Hey, Cincinnati folks! Below is the text of a press release we've sent out to media in our community. If you're able to be with us for this special, fun night, that would be great!

PRESS RELEASE
[for immediate release]
Comedian Marty Daniels, developing a reputation for being "clean, smart, and funny," will perform on Friday night, June 27, in the building facilities Friendship Church, 1300 White Oak Road, just west of Amelia. Doors open at 7:00 P.M. and Daniels begins his performance at 8:00 P.M. Cost for the event is $1.00 per person.

A veteran of radio and the music industry, Daniels is wowing audiences with his fun perspectives on life. He manages to get laughs without resorting to profanity or sexual innuendo. What's particularly remarkable is that Daniels is gaining attention for his talent not within what some call "the Christian ghetto," but at mainstream comedy clubs, venues at which coarseness and profanity are often accepted practice.

Marty harnesses the madness of life in ways that leave corporate groups, marriage conferences, and comedy club patrons doubled over in laughter without the guilt. "Okay," the comedian says, "with half the guilt."

Daniels is, as he would put it, "the much younger brother" of Friendship Church's pastor, Mark Daniels. "I'm glad that we're able to present Marty to our community in this way," says Mark. "He's a genuinely funny man and I think it's good for people who may associate Christian faith with prune-faced legalism to know that when Christ makes you confident that God loves you, you're able to laugh...a lot."

For more information about the performance or for directions to the church building, contact the Friendship Church office at 513-752-5265. For more information about Marty Daniels' comedy, go to www.martydaniels.com.

I'm re-posting this e-mailed request from my colleague, Pastor Glen Bengson, in order to give it "top-billing" for today. Jesus says that when we help those in need, we serve Him (Matthew 25:31-46). Here's Glen's letter:

Dear Friends,
Bread for the World has named June 16-20 as "National Call-In Days" in
support of the Millenium Challenge Account to increase foreign
assistance to fight hunger, especially in Africa, where many nations are
now undergoing a serious famine. This MCA was proposed by Pres. Bush and
has bipartisan support through Senate bill S. 1160. (Pres. Bush's
proposed budget also included a five year increase in spending to
address AIDS, but that is another item not directly connected to the
MCA.)

My request is that you take a minute this week to call your Senators
using the toll free line BFW has established and 1) urge their support
for S. 1160 establishing the Millenium Challenge Account, and 2) urge
them to make sure the MCA is funded at the President's budget level
request level of $1.3 billion in fiscal 2004, without making cuts to
other development and humanitarian assistance programs. In the midst of
other budget matters, citizen support for such humanitarian assistance
must be expressed, even when the President is in support of these
measures.

The toll-free number is 1-800-826-3688. This will get you the capitol
switchboard. Simply ask for the office of Senator..............Please
call June 16-20 when the toll-free number is operating.

You can call BFW at 1-800-82-BREAD for further info, or go to the BFW
website,

Thanks very much for considering this action.

Glen

I received this note from a colleague, Pastor Glen Bengson, today. He has given me permission to share it with you.

Dear Friends,
Bread for the World has named June 16-20 as "National Call-In Days" in
support of the Millenium Challenge Account to increase foreign
assistance to fight hunger, especially in Africa, where many nations are
now undergoing a serious famine. This MCA was proposed by Pres. Bush and
has bipartisan support through Senate bill S. 1160. (Pres. Bush's
proposed budget also included a five year increase in spending to
address AIDS, but that is another item not directly connected to the
MCA.)

My request is that you take a minute this week to call your Senators
using the toll free line BFW has established and 1) urge their support
for S. 1160 establishing the Millenium Challenge Account, and 2) urge
them to make sure the MCA is funded at the President's budget level
request level of $1.3 billion in fiscal 2004, without making cuts to
other development and humanitarian assistance programs. In the midst of
other budget matters, citizen support for such humanitarian assistance
must be expressed, even when the President is in support of these
measures.

The toll-free number is 1-800-826-3688. This will get you the capitol
switchboard. Simply ask for the office of Senator..............Please
call June 16-20 when the toll-free number is operating.

You can call BFW at 1-800-82-BREAD for further info, or go to the BFW
website,

Thanks very much for considering this action.

Glen

Another great thought from Pastor Glen VanderKloot. To subscribe to his daily e-mailed inspirations, contact him at pastor@faithlutheran.com. Here's his inspiring e-mail for the day:

****************************************************

A Thought for the Day


There are times when the greatest act of kindness we can express
towards another human being is to swallow our own sadness, or to
refuse to make that sarcastic or impatient remark. Acts of kindness
such as these costs us ourselves, and when we agree to pay this
price it is a better, brighter world that we buy back.

