By Bishop Robert Hayes Jr.

Many of you know how much I love the great hymns of our faith. In my prayers, devotionals, and sermons, I use the words of my favorite hymns so much that I’ve developed what I call a hymn-prayer. I shape a chant in which a hymn becomes my prayer. I started doing this years ago, to remember the melodies I sang as a child and as a young pastor.

On a deeper level, I am endeared to these because of the life-changing stories that produced the songs. If you know the origins of these tunes, you fall in love with them.

Today I want to share with you what inspired two of our faith’s great anthems. When you learn how these songs came to be written, you, too, never again will sing them the same way.

The first hymn is:

(Matthew 6:25, 33-34, New Interpreter’s Study Bible)

By Bishop Robert Hayes Jr.

Mrs. Wells was my fourth-grade teacher, who will forever be remembered as the person I most feared as a child and also loved most, excluding my mother and father.

I feared her because she was a strict disciplinarian, with little patience for the whims and practical jokes of 10- and 11-year-olds. My classmates and I thought she was a distant relative of Attila the Hun.

By BISHOP ROBERT HAYES JR.

Think of the unlimited adventures you might stumble upon when an ordinary bush beside a quiet road bursts into flame. Maybe you will emerge, unhurt and unscarred, from a lion’s den of troubles.

With the old year in your rearview mirror, you are like the Israelites at the edge of the promised land.

Described in the Book of Exodus, the Ark of the Covenant was the holiest possession owned by the Israelites.

By Bishop Robert Hayes Jr.

What a strange world. The greatest human being who ever lived had no choice but to be born in a lowly, most unlikely place. History records that he was born in a stable, basically in a trough for feeding or watering the animals there, because all the rooms for lodging people had been taken.

Even more incomprehensible: 2,000 years later, modern-day society continues to exclude the Savior of all humanity by declaring "no room" for him in the inn of the soul.

Throughout his life, wherever he went, Jesus was shut out of human relationships and experiences. The overwhelming majority of people who lived during his lifetime never knew they had missed the most important event in human history.

When he left this world, it was written of him: "He came unto his own, and his own received him not."

By Bishop Robert Hayes Jr.

A cross this Oklahoma Conference, I find pastors who demonstrate each and every day the principle of significance over success. It exists when a church decides to purchase over 22,000 Bibles, or package over 140,000 meals for hungry people, or develop a food pantry for a needy community.

In these places some of our churches have chosen to be significant, and I pray that will happen more and more.

Part 2

By Bishop Robert Hayes Jr.

How many of us have had those Sundays when what we thought was a good or decent sermon just didn’t get off the ground? We have all experienced those times when it just didn’t happen from the pulpit.

I don’t know about you, but it takes me several days to get the feeling of a regretful sermon out of my system. It’s like a bad taste in my mouth that I just can’t rinse out. It usually takes me until Thursday to get over it, and by that time I’m raring to get back at it so I can make up on Sunday for the disappointment.

Part 1

By Bishop Robert Hayes Jr.

Jim Noble is a pastor and a renowned chef living in High Point, N.C. He owns four very exclusive restaurants in the Charlotte (N.C.) area. By every definition we choose to use, Jim Noble is a very successful person.

Almost two years ago, he decided to open a nonprofit restaurant called The King’s Kitchen. One-hundred percent of the proceeds from the meals served in that establishment go to feed the poor of Charlotte. Last year he donated over $50,000 to projects that support food banks and social service agencies. In that same facility, he provides job training and a number of other programs that help people get back on their feet.

 By Bishop Robert Hayes Jr.

Typical routines on that September morning were shattered by unbelievable news. A plane had crashed into one of the landmark World Trade Center towers in New York City. Initial thought: What a horrible accident! Only minutes later came the report of another plane hitting the second tower. More startling news followed, of a third plane crashing into the Pentagon at Washington and a fourth plane over Pennsylvania. We Americans suddenly found ourselves facing the unthinkable. We felt vulnerable, frightened.

