November, 2004
up-team.org
PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING
W ell, the elections for 2004 are over.
About 50 people at the Old Stone
Church and the same number at St. Andrew
Presbyterian gathered on the evening of
November 1 to pray for God’s will to be done.
Putting political parties and
candidates aside, it is clear that
God’s Spirit was moving across
this nation. Concern for moral
and spiritual values rose to the top
and carried the day. Once again, as in
August, as our prayers joined with
millions of others around the nation, I
believe God is telling us that He hears us,
that He want to revive us, He wants to bless
us. So, prayer is now more important than
ever. But, heck, one of our UP Team
members says it much better than I can, in a
letter I just received: “Dear Brother Bob: I
just had to drop you a line to give praise to
God for the victory in the November 2
election. And even the polls have had to
admit that we as Christians have a part in the
way it came to pass, in our stand for what is
moral and right. And I see a need for that
action as a priority in other ways in our
prayer time…Just think of it like this: One of
the major telecommunications conglomerates
has for its corporate motto, ‘Going Beyond
the Call.’ The intent of that motto is to let
potential and current customers know that
their company will do more than just answer
service calls, they will anticipate future
service needs by offering a host of
telecommunication options from local
telephone services to satellite network TV.
Going beyond the call means stepping out of
the proverbial business comfort zone and
actively engaging in community service needs
as well as anticipating future needs. In some
sense that is what being a follower of Jesus is
all about. Being a follower is more than just
saying you are a follower but also doing what
a follower should do. It is going beyond the
call. In Mark 12 when Jesus was asked what
the greatest commandment was…He
answered, ‘The first of all commandments is
‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord
is one. And you shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with all your soul, with all
your mind, and with all your strength…And
the second, like it, is this: You shall love your
neighbor as yourself. There is no other
commandment greater than these.’”
According to Jesus, loving God is more than
just saying you love God, it is showing it
through your actions. And loving our
neighbor as we do ourselves is more than just
saying we do, it is showing it through actions
and attitudes toward others. Some time ago I
came across a poem that speaks of this
concept of going beyond the call. I don’t
know who wrote it, but the message is very
clear. It is titled,
“I Will Do More”:
“I will do more than belong, I will
participate.
I will do more than care, I will help.
I will do more than believe, I will practice.
I will do more than be fair, I will be kind.
I will do more than forgive, I will love.
I will do more than earn, I will enrich.
I will do more than teach, I will serve.
I will do more than live, I will grow.
I will do more than be friendly, I will be a
friend.”
Going beyond the call together, in prayer and
action, dear brother, and looking forward to
our next gathering – till then, yours in Christ,
Frank.” Thank you, Frank! Frank Kitchens
is a member of the Government Sector and a
member of Keystone Assembly of God.
NEXT GATHERING
W Well, since Frank wrote that he is
looking forward to the next gathering,
this is a perfect time to announce it. On
January 28 and 29 there will be a
gathering at Stonecroft Conference
Center as a “Marketplace Prayer
Summit.” Everyone is invited –
not just the UP Team, but
Christians from near and far who
can commit the time, both lay people and
clergy. We will be sending out more
formal information, but here is a
summary of the event: Friday evening,
January 28, from
6 p.m. to 9 p.m., and Saturday, Januray 29,
from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. There is no charge,
lunch on Saturday is provided, and no
offering will be taken. There will be two
facilitators for this time of prayer: Lewis
Schultz, a pastor from Minneapolis and
experienced in summit-style and prayer; and
Pastor Howard Boyd of Branson Hills
Assembly of God Church. In order to plan
for lunch, it will be necessary for participants
to pre-register. Please call me at 336-7076
with names and the number of people.
Spread the word! If you have not
participated in one of these extended prayer
events, you will experience a beautiful
presence of God and unity among the Body of
Christ.
