The Joys of Obedience

We live in a very rebellious society.  The passion for freedom and liberty that our forefathers were willing to die for was tempered by an understanding of personal responsibility and respect for godly authority.  It was not the all-out license to do as you please without consideration for the impact of our actions upon others.  But the gradual and ever quickening trend of the last 50 years or so has been toward total autonomy and selfish individualism, even narcissism.  This attitude has found its way into the church and into the lives of individual Christians, and one of the many results has been a somewhat negative attitude toward the concept of obedience.  In our attempts to find a Biblical position that resists legalism while honoring repentance of sin and sanctification, it seems that we have forgotten the fact that God says, "...to obey is better than sacrifice..."
In the mind of the modern American, obedience indicates coercion, degradation, or servitude.  Sadly, this attitude has crept into the Christian understanding as well.
But the Bible gives a very different view of obedience.  Let me see if I can put this into words. Obedience creates an environment in which God can work freely to use us, bless us, and produce fruit in us.  Obedience allows the power of the Holy Spirit to flow and His passion to fuel everything within us.  It places us in the path of God's greatest blessings for our lives and ultimately results in our greatest joy.  Let me give you a few examples:
The Bible tells us to forgive those who have wronged us.  Our human nature and our pride make this very difficult, but would anyone argue with the fact that forgiving others and finding forgiveness ourselves is a much more peaceful and joyous way to live? Is it cruel of God to require something of us that releases us from the bondage of past hurts and the prospect of continuing conflicts?  Forgiveness is for our sakes, not for the sake of those we have been commanded to forgive.  The unforgiving Christian becomes bitter and frustrated.  And their testimony for Christ is severely limited.  So choosing to be obedient in the area of forgiveness is really a no-brainer.
Second, the Bible tells us that "the tithe is the Lord's."  Many Christians see this as an imposition on their lifestyle or an unreasonable request.  In truth, it is a principle that has been in place since long before the Law was ever given.  It involves several elements.  First, Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, there shall your heart be also."  When a Christian is disobedient in financial matters, it is evidence of a heart issue.  It might be greed or materialism.  It might be a lack of faith.  It might be a lack of understanding of what God is trying to do in their lives.  But whatever it is, it certainly robs the Christian of the full blessing of God upon His life. This is one of the very few things about which God challenges us to test Him.  In Malachi, God says that the person who does not tithe is robbing God, but that God desires to bless in abundant ways if we will just acknowledge that everything belongs to Him by giving Him the portion that He requires.  The results of obedience in this area are wonderful.  God gives us peace about financial matters when we are faithful to Him.  He promises to pour out His blessings in abundant ways.  And, when God's people are faithful, His church has the resources it needs to function in the fullness of ministry that God intended for it.
Finally, the Bible clearly states that we are His witnesses here at home and around the world.  Unfortunately, many Christians have clammed up about their faith.  Many Christians who have been saved for years and are very proud of their faithful attendance to the services and stoic avoidance of anything that might resemble sin, have not shared the gospel with anyone for years and in many cases have not even invited their friends and neighbors to attend church with them.  The Bible assures us that obedience in this matter will result in great joy in the life of a Christian.  There is no more joyous event than the birth of a child or the salvation of a soul, and to know that you had a part in someone finding a relationship with Christ that delivers them from the bondage of their sin and an eternal hell, is nothing but good.  So why is it so hard?  Well, there is that little voice in your head saying, "What are they going to think of you?" I can tell you right now, that voice isn't your conscience and it is certainly not the Holy Spirit.  It is the devil trying to dissuade you from being obedient.
So, why don't we determine in our hearts today that we are going to choose obedience, especially in these three areas, each and every day for the next month.  Then, let's take a look back and see what God was able to do as a result.  I promise that you will not be disappointed.

