REFLECTION
H appy and Blessed New Year! For the
Reflection in this edition of the UP Team
Newsletter, I would like to use two Scriptures
and draw some conclusions. Let’s look at them
individually and then bring them together.
Some churches, especially those that are
“liturgical” in their worship services and have a
yearly calendar of feasts for celebration. On the
day after Christmas, December 26, is the Feast
of Stephen, recognized as the first martyr of the
Christian Church. That is followed by the Feast
of the Apostle John, a fitting recognition to the
only apostle who stayed with Jesus right up to
the time and place of His death. Then, on
December 28, is the Feast of the Holy Innocents,
the children murdered by King Herod, and
considered to be martyrs in their own right, even
though they did not knowingly and willingly give
their lives for the Lord. It is
this event, recorded in
Matthew’s Gospel, which is the
first Scripture of this Reflection.
Let’s listen to it: “When the
magi had departed, behold, the
angel of the Lord appeared to
Joseph in a dream and said,
‘Rise, take the child and his
mother, flee to Egypt and stay
there until I tell you. Herod is going to search
for the child to destroy him.’ Joseph rose and
took the child and his mother by night and
departed for Egypt. He stayed there until the
death of Herod, that what the Lord has said
through the prophet might be fulfilled, ‘Out of
Egypt I called my son.’ When Herod realized
that he had been deceived by the magi, he
became furious, He ordered the massacre of all
the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years
1
old and under, in accordance with the time he
had ascertained from the magi. Then was
fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah
the prophet: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah,
sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping
for her children, and she would not be consoled,
since they were no more.’” And so it was that
when Jesus was still an infant, Satan rose up to
seek to destroy Him, sensing if not knowing
outright that there was something very special
about Him. I have no doubt that Herod was
possessed by Satan, not only because of this
horrific order he gave but also because of other
acts of violence, even toward member of his own
household. Imagine such an executive order:
He ordered the royal troops to go to Bethlehem,
seek out every child two years old and younger,
rip them from their parents and slaughter them.
It is like the military from some country today
going into a village and deliberating murdering
all the babes and very young children. (Come to
think of it, it is really not that different than
what is going on in countries today, including
our own, when millions of babies still in the
womb have their young lives torn from them,
even though the vast majority of women who
have abortions do not think of themselves as
murdering their babies, so we have no right to
pass judgment on their conscience, while we
have every right to pass judgment on their
actions.) But back to the main point here and
the application to the UP Team: I believe firmly
that we must have a spiritual perspective that is
integral to our prayer and to our entire
Christian lives, namely, that we are immersed in
spiritual warfare. There used to be a criticism
about people who “see demons under every
rock.” Well, they may not be under every rock
or behind every bush, but they are indeed in
every aspect of our lives. The brutal fact is that
just as Satan and the other fallen angels hate
God, so they, too hate all human beings and
especially those who follow the Lord. Herod
wanted to kill this “newborn King of the Jews,”
and so did Satan. We see spiritual warfare at
work not only negatively in the slaughter but
also in the intercession by God’s
faithful angels, one of whom
appeared to Joseph and told him
to flee to Egypt with Jesus
and Mary. Brothers and
sisters, if we are
committed to the goal
of spiritual
transformation in our
region, to the reigning of
Jesus as Lord in all sectors of
our communities, in the region
as a place of pilgrimage, then we can be sure that
Satan is hard at work trying to defeat this
objective. He does it by trying to infuse more
and more worldliness and self-centeredness in
the various sectors; he does it by trying to
convince us that our prayers are small and
insignificant (he is the father of lies, after all); he
does it by trying to discourage us; he does it by
prodding Christians of various denominations
and non-denominations to judge and fight with
one another; he does it by trying to influence us
as individuals to give in to temptation, to focus
on the world, to seek self instead of God. But
here is the good news: Just as an angel appeared
to Joseph, so, too, our guardian angels and,
indeed, legions of angels are right here with us,
right here in our communities and in our region.
They are with us, and God is within us – Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. Against such forces as
these, and against the grace of God working
within us, Satan cannot stand. In his fury he will
wreak as much havoc as he can, but he is
defeated. I end this Reflection with the second
Scripture, describing what can and will happen
if we have faith and hope and perseverance. The
Scripture is from Isaiah, Chapters 51 and 52. It
is a prophetic promise for the coming of the
Messiah, but it is also a prophecy going far
beyond that event. As you prayerfully read this,
substitute our region and the Body of Christ for
Israel, Jerusalem, Zion: “Awake, awake! Arise,
O Jerusalem, you who drank at the Lord’s hand
the cup of his wrath; who drained to the dregs
the bowl of staggering!…But now here this, O
2
afflicted one…Thus says the Lord, your Master,
your God, who defends his people: See, I am
taking from your hand the cup of staggering; the
bowl of my wrath you shall no longer drink. I
will put it in the hands of your tormentors (apply
to Satan), those who ordered you to bow down,
that they might walk over you, while you offered
your back like the ground, like the street for
them to walk on. Awake, awake! Put on your
strength, O Zion; put on your glorious garments,
O Jerusalem, holy city. No longer shall the
uncircumcised or the unclean you. Shake off the
dust, ascend to the throne, Jerusalem; loose the
bonds from your neck, O captive daughter Zion!
