Great teachings begin the conversation.

I got a response from a great friend about my message last weekend. If you missed it, I talked a little bit about my love for Apple. If you’d like to listen to the message, you can click here. If after listening you feel inclined to purchase any Apple products click here.

Here’s the response I received.

I had to point this out… you had a “safe harbor” statement to the effect of “I know it wasn’t the first…” but your infinite Appleness chafed me slightly. Here’s the old shoebox phone I first “synced” with:

I bought it back in 2001 I think. Predated the original Palm/Handspring Treo 90 by a year or more. Still have it, too! It was basically a Palm device mashed up with a basic phone. If it wasn’t the first it was darn close.

All that said, I did take away a lot more from your message.

Thanks for hearing me out, Apple Man.

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This weekend, we are kicking off our second series of 2010 entitled SYNC. This is one that I’ve really been looking forward to sharing. It’s been stewing in my mind since last July and I think it’s going to be a great setup for us as we move into the season of Lent when this series comes to a close. [And by the way, our Lenten Focus is going to be pretty cool as well]

Here’s a brief synopsis of the next four weeks. I hope to see you this weekend as SYNC begins!

Every significant relationship in our lives requires an investment. When we neglect that requirement we find ourselves, “out of sync.” It doesn’t matter whether that person is a parent, spouse, co-worker, or friend. A lack of attention and care can cause great harm to the relationship.

So if that’s how it works with people… Is that also how it works with God?

And if that’s true, how do you “invest” in that relationship?

During this four week series, we’ll be taking an in-depth look at what it means to invest in your relationship with God and how that might enable us to get back “in sync” with God.

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Sometimes things get added to the sermon between Saturday night and Sunday morning. This weekend, I changed up the end just a bit and added this prayer. Keep in mind that during this series we said that “IT” is God’s grace.

The two scripture texts which are the foundation for these final thoughts can be found here and here.

IT is freely available to each of us.

Many of us have already found IT.

We have experienced IT, and each week that we gather, we do so to celebrate IT.

So maybe the question isn’t, “what is IT?” Maybe the question is, “how is IT changing your life?”

And if that is the question, then perhaps our prayer should be this:

Lord, thank you for the seeds of grace you have so freely planted into my life. I pray that those seeds will take root in my heart and life, by your grace God, give me the wisdom and the courage to invest in those things that will allows those seeds to grow.

Lord, help me to be the good soil where your word is heard, it is understood, and will produce a crop a hundred times what was sown. May it be by your grace.

AMEN.

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At the end of the message this weekend, I mentioned two United Methodist mission workers who lost their lives last week during the tragic earthquake in Haiti.

One of them was a woman named Jean Arnwine who was on her first trip to Haiti with the Highland Park United Methodist Church mission team. Jean was in Haiti to help the Haitian people with eye care.

The local NBC website posted this story about Jean.

Sam Dixon was the other person I mentioned. Sam was a pastor in the United Methodist Church for 24 years and most recently served as the director of UMCOR, an acronym for the United Methodist Committee on Relief. Sam had traveled the world in this position and was in Haiti last week to meet with other relief organizations to discuss how they might increase the effectiveness of the medical care being offered to the Haitian people.

Sam’s daughter, Christy, was interviewed on MSNBC the other night.

To read more about Sam and his life, you can read this memorial of his life.

Sam and his two partners at UMCOR were trapped for 55 hours. Rev. James Gulley, the only survivor of that trio shared his account of those 55 hours here.

Rev. Clinton Rabb, head of the office of Mission Volunteers of the General Board of Global Ministries, died from injuries sustained during the collapse of the building where the three men were found. That news came out on Sunday afternoon or I would have also mentioned Clinton during worship this weekend.

Clinton’s life and ministry is memorialized here.

Continue to pray for the relief workers, doctors and nurses seeking to bring whatever healing they can to those affected by this devastation as well as the many families like Sam’s, Clinton’s and Jean’s that grieve the loss of their loved ones.

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