Dangerous Milestones

Yesterday was a milestone day in my life as a father.  My daughter, Chelsea, was accepted as a participant in the World Race, an 11-month, 11-country, missions adventure that ministers to "the least of these" in some of the worst conditions in the world.  Their website says, "Participants live out of a backpack, survive on a limited budget, and find themselves in situations where faith is the only reality to choose from. In partnering with existing missionaries and ministries, World Racers develop relationships with the “least of these”, and through acts of service see communities and nations transformed all over the world."  This has become the driving passion of Chelsea's life ever since she decided to give the Lord four months of her life after graduating from BBC.  It has been a blessing to me to see God working in my daughter's heart in such a real and dynamic way, but last night another realization began to hit me.  She is offering her very life to the Lord and, in a very real way, putting herself  "in harm's way" to pull others "from the fire."   I heard a quote from an unknown source that said, "If we are going to send our children into the dark places of the world, then we must have a theology that is deep enough to sustain them as they go and us as we send them."  Chelsea has determined that the God that she serves is sufficient to sustain her wherever He wants to take her.  And her mother and I are convinced that His Word will sustain us as she goes.
I am reminded of the story of Adoniram Judson, America's pioneer missionary, who spent 40 years in India and Burma.  Upon preparing to leave, he wrote a letter to the father of Ann "Nancy" Hazeltine, the woman he loved, asking for her hand in marriage.  Here is what he wrote:
"I have now to ask, whether you can condescend to part with your daughter early next Spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life; whether you can consent to the dangers of the ocean; to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want & distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps even a violent death."
What a romantic devil! Not exactly the best approach to take when presenting yourself as a potential husband.  So what did he say that convinced Mr. Hazeltine to consent to give his daughter to marry a man expecting such dire conditions of life?  The letter continues:
"Can you consent to all this, for the sake of Him who left His heavenly throne, and died for her and for you; for the sake of the perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion, and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with the crown of righteousness, brightened with the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Savior from the heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair?"
Am I concerned for Chelsea's safety as she sets off on the pursuit of her life's calling? Well, yes and no.  I know that some of the places that she will be going are fraught with danger, but I also know that the safest place in the world is the center of God's will for your life.  Before she ever applied to be a part of the World Race, Chelsea spent months seeking to know God's will.  He has shown her in several distinct ways that this is it.  So she is ready to face whatever she will have to face.  And Shelley and I gave her to the Lord a long time ago, so there is nothing more gratifying than to see God choosing to use her in amazing ways.
Oh, by the way, most of the predictions that Judson made in his letter came true.  But God used him to leave a legacy of 100 churches and 8,000 believers in a place that was once one of the darkest corners of the world.  As Chelsea follows the Lord into the dark well, I am committed to stay here and hold the rope.
I read a quote recently that said, "We should not fear failure, we should fear succeeding at something in life that doesn't really matter."  Chelsea is about to embark on something that matters for eternity, and with God leading and empowering, she can't help but make a difference.
If you would like to keep up with Chelsea's preparations and the things that God is doing in her life, you can follow her blog at chels4china.blogspot.com.

