JP Gilliam

This morning, thirteen Mountaintoppers kicked off the church-wide week of prayer. For those of you who are more mathematically inclined, in a church of approximately 1200-1500, that’s somewhere around one percent.

A decidedly low voter turnout.

To push the metaphor to its breaking point, I know that many of you are mailing in “absentee ballots” of prayer all this week. I also know that it’s early, people work, kids have to be dressed and fed and carted to school, etc. But, let me repeat, your church needs you to be involved in this time of prayer, at church or at home, like our country needs an energized and commited electorate. These next months will be a decisive moment in Mountaintop’s history second only to Bill and Linda’s following God’s direction to start this branch of Christ’s Body eighteen years ago. It would be more than foolish to approach such a decision with nothing more than our own limited abilities and insight. Prayer invites God into the mix. In prayer we access His wisdom and discernment, His peace and clarity. In other words, our decision for our next leader becomes His decision for His next leader. So as they say, pray early and pray often.

Tuesday, let’s focus our prayers on our pastor, Bill Elder. Bill is a man of remarkable gifts as a leader and teacher. More than that, He is a man who seeks God, and does his best to follow and obey. He and Linda stepped out in deep faith to begin what was then Over the Mountain Community Church with no church or denominational backing, no salary, and little support. And because they did, thousands have heard that Jesus loved them enough to die for them and set them free forever.

Bill’s stroke last Christmas Eve has weakened him physically, and turned Linda’s attention to caring for her husband, but it hasn’t dampened in any way their love for God’s church and their desire to follow and obey.

So Tomorrow, please pray for clarity and wisdom for Bill and Linda the rest of their family as they chart the next steps for Mountaintop, their lives and their ministry. Pray for healing for Bill’s left side, for increased strength and stamina. Pray for strength for Linda to continue to care for Bill. Pray for their children and grandchildren. And give thanks for the impact their faithfulness has had on our lives, and the lives of thousands around the world.

Let’s pray for Pastor Bill.

Voting still amazes me. The most powerful nation in the history of the planet is equally influenced by everyone who bothers to take a few minutes, register, and color in a few ovals. Amazing stuff.

At our church, Mountaintop, we face a similar situation, a transition in leadership. For the past eighteen years, we have been led by an extraordinary man of God, Bill Elder. And it’s been quite a ride. But now the church looks to the future. It’s not immediate, but it is coming.

So what part do we, as the members of the Mountaintop family, play in this change? We pray. It is our vote, our voice. For some reason known only to Him, The Most Powerful Person in the Whole Universe is somehow influenced by every child of His who takes the time to talk for a while. The process is simple: we seek His heart and will by talking with Him, by listening. And like a good Dad, He talks, He listens, and grants the desires of hearts that beat in time with His.

So, Mountaintop family, we can approach this change on the horizon in one of two ways - we can sit back and wait for the answers from the elders, passive and hoping for the best. But really, how well does that work come election time? Or we can vote. By our united prayers and petitions we can ensure that our elders have all the wisdom, courage and discernment they need to see God’s choice clearly. We can pray for Him to prepare the heart of the next pastor, to make their path to our door clear. We can pray for right hearts, right motives. And we can pray that we’re ready to follow God’s direction, wherever it leads.

For the next six days, Mountaintop will meet to pray. We will thank God for two decades of amazing leadership and Kingdom building. And we will “vote” for the future. It’s early, six a.m. each day. But the promise (Matthew 18:18-19) is that He will be there, listening, speaking, and granting the requests of those who are gathered together in His name.

And just like always, those who don’t vote have no room to complain.

Our friend, brother, shepherd and leader is sick.  Bill Elder is all that and more to those of us at Mountaintop Community Church.  For almost two decades he has lifted us up and carried us on his back as our pastor.  He has tirelessly taught, led, counseled and equipped us through our personal and corporate storms.  Now it is our time to lift him up on the wings of our prayers. 

