Sunday, September 6, 2009

Bedbugs, Bistango, and Brooklyn Tabernacle

Greetings from Times Square!

I am now approaching the 2-month mark of my stay here at TSC. Next Sunday I start the Ministerial Intern Program with Pastor Will.

This week has been a bit inconvenient. I lived in Alabama for 27 years, in eight different locations and I have never even seen a bedbug. I’ve been in New York for less than two months and I’ve seen dozens of them! I also saw advertisements on the subway against them and even a large awareness billboard about them in Times Square! This place has a serious bedbug problem, among other things. So in our war against the bloodsuckers, we, the men of the maintenance ministry on the third floor, have taken drastic measures. Earl instructed us to move out all of our things, rip up all the carpets, bag up all our clothes, and then he would send the exterminator. Yesterday (Saturday), the exterminator came (actually for the second time in two weeks!) and sprayed four of our rooms and the whole hallway. He will return in a week to spray the rest of the rooms because we couldn’t all fit our belongings in the hallway at the same time. My carpet was glued down to the cement subflooring with epoxy glue. Just in case you don’t know, it was nearly impossible to get up. Thanks to whoever did that. It took me 5 or so hours to do just half of the room! And these rooms are small! If it weren’t for my friends Ramesh and Billy I never would have finished the room in time. There was something about the difficulty of the carpet, the bedbugs crawling on me at night, and moving for what will be the eighth time since last August, the fact that all my belongings were in disarray, and the fact that I had no privacy—all these things combined to stress me out quite a bit and make me irritable and full of worry. In an act of God’s perfect timing I visited the Brooklyn Tabernacle this morning and the theme of the message, which was preached by a pastor friend of Jim Cymbala’s from Michigan, was “Worry.” But before I go into that, let me tell you the side story.

Laura Fuller who is on the board of directors for Harvest Evangelism, called me on Friday to let me know that she and her husband Gary, who is the mayor of Opelika, Alabama, were coming to New York and wanted to visit me and take me out to eat. We met up, and after I gave them a brief tour of the church we took a cab over to E. 23rd Street and 3rd Avenue to an outstanding Italian Restaurant called Bistango (www.bistangonyc.com). The manager of Bistango is a brother here at Times Square Church named Anthony. Anthony was extremely friendly and accommodating, as it was Gary Fuller’s birthday that day, so I asked Anthony if he could do something special. Turns out Anthony had already been informed by Pastor Rick about Gary’s birthday; he had called and made reservations for me and the Fullers. The food was delectable, and Gary received two different kinds of chocolate desserts (Mayor Fuller loves chocolate) and was sung to by the Bistango staff. This outing was a very welcome retreat from the insecticide ridden, carpet-less halls of the third floor. I had a great time. This morning I also accompanied the Fuller’s to Brooklyn Tabernacle. WOW! What an amazing, spirit-filled service that was! I can’t believe there are two powerhouse churches within 20 minutes of each other in New York City, and maybe more. I guess the darker the city, the brighter the beacons must be. And also, the larger the population, the larger the churches should be. Times Square Church and Brooklyn Tabernacle are like sister churches. They are both located in old theaters and they both have a unique worship and teaching style. But I must say that the Brooklyn Tabernacle choir, under the direction of Carol Cymbala, blew my mind. They sang a new song this morning which I think is called, “You are the Sovereign God.” The song goes: “You are the Sovereign God! Bigger than all my problems, and every situation.” I had such a wonderful time of true praise. Not only that, but I felt exhorted and comforted by the choir. And that’s what a church choir is meant to do: not to entertain or build up unnecessary emotional hype, but to exhort the congregation and to lead them in authentic praise to God. I needed to hear both the message of the choir and the preacher. But something worth mentioning also happened when we first arrived at Brooklyn Tab. We got there fairly early and sat pretty close to the front on stage right. Then one of the most uncanny and improbable occurrences happened. We overheard the three people sitting directly in front of us talking about Alabama! I whispered to Laura, “They can’t be from Alabama.” So she asked the gentleman in front of us and he said, “Yes we are! We’re from Guntersville!” In response to that remark I just about lost composure. I am from Albertville, Alabama, the next city over from Guntersville! I have relatives in Guntersville and my dad volunteers for the Guntersville Rescue Squad. I grew up swimming and boating on Guntersville Lake! And sitting in front of us were Lisa Beam, and Coach Rick and Sandra Moody, all from Guntersville. Ms. Lisa is a P.E. teacher at an elementary school in Guntersville, and the Moody’s are originally from Guntersville and are moving back there soon from Syracuse, NY. Coach Moody was the women’s basketball coach at the University of Alabama, mine and Gary’s favorite team, and Gary knew the guy! This was a very pleasant gift and surprise for me, as I love my home state and was glad to meet Christian people from my hometown who know my relatives. But it took us having to meet at Brooklyn Tabernacle, some 900 miles away from home, in order to make acquaintance. This was a Divine appointment. Nobody can tell me that it was a coincidence; it was a precious gift of God to me. I am extremely thankful to God for that little gift and glimpse into eternity. What a family reunion THAT will be! Now, on to the message.

Pastor Jim Cymbala was at home with the flu today, but he invited his friend Brad from Michigan to preach in his stead, and Brad felt led of the Lord to bring a message against worry, a sin with which we are all familiar.

The talking points of the message are these, taken from the text of Matthew 6:25-34:

Worry is 1) Unreasonable, 2) Unnatural, 3) Unnecessary, and 4) Un-Christ-like. Worry and faith are mutually exclusive. If you want to overcome worry, apply these four principles from the text as spoken by Jesus: 1) Look to your Father in heaven, just like Jesus did. 2) Learn how valuable you are to Him. 3) Live one day at a time. 4) Apply Philippians 4:6: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God,” for our Father knows what we have need of before we ask it. He will provide.

In light of the fact that Helen and I are planning to be a family and share life together, I would be well advised to take this important message into consideration daily, especially to the Lord in prayer.

Grace to you all,

David

*Patio*

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