An Uncluttered Life

Wow! It is amazing how much stuff (insert trash, garbage, clutter, useless trivial accumulation) you can collect over almost 30 years of marriage.  I am finally, after 6 months of living in our new house, going through some of the bins in the garage and deciding what is useful, necessary, and worth keeping.  This weekend, we are going to do the only honorable thing and have a garage sale so that our useless, unnecessary, and worthless things can be stored in someone else's garage for a while.  For instance, I found a pair of pants from when Shelley and I were first married.  I can still get them on, but I'm not sure what to do with the other leg.  Chelsea's Little Mermaid Halloween costume from when she was six has seen its better days. I have 9 cubic feet of phone chargers, power adapters, and wiring from a myriad of technological marvels that very soon will be qualified for the Antique Roadshow.  So this week will find me out in the garage in the wee hours of the morning, making life and death decisions about whether to keep the broken lawn mower and turn it into a yard ornament, take it to the dump and pay to get rid of it, or try to sell it to someone who thinks that $10 for a lawnmower is a great price, even if they have no idea what is wrong with it or how to fix it.
The clutter that plagues my garage is really just a symptom of a malady that I think all of us suffer from to one extent or another.  It is the tendency to look at a situation and say, "I can't deal with this right now, so I'll store it away until later."  Many of the things that I will toss in the trash this week have been sitting in my garage or my storage building, untouched and for the most part unseen, for years.  I should have thrown them away when I bought their replacement, but instead, I stored them, thinking that one day I might find a use for them.  We do this with all kinds of things in our spiritual lives as well.  We get wounded by the actions of someone else and instead of going to them and talking it out and getting the issue resolved, we say, "It's just too fresh right now.  I can't deal with it."  Then we pack it away in our heart and it just sits there and takes up space.  Before long, our hearts are so cluttered with past hurts and unresolved frustrations that we cannot function effectively.
I'm sure that I will find a few things that I have been looking for and that I will be able to put to some useful purpose.  They have just been lost in the clutter.  The same thing happens when we unclutter our hearts.  God is able to bring things back to our mind that we have long forgotten.  He is able to refresh and renew our daily walk with Him.  And suddenly we can find a little bit of order in the chaos.
Our Saturday night Bible study on the book, Returning To Holiness, by Dr. Greg Frizzell, is helping us to work on this process as well.  We are looking at the Scriptures that deal with seven specific categories of sin that tend to clutter our lives and grieve and quench the power of the Holy Spirit.  As we go through this process of dealing with the biggest monsters in our closet, we are beginning to see the freedom that comes from dealing with the clutter.  It is a refreshing feeling.
This weekend's garage sale is just a preliminary attempt to work on this problem.  The real test is going to be seeing if I can resist using the money we make to go out and buy more stuff to replace the stuff that we sell.

Rest

It's funny where we find rest.  Most of our daily appointment calendars have less holes than Ray Charles' dart board.  Our world is moving at a frenetic pace and if you are anything like me, most nights you fall into bed convinced that you couldn't have crammed one more thing into your day.  I like the verse in Hebrews that says, "There remaineth a rest for the people of God..."  It is one of the hopes and promises of heaven.  With the schedule that I've been keeping for the last six weeks, that's about all it has been.  Yesterday was the first Friday in six that I have been able to really just back off and relax a little.  I played something that vaguely resembles the game of golf with my friend Luke, and then I came home and looked around for my next project.  I am building a workbench and some shelves in my garage and it is not usable to keep the cars in right now, so I had to work on that a little bit, but before I started, I took just a few minutes to escape from it all and rest my mind and heart.  Across the road from my house is a large field.  The grass has grown up to the point that it is almost three feet deep.  Sometimes I go over and lean on the fence and just listen to the wind blowing through the grass.  Its a calming sound and it takes my mind off of the things that are going on around me.  Its funny how just a few minutes standing there can reinvigorate me for the tasks that are ahead. Our lives are so full of noise and motion, that we often forget that we need a little time of peace and quiet to recharge our batteries.  God knew that about us and that is why He established the Sabbath principle.  We are to follow His example.  He worked for six days and rested one.  We think we know better.  We think we can work 24/7 and we will get more done, but like Dr. Phil likes to say, "How's that working out for ya?"  Just as when we are obedient to God and give Him the tithe, He is able to accomplish more for us with the 90% than we could accomplish with 100%, so it is with rest.  When we are obedient in this area, our strength increases, both physically and spiritually, and in the long run we get much more accomplished.  Ultimately, the drive to work ourselves into the ground is just a symptom of misplaced focus.  When we start to focus on the world and on material things, the natural inclination is to try to do more and more so that we can have more and more.  When we focus on God, a large part of the process is waiting on Him and being ready to move at the slightest leading of His Spirit.  And while we wait, it's a good thing to take the time to listen to the wind blow.