A REFLECTION
J ohn Baltes, the President of the SDC
Foundation, and I do “Scripture
Journaling.” We each read the
same Scriptures for about a
two week period (we are
using the One Year
Bible), write down
notes/prayers and then
share thoughts and
insights – and the Holy Spirit
invariably enriches the time with deeper
revelations of God’s plan and love. The Old
Testament readings are currently from the
prophetic books; recently a passage in Ezekiel
just jumped off the page. It fits perfectly with
our theme in recent Newsletters of the
importance and power of prayer. First,
prayerfully reflect on Ezekiel 9: 1ff: “Then I
heard him call out in a loud voice, ‘Bring the
guards of the city here, each with a weapon in
his hand. And I saw six men coming…each
with a deadly weapon in his hand. With them
was a man clothed in linen who had a writing
kit at his side. They came in and stood beside
the bronze altar. Now the glory of the God of
Israel went up from above the cherubim, where
it had been, and moved to the threshold of the
temple. Then the Lord called to the man
clothed in linen who had the writing kit at his
side and said to him, ‘Go throughout the city of
Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of
those who grieve and lament over all the
detestable things that are done in it.’ As I
listened, he said to the others, ‘Follow him
through the city and kill, without showing pity
or compassion…but do not touch anyone who
has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary…Then
the man in linen with the writing kit at his side
brought back word, saying, ‘I have done as you
commanded.’ I was curious about the
significance of the linen, so I did a brief
search. Two uses in the Bible seemed very
significant. First, God instructed that the
tabernacle, the tent within which the Ark of
the Covenant rested (before
the construction of the
Temple) be made of fine
linen. Second, after Jesus
died and was taken down
from the cross, he was
wrapped in linen and
placed in the tomb. So, it
appears clear to me that the man clothed in
linen in Ezekiel’s vision is a foreshadowing of
Jesus. “Receiving the mark” is written of
three times in Scripture: In Revelation there
is the mark of the beast, the mark that
signifies apostasy from the truth, and there is
the mark, or seal, given to the 144,000 – a
positive mark in this case. So, too, in Ezekiel,
the mark is a positive one. God in the vision
was telling Ezekiel that he was about to
punish His people for their many sins of
idolatry, beginning with the people closest to
the Temple. But the man clothed in linen
marked the foreheads of the people who
recognized their sins and the sinfulness of the
people and were grieving and lamenting
(“crying out”) to God. They were the ones
who were spared. Now, the message for us is
not about who is spared and who is not. The
message is all about the importance of
intercession, of prayer, of crying out from the
heart. This is pleasing to God. The
“remnant” of the Church in our time is not
everyone who uses the title “Christian.” No,
the remnant consists of those Christians who
have sold out to God, who have
yielded their lives and seek to
obey, who put Jesus first
before anything and
anyone. The Holy Spirit
is sweeping through the
land, seeking people who
will stand in the gap (to use
another Ezekiel image) and
pray, plead, intercede for our area, our
nation, our world. Prayer unites the true
Body of Christ, and God’s grace moves
through the Body to touch individuals,
communities and nations.
EXAMPLE OF THE EARLY
CHURCH
T he following is from the “Proconsular
Acts of the Martyrdom of Cyprian” (an
early Church leader): “On the morning of
the fourteenth of September (in the year 258)
a great crowd gathered at the Villa Sexti, in
accordance with the order of the governor
Galerius Maximus. That same day the
governor commanded Cyprian to be brought
before him for trial…The governor said,
‘Have you posed as the leader of a
sacrilegious group?’ He answered, ‘I have.’
Galerius said, ‘Consider your position.’
Cyprian replied, ‘Follow your orders. In
such a just cause there is no
need for deliberation.’
Then Galerius, after
consulting with his
council, reluctantly
issued the following
judgment: ‘By your blood
the law shall be confirmed.’
Next he read the sentence from a tablet: ‘It is
decided that Thascius Cyprian should die by
the sword.’ Cyprian responded, ‘Thanks be
to God.’ After the sentence was passed, a
crowd of his fellow Christians said, ‘We
should also be killed with him!’ There arose
an uproar among the Christians, and a great
mob followed after him. Cyprian was then
brought out to the grounds of the Villa Sexti,
where, taking off his outer cloak and kneeling
on the ground, he fell before the Lord in
prayer.”
A PARABLE
T here was a couple who used to go to
England to shop in a beautiful antique
store. They both liked pottery, especially
teacups. Spotting an exceptional cup, they
asked, “May we see that? We’ve never seen a
cup quite so beautiful.” As
the lady handed it to
them, suddenly the
teacup spoke. “You
don’t understand,”
it said. “I have not
always been a teacup.
There was a time when I
was just a lump of red clay. My
master took me and rolled me and pounded
and patted me over and over and I yelled out,
‘Don’t do that! I don’t like it! Let me alone!’
But he only smiled and gently said, ‘not yet.’
Then, wham, I was placed on a spinning
wheel and suddenly I was spun around and
around. ‘Stop it! I’m getting so dizzy! ‘I’m
going to be sick!,’ I screamed. But the master
only nodded and quietly said, ‘Not yet.’ He
spun me and poked and prodded and bent me
out of shape to suit himself and then – then he
put me in the oven! I never felt such heat. I
yelled and knocked and pounded at the door.