For the few who may not know, Bill has suffered a stroke.  We don’t know all the effects as of yet.  There are positive signs, and steps backward.  Strokes are like that.  It takes time to process the possible damage, more time to heal and recover.  What is known for sure is that Bill Elder is one of the most determined and tenacious men on the planet.  And he has the Greatest of Physicians on his side; fighting for him, through him.

And the greatest church family I have ever known holding him up.  I know all of you are praying, crying both in voice and in tears on Bill’s behalf.  He feels it, as does the rest of the Elder family.  The book of James is very clear; the fervent prayers of people right with God accomplish great things. 

Now will you join me in an added step?  Throughout the Bible, the practice of fasting is used to supplement prayer when the need is important.  It’s saying to God, “This issue is so vital to me that I am willing to give up something I love to focus on it.”  Jesus did this for forty days before He began His ministry.  It is present throughout the Old Testament as a sign of humility and repentance when we come before God.  In the New Testament, the church leaders fasted before commissioning new leaders. 

We don’t fast much these days.  Frankly, it means giving something up, and that’s not an easy thing for us.  But I think this is a good time and a good reason, don’t you?  To bolster and focus our prayers for Bill, and for the church.  This we can do.

Pick something important to you.  Traditionally, it’s been solid food, but if that isn’t an option, then pick something else you consider near and dear to your heart.  It might be harder to lay down the TV remote for awhile than to skip some meals.  Or the internet.  Or those new Christmas gifts.  Search your heart, then lay it down.  Then use the time you may have spent on those items in prayer.

As for how long, that’s also up to you.  If you’ve never fasted before, try for one day.  The key is the focus, not the duration.  It’s the humility, not the accomplishment.  If you can go longer, give it a try.  Like until Bill comes home from the hospital.  Campus Crusade for Christ has some great information on how to fast in a healthy way.  Remember, the goal is not to get sick yourself; that helps no one, but to focus our prayers through a short-term sacrifice. 

My brothers and sisters, it is a blessing to see what the combined prayers of God’s people can do.  It is our most powerful weapon in a crazy and broken world.  Let’s fast and pray for our Pastor Bill.

As many of you read last week, I took my one and only child, Christian, to her new college home.  I’ll tell you, it has been quite the little life change around here.  You learn a few things:

1)  My parenting phase is over.  I’m now primarily an advisor.  My old job of guard dog is finished.  This sounds harsh, and I know many will say the job of parent is never over.  I agree, to a point.  I will always be there for advice and help and anything else I can give.  But the torch of adulthood has been passed.  And I will now be the best friend she’ll ever have. 

2)  There is a new phase beginning.  A new phase of focus on mission and purpose.  God still has me above ground for the moment, so I have to assume He has new fun in store.  Don’t have a clue where that road leads, but I’m anxious to start the hike.  My beautiful bride is a little ahead of me, having  just opened a photography studio (SHAMELESS PLUG WARNING: she’s terrific and at www.rhondagilliam.com).  The second half lies before us, and it’s gonna be great.

3)  There are economic realities.  Part of the reason to look at this idea of what is “enough” in life is our own journey.  Mid-life examination+kid in college+opening new business+recession+government job+recent loss of a second income =real hard look at what constitutes financial success in this life.  We’re not alone in this navel-gazing.  That’s a good thing.  It’s amazing how much closer we are to God’s whisper when our wallets are lighter.

I wish I could say I had planned for this moment and these lessons for years.  I wish I could say I had answers that made Dave Ramsey look like a credit card junkie.  I didn’t.  I can’t.  Like most of us, circumstances determine our lessons.  So I start with asking - “what is enough?”. 

So here it is:  Asking “what is enough” is the wrong question.  There is no number, no bright line.  There will be no warning buzzer when you buy the thing that tips the “enough” scale.  Paul tells his leaders, Timothy and Titus, that the problem starts when we love money.  Doesn’t matter how many commas are in the paycheck.  The question is whether you love it, celebrate it’s worth rather than the God who provides it.  That’s why the definition in Proverbs 30:8-9 is so vague - don’t let me have so little I steal, or so much I forget You.  It’s as individual as we are. 

