Moving Day (for the Blog)

I have finally moved this blog to mattmusteric.com. I hope you'll join me there, either as a subscriber or an occasional reader. New posts will appear on that site.


My hope is to add content to this new platform and integrate some already existing content, such as my sermons podcast.

Sometime in early January 2013, this blog address will be shut down.

Special thanks to Michael Hyatt for his screencast "How to Launch a Self-Hosted WordPress Blog in 20 Minutes or Less" and his book Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, which I just finished.

See you at mattmusteric.com!

Go Joyfully About Your Work

Then go joyfully about your work.

That is how Martin Luther ends his instructions for Morning Prayer in his Small Catechism. For me, this is both a challenge and an invitation.

It is a challenge to bring joy to aspects of my work that seem, well, mundane.

But it is also an invitation to see the work I have been given for the day as God's work, as holy work, as meaningful work.

Say your prayers and then go joyfully about your work.

How does this challenge and inspire you today?

1000 Nos

Sometimes you have to say "No" to 1,000 things to say "Yes" to the one thing that matters.

Three summers ago, my wife and I took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. It is now a nine-week course that helps people focus on getting out of debt, building wealth and giving generously. (We are offering it this fall through our congregation if you are interested.) The explicit strength of this program is the debt snowball and sticking to a monthly budget. The implicit strength of this program is what I like to call 1,000 Nos.

Last August we finished paying off all our debt and are now working toward building our 3-6 month emergency fund. We still do a monthly budget, pay cash for everything and say "No" a lot.

I still joke about the discipline of 1,000 Nos. I say "No" to a lot of things I want but cannot afford. Saying "No" over and over and over again is actually... quite freeing. Because over time it allows me to say "Yes" to a whole new set of things.

What things have you said "No" to lately to say "Yes" to the main thing? 

One of Rob Bell's Nooma videos, "Shells," also does a nice job with this topic.

7 Ways to Witness at the County Fair

Why is it that the only booths that scare the hell out of me (literally) at the county fair are the ones run by Christians? Can't we do a better job of spreading the Gospel?

Here are some suggestions for how the treasure that is the Christian faith might better be shared on the midway.

1. Spend some money on better tracts. Instead of handing out little booklets that cost a nickel each, or some gimmicky plastic toy or a balloon, how about a nice summary about what you believe on card stock with nice lettering? And, for the love of God, stay away from Chick tracts.

2. Give out a nice story book about Jesus. Arch books are wonderful. Don't invite my child in with a "free story" and then start the bait and switch about salvation. It's tacky... and a little creepy.

3. If you're going to give out a copy of one of the Gospels, give out any one but the Gospel of John. Don't get me wrong, John's Gospel is beautiful, poetic and very deep theologically. In other words, more suited to those mature in the faith. If you simply want to introduce someone to Jesus for the first time, Matthew, Mark and Luke are all winners. (Note: I had a difficult time finding much online, other than what Ignatius Press offers, so if anyone is looking for a niche market, here's a hint.)

4. Enter the multimedia world. Voice of the Martyrs has produced a cartoon film called Jesus: He Lived Among Us. There are countless options, from The Nativity Story to The Gospel of John (see #3 however) to The Passion of the Christ. Do your own YouTube video about what mission-minded things your congregation is up to and then hand out bookmarks with a link and QR code.

5. Set up a prayer station. Bring the best of your prayer warriors. Set up a booth that reads clearly, "Listening post"... then listen to all of the problems people bring to you and offer to pray with them.

6. Feed the hungry. Set up a hunger-awareness station with handouts for ways to combat hunger, locally and globally. Put out a shopping cart for donations of canned goods. Promote local food pantries and hunger advocacy groups. Have a simple sign: Because Jesus says so...

7. Enlist local artists. Artists are woefully underpaid and under-appreciated. Pay some local artists really well to create an amazing mural during the fair. Have them do a section each day, so that it is not complete until the last day of the fair.

All of these stem from my conviction, based on Martin Luther's explanation of the third article of the Apostles' Creed, that is the Holy Spirit who does the converting. We are called to introduce people to Jesus and to share his message in word and action.

Finally, some kudos to my brothers and sisters in Christ who showed a dignified witness to the Gospel:

Bowling Green Christian Academy had elephant ears for $3.50, information about their school and were promoting an upcoming Christian concert.

The Gideons simply handed out New Testaments to 5th - 9th graders.

What is the best form of Christian witness you have observed?

What is the worst?

Memorial Day Prayer

One of the many things I love about the community in which I live is that it does Memorial Day well. Below are the invocation and benediction I gave today for the brief service honoring those who have died in service to our nation. I welcome your comments.