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet
of him who brings glad tidings, announcing
peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation,
and saying to Zion, ‘Your God is King!’ Hark!
Your watchmen raise a cry, together they shout
for joy, for they see directly, before their eyes,
the Lord restoring Zion. Break out together in
song, O ruins of Jerusalem! For the Lord
comforts his people, he redeems Jerusalem. The
Lord has bared his holy arm in the sight of all
the nations; all the ends of the earth will behold
the salvation of our God.” We are the
watchmen, we are the vessels for God’s grace to
flow and make Satan flee and bring
transformation. We are the watchmen through
prayer and through living day by day as
committed followers of Jesus Christ, our Lord
and King.
FOLLOW-UP REFLECTION
T his is from “Pray!”
Magazine; “I Love to
Hear You Pray” is the title:
“My child, how glad I was to
meet you in prayer today.
Are you aware of My
gladness? – you who are so
faithful to intercede, so
sincere in your praises
and petitions? I admire
your commitment. Your persistence pleases Me.
But I want you to grasp much more about these
moments we spend together in prayer,
specifically more about the One you spent time
with. May I open My heart to you? Let me start
at the beginning. These moments together were
my idea. They began at creation when I –
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – said, ‘Let us make
man in Our image, in our likeness.’ Only you, of

all creation, were made in the ‘imago Dei,’ the
image of God. As My likeness, you alone were
able to share My thoughts, feelings, and
purposes. So the divine conversation that has
always, from eternity, been going on among the
Father, Son, and Spirit was widened to include
you, and I saw that it was very good. When the
fall cut you off from true conversation with Me, I
could not, would not, bear the silence. I paid for
prayer with the blood of the Son. I died to
recreate My image in you, to restart our
conversation, to restore our communion. Jesus’
resurrection and ascension weren’t the end of
the plan, however. Despite all the imperfections
and sometimes ugliness of even a believer’s
spirit, I had to get still closer. At Pentecost I sent
My Spirit to live in you, so you could realize the
continual communion that My Son described
when He said, ‘I am in my Father, and you are
in me, and I am in you.’ I came to you in the
Spirit to stay. To pray. I want you to
understand, though, that prayer is more than
words and dialogue. Think about it: Satan talks
with Me, but that’s not prayer. True prayer is a
conversation unlike any you can ever have or
will have with anyone else; you will find no
substitute for it. It’s a conversation of faith, a
spiritual communion between Me and you in
which we share our hearts and our minds at a
deep level of understanding and trust. I’ve given
you a picture of what I mean: ‘Here I am! I
stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my
voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat
with him, and he with me.’ That’s prayewr:
The communion of the open door, the prepared
table, the shared fellowship. Prayer is My idea,
but it remains your choice. At what cost to
Myself did I buy back your companionship!
How precious to Me, then, is the open door of
your heart. Abba.”
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
3
“
She was in
the
bathroom, putting on
her makeup, under
the watchful eyes of
her young
granddaughter as she’d done many times
before. After she applied her lipstick and
started to leave, the little one said, ‘But,
Grandma, you forgot to kiss the toilet paper
good-bye!’…Her young grandson called the
other day to wish her Happy Birthday. He
asked her how old she was, and she told him,
’62.’ He was quiet for a moment, and then
he asked, ‘Did you start at 1?’…After
putting her grandchildren to bed, a
grandmother changed into old slacks and a
droopy blouse and proceeded to wash her
hair. As she heard the children getting more
and more rambunctious, her patience grew
thin. Finally, she threw a towel around her
head and stormed into their room, putting
them back to bed with stern warnings. As
she left the room, she heard the three-year-
old say with a trembling voice, ‘Who was
THAT?’…A grandmother was telling her
little granddaughter what her own childhood
was like: ‘We used to skate outside on a
pond. I had a swing made from a tire; it
hung from a tree in our front yard. We rode
our pony. We picked wild raspberries in the
woods.’ The little girl was wide-eyed, taking
this all in. At last she said, ‘I sure wish I’d
gotten to know you sooner!’…Her grandson
was visiting one day when he asked,
‘Grandma, do you know how you and God
are alike?’ She mentally polished her halo
while she asked, ‘No, how are we alike?’ He
replied, ‘You’re both old.’…A little girl was
diligently pounding away on her
grandfather’s old typewriter. She told him
she was writing a story. ‘What’s it about?’
he asked. ‘I don’t know,’ she replied. ‘I
can’t read.’…She didn’t know if her
granddaughter had learned her colors yet, so
she decided to test her. She would point out
something and ask what color it was. She
would tell her, and she was always correct.
