Saturday, July 12, 2003

8:45 PM Greetings from Word of Life Inn in beautiful Schroon Lake, high in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York (about 50 miles south of Lake Placid where the Winter Olympics were held in 1980). We had an excellent flight from Chicago to Albany on an American Eagle jet, then rented a car for the 80 mile trip up Interstate 87 (stopping at Pizzeria Uno in Saratoga Springs for supper) to the camp. On our way to our room we ran into Stan and Maxine Toussaint. Dr. Toussaint was one of my professors at Dallas Seminary in the 70s. He and I are the main guest speakers this week. I saw him for the first time in many years last October when I spoke at the seminary. Looking forward to spending some time with Stan and Maxine this week. Tonight we’ve been resting in our room, getting ready for a busy week. I start speaking tomorrow AM to the summer counselors at the Inn and the Island, then we eat lunch with Joe and Melva Jordan (Joe is the Executive Director of Word of Life), and I speak tomorrow night at Mountainside Bible Chapel. All told, I will speak 18 times in 6 days. So while this is a break, it’s not exactly a vacation. Marlene brought along a sack of books to read and I brought along “Hallowed Ground” plus “Reporting World War II” plus some notes for my book on the “Prayers of Paul” for Moody Publishing. I hope to get a little work done each afternoon if I can. I also brought my tennis shoes along, in the faint hope that I can find a bike to ride. We’ll see how it all works out.

8:44 AM Senator Rick Santorum makes a persuasive case for a constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage in light of the recent Supreme Court ruling.

6:58 AM A gorgeous, sunny morning in Oak Park. Up at 5:30 AM for a quick bike ride. Total miles for the year: 1931.

We’re in the final stages of packing. We leave for the airport in 2 1/2 hours. Last night Marlene and I had dessert at the home of Becky Pippert and Dick Molenhouse. Becky is best-known as the author of the best-selling Out of the Saltshaker. Dick and Becky (and son David) have been attending Calvary for the last several years. They will be moving soon to Louisville, Kentucky. Becky’s passion is to see the church of Jesus Christ take evangelism seriously, especially through “Seeker Bible Studies.” She believes that the current moral climate in America makes it easier than ever to do evangelism (people are hungry for real answers because the idols of modern culture have such a short shelf life). In fact, Becky commented that she thinks it’s never been easier to do evangelism, and never harder to do discipleship. Our culture’s infatuation with feelings and personal experience (and its rejection of transcendent truth—even inside the church) makes it difficult to grow Christians who can stand strong because their life foundation is built on the unchanging Word of God. One conclusion: Churches ought to be intentionally evangelistic all the time because people are willing to hear the Good News if we are willing to share it.

12:03 AM Here’s the Legacy Campaign prayer request for today: “Pray for effective cost containment and no significant overruns.”