Some of you will be called upon to earn and manage huge sums of money in the name of the Kingdom.  Some of you will called to make huge sacrifices and live on bare subsistence, again in the name of the Kingdom.  The irony of wealth in the Kingdom of God is that it is only given to those who don’t really want it.  It is only in the shadow kingdom of Satan that money becomes a goal, a distraction from real wealth. 

As Solomon and Paul learned, only God is enough.  Only He and the Kingdom are forever.  Everything else is junk food, meaningless.  So when asking about enough, the question should never be about money or stuff or junk rooms, but only about God.  Is He enough?  Him alone?  If so, the idea of what is enough and what is distraction becomes clear as a new day.

Close your eyes for a second.  Unless you’re driving, in which case, why are you reading a blog?  Now imagine the resources that come to bear when Christians grasp the concept of “enough”.  Imagine schools and churches and Bibles and missionaries and service and needs met and all the incredible soul and life-winning things that will happen when we say “enough” to the world and find contentment in God alone.   As with all things important, it begins with a decision.

Are you ready to say, “enough”?

By His Grace,

JP

I’m going to take a break this week from blogging.  I know that’s not the smart thing to do when you’re trying to establish an audience, but there’s a very good reason that goes far beyond my usual laziness or lack of finishing ability. 

My daughter is going to college.

This started out as a funny little quirk, a future reality without much punch at all when she began her senior year 12 months ago.  It gained a little steam at the Christmas break and then roared like a freight train through the spring to a far too quick graduation. 

Summer seemed to slow things down a bit, as lazy, hot, southern summers do, but it was all a mirage.  June snuck into July and then seemlessly blended into August without a sound or warning.

And now it’s Tuesday.  And she leaves Friday.  59 and a half hours.

She started out fitting from elbow to hand.  7 lbs. 6 oz.  Only slept during car rides.  We walked miles together, she and I, up and down the same hallway.  I was there, in muted, hidden terror when she put her hand on the stove, and cracked her forehead open on the coffee table, and broke her leg on that cursed skateboard.  Later, we fought like only a teen and her father can - yelling, screaming, decidedly un-Dobson explosions of anger and love followed by sobbing cries for forgiveness.  Diapers, loose teeth, Santa.  Good grades, bad grades, car wrecks, friend fights, awards.  First plane rides, a shared fear of rollercoasters, goldfish, dogs, cats, hamsters and hermit crabs.  And a healthy, fatherly jealousy of Cillian Murphy.  I got to baptize her on Father’s Day.  What a ride.  

I look at her now… And I know she’s a young woman.  So strong, so talented, so beautiful.  She got her Father’s heart.  She makes the right decision probably more often than her old man.  And she is smart.  Funny.  And ready to take on the world.

It’s a bad cliche, but I long for the little girl with the Dorothy Hamill cut.  Part of me would love to have a do-over, and fix the many, many mistakes I made along the way.  Part of me is ready to move into the dorm room next door, to protect her from the godless hordes she’ll face in her brave, new world. 

I am so excited for the blank slate of a future she begins in… 59 short hours.  I’m praying that she listens to the one Voice that will keep her path true.  I wish her golden memories of laughter and learning.  And most of all, I am grateful that God chose us to play our parts in the script of her life. 

In 59 hours, I’ll be the proudest, hopefullest, saddest, beamingest, tears of joyfullest guy on the planet.

I love you, my one and only girl.  Thanks for hanging around a while.  And Roll Tide!

By His Grace,

JP

You knew sooner or later we’d end up talking about sex, right?

Stay away from loose women!  Don’t air your dirty laundry in public! 

Sounds easy enough.  Most men aren’t silly enough to have roaring affairs in the public eye.  But the internet… Now there’s a whole ‘nother matter.  Here is anonymity, here is discretion.  There are websites, doing brisk business, such as Ashley Madison, that will arrange your tryst for you, quietly and confidentially.

