Tim Harlow

The Adventure In England

Rachel is home!
After 5 months in England helping to start a campus ministry in Birmingham.

She’s had so many stories to share with us. I am so amazed at what God has done in her life and through her life. It’s always so cool when you really let God do what he wants to do through you.

One of the gals she befriended said it this way, “For these past few months, you have made me live. You ignited in me something that had always been there, but was stifled, shy, and unaware. It was not lost, it was unfound; it waited for a keen eye and a patient soul to bring it round. My promise to you, I solemnly swear is to keep that which you have found. So that the next time around, as our paths cross again, you will recognize what you first saw, one British night in the rain.”

Another friend wrote – “Whether you believe you were sent to us by God, or that you’re a sign from the universe, or just the most incredible coincidence, I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say that you have touched our lives in the most amazing way.”

Rachel's home!

after 5 months doing campus work at the University of Birmingham. she made it home safely. I want to thank all of you who prayed for her. It was an amazing time for her and God really got things going in the ministry. They were there to get it set up and running and start meeting some people. I think she really felt like a duck out of water when she got there and now she feels like one being home. God did amazing things and used my amazing daughter to really open some doors. Her music did especially. Imagine that.

Not enough time to tell you everything.

you can go to her blog at http://racheldharlow.blogspot.com/
and read more about it.

out for now,
Tim

Man, my heart is heavy today...

It feels to me like when I preach on something – those things either happen more or at least I’m made more aware of them because of my mindset.

When I preached on relationships – I was aware of more satanic attack on our marriage and in the lives of so many.

So I’m going to preach for the rest of the year on “God loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life.” :)

Now I’m preaching on miracles and you would think that would be a great thing to focus on (and I’ve included a cool one at the end of this blog.) But it also draws my attention to the fact that so many people need a miracle. As I preach on Jesus calming the storm today, I am reminded that many people are IN the storm, and they are asking Jesus to calm it and so far it hasn’t happened.

I think the whole Christian world is just heavy about the Steven Curtis Chapman family's tragedy. And we all want to know why. Of course the answer is that Jesus was in the boat and they still had a bad storm. There is no exemption. And the promise is that Jesus will be with us and calm the storm, at least in our hearts, even though the storm may continue to rage around us.

(Remember that these disciples who were rescued from this storm – still had very hard lives and were martyred for their faith in Christ. This storm was calmed, but there is no true calm until we get to Heaven.)

We will never know the answer to the question of “why.” I can tell you that God doesn’t usually cause the storm (he did for Jonah, but Jonah brought it on himself). I don’t think God caused the storm that the disciples were in. and I certainly don’t think that he caused the accident that took the life of Maria Chapman. (Or the recent earthquake in China or tragedy in Myanmar or.....)

If I can say it, I do see good. In the case of the Chapman’s, I really do feel that possibly hundreds, if not thousands, if not ten thousands of children who desperately need families – will be adopted because of the tug of the heart we all feel about Maria right now. People who realize what a beautiful thing the Chapman’s did for this little girl and the love she brought into their home and it may motivate them to take action. I hate that it happened and I pray daily for the family and especially the brother – that’s where the story is really tragic. But I know that God will bring good from tragedy. We have to ask him to calm the storm, and we have to have enough faith that his will is best.

I remind you that the point of everything in this life is to help people find a relationship with God.

“Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of His disciples that are not recorded in this book, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the son of God and that by believing you might have life in His name.” John 20: 30-31

Whether you see the miracles or not. Whether you feel the miracles or not. Whether God answers your prayers the way you want – or not – ultimately it’s all about believing and having life in his name.

God works through the tragedy and the miraculous to draw people to himself.

And when he does answer our prayers. Like he has this week in our church as Russ & Sharon Caifano's son, Marty was lost at sea in a capsized boat in Mexico and we prayed and a Navy Ship found him and his friends and all is well. Or when he answers prayers that we didn’t even pray – like the car accident at the end of this blog. Or when he allows a beautiful little 5 year old girl to be taken away (to heaven – may I remind you, A MUCH BETTER PLACE).

We have to trust in God’s promise to be with us through it all.