Memorial Day Service
Pemberville American Legion

Invocation
Almighty God, we give you thanks for our nation, the United States of America. Continue to shape us into a people who work for liberty and justice for all people.

 We give you thanks for all who have served bravely in our military, especially those who did so at the cost of their own lives.

We give you thanks for all who serve as military chaplains, who do the work of speaking your Word to the courageous, the fearful, the suffering, the wounded and the dying.

Bless and protect all who serve in our armed forces, at home and overseas, especially those we name before you now…

Bless the peacemakers, in our nation and around the world.

O Lord, we long for the day when your Kingdom will come in all its fullness, when there will be no more need for weapons and warfare, and when we will enjoy the peace that your Son Jesus gives to us.

In the name of this Jesus, your Son and our Lord, we pray. Amen.

Benediction 
May the LORD of glory bless us and keep us and our nation in his care.

May Jesus, the Prince of Peace, rule in our nation and in our lives.

And may the Holy Spirit give us strength and courage to do battle against all forces of evil.

 May the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be upon us and remain with us, now and forever. Amen.

Daily Prayer in a Busy Time

Writing about the importance of daily prayer during this busy time of year may seem about as wise as paddling upstream, but here we go anyway.

A member of the congregation I serve runs regularly. She struggles with reading the Bible daily. My life is just the opposite: I read Scripture regularly, but I struggle with even doing a little bit of exercise every day. We joke with each other quite often about this and try to encourage one another. My guess is that she sees exercise as absolutely indispensable, just something you do everyday if you want to maintain the life and body that God has given. The more I have thought about it, I see daily prayer and Scripture reading the same way.

So here are a few suggestions for getting that practice going in your own life:

1. Set aside a certain time of day. If we don't plan for it, it won't happen. You will have plenty of opportunities throughout the day for spontaneous prayer, but this is dedicated time to listen to God through God's word and to speak to God in prayer. I like to set aside morning time, since that is when I have the most energy, so I can give my "first fruits" to God (see Deuteronomy 26).

2. Find a reading plan. Whether you use a one year Bible or find a reading plan online, there are plenty to choose from. I find that reading a portion of the Psalms, the Gospels, the Old Testament, the New Testament and a chapter from Proverbs works for me.

3. Pray. Pray for the church, the world and all those who are in need. Two indispensable parts of my regular prayer life are the Psalms and the Lord's prayer.

4. When you fall down, get back up again. There will be a time when you will miss a day, or two, or ten. Instead of dwelling on what you didn't get done, get back in the game. Start today. What is the old adage? The best time to plant a tree is 25 years ago. The second best time is today.

In case you're curious, the format I use is below. I have tried all kinds of different devotional books, prayer books, prayer guides, etc. and keep gravitating back to this same pattern. Find what works for you and stick to it.

Opening versicle: O Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall declare your praise (from Psalm 51).
Gloria Patri: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit...
Psalms: one or two
Opening prayer
Gospel reading: part of a chapter
New Testament reading: part of a chapter
Old Testament reading: usually a full chapter
Proverbs: a corresponding chapter with the day of the month
Intercessory prayer for the church, the world, and those in need
Lord's Prayer
Closing prayer and blessing

That may sound ambitious, but I think the whole process takes about twenty minutes.

Comment and Engage: So what have you found most helpful about reading the Scriptures and praying every day? What have you found most frustrating?

It's What's for Dinner

Scripture: It's what's for dinner. And lunch. And breakfast. And snack.

One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord (Deuteronomy 8:3b).

This is the table prayer we are using for all our meals during Lent this year. Its frequent repetition has forced me to consider my own practice of eating, chewing and digesting the Scriptures (distinct but related acts, by the way).

The more I pray about eating the Scriptures, the hungrier I get for them. (It's one thing in Lent we don't need to fast from.)

Sometimes it's a full course meal. Mine is usually for breakfast. But I'm also intrigued by the "snack" approach. My children love snacks. There's the snack before breakfast, the snack after breakfast, the snack right after lunch, the late afternoon snack, the before-dinner snack, the five-minutes-after-dinner snack, and then the obligatory bedtime snack.

Nutritionist say they are on to something: Regular snacking actually facilitates good digestion and overall health.

Before you head out the door, make sure you pack your Scripture snack.

Yum.

Encountering God

Each year, I choose a new devotional book to work through. Last year I enjoyed Henri Nouwen's Bread for the Journey and By Way of the Desert, with daily excerpts from the Desert Fathers. I highly recommend both.