Not since Pearl Harbor had our nation experienced a tragedy of such magnitude. "Who did this?" and "Why?" raced through our minds.

Sept. 11, 2001, was the day that everything changed—our innocence, our way of life, and our feelings of security. The reality of cruelty in the world caught us off-guard.

By BISHOP ROBERT HAYES JR.

One of the things that most frightens me about our society is the constant rushing, the insane speed at which we do everything. One hectic day blurs into the next. We seem always, always in a hurry to get to the next activity, the next place. Our culture is obsessed with how fast we can accomplish whatever stands between us and the next finish line.

"When do you need it?" we ask, and the answer is always, "Yesterday."

Our lifestyles haven’t always been this way, my friends. There was a time when the pace was simpler and slower—and we seemed to enjoy life then a lot more. But in today’s maddening rush to reach wherever we want to go next, we have forfeited our peace of mind, our sanity.

"I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete."—John 15:11

By Bishop Robert Hayes Jr.

Whenever I am able to do something that brings a smile or laugh, or provides some small measure of joy or happiness to someone, I feel I have met a need God has put before me. I will even say I believe that’s a key role for which God sends us out here on this earth—to enrich the lives of others.

The principle is simple: As we seek to be a positive, measurable impact through offering goodwill to another person, God in return gives us an intangible that is priceless. God extends to us significance and meaning for our own lives!

By BISHOP ROBERT HAYES JR.

A few days from now, the gavel will sound, and the 168th session of the Oklahoma Annual Conference will begin! Our theme, "The Plan: A Bridge to the Future," is an obvious reference to our Strategic Plan. We continue pursuing its goals: to invest in leadership, grow fruitful congregations, and promote ministry partnerships among our 528 congregations.

"On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came, stood among them, and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’"

(John 20:19-20; 22)

By Bishop Robert Hayes Jr.

A long, bloody week had ended. The crucifixion of two thieves and a so-called prophet was a fading memory. Life was returning to normal. The restrictions of Sabbath, which governed even how far a person could walk, were lifted. Most people likely went outside, where lilies were abloom and fresh air was free for all to enjoy.

By Bishop Robert Hayes Jr.

So much of what we know about the Christian season of Lent is shrouded in old assumptions, beliefs, and practices. Two areas that especially confuse us are praying and fasting.

Some of us adopt the "pray quickly, fast lightly" approach. The pace of our lives seems to leave little or no time to pray. And when we hear the term fasting, some of us think it means eating lunch at 1 o’clock instead of noon. We must acknowledge these statements are true for many.

Is this the approach you use when it comes to those two important disciplines of the Christian life?

By Bishop Robert Hayes Jr.

Have you ever given thought to what your final words would be if you knew your life was ending? If you had only one sermon to preach, one song to sing, or one prayer to offer before you departed this earth, what words would you choose?

 By Bishop Robert Hayes Jr.

Any Oklahoma farmer will tell you that spring does not start with bursting seeds and buds. Their germination is the result of spring. Spring starts when earth readjusts its position to the sun. The potential of fields and gardens would be planted in vain without the yearly adjustment of the earth in the heavens.

 By Bishop Robert Hayes Jr.

It was James Weldon Johnson, a gifted African-American writer of the 1920s, who best described the futility of getting upset with God. In his sermon The Prodigal Son, he wrote: "Young man, young man, your arms are too short to box with God!"

By Bishop Robert Hayes Jr.

Ready or not, 2011 is here! Like an unwelcome visitor, we got kicked out of last year, and we’ve landed in the new year a bit dazed. Why couldn’t we stay a little longer where we were?

"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters."

—Galatians 4:4-5

By Bishop Robert Hayes Jr.

It’s sad to me that this holy time of year has, for so many people, become focused on themes such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and a host of other subjects that have nothing whatsoever to do with the Christian observance of Jesus’ birth.

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