BARNABAS, THE SON OF ENCOURAGEMENT, that was the name given to a certain Jew named Joseph, who found himself one of the new group of Jews who believed that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah whom God had promised through the prophets of old. (Acts 4:36-37) The reason he was given that name is as obvious as the title; he was one who was known for encouraging others.
I don’t think a “club” of future Barnabas’ ever really started, but if there were such a club I would personally nominate a number of individuals that I had the pleasure of meeting this week. This group went out the way to exhibit sincere kindness, care and concern. Their manners were pleasant, their words soft-spoken, and their actions gentle. They did their best to ensure ones comfort and safety. In fact, just knowing they were nearby was encouraging to me, as well as to others.
Who are these nominees for the Barnabas Club? They are the nursing staff at Sutter Hospital who took care of my daughter Lizzie this past week. They were not just well trained professional nurses, as I know most are (especially those who call Felton Bible Church home ), but they exhibited gentleness and kindness and words meant to lift and encourage ones spirit, and to the best of their ability to alleviate my daughter’s fear. (OK, her mom and dad’s, too.)
As one who seeks to be an encourager, like Barnabas, I tried to glean some lessons from these who served my family so well. Here’s what I learned.
• Be available when needed.
• Offer answers to questions, but not more than people can handle.
• Look for the good and praise it.
• Gentle touch has a healing effect.
• When needed, call for help. (I.e. know your own limits)
• Exhibit a gentle strength.
• Speak words of comfort and hope.
I am sure these ladies were trained in this art, and yet they each seemed to sincerely offer their encouragement, and believe me, it made all the difference in the world. And thus, they get my vote for induction into the Barnabas Club.
Thanks ladies, for the gift given and the lessons learned.

TRUTH. WHAT A SAD INDICTMENT that we must promise, by an oath, that we will tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help us God. The grand, troubling, assumption of that oath is that we do not usually tell the truth. Our natural propensity is not toward speaking the truth, but rather toward, cover-up, fibbing, coloring the truth, stretching the truth, oh let’s call it for what it is: lying or worse, deceit. OUCH!
This problem has been with us since we got thrown out the Garden. In fact, was it not a lie, by the Chief Liar, that got all this going. Remember, it was Satan who said to Eve, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:3-5) There is some truth in what Satan said, but it was definitely not the whole truth. It sounded right enough to Eve that she fell into the trap, as did Adam, as do all of us.
So, how do we return to being the truth-tellers that God created us to be? It starts with surrendering our lives to the One who is the Truth, Jesus Christ. Apart from Him, and the Holy Spirit working within us, we are truly what author M. Scott Peck called, “People of the Lie.”
With the Truth at the center of our lives we must then develop a habit of truth-telling. Wesley Pippert writes, “One of the most effective disciplines I know is not to do something the first time. . . Not to do something the first time is a tremendous bulwark to not doing it later.” A wise old wag once said, that if we tell the truth we can have a short memory. The issue is lying begets lies, so the best thing to do is not to start.
And that’s the truth. Honest!

CHIA PETS ARE CLAY FIGURINES, IMPREGNATED WITH SEEDS, so all you have to do is soak them in water and WALLA, they sprout. They sell them at places like K-Mart, or on late-night television. All I have to say is the people who think these things up have way too much time on their hands. But then again, I guess somebody had to come up with an idea for using all those alfalfa sprouts from the late 1970’s.
This past week we were blessed to have some of our youth spend a day weeding the front flowerbeds. At one point one of them commented that the overgrown status of the gardens at the front of the made the church look like a Chia Pet. She had a good point, one that has some theological implications as well.
The church is much like a China Pet in that we too are impregnated with a seed, that seed being the good news about Jesus Christ. In order for it to sprout we need to be immersed in the Holy Spirit, and then consistently watered by the Word of God and prayer. When these events happen, the seed can sprout, even from that which looked like nothing bat barren clay. But, if let to go dry, that which had arisen fresh and green, will soon dry to a dry brown crinkly weed.
The message for us is clear. We are called to bear fruit as followers of Jesus Christ, and the only way that can happen is by being well watered and continuing in the light of the sun. As we maintain that place, then our spirits will stay fresh and we will produce the fruit of righteousness.
Grow on!

NINETY PERCENT OF HEART BY-PASS PATIENTS do not make any drastic lifestyle changes lasting more than two years, even though those changes could decrease chest pain, improve quality of life, and most importantly keep them from having another heart surgery.
Why is it so difficult to make lasting changes that would so greatly influence your life in a positive way? It’s not because we don’t have the facts about how and why we need to change, it’s because we don’t have the feelings. That is the need has not really struck our heart.
Recent research has shown that having the facts is not enough. Just take the looming gasoline crisis in the United States. We have seen the charts declaring that if we continue down the road we are on we will run out of “easy” resources by the middle of this century and yet Detroit continues to make large gas guzzling cars because we continue to buy them. Yes, we say that were concerned, but we have yet to get emotional about it. We know the facts, but in many ways, we just don’t care.
How we feel about our automobiles and our arteries is often the way we feel about our spiritual life. We know that we should pray more, read the Bible more, tell more people about Jesus, and sin less; heaven knows we all head it enough from the preacher. However, we seem powerless to do anything about it. I guess we could say, “Our heart’s just not in it.” So, how do we bring about a change of heart?
Again, recent findings may help us out. We have often been taught, and believed, that small, incremental changes will be easier to make and sustain. But what is now being discovered is that it is often the radical, sweeping changes that are often the easiest because they often yield the quickest benefits. If this is true, then rather than changing our prayer lives by making room for five minutes a day for prayer, it would be better to carve out an entire hour. Now, that’s radical! Yet, I am sure that the changes that hour would yield would radically change our lives by pumping new spiritual power into our spiritual hearts.
Come on, put your heart into and give it a try.