Real acts of love never say, "Look at me!" Real Love never flaunts
herself, but quietly gives herself up for the sake of another.

-- Guy Finley

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Bible Verse
James 3:2

All of us do many wrong things.
But if you can control your tongue,
you are mature and able to control your whole body.
(Contemporary English Version)

Prayer

Lord, please put your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth. Amen

Another gem from my colleague, Pastor Glen VanderKloot from Faith Lutheran Church in Springfield, Illinois. To receive his daily e-mailed inspirations, contact him at pastor@faithlutheran.com...

****************************************************

A Thought for the Day

Sometimes all a person needs is
a hand to hold and
a heart to understand.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Bible Verse
Proverbs 18:24

Some friends don't help,
but a true friend is closer than your own family.


Contemporary English Version

Prayer

Lord, help me to be there for others with open hands and heart and
send people with open hands and hearts to be there for me. Amen.

A great site to visit every day is www.thehungersite.com. There, with a simple click of your mouse, you can insure that donations are made to hunger relief efforts throughout the world. Really! Several investigations of the web site have shown that donations truly are made by sponsoring organizations when you click. I try to go there every day. It's a simple way to do something good for others.

Worship: The Road to Significance
Holy Trinity Sunday, June 15, 2003
Isaiah 6:1-8
(Shared with the people of Friendhsip Church)

If I were to ask every person in this auditorium today, “What were you doing when the World Trade Center towers were attacked?,” chances are very good that all of you would be able to answer the question in detail. The attack of September 11, 2001 was a cataclysmic event that created uncertainty and fear in all of us. You remember a thing like that!

Our Bible lesson begins with a similar event. For the people of ancient Israel, the reign of King Uzziah had been a good era. They had prosperity and peace. Everything was going well. Then, Uzziah died. The result was uncertainty and fear.

On the Sunday after September 11, church buildings across America were packed with worshipers. A National Service of Prayer, where Billy Graham preached, held at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. brought together all of the most prominent leaders of our country and attracted a nationwide television audience. When faced with overwhelming fear and uncertainty, the natural inclination of even the most hard-hearted person was to look for God.

The same was true in ancient Israel. After King Uzziah’s death, Isaiah sought solace and guidance by worshiping God in the temple at Jerusalem.

It was then that Isaiah saw a stunning vision. In contrast to the dead king of Israel, a mortal whose heart had stopped beating, Isaiah saw the living King of the universe, God almighty! Isaiah records his vision in our Bible lesson:

"...I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of His robe filled the temple... [Angels surrounded God] And one called—notice that they were calling, shouting—to another, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts [the hosts are the thousands upon thousands of angels that God commands]; the whole earth is full of His glory.'”

As Isaiah looks at this awesome vision, he felt the earth move beneath him. The “house”—the temple—fills with smoke.

Now, if during one of our Sunday morning worship celebrations, you and I caught a vision like this, how would we react? I tell you one thing: we wouldn’t yawn. We wouldn’t look down at our watches and wonder how long until the first inning of the ball game, either. Nor would we necessarily feel very comfortable.

Isaiah wasn’t comfortable either. Looking at God’s greatness, majesty, and perfection, Isaiah reacted as I think you and I would react if we had an ounce of sense. He said:

“Woe is me! [That means, “I’m a hopeless, done-for, condemned goner.”] I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Then, something really strange happens (as if what has happened so far weren’t strang enough). One of the angels attending God approaches Isaiah, holding a burning coal in a pair of tongs. He touches Isaiah’s mouth with that hot coal and tells Isaiah that, having acknowledged his sin and been purged of sin, he was no longer guilty. “Your sin is blotted out,” the angel tells Isaiah.

A moment before, Isaiah had been overwhelmed by his sinfulness, his unworthiness. He didn’t feel qualified to even stand in the presence of God. But now, freed of the power of sin and death, when God asks for a volunteer to do His will in the world, Isaiah cries out, “Here I am, Lord; send me!”

When I was a young man, I wanted to be a BMOC, big man on campus, and I wanted the world to be my campus. I thought that leading a life of significance meant achieving prominence. Some people hold onto that idea and let it propel them toward wealth, power, prestige, property.

Others, discouraged by the failures and setbacks we inevitably encounter in life, give up on having significant, meaningful lives. Their motto is, “You’re born. You hang around for awhile. You die.” These folks sneak through life, taking few risks and reaping little joy.

But here’s what God is teaching me: We should never give up on the quest for significance. Instead, we need to change our understanding of what that means. Having a significant life doesn’t reside in being a BMOC.