Ministry to an Upside Down World

I've been thinking about the verse in Acts that talks about the fact that the early church "turned the world upside down."  We've all heard the comments about the church's task being, in reality, to turn the world right side up, but there is something about this imagery that speaks to the mindset of the world in general.  The "real world" is made up of four quadrants; the spiritual and the physical, and the fallen and redeemed portions of each.  Most of the time, our human perspective sees things through a distorted glass, kind of like a fogged up mirror image.  There are many examples of this, but the one that is particularly on my mind this morning is the one that Christ dealt with in the Upper Room.  It was the last time that He would be with his disciples before His crucifixion.  He knew that their hearts were troubled and confused.  He offered them words of comfort and hope and then He drew them a picture of the attitude that is necessary in order to make an impact on the world around us.  He took a basin of water, he wrapped a towel around His waist, and then the very Son of God, Who had participated in the creation of the world, Who was due all glory and honor, to Whom they owed their very lives and their eternal souls, knelt down in front of them and began to wash their feet.  The Master became a servant.  The Great and Majestic One, humbled Himself before lowly fishermen and farmers.  To say the least, that was out of the ordinary. 
I believe that if we, as God's witnesses and ambassadors, were to humble ourselves in such a way before the lost and needy of this world; if we were to become their humble servants instead of trying to drive them to Christ, the radical nature of servant evangelism would once again turn this world on its ear.  A kind word, a humble act of service, a cup of cool water in themselves do not provide the wayward heart all of the information needed to turn to Christ.  But they do serve to break down the walls of resistance and open the door to hearing the message.
Maybe it's time to lay down the heavy cloak of our pride and gird ourselves with the towel of humility.  Maybe we need to put off the pursuit of accomplishment and the desire for accolades, and simply give ourselves to be a simple tool in the hands of the Master.  May I challenge you today, to find a way to humbly serve someone else in the Name of Christ in a way that offers you nothing in return.  It may just be that by doing so, you will turn their world right side up.

Swimming in a Mud Puddle

I am 50 years old and my mother still doesn't believe that I know how to swim.  I think it is a residual effect of her overprotective side.  When I was a kid she wouldn't even push me on the swing.  She would just set me on the swing and then run back and forth and say, "It's looks something like this."  But swimming was one of those things that she was always fearful of for me.  I learned to swim when I was 9 or 10, but since our family rarely swam together, she never really saw me.  I swam at camp, but it was just the boys, and dad was rarely there for the swim times, so I really didn't have a witness to convince her.  On a basketball trip just last year, when I was in the middle of my weight loss contest, I said, "I'm going to go down to the pool and swim some laps."  And I could see the uncertainty and concern in her eyes. 
My mom is great, and her concern for me is touching, but there are times in life when you just have to take a risk.  I think that there are a lot of people that are afraid to get into the water if it is any deeper than a mud puddle.  When I watched Michael Phelps win 8 Gold medals at the Olympics, the thought came to my mind, "You don't become an Olympic Champion by splashing around in mud puddles.  If you are ever going to be a swimmer, you have to jump in over your head every once in a while." 
The same is true in our Christian lives.  It is really hard to have any eternal impact if you aren't willing to jump in with both feet.  Jesus asked His followers to make a radical commitment.  He said that if they wanted to follow Him, that they would have to take up their crosses daily.  The cross in Jesus' day was not ornamental jewelry.  It was an instrument of death.  If we want to truly be like Jesus, we have to be prepared to die, to ourselves, to this world, and to anything that elevates itself into a position of competition with God.  We spend too much time splashing around in the puddles and too little time really making a difference.  As the signs of the times become more evident every day, I believe that we need to curl our toes over the edge of the pool and dive in.  Maybe when the medal is hanging around our neck, Mom will believe that we know how to swim.

Wow! God is Good!