This year I discovered Eugene Peterson's The Message / Remix / Solo: An Uncommon Devotional (also available at NavPress). This devotional book contains an excerpt from Peterson's wonderfully-popular Bible translation, The Message, along with questions and guides for prayer and living out the Scriptures. He uses a modified form of the ancient Christian practice of lectio divina, "holy reading." Each day you are invited read, pray, reflect and live.

What I love about this devotional Bible is its strong emphasis on an encounter and relationship with God. Ideally, this is always the case when reading Scripture. However, in practical terms, sometimes our Bible reading takes the form of information gathering or searching for self-help material, rather than an encounter with the Living God.

Another gift of this devotional Bible is that every seventh day, you are invited simply to pause and reflect on the readings from the previous week.

If you're struggling with regular Scripture reading as a way to begin the New Year, I highly recommend The Message / Remix / Solo.

(While we're on the subject of readable Bible translations, one recent translation that's been getting a lot of buzz is the Common English Bible. Check it out.)

*Note: I do not receive any promotional benefits from any individuals or companies involved with the products named above. I simply have enjoyed them and recommend them.

Prayer as Listening

Let’s just get a few things on the table. The “listening” part of prayer is sometimes the most difficult part. When we pray to God, we do not always get an answer right back. Sometimes the silence is deafening. Sometimes the silence is frustrating. But for me what is even more frightening is when God does speak back to us: through the Scriptures, through other believers, through situations and events, or through creation.

First, the silence. The silence of God is something that I believe we need to grow increasingly accustomed to. When Elijah is on the mountaintop, running scared from Queen Jezebel, God does not come in the earthquake and wind and fire, but in the sound of sheer silence (1 Kings 19:12). The greatest answer to prayer, the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh, is done quietly, almost silently, as he is born in a manger in a small town: Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright. As Jesus is tried and beaten and sentenced to death, the first Christians looked to Isaiah to describe what has happened: Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth (Isaiah 53:7). And the most deafening silence of God is the silence of God the Son on the cross: the silence following the words It is finished and the silence of tomb. This is all to say that while we may find silence uncomfortable and frustrating, apparently God does not. In fact, silence seems to be one of God’s preferred ways of communicating with us, his creatures.

Second, when God speaks. If the silence of God can be deafening and overwhelming, then when God speaks—watch out! Have you ever had the experience of being deep in prayer and God answering you clearly and concretely through God’s creation, through situations and events, through other believers, or through Scripture? For me, the most humbling is when God speaks to me clearly and directly through his Word. The experience is overwhelming. Author Marva Dawn speaks of it as “God moving the bookmarks” (in our Bibles): God speaking a clear word to us through the Scriptures we read.

This also is a word of challenge to us. Hearing God speak through the Scriptures involves us taking time to read them and pray them and digest them. Eat this scroll, God says to Ezekiel (Ezekiel 3:3). Watch out, though, God often does not say what we want to hear!

 Lord, we give you thanks for your silence. Help us to be still and know that You are God. Lord, we give You thanks for Your Word. May we listen when You speak to us through the Scriptures. Lord, we give You thanks for speaking to us through our brothers and sisters in Christ. You are far more generous with us than we deserve. Make us ready to listen and quick to respond to what You ask of us. In the Name of Jesus our Lord. Amen.


[This article will be published in the monthly newsletter of the congregation I serve. Once it published, you can view it through our website.]

A Columbus Day Reflection

Columbus Day, I imagine, is a non-holiday for most of us. It probably evokes one of three reactions:

1. a vague reference to history: "Oh yeah, that guy who discovered America,"

2. a grieving of his legacy: Columbus as a representative of white colonial imperialism (see this e-card circulating on Facebook and Twitter), or

3. a chance to complain about how bank and postal service employees get the day off while the rest of us have to work. [I'm sure it's not worth the grief they get all day the next day, by the way.]

May I suggest a fourth? Columbus as metaphor: for discovery, for taking risk, for striking out and doing something new--even at great personal cost. Even if the Queen is partially financing it.

I imagine most of us sail along on someone else's boat, someone else's ocean, using a corporate-logo-inlaid compass of someone else's creation. We put the sails up and down day after day and rarely ask, "Where is this thing going anyway?" or "Is this a journey worth spending even a part of my life on?"

So how would I suggest we celebrate Columbus Day? Open your notebook to a blank page or take out a clean legal pad and start to dream, start to plan, start to chart new courses.

And if the current ship you're on (or you own!) is not worthy of your mission, make plans to change (or jump) ship, sooner than later.