‘Help! Get me out of here!’ I could see him
through the opening and I could read his lips
as he shook his head from side to side. ‘Not
yet.’ When I thought I couldn’t bear it
another minute, the door opened. He
carefully took me out and put me on the shelf,
and I began to cool. Oh, that felt so good!
But after I cooled he picked me up and he
painted me all over. The fumes were
horrible; I thought I was going to gag. ‘Oh,
please, stop it!’ I cried. He only shook his
head and said, ‘Not yet.’ Then suddenly he
put me back in the oven. Only it was not like
the first one; this one was twice as hot and I
just knew I would suffocate. I begged. I
screamed. I pleaded. I cried. I was
convinced that I would never make it. Just as
I was ready to give up, the door opened and
he took me out and again placed me on the
shelf, where I cooled and waited – and waited,
wondering what he was going to do next. An
hour later he handed me a mirror and said,
‘Look at yourself!’ And I did. I said, ‘That’s
not me; that can’t be me. It’s beautiful. I’m
beautiful.’ Quietly he spoke, ‘I want you to
remember. I know it hurt to be rolled and
pounded and patted, but had I just left you
alone, you’d have dried up. I know it made
you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I
had stopped, you would have crumbled. I
know it hurt and it was hot and disagreeable
in the oven, but if I hadn’t put you there, you
would have cracked. I know the fumes were
bad when I painted you all over, but if I
hadn’t done that, you would not have had any
color in your life. If I had not put you in that
second oven, you would not
have hardened; you would
not have survived for long
because the hardness would not have held.
Now you are a finished product. Now you are
what I had in mind when I first began with
you.’” We can each write on our hearts our
own moral to this story.
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
I
had some “good” comments about the
puns last month, so here are three more:
1) The friars were behind on their belfry
payments, so they opened a small flower shop
to raise funds. Since everyone liked to buy
flowers from the men of God, a rival florist
across town thought the competition was
unfair. He asked them to close down, but
they did not. So, the rival florist hired Hugh
McTaggert, the roughest and most vicious
thug in town to “persuade”
them to close. Hugh beat
up the friars and trashed
their store, saying he’d be
back if they did not close
up shop. Terrified, they
did so, thereby proving that (ready?): “Only
Hugh can prevent florist friars.” 2) There was
the person who sent ten different puns to his
friends, with the hope that at least one of the
puns would make them laugh. “No pun in ten
did!” 3) A good king and a wicked king were
waging war. The good king hired a famous
count who was a consultant on war strategy.
Sure enough, the good king began winning
the war. The bad king, however, captured
the count and took him to his torture
chamber. He told the count that if he would
not share his plans, he would have him
tortured. The count said, “Never!” So, after
terrible torture, including the rack, the count
was near death. The wicked king asked him
again to help him, but the count said in a
weak voice, “Never.” So the king had him
taken to the place of execution and told the
count that he had one last chance. The count
said, “Never.” So, the drums rolled, the
count’s head was placed on the block and the
hooded executioner began to carry out the
execution. Just as the axe was swinging
down, the count cried out, “Wait, I will tell
you!” But it was too late, and off went his
head. Well, there is a moral to this sad story:
“Don’t hatchet your counts before they
chicken!”
DID YOU KNOW?
A
s you walk up the steps to the building
which houses the U.S. Supreme Court,
you can see near the top of the building a row
of the world’s lawgivers and each one is
facing one in the middle who is facing
forward with a full frontal view. It is Moses,
and he is holding
the Ten
Commandments…
As you enter the
Supreme Court
courtroom, the two
huge oak doors
have the Ten
Commandments
engraved on each lower portion of each
door…As you sit inside the courtroom, you
can see the wall, right above where the
Supreme Court judges sit, a display of the
Ten Commandments…There are Bible verses
etched in stone all over the Federal buildings
and monuments in Washington, D.C…James
Madison, the fourth president, made the
following statement: “We have staked the
whole of all our political institutions upon the
capacity of mankind for self-government,
upon the capacity of each and all of us to
govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to
sustain ourselves according to the Ten
Commandments of God…Patrick Henry said,
“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too
often that this great nation was founded not
by religionists but by Christians, not on
religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ…
Thomas Jefferson worried that the Courts
would overstep their authority and instead of
interpreting the law would begin making
law…The very first Supreme Court Justice,
John Jay, said: “Americans should select and
prefer Christians as their rulers.” So, I ask,
what have we come to??? This is one reason
why fervent prayer is so vital.
SO, PRAYERS FOR OUR NATION
(From “Pray for Our Nation”) “Father,
in the name of Jesus, I bring our
Supreme Court Justices before You.