It is funny sometimes, the things that make you consider all that God has done for you.  This past week was unique for me.  In over 30 years in the ministry, I have visited people in the hospital thousands of times.  I've stood in the ER with hundreds of my congregants, trying to find the right words to bring them comfort during those moments of pain and uncertainty.  But this week, for the first time in my adult life, it was me who was in the ER, not once, but twice.  I gained a whole new perspective on the process and it made me reflect on all that I have to be thankful for.  I am 50 years old, and other than a little high blood pressure and a sore shoulder from trying to be 20 again, I am in excellent health.  I've never had to deal with waiting for a doctor to tell me the results of a test that could be the beginning of a long and painful journey.  Now, before we go too far with this, my visits to the ER, while very painful, were nothing that ominous, but they did make me think about how fragile our health can be and how blessed I am to have enjoyed good health throughout my life.  I had a friend tell me a while back that from their distant perspective, I looked like a person who was used to getting what he wanted.  That kind of shocked me, but "after further review" I have to admit, that it is, for the most part, pretty true.  God has been very good to me.  I have enjoyed a blessed life.  He has given me the desires of my heart at almost every turn. And, after running my first 5k at 50, I was beginning to think that I was indestructible, so I guess God decided to put on the brakes for a little bit to remind me that I still need Him every day.
The end result has been to make me more thankful than ever for His protection and blessing up to this point in my life.  Whatever the future holds, I know that God is faithful and it will be for my best.  And that makes it a lot easier to deal with Monday morning.

Succeeding at Meaningless Things

In his book, Crazy Love, Francis Chan quotes Tim Kizziar as saying, "Our greatest fear as individuals and as a church should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter." What are you doing today that will outlast you?  What is there of eternal value in the things that you give your time, energy, resources, and emotions to?  This is the most critical question of life.  How do I choose the things that will occupy the limited time that I have on this earth?  Rick Warren put it another way.  He said, "Find out what are the very few things that will make the most difference in the world.  Know what really counts. Do what really counts.  Forget about the rest."  I am of the opinion that we allow our attention to be easily led away from the things that God is doing around us and the things that He is trying to do in us.  We are distracted by our own hopes and dreams, by the enticements of the flesh, and by the mundane trivia of daily life.  It isn't long and we look around and say, "How did I get here and where do I go from here?"  I believe that we need to start every day with a simple prayer. "Lord, show me your will for my life today and show me the next step that You want me to take." If these things are our focus, then the distractions of life will have a harder time taking hold.  If I know that I am doing God's will for my life today and I trust Him to show me the next step and then I take that step in faith, He will lead me into whatever His long-term plan for me is.  And if I follow Him every day, I won't have to worry about getting to the end of the road and finding out that my life didn't count for anything.
I have also found that if I follow the path that He has set out for me, there is some pretty nice scenery along the away. 
Lord, make my life count for you!

Fellowship Week

Last night was a fantastic start to Fellowship Week at Baptist Bible College.  Fellowship Week is one of three yearly meetings of the Baptist Bible Fellowship International.  The May meeting is always held at BBC in conjunction with the graduation.  At this meeting, we always enjoy outstanding preaching and the Fellowship approves new missionaries, which insures the continued life of the movement.  Last night the speaker was Dr. Mark Hodges, the current President of the BBFI.  He has called for a concerted outpouring of prayer for revival in our fellowship throughout this year, and last night he preached on being Men of Integrity.  He shared a video of Dr. Armie Jesalva, pastor of the Bible Baptist Church, in Cebu, Phillippines, encouraging his people to pray for revival in America, because America brought the Gospel to them.  If it weren't for America, they would still be in darkness, but America is going down, so pray for revival in America.  It was very convicting.  Dr. Hodges spoke of Joseph as a man of purity, Daniel as a man of principles and Paul as a man of purpose.  There was also some excellent music, although the sound guys were awful. I hope they get that straightened out.

We have more preaching and the business meeting this morning, then I will help Bobby move out of his apartment and put his stuff in storage, then back for another great service tonight. 

Tomorrow morning, I go to my 30th class reunion, then we have Missions Day, where they will approve 10-15 new missionaries, then we have our Alumni Banquet, and I head home for the services tomorrow night.

So, as you see, my pace has not slowed down any this week.  But, as far as I know, this is the last trip for a while.  I am ready to be home for a couple months and see what God can do with all of the things that He has taught me over the past six weeks.  I think it is going to be great!

