttle program, museums are apparently jumping over themselves trying to, shall we say, ‘land’ the prize.

This was sent to me by a friend; not sure where to find it on line.

My vote is for the museum at the Wright-Patterson AF base near Dayton, Ohio. I have fond memories of that place.

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Shuttle Diplomacy: Museums Launch Bids for Retiring Space Planes
NASA Offers Orbiters Free, With One Catch: $29 Million in Shipping Costs

By DANIEL MICHAELS

WASHINGTON—The space shuttle fleet’s looming retirement ends an era—and launches a new space race. This one is on the ground, among museums scrambling to land one of the three orbiters.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration says it has received expressions of interest from 21 institutions. The competition has sparked intensive lobbying campaigns, massive fund-raising drives and a sprint for letters of support from astronauts, politicians and the public.

Because NASA has agreed to give the shuttle Discovery to the Smithsonian, one of the museums not selected for the newly retired shuttles will get the Enterprise, a shuttle prototype and a museum centerpiece.

NASA is offering the space planes free to qualified institutions as long as they pay for shipping and handling. The catch: those costs add up to $28.8 million per shuttle, including post-flight repairs and strapping the orbiters to a special 747 jumbo jet. The shuttles also must be displayed indoors, which for most museums means building a giant new structure.

“Everybody would love to have one, but very, very few museums can afford to transport and store one,” says Jay Miller, an aviation historian in Fort Worth, Texas.

Aviation museums haven’t scrambled like this since the Concorde retired in 2003. Then, operators Air France and British Airways received dozens of requests to host the supersonic jetliners. But that decision was simpler because there were 13 Concordes, and the airlines were free to choose the planes’ homes.

The current competition, says shuttle expert Dennis Jenkins, “is going to be stupider than Concorde was because the government is involved.” Mr. Jenkins, an aerospace engineer who wrote an exhaustive history of the shuttle program, predicts that after NASA officials decide, “Congress will immediately go into an uproar and un-decide for them.”

Legislators are already weighing in. New York Senator Charles Schumer in March addressed the Senate to stump for Manhattan’s Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, which proposed building a new structure next to the aircraft carrier Intrepid to house a shuttle. “It’s time to convince NASA that the Big Apple has the right stuff to showcase one of these iconic spacecraft,” he enthused.

Ohio’s entire congressional delegation in April wrote NASA to push for the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton. Florida Senator Bill Nelson—a former astronaut—has been working on behalf of the Kennedy Space Center.

The shuttles’ exact retirement date remains unclear, and politicians are bickering over what will succeed it. But NASA’s choice of retirement homes could come as soon as this fall, say people familiar with the deliberation.

To get a shuttle, museums must first be able to receive it. That requires a nearby runway where a jumbo jet can land. The shuttle must then be able to move from the tarmac to the museum without dismantling, which eliminates most locations.

France’s Cité de l’Espace outside Toulouse, which boasts the only remaining Soviet-built Mir space station, mulled asking for a shuttle several years ago. Crossing the Atlantic Ocean to Toulouse Airport posed no problem, says spokesman Olivier Sanguy. But driving the spacecraft eight miles would entail destroying and rebuilding highways, bridges, buildings and power lines. “The cost of travel from the airport would be more than the cost of the shuttle,” says Mr. Sanguy. He notes the issue is moot because NASA says shuttles will stay inside the U.S., with geographic distribution a key criterion.

Competitors must also be able to keep the space planes in climate-controlled conditions and away from the elements. Shuttles were designed to withstand extraordinary things like the near-vacuum of space, micrometeor showers and the furnace of re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere. Rain, on the other hand, is a problem. “They leak like a sieve,” says Mr. Jenkins.

The only museum currently ready for an orbiter is the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum. Its Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia, abutting Dulles International Airport, already houses Enterprise, a full-size prototype shuttle that NASA used to test the reusable space plane’s aerodynamics in the 1970s. But most of its insides were cannibalized over the years—and it never went into space.

“It’s not a real shuttle, but it’s unique,” said museum spokesman Frank McNally as he drove a golf cart beneath it on a recent afternoon. “It’s the only one you can see.”

NASA has said it will give the oldest surviving shuttle, Discovery, to the Smithsonian, which is the national repository of space history. NASA will select homes for the other shuttles, Atlantis and Endeavour. Two additional shuttles, Challenger and Columbia, were destroyed in fatal accidents. The Smithsonian will then offer Enterprise to a loser. “We realize we can’t be selfish and keep both,” says Smithsonian shuttle curator Valerie Neal.

Boosters of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton say they’ve got a strong case for Atlantis, which handled many missions for the Defense Department. The Pentagon helped design the shuttles, supplied many astronauts, and the Air Force even “saved the shuttle program in lean budget years during its development,” says museum spokesman Rob Bardua.