It was fun for grandma, so she kept it up for
awhile. At last she finished and her
granddaughter looked at her and said,
‘Grandma, I think you should try to figure
out some of these yourself!’…When he
entered the vacation cabin with his
grandson, Billy, he kept the lights off until
they were inside to keep from
attracting pesky insects.
Still, a few fireflies
followed them in. Billy
noticed them and
whispered, ‘It’s no use,
Grandpa. The mosquitoes
are coming after us with flashlights.’…A
second grader came home from school and
said to her grandmother, ‘Grandma, guess
what? We learned how to make babies
today.’ The grandmother, more than a little
surprised, tried to keep her cool. ‘That’s
interesting,’ she said, ‘how do you make
babies?’ ‘It’s simple,’ replied the girl. ‘You
just change ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add ‘es.’… ‘Give
me a sentence about a public servant,’ said a
teacher. The small boy wrote, ‘The fireman
came down the ladder pregnant.’ The
teacher took the lad aside to correct him.
‘Do you know what ‘pregnant’ means?’ she
asked. ‘Sure,’ said the young boy
confidently. ‘It means ‘carrying a child.’…
A nursery school teacher was delivering a
station wagon full of kids home one day
when a fire truck zoomed past. Sitting in the
front seat of the truck was a Dalmatian dog.
The children starting discussing the dog’s
duties. ‘They use him to keep crowds back,’
said one child. ‘No,’ said another. ‘He’s just
for good luck.’ A third child brought the
argument to a close. ‘They use the dog,’ she
said firmly, ‘to find the fire hydrants.’”
MORE ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
A n old one, but still good: “A burglar
broke into a house one night. He shone
his flashlight around, looking for valuables.
When he picked up a CD player to placed in
his sack, a strange, disembodied voice
echoed from the dark, saying, ‘JESUS IS
WATCHING YOU!’ When he heard
4
nothing more after a bit, he shook his head,
promised himself a vacation after the next
big score, and began looking for more
valuables. Just as he pulled the TV out so he
could disconnect the wires, he heard, clear as
a bell, ‘JESUS IS WATCHING YOU!’
Freaked out, he shone his light around
frantically, looking for the source of the
voice. Finally, in a corner of the room, his
flashlight beam came to rest on a parrot.
‘Did you say that?’ he hissed at the parrot.
‘YEP,’ the parrot confessed, and then he
squawked, ‘I’m just trying to warn you.
JESUS IS WATCHING YOU!’ The burglar
relaxed. ‘Warn me, huh? Who in the world
do you think you are?’ ‘MOSES,’ replied
the bird. ‘Moses?’ the burglar laughed.
‘What kind of people would name a bird
Moses?’ ‘The kind of people who would
name a Rotweiller, ‘JESUS.’”
PRAYER MOBILIZATION
P lease pray for: Kathy Boyd, the wife of
Pastor Howard Boyd, who is recovering
from a serious automobile accident…Linda
Erwin of SDC and the First Baptist Church of
Kimberling City, who is recovering from a heart
attack…Every church in SW Missouri, NW
Arkansas, Polk and Cedar Counties and in the
St. Louis and Kansas City areas…Every
ministry in the same areas…the International
House of Prayer in Kansas City, and my son,
John, and his family – John has been given the
position of Director of Interns…City-Wide
Prayer Movement in Lee’s Summit…Prayer
coordinators in the St. Louis area…Regina
Shank and Missouri Prayer as she and her team
seek to bring fervent prayer for every region of
Missouri…Every member of the UP Team, in
thanksgiving for their faithfulness, and that they
be blessed spiritually, physically, financially and
emotionally…Every person who is not a member
but who prays for the UP Team, as far away as
Ohio, the Carolinas, Oklahoma and throughout
Missouri…for safety from terrorist attacks in
2008, in our nation, in our regions and
throughout the world…for wisdom and
discernment as people go to the polls in primary
elections, for divine guidance in selecting the
right candidates for the November election, and
for a President who follows the guidance of the
Holy Spirit in all decisions…for the overturn of
Roe v. Wade as we celebrate another
anniversary of this terrible ruling, and, above
all, for the ending of abortions, and specifically
for women and couples this year who are and
will be contemplating abortion that they decide
to preserve life…for the overturn of the right to
clone in the November Missouri election…for
Christian Businessmen’s Committee as they
prepare for the May Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast
in Branson, for Businessmen’s Fellowship, for
Concerned Women for America as they battle
for the reclamation of the Christian foundations
of our nation…for Torchbearers and the nation
of Cameroon…for Asleep kNOw More
ministry…for Backstage Ministries (and
gratitude that Larry Wilhite received an award
from his leadership by faith in this ministry)…
for all area Christian radio stations…for Love,
INC (and with gratitude for their hard work
during the holiday season), for Christian
Associates of Table Rock Lake (also strong
outreach during the season), for the Salvation
Army, and for all social service agencies in the
regions…for Share It Forward, the outreach
program for Herschend Family Entertainment
employees…for the programs and services of the
Silver Dollar City Foundation…for all needs and
request for prayer not mentioned here, that God
meet needs in His perfect way, and that we all
have faith that He has our best interests at heart.