Or the woman (or man, ladies, lust does work both ways) doesn’t even have to really exist.  Just be a body from afar.  Does that make it any less of an affair?  I can’t figure out how. 

The key to arresting all this sneaking around on the keyboard is covered in verse 21:  “For a man’s ways (yours too, ma’am - JP) are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all his paths.” 

Darn.  Worse than those cameras they put up at red lights. 

Guys, your wife might not catch you, but make no mistake, you’re busted.  Ladies, your flirtacious fantasizing has not gone unoticed. 

And so, once again, discipline is the order of the day.  You’ve heard this before, but it bears repeating: Guys, you married your trophy wife.  Now treat her as much.  Ladies, you were shown off for all to see at one time.  This man announced to the world that his search was over and you were the end all-be all of his sexual world.  In my life, gravity and the wear and tear may have dimmed the lustre of me (or just flipped the switch off altogether).  But for some reason, my beloved bride stills sees only me.  A rusty Chevy when there are plenty of Ferraris on the lot.  Go figure.  And she still turns my head as well.  A beautiful Corvette. 

Folks, pay attention to Solomon’s “Song of Songs” language here.  See your mate shine so brightly that the rest of the sexual temptation in this world fades like a bulb on the fritz.  Give your bride or groom reason to see you in the same way.  The world may be able to compete and even better the view to our easily deceived eyes, but it can’t hold a candle to the view from the heart. 

By His Grace,

JP

If you’re living somewhere in the wilds of suburbia, then you probably have a junk room.  If you have space constraints, you may have to rent one from a local mini-warehouse.  Personally, I have a couple.  My basement, the largest of the emporiums of the no-longer-needed, is a hard hat area.  No one goes in without a safety line.  We train St. Bernards to find victims of avalanches.  We do not fear theft, for if some unsuspecting brigand should try to enter through the basement, we would ultimately find him, dazed and malnourished, wandering among the stacks. 

How is so much junk accumulated?  Some, of course, comes from wear and tear, but the vast majority of our junk comes from the steady march of the new and improved.  Computers are obsolete in months, LP’s give way to CD’s, which bow to MP3’s.  Clothes become “so last year.”  Furniture becomes dated. 

And we fall victim to the constant droning from Madison Avenue that those with less than the newest and the best have somehow fallen behind in the evolutionary scale, that they simply don’t have what it takes to be “one of us”, you know, the cool crowd. 

Let’s face it, our economy is not based on having enough.  It’s based on having more.  More than our neighbors, more than our parents.  Think how different things woud be if the the goal was a race to simple contentment, to finding enough and being the first to stop.  If the rules of the game involved saying no to “products” and yes to people and relationships. 

Would our economy collapse?  No, but it would look very different.  An economy based on junk rooms would have to find ways to adapt to become one based on simplicity and the joy of God and one another.  But wouldn’t it be an interesting thing to see, with less demands on resources, less isolation brought on by distracting bells and whistles and whirs and clicks?  Shared stories and lives.  Neighborhoods becoming places of association and not just geography. 

So, are we there yet?  Have we defined “enough”?  No, there’s still some road ahead.  But if we can begin by recognizing “too much” and the price it exacts from our wallets, planet, and God-Designed relationships, then maybe we can begin to see what “enough” means in our lives.  So let’s keep asking, seeking, listening and talking, my friends.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve gotta go.  I think my daughter’s lost in the basement again. 

By His Grace,

JP

In today’s Mobile Press- Register, there is an article on a little-discussed barometer of a worsening economy.

Cattle rustling.

According to the Alabama State Department of Agriculture’s spokeswoman (now there’s a job you don’t see much in the want-ads), there have been 29 wanton thefts of 210 cattle so far this year, on pace to eclipse even the great cow theivery of 2007, which led to the loss of over 400 bovines. 