Seattle’s Museum of Flight has an edge thanks to its West Coast location, say handicappers. The museum also has close links to Boeing Co., which bought part of the company that built the shuttles in California, Rockwell International. The museum’s campaign is being led by former astronaut Bonnie Dunbar.

New Yorkers say Intrepid is ideal to fulfill NASA’s goal of giving shuttles maximum exposure, thanks to the city’s status as a tourist mecca and media capital. Intrepid, a decommissioned aircraft carrier, also has space history because it retrieved early astronauts on splashdown, says Executive Director Susan Marenoff. “It’s a no-brainer,” she says.

Bill Moore, chief operating officer of the Kennedy Space Center visitor complex, argues that his engineers can design the coolest exhibit. After all, each of the 132 shuttle missions lifted off from the center. “A shuttle’s not something that should be displayed on three wheels on concrete,” he says, suggesting the center would show its shuttle as it operates in space.

Ms. Neal at the Smithsonian says a key issue will be keeping the shuttles as intact as possible “for reference 100 years from now.” She has asked NASA to keep Discovery’s toilets and galleys installed, even though they won’t be visible to the public.

“Who knows,” muses Ms. Neal. “Maybe one day we’ll have some extraterrestrials come here to look at our space history.”

Jehovah-jireh

By Randy

On August 19, 2010

In Prayer

We are behind in our posting in general, and specifically behind in posting the prayers from the morning worship service of Covenant Presbyterian Church. We hope you are blessed by these.

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Pastoral Prayer
Covenant Presbyterian Church, Oviedo, Florida
8/8/2010
Jon Boardman

Jehovah-jireh = “The LORD will Provide”

This name is found in connection with a well-known Bible story: Genesis chapter 22, where Abraham is tested by God. As the story unfolds, we learn that Abraham has taken Isaac, the son who is to continue his legacy and covenant, to be sacrificed in the region of Moriah.

Just as Abraham is about to slay his son, the angel of the LORD calls out to him, stops him, and announces that he has passed the test. Then Abraham takes a ram, which he finds stuck in some thorns, and sacrifices it instead of Isaac.

Abraham was not only greatly relieved that day from having to sacrifice his son, but he was extremely grateful that God had provided a sacrificial substitute via the ram. Abraham was confident that God would fulfill His promises and provide for his needs.

The passage tells us that “Abraham called that place ‘The LORD will provide’ [Jehovah-jireh]. What a reassuring name and reality this was for Abraham. And this name continues to be a reassuring reality for us for we know that God still provides for His people today. So let us confidently pray to Jehovah-jireh this morning.

LORD, You are Jehovah-jireh,

and we are confident that You will provide for all our needs.

Forgive us when we confuse our needs with our wants.
Forgive us also for overemphasizing our material needs over our spiritual needs and vice versa OR for overemphasizing our emotional needs over our need for holiness and vice versa.

As Jehovah-jireh, You meet all our needs: for the Scriptures declare that “my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”

So we recognize that You provide for us on every level because You care for our whole being.

We look to You to give us what we need to grow closer to You and to reflect Your glory to the world.

We give You praise and thanks for supplying all that we need in this life to live for You.

We thank you for fulfilling our need for salvation.

You have made ultimate provision for our sins by sending Your son to be sacrificed on our behalf.

Jesus did for us what we were unable to do for ourselves, and now we can know You and have access to You through Your Son. Thank you Jesus!

We thank you for fulfilling our daily needs.

You give us our daily bread and You provide us with shelter and clothes.

We pray for those who struggle to have their daily needs met.

Be merciful and may Your church be Your arm of mercy to them.

We thank you for the many blessings You have bestowed on our church.

You have given us a pastor who ministers the word, a place where we can worship You, elders who shepherd, deacons who serve, staff who manage the daily operations of the church, a worship team who direct our thoughts to You, and volunteers who encourage and care for our children.

We thank You, LORD, that the needs of Your people are neither too small nor too large and neither too mundane nor too spiritual.

You care for Your people collectively and individually, locally and globally.

So we turn our thoughts and prayers toward them.

We thank you for the birth of Aria Dumas and the health of both mother and child.

We pray for your continued growth and protection for the Dumas family and for all families in our church.

We pray for Your provisions to those we support on the missions field.

We ask that You continue to provide the necessary means for them to serve You and that You protect them from the enemy.

We pray for those who serve You here – our domestic missionaries and evangelists.

We ask that You would supply them with the resources to spread the gospel.

Grant them the blessing to see the fruit of their labor and multiply their efforts.

We pray for those who are in need of Your healing touch. We ask that you provide them with Your strength and mercy.

We pray for those who are grieving the loss of a loved one. We ask that you provide them with Your comfort and grace.

We pray for all those in our midst who are enduring financial, marital, relational, psychological, spiritual, and emotional hardships. May they find in You rest for the weary and the grace to help them in their time of need.

Lord, You are Jehovah-jireh, and we place our trust in You.

We pray in Jesus’ name.

Amen.