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior." Isaiah 43:2-3

Unbelievably sad news from Steven Curtis Chapman

Their youngest daughter was killed tonight in their driveway. It's just a terrible accident and I hate even telling you. One of the boys accidentally hit her with the car. I'm sick about it. literally. it's just awful. please pray for them. They feel like part of the family after being here. Maria was youngest. The one he just wrote Cinderella for and had sung it at her preschool graduation the morning before he flew here to sing for us.

I don't know which boy it was, but he's going to need a lot of prayer.

I know that crappy things happen to people all the time. I already have that in my sermon this weekend. But it just seems like this family has such an impact on so many people. It feels even more unfair.

Here are a couple of articles:

Article from The Ledger

Article from The Tennessean

If you read my blog from earlier today - please pray that the Chapman's feel the comfort of Jesus being in the boat with them.

Just pray. I will send them a note and we will make a donation to Shaohannah’s Hope, the adoption ministry Steven and Mary Beth started in the name of their first adopted daughter. (You can also visit stevencurtischapman.com and get a glimpse of Steven and Maria together ~ make sure you have the tissues handy if you watch this touching video.)

"Lord, we ask for your servants, the Chapman's. They have lifted up so many people through their music and their ministry. They need you Lord. Give the brother peace that he can see that you are there. Give the parents comfort. Surround them with the love they deserve, and give them your peace. Tell the "Storm" to "be still." In Jesus name we pray."

Tim

Sleeping Through a Storm

I’m working on this Miracles sermon for the weekend and it’s really going to be good. Jesus calming the storm. A little heads up for the weekend. Do you realize that Jesus asked them to get in the boat and go out into the Sea? He said, “Let’s go boating now, everybody’s learning how.” And then he fell asleep in the boat and there was a big storm.

I don’t get sleeping through a storm. I can’t sleep through a dog barking or a newspaper deliverer with a bad muffler – let alone a storm. And on a boat!

One thing I don’t have in my sermon yet and so I can work it out with you bloggers – is how cool would it be to be able to sleep in a boat through a storm that scares fishermen? It’s not like these guys haven’t done boats before. They’ve been out on this body of water hundreds of times and seen plenty of storms. And they were scared spitless. But Jesus was asleep.

Maybe the rocking of the boat and the loud noises were making him drowsy? I remember when Lauren was little, we were on a rafting trip in Missouri and she was in a tire tube – just crashed out going down some shallow rapids. I couldn’t believe she didn’t wake up. She was bouncing around like a golf ball on a cart path.

Maybe he was on Ambien? Or maybe, when you are the Son of God and you made the Sea and you know everything about all of the elements of nature, it just doesn’t concern you that much.

Psalm 65:5 -
⁵O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas,
⁶ who formed the mountains by your power, having armed yourself with strength, ⁷ who stilled the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations. ⁸ Those living far away fear your wonders; where morning dawns and evening fades you call forth songs of joy. ⁹ You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it. ¹⁰ You drench its furrows and level its ridges; you soften it with showers and bless its crops. ¹¹ You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance. ¹² The grasslands of the desert overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness. ¹³ The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing.

It’s good to know he’s on our side, eh?

Tim

A Cinderella Story...

1 Samuel 1:27-28 ~ I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD. And he worshiped the LORD there.

That’s easy to say; it’s not so easy to do.

Rachel turned 21 this week, and all we could do was talk on the phone. She’s still in England.

It’s so cool to see what God has done (and thank you to those of you who supported her). She really feels like this was a great experience and is talking to God about how it impacts her future. She’ll head back to Nashville in July for summer school to make up for what she missed during the semester, and then finished up her Senior year and who knows?

It’s just a weird time. Lauren is graduating from High School and is trying to nail down college (new events unfolded this week). (Here's a picture of Lauren and Rachel together.) Then Steven Curtis Chapman comes in and sings the Cinderella Song about how fast they grow up. So it all just starts to get to you.

21 years ago was one of the most exciting times of our lives. The first baby. And you guys know how I love babies. She never got put down unless Denise made me. We lived in a great home in St. Louis where I was a Youth Pastor. We had great friends and a great church family and everything was as it should be. I can’t believe it’s been 21 years.

When you give them to God, like Hannah did Samuel, and like we all have in some degree – you just don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s always an adventure, and one that we rarely figure out ahead of time.