Time Flies

Tomorrow morning, I will be attending the 30 Year Reunion of my college graduation class. It doesn't seem possible to me that so much time has passed or that I am really this old.  Now, I do have to add one disclaimer this morning.  I was 16 years old when I arrived on the campus of Baptist Bible College in the fall of 1976.  So I am not nearly as old as most of my classmates, but still, 30 years, wow!
It brings to my mind the words of Moses as recorded in Psalms 90:12, "So teach us to number our days, so that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."  The Bible is full of reminders that this life is temporary and uncertain.  It is shorter than we think, so we need to live each day with an awareness of how precious it is.  This past week, Shelley and I went to several of the places that were dear to her during her childhood.  Homes where she lived, schools she attended, the path to the High School that she walked everyday.  Funny, it didn't look like it was uphill both ways.  And we also rekindled friendships and renewed acquaintances from the distant past. All of these things reminded us how quickly time flies by.  Because life is so short, we need to be sure that we "apply our hearts to wisdom."  We need to seek out God's will and use every resource to see it accomplished in our lives.  In Eph 5:15 & 16, Paul admonishes us,  "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil."  In this context, the word redeem means to 'make worthwhile.' We need to make every moment count for God, because before we know it the moments will have turned into fleeting years and our opportunities will have passed.
I want to live each day to its fullest potential for the Lord, so that when another 30 years has flown by, I will be able to look back with joy on all that God has accomplished in and through me.

Luke

Today is a big day for my good friend and golfing buddy, Luke.  He is graduating from Tulsa University.  Luke is a sharp young man.  He is a strong mixture of the organizational skills and attention to detail of his wonderful mother, Brenda, and the passionate heart and penchant for stirring things up of his dad, Joe.  Luke is an outstanding horseman and an above average golfer.  I say this because I am an average golfer and his scores are consistently above mine. :0)  Winston Churchill said that if, at 21 you were not a liberal, you probably had no heart and if by 35 you weren't a conservative, you probably had no brain.  Well, Luke is a passionate conservative at 23 with a heart to match.  I think Luke has aspirations about a life as a politician, although, in my opinion, he tells you exactly what he is thinking a little too much to get elected President in today's political climate.  But I can see him serving as the White House Chief of Staff someday.  I have enjoyed our times together because he is as much of a story teller as I am.  To hear him tell about his adventures in Paris and his conversations with the cabbie, as well as some of his other youthful hijinks have been great fun.  I have tried to be his friend and his confidant.  He is still filled with youthful exhuberance and passion for life that sometimes gets him in trouble, but I think the future is really bright for him, and maybe for us because of what he accomplishes.  Congratulations, Luke!  I can't wait to see what God does with you next.

Through The Gates

I am on the road today, driving back from Ohio. I am posting this from the McDonalds parking lot, just north of Columbus.  Since I don't have a lot of time and considering the events of the last few days, I thought I would share a poem with you that I wrote a couple of years ago called Through The Gate.

In perfect peace, with blissful song

I’ll rest with Christ on high

When I have laid this body down

And flown beyond the sky

Into a land of endless day

Where dearest loved ones dwell

Where awesome wonders far outweigh

Our ability to tell.

I’ll look with wonder at the walls

Made up of jewels rare

And walk along the golden streets

And breathe celestial air.

With loved ones near I’ll find my way

Down streets that all will have trod

And find myself upon my face

Before the throne of God

I’ll praise Him in His majesty

I’ll glorify His name

I’ll loudly sing with a perfect voice

He is worthy of all fame.

Then I’ll thank Him for His mercy

And His sacrificial grace

That led Him to that cross to die

And brought me to this place.

Then with the holy angels

And millions gathered round

I’ll humbly bow before him

And lay my trophies down

I pray that on that blessed day

When I stand before God’s Son

He’ll look at me with love and say

My faithful child, Well done.

It is with a grateful heart that I praise the Lord this morning, that Scott has experienced this already and is now one of those awaiting the rest of us.