Isaiah shows us the road to living significant, meaningful lives in our Bible lesson today. A life of significance begins in worship. I’m not talking about going through the motions on a Sunday morning. I mean bringing our whole lives before God the way we all did on that Sunday after the September 11 attacks, the way Isaiah did after the death of a beloved king.

Real worship means seeing God, as Isaiah did, through the eyes of a person totally in awe of God. When Isaiah showed up for worship in the temple that day after King Uzziah died, he felt vulnerable. He needed God and he knew he needed God. He knew that he was a sinner who didn’t deserve to live. He knew that He didn’t deserve to be in God’s presence. He knew that God is bigger than any of us. Once Isaiah was able to understand these things, he was ready to do something significant with his life. It’s only when we’re willing to admit our inadequacy without God that we can move toward doing all that God has in mind for us.

Millard Fuller’s life was a mess. He and his wife had all the financial rewards that can come to people. But their marriage was on the rocks and they were miserably unhappy. In humility and desperation, Fuller came before almighty God and asked for help. Do you know what God seemed to say? “Now you’re talking, Millard. Now I can do things in your life.” Fuller got rid of all his business interests. And together, he and his wife started Habitat for Humanity. Their marriage was saved and thrived because they turned away from thinking about themselves and turned their attention instead toward God.

Today is Father’s Day. I’m convinced that if we fathers would take our gaze away from being successful in the eyes of the world and turned toward God, we might not start worldwide movements like Habitat for Humanity, but we could have a significant impact on our own little corners of the world. All of us—singles, marrieds, childless, “child-full”—can have lives of significance when we dare to truly worship God and put Him first.

Three years ago, my family and I were in England. You may remember that our kids’ high school choir went on a concert tour there. The first place they sang was the former abbey in Shrewsbury, near the border with Wales, a place made famous in the fictional Brother Cadfael mysteries. The abbey is now a church. After Palm Sunday worship there, I was talking with one of the other choir parents. He leaned on one of the huge pillars, a piece of construction that’s eight-hundred years old. The guy said, “You know, some might think that the people who built this were primitive. But it’s been here since the thirteenth century. They must have done something right!”

After Isaiah’s encounter with God and his humble acknowledgment of God’s greatness and his own smallness, he volunteered to go wherever God would send him. He volunteered to share whatever message God would give to him. Isaiah became a prophet. Among the prophecies God revealed to Isaiah were details about the birth of the Savior of the world, Jesus, an event that would only happen seven centuries later. Those prophecies gave people hope even when things looked bleak. And two-thousand, seven-hundred years later, we still derive hope and inspiration from the Old Testament book of Isaiah.

Some people may think that a man of God who lived three-millennia ago was primitive. But I’ll tell you, Isaiah did something right for us to still be talking about him. The “something right” he did was build his life on the God that he worshiped.

If I were to ask another question, I’m equally confident of the answer I would get. The question: Do you want your life to count for something? I believe that all of us want to live lives of meaning and purpose. If that’s how you feel, the road to significance is clear. Use your whole life to worship the God we know through Jesus Christ. There will be times when you sin and fail and “crash and burn” along the way. I say that from bitter experience because sometimes I sin and fail and “crash and burn.” I am human and sometimes I let my agenda and my desires get in the way of God’s agenda and desires for me. That’s always a mistake. That’s why I’m so grateful that God allows us to repent—to turn from our sin and come back into His strong, loving arms just like Isaiah did that day in the temple when he saw his vision of God. When we build our lives on God, that’s when we’re on the road to significance. That’s when we’re living!

[The theme of this message was suggested by a message on the same text by Pastor Michael Foss, Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Burnsville, Minnesota.]

My brother, Marty Daniels, is a very funny clean comedian. Here are notes on some upcoming gigs where you can go see Marty and laugh like crazy!

In Columbus on Thursday, June 26, Marty will be appearing at Bingo's Comedy Club, 3820 Sullivant Avenue (that's on the west side). Doors open at 6:00 P.M. and the show begins at 7:00 P.M. Tickets are $5.00 each for adults and $3.00 for children. Snack foods and soft drinks are available for purchase at the venue. For more information, you can call 614-751-5388.

In Cincinnati on Friday, June 27, Marty will be appearing at our congregation's monthly 3N Party. That'll happen in our brand-spanking new church building (Friendship Church) at 1300 White Oak Road, one mile west of Amelia. Festivities begin at 7:00 P.M. For one dollar, you can come enjoy a clean comedy show and hang out with some of the nicest young people in the Western Hemisphere. There will also be refreshments.

For details on Marty's comedy and other places you can catch him in performance, check out his web site: www.martydaniels.com.