And I don’t have anything profound to say about it either.

Except Happy Birthday Rach! I’m very proud of you. You are such an amazing woman of God, you could only have come directly from Him. I’m sorry for the times I didn’t stop and dance with Cinderella, but I certainly loved the times when I did.

I thank God for giving you to me. Now that you are legally a woman (you’ve really been a woman since you were like 5), I just want you to know that I’m glad God gave you to your mom and me. And I’m glad we gave you back to Him. Even though it means we can’t celebrate your birthday with you – we couldn’t be more proud of you. God has a big plan for you. I know it involves music and past that, I don’t have a clue. I just know that I’ll always be more proud of anything that God does through you, than I am anything He did through me.

I will always know something the Prince will never know. I loved you first; I will always be the lucky one.

Wow, what a sappy blog. It’s not like she’s getting married or something.

Tim

PS. Thank you to Mike Glenn and the ARMY of volunteers and staff that made Steven Curtis Chapman and his band feel so welcome and gave us all such a great encouragement through them.

Is it the End of the World, as We Know it?

China has had a horrible earthquake. We’re just beginning to know the extent of it and thousands of lives are lost. One of our Chinese members e-mailed me to make sure I knew what was going on and got the word out for prayer and help.

I will attach links at the bottom of this (the same organizations as last week) if you want to help.

And that parenthetical statement there is a key. Didn’t we just talk about a natural disaster last week? What is going on?

Matthew 24:6-8

⁶You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸All these are the beginning of birth pains.

The beginning of birth pains? So does this mean that it’s the end of the world?

Yes, it does. But it’s been the end of the world for a long time. Jesus told us to be ready for the end – two thousand years ago. I don’t think we need to read too much into this stuff. It’s terrible that these things are happening. But they said the same thing with the Tsunami and the Hurricanes, and there will be more. The truth is, we are at the end and we should be ready. Jesus said it could happen at any time – so “watch and pray.”

Peter said it this way,

⁸But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. ⁹The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. ¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
¹¹Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives ¹²as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. 2 Peter 3:8-12

If it is the end, or isn’t – it doesn’t change the way we live.

We live holy and godly and LOOK FORWARD to the day when it all gets made right again.

Here are the links if you want to help with China.

International Disaster Emergency Service
Samaritan's Purse

Tim

Wind Shift

I’m writing this while I sit at what could be my last soccer games ever. The LWE season is over and it will conflict with music stuff next year, so it might be over. That is a crazy thought to think. Lauren had her last choir concerts this week as a High School student. I couldn’t add up the soccer games and concerts and shows and musicals that I’ve been through as a parent. And they will go on, but it definitely feels like a shift again. Kind of like when the wind changed directions in Mary Poppins (I had all daughters). It’s sad and exciting all in one.

Then I got word this week that my best man in my wedding died of a heart attack in Kansas. He was my age. We’d kept up with Christmas cards and a phone call every year or so, but you know how it is when you move away and aren’t together. I think I only saw him a few times after the wedding. Pray for Tom Underwood’s family, would you?

Wind shift.

Tom’s in heaven. Lauren’s going to a great college. Becca’s still around and I’ll have plenty of things to sit and watch. But it’s unbelievable how quickly the wind shifts. To top it off, Rachel turns 21 – in England – this week. What the heck? How did I get here?

I guess all my musing is just a good way to help you Mother’s out there to take the time to enjoy your day tomorrow. Before you know it there will be a wind shift.

There is only one thing that remains unchanged. God never changes. He never shifts. Put your trust in Him. If you are mourning a wind shift – trust that God is in control. If you are grieving a loss – trust that God is in control. If you are concerned for your future – God is in control. If you are a mom and you are concerned for your children – God is in control. If you want to be a mom and it’s not happening – God is in control. Whatever happens with the wind – listen to Psalm 146.

³ Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. ⁴ When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. ⁵ Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, ⁶ the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them — the LORD, who remains faithful forever. Psalm 146:3-6

Tim

Do We Care Enough?

This most recent catastrophe in Myanmar (which used to be Burma) shows me a couple of things.