CONCLUDING STORY
“B ack in the 15th century, in a tiny village
near Nuremberg, Germany, lived a
family with eighteen children. Eighteen! In
order to merely keep food on the table, the
father, a goldsmith by profession, worked almost
eighteen hours a day at his trade and any other
paying chore he could find in the neighborhood.
Despite their seemingly hopeless situation, two of
Albrecht Durer’s children had a dream. They
wanted to pursue their talent for art, though
they knew full well their father would never be
financially able to send either of them to
Nuremberg to study at the Academy. After
many long discussions at night in their crowded
bed, the two boys finally worked out a pact.
5
They would toss a coin. The loser would go
down into the nearby mines and, with his
earnings, support his brother while he attended
the academy. Then, when that brother who won
the toss completed his studies in four years, he
would support the other brother at the
Academy, either will sales of his artwork or, if
necessary, by also laboring in the mines. They
tossed a coin on a Sunday morning after church.
Albrecht Durer, Jr., won the toss and eventually
went off to Nuremberg. Albert went down into
the dangerous mines and, for the next four
years, financed his brother, whose work at the
Academy was an almost immediate sensation.
Albrecht’s etchings, woodcuts and oils were far
better than those of his professors; by the time
he graduated, he was beginning to earn
considerable fees for his commissioned works.
When the young artist returned to his village,
the Durer family held a festive dinner on their
lawn to celebrate the homecoming. After the
meal, Albrecht rose to drink a toast to his
beloved brother for the years of sacrifice that
had enable Albrecht to fulfill his ambition. His
closing words were, ‘And now, Albert, blessed
brother of mine, now it is your turn. Now you
can go to Nuremberg to pursue your dream, and
I will take care of you.’ All heads turned in
eager expectation to the far end of the table
where Albert sat, tears streaming down his pale
face, shaking his lowered head from side to side
while he sobbed and repeated, over and over,
‘No.. no…no…no.’ Finally, Albert rose and
wiped the tears from his cheeks. He glanced
down the long table at the faces of the people he
loved and then, holding his hands close to his
cheek, he said softly, ‘No, brother, I cannot go to
Nuremberg. It is too late for me. Look…look at
what four years in the mines have done to my
hands! The bones in every finger have been
smashed at least once, and lately I have been
suffering from arthritis so badly that I cannot
even hold a glass up high to return your toast,
much less make
delicate lines on
parchment or
canvas with a pen
or a brush. No,
brother…for me it
is too late.’ Almost
600 years have
passed. By now,
Albrecht Durer’s
masterful portraits, pen and silver-point
sketches, watercolors, charcoals, woodcuts, and
copper engravings hand in great museums
around the world. But the odds are great that
you and I, like most people, are really familiar
with only one of Albrecht Durer’s works. More
than merely being familiar with it, we may very
well have a reproduction in our home or office.
One day, to pay homage to Albert for all that he
had sacrificed, Albrecht Durer painstakingly
drew his brother’s abused hands with palms
together and thin fingers stretched skyward. He
called his powerful drawing simply, ‘Hands,’ but
the entire world almost immediately opened
their hearts to his great masterpiece and
renamed his tribute of love, ‘The Praying
Hands.’ The next time you see a copy of that
touching creation, take a second look. Let it be
our reminder, if we still need one: No one – no
one – ever makes it alone!”

Peace to you and yours. Please join the UP

Team if you are not a member, please recruit
others if you are. Let our goal in 2008 be to
reach a twenty-four hour coverage of prayer; we
are only 14 slots away from that, and only about
80 away from 2-deep at 24/7. This is for the
glory of God and the spiritual transformation of
our are. My cell phone number, day and night,
is (417) 331-1028.

Bob