It isn’t known whether the thefts are really rustlings, or for food, or as pets.  My wife plays an online game called “Farmville”, where inattentive cud-chewers seem to wander onto her mythical acreage with an alarming frequency.  Maybe that’s the problem.

So what in the name of holy hand grenades does this have to do with the 4th Chapter of Proverb?  Just a reminder.  In this chapter, our father/teacher begs his children not to leave the well-lit path of right living with God (Wisdom), for the easy depths of evil.  On the surface, it seems like an easy choice: be good or be bad, steal or not steal, sing in the heavenly choir or wail with the demons.

But we know it’s not that easy, don’t we?  Bad economic times, desparation, hunger; these things will drive us to take an occassional side trip from the Path.  Sometimes, it’s just to escape the next batch of bad news.  And it’s often much more subtle than thinning a herd a bit; a movie we shouldn’t watch, or a website, or an escape into bad food, alcohol, the wrong relationship.  Even more subtle is the cry to tune out the sufferings of fellow creations of God.  We have enough problems of our own.  So we become neutral countries in the common war; islands of isolation, apathy.  It ain’t stealing a cow, but it sure isn’t God’s Path. 

Now is the time to draw even closer to the Source of Wisdom, to sit at the Teacher’s feet and soak everything in, to engage a world headed in the wrong direction, to walk the well-trod center of Wisdom’s road. 

And if a cow wanders on your place, return it.  It’s the right thing to do.

By His Grace,

JP

More musings on how we know when we’ve hit the magical limits of Enough in our lives.  The prayer in Proverbs 30 is for “just” enough - not so much that we forget God and think we don’t need Him anymore and not so little that we are forced to steal and sully His good name.  Is that a good standard?  Neither gluttony nor thievery?  What do you think?

One last thought for this installment…

The American Dream is not about Enough.  It’s about More.  Certainly More than Enough.   It’s about junk rooms but more on that later.  

For now…

Does it appear to you in most of our churches that one group that really has less than Enough is God and His work?

Talk among yourselves.  Or here, if you like.

By His Grace,

JP

I’ve been keeping up with the Tour de France.  It’s the most exercise I get.  The idea of riding over one hundred miles in a day over mountains for three weeks is beyond human to me.  I would get tired driving one of the little cars with the spare bikes on top. 

Despite my fitness shortcomings, I am learning quite a bit.  Cycling is a team sport.  Every day a domestique (which sounds like a butler, but isn’t) will set the pace for the team.  His job is not to win the race, but to pull his team leader toward the front and keep the pace fast enough to control anyone making a break for it.  In other words, he keeps his team, and the rest of the pack together.  A team leader cannot win without his domestiques. 

Chapter 3 of Proverbs sets the pace for a life of wisdom:  “Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.  Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.” (v.3-4, NIV).

These two are inseperable, love and faithfulness.  In fact, they’re really one concept - faithful love.  To Solomon’s Israelite readers, this meant one thing - God love.  It goes back to Deut. 6.  Love Him with everything you have. 

It’s an easy concept.  God is Love.  God is Wisdom.  You have a close and trusting relationship with God, you got Wisdom.  Verses 5-12 just set up the how-to:  Trust in God and not your bumbling attempts, honor God with the best you have, don’t be scared when God disciplines you to get you on the right path. 

I tell my kid all the time, “Trust me.  I love you more than you can imagine.  And I know more than you, at least for now.  So follow my lead.”  So when you read Solomon’s words in verse 1 from a dad imploring his son to listen, hear your Father instead.  And obey.  In other words, love Dad and do what He says in His book and trust Him like a good kid.  And in return, He will set the pace for the rest of your life.

The rest of the chapter is a list of all the benefits of this plan: honor before God and man, wise choices, long life, safety, peace.  Not bad stuff to have when the roads get steep and you want to wilt under the strain of it all.  So keep your head down. Watch the jersey of the faithful domestique ahead of you.  Don’t pull out on your own.  Trust in His pace.  Love and trust, love and trust, and know that you cannot lose.

By His Grace,

JP