1. That I don’t care enough about people in other places. I mean 22,000 dead and that’s probably just the beginning of the count. And it didn’t really hardly bother me. When something happens in “my” country, it hits home. I might know someone affected, I may have been to that place. But do you realize how absolutely wiped out this country is? Can you imagine if a tornado wiped out 20-30,000 people in Illinois? And it’s worse there because they don’t have the resources to deal with it. We need to pray for them. These are every bit as much God’s children as we are. I just don’t feel it enough.

2. We never know when the end is coming. We should be ready. And I don’t mean stockpiling water and peanut butter. I mean ready to head over to the other side.

3. It’s not God’s fault. God could have stopped it, but he didn’t. I don’t know why. I don’t know why he isn’t stopping the cyclone in your life either. I don’t know why – about anything. That’s what I know. But I have to keep coming back to the fact that God did not cause sin to be in our world. He allowed it as a choice and we took it. Adam and Eve brought it. You don’t read any accounts of bad weather in the Garden of Eden do you? “Adam was walking with God and all of the sudden a hail storm came up and God went – “whoa, where did that come from?” NO. Didn’t happen. As a matter of fact, Jesus slept through a storm one time. He was so not bothered by it that he just slept, and when they woke him up he went “boo” and the storm stopped. Why didn’t God go “boo” to the cyclone? I do not know. I can’t help but think that when God let’s something like this happen – it should at least serve as a wakeup call to all of us that this world is not the paradise we think it is. And we should all be anxious for the day when we get to head on home.

I do want to ask you to pray for these people affected.

I’m also including two links to two different relief organizations that I respect and have worked with. Let’s do our part to reach out in prayer and in aide. And let’s remember that one way or another, we are all leaving here soon.

International Disaster Emergency Service

Samaritan's Purse

Tim

It's Not in the Strength of the Horse...

Psalm 147 says: ¹⁰ (God’s) pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man; ¹¹ the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.

Funny, but no one really delights in my legs. Not even God. That takes a lot of pressure off when I go to the gym :-) The point is that God isn’t all that concerned with our abilities or our strength. Even though he gave them to us. His delight is when we understand that it’s all about him. So with permission, I’ll relay a little dialogue my daughter Rachel had with God – that she happened to write down for me. She is in England and it’s not always easy. (She’ll be home May 27th :-) )

Rachel said, here was the conversation God and I had this morning:

God: Rach, where's your faith?

me: (long pause) I don't have very much.

God: Why?

me: (long pause) Because I don't stop and think about who you really are.

God: Ok then. Excuse time over. How about you remember now who the heck I am and get back to me.

(created earth out of nothing. breathed into adam. breathed into me. saved a nation over and over. repeatedly cheated death via Jesus Christ. grew a church in chicago from nothing. loved me when i was impossible. brought me to england. just...initiated existence and initiated love, which are basically the same thing.)

me: God, please help me have big faith.

God: Are you really asking?

me: Yes.

God: Big faith only happens when big fat situations shove into your little cotton tshirt faith and stretch it out, you know.

me: It hurts.

God: And...? You'll live. Literally. Relax, kid. I AM the Lord.

the end. Rachel.

Okay, I’m proud of her. But not any prouder than I am of anyone who is in a situation where they wish their horse or their legs were just a little stronger – and then they remember that God is big (fearful even) and we trust in his unfailing love. And then – to top it off, Bill sent me this picture he took of a rainbow over Parkview last night. that says it all. “Hope in his unfailing love.” (Click on the picture for a larger view!)

Hoping and Fearful,

Tim

P.S. The Harley is on Ebay...several have asked about it. Whatever we get – is going to God, I don’t get a cut (I read Acts 5). And one other thing – someone suggested that it might possibly get bought and given back to me. Please don’t. I won't have a bike for these three years...it’s a part of my deal.
(PT's Harley on Ebay.)

P.S.S. Steven Curtis Chapman. Now that we added the second show we have plenty of tickets. Actually too many. We need to unload more tickets for Thursday night. Please encourage anyone you know to come. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see one of the most important and most popular Christian artists ever, in a venue that is personal and comfortable. Normally you’d have to go to a big stadium to see SCC. We will be selling tickets this weekend. Or you can get them online. (Thursday SCC Tickets.)