Knowing that they are appointed by man, I
pray that You would influence the selection of
each new replacement. May they be people
who will judge rightly in every matter
brought before them. As our Supreme Court
makes its decisions, I pray that its decrees
would be Your decrees. I desire that, by
Your hand, godly justice would rise up within
our justices and that they would make rulings
in line with Your will. We give You thanks,
dear Father, knowing it is Your good
pleasure and will to work in
every level of
government.”…”Father,
in the name of Jesus, I
pray for the great sleeping
giant, the Church, who
even now has begun
to shake herself
from her sleep. I
pray she would
awake to
righteousness and holiness in every
denomination, in every body of believers, and
slumber no longer. I pray we would begin to
unify under the blood-stained banner of the
Cross and preach the Gospel of the kingdom
clearly and boldly in every highway and
byway of our nation. I pray that we will not
only stand up and speak up but that we will
begin to reap a great harvest in our nation,
bringing multitudes to the saving knowledge
of Jesus Christ. May the revival of the saints
be so all-encompassing that it affects the
spiritual complexion of our entire nation and
influences our politics, our economy, our
media and our entire society.”
A SPIRITUAL GROWING TIP
(From “FOODFORTHOUGHT”) “James
Bender, in his book, “How to Talk
Well,” relates the story of a farmer who grew
award-winning corn. Each year he entered
his corn in the State fair, it won a blue
ribbon. One year a newspaper reporter
interviewed him and learned something
interesting about how he grew it. The
reporter discovered that the farmer
shared his seed corn with his
neighbors. ‘How can you
afford to share your best seed
corn with your neighbors,
when they are entering
in the competition with
yours each year?’ the
reporter asked. ‘Why,
sir,’ said the farmer,
‘didn’t you know? The wind picks up pollen
from the ripening corn and swirls it from
field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior
corn, cross- pollination will steadily degrade
the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good
corn, I must help my neighbors grow good
corn.’ He is much aware of the connectedness
of life. His corn cannot improve unless his
neighbor’s corn also improves. So it is with
our lives. Those who choose to live in peace
must help their neighbors to live in peace.
Those who choose to live well must help
others to live well, for the value of life is
measured by the lives it touches. And those
who choose to be happy must help others to
find happiness, for the welfare of each is
bound up with the welfare of all. So, if you
have something good, don’t keep it to
yourself, but share it. It is when we give that
we receive, and much more. Prayer: Lord
God, have mercy on your people and heal the
divisions in the Body of Christ. May all
Christian people throughout the world attain
the unity for which Jesus prayed on the eve of
His sacrifice. Renew in us the power of the
Spirit that we may be a sign of that unity and IN CONCLUSION
a means of its growth. Increase in us a
fervent love for all our brothers and sisters in
Christ.”
P lease pray for the growth of the UP
Team to the goal of 24/7 prayer and
beyond. We are about 36 slots away from
filling all weekly hour slots (but, praise God,
PRAYER REQUEST we have about 200 hours of prayer each week,

G loria Cariker, the prayer leader of the

Social and Civic Services Sector and the
wife of Pastor Jim Cariker of Branson First
with some slots having multiple team
members). I fervently believe that God wants
us to reach 24/7. Spread the word by
Nazarene, has requested prayer regarding an planting seeds among intercessors you know.
issue as SMSU (close to home!). The Also, pray for the UP Team in Polk and
Nazarene Student Center is one of a number Cedar Counties, and pray that other similar
of religious student teams spring up in NW Arkansas and in
organizations other places in Missouri.
under attack by
the SMSU Student God bless you and yours! Peace!
Government
Organization. The Bob Burton
issue is the
acceptance or non-
acceptance of openly homosexual students
who promote homosexual activity as
acceptable. The SGA is trying to revoke the
constitutions of any student organizations
which do not comply…On the same subject,
just recently on the Christian radio talk show,
Point of View, there was a discussion of a
public school district in Kentucky that has
endorsed Gay/Straight Student Clubs. The
reason? The ACLU threatened to take the
district to court and bankrupt it through legal
fees…Oh, by the way, speaking of Point of
View: This straight-talking talk and
interview program is on our local Christian
radio station, KLFC (88.1 FM) from 1 p.m. to
2 p.m. Right in the middle, during a break,
yours truly, has a three minute spot on
Monday through Friday entitled
“Reflections”. Silver Dollar City is paying for
the spot through March of next year. I am
not trying to promote myself! I almost did
not mention this, but it did not seem right to
bypass an opportunity to
put in a plug for KLFC.
The owners, Herb and
Vicky Smith, are wonderful
Christian folks, as are all the staff and
volunteers (including their son, Darrin).