Greetings from Ohio!

I had forgotten how beautiful Eastern Ohio is this time of year.  We are in Canton for my brother-in-law's funeral and we are staying with Shelley's sister, Linda, and her husband, Denny.  They have a beautiful old home that rivals any bed and breakfast, without the breakfast, that is. That was taken care of at Fisher Foods.  Fishers is a local grocery store chain where my mother-in-law used to work.  They are an old-fashioned grocery store with a full-service meat department and one of the best bakeries in the area.  Whenever we are in Canton, we have to go to Fishers for Creme Sticks.  If you have never had Fisher's Creme Sticks, I feel truly sorry for your loss.  On the outside, they look like a simple Long John, but in reality they are pastries on steroids.

Creme Sticks are filled with the most heavenly white creme filling on earth and if there was a Fisher Foods anywhere near Grove, Oklahoma, even with my legendary personal discipline, I would weigh 500 lbs.

We are thankful for the opportunity to reconnect with Shelley's family today.  We'll have lunch with Shelley's mother and her new husband, Roger.  They were married this past year after getting reacquainted after almost 70 years.  We plan on taking a little tour of North Canton so that Shelley can reminisce a little.  It has been a while since we visited some of her old stomping grounds.  She and her brothers used to rule the Federal League when they played for Lake and Hoover High Schools. 

The funeral is this afternoon at 4.  It will be a bittersweet time.  Bitter because of a loving brother, gone before his time, but sweet because in the last days of his life, he found genuine peace with God through a relationship with Jesus Christ. 

The hectic schedule of these past three weeks have made it difficult to process all that God has been doing.  Trips to Denver, Israel, and two trips to Ohio have worn my body and mind to a frazzle.  But I am beginning to understand what Paul meant when he said that God's strength is made perfect in our weakness.  We have a tendency to run through life on our own power, rarely considering God's will and God's plan until we run into a wall.  When we are sick, hurting, frustrated, or just plain exhausted, that is when we have to slow down and say, God, I need your strength.  It is then that He can do His best work, unencumbered by our feeble efforts.

I have probably shed more tears in the last three weeks than I have in the last three years.  They have been tears of joy, tears of conviction, tears of loss, tears of compassion, tears of pride, and tears of mourning.  But with every tear has come a clearer vision of what God truly wants from me.  Those tears have washed away some of the foolish things that I had set my eyes upon and helped me to see that the only things that really matter are the things that God is doing in me and through me.

Last night, a thunderstorm passed through Northeast Ohio.  When we got up this morning, the sun was shining, the air was fresh and cool, and the whole world seemed clean and new.  That is the effect that I want the events of the past few weeks to have on my life and ministry.

Now, one more creme stick and I think I'll be ready to face the day. :0)

Christianity as a Way of Life

I have a friend who has a somewhat unusual habit when it comes to eating.  He likes to keep the food on his plate neatly divided, never letting his corn touch his potatoes, or his chicken touch the green beans.  Each separate food isolated to its own area of the plate, and if this pattern gets messed up, he gets very upset.

For someone like me, who sees my plate like an artist sees his palette, mixing the corn with the potatoes and covering it all with gravy, this seems to be a little OCD.  It borders on mental illness, almost like someone who keeps a clean desk. :0)

But in real life, we all are pretty good at compartmentalizing, aren't we?  Keeping one area of our life neatly separated from the others so that the problems and demands remain neatly organized.  When the pressures of our job or the stresses of our home life start to get to us, we throw ourselves into overdrive in some other endeavor and create a world where those other difficulties can be crowded out of our thinking or don't come into play. 

Sadly, in the lives of Christians, this often results in a total disconnect between the things that they profess to believe on Sunday morning, when they are sitting in their pew, and the way that they live their lives the rest of the week, out in 'the real world.'

In his powerful and thought-provoking book, How Shall We Now Live?, Charles Colson addressed this tendency in light of the moral morasse that we find ourselves in today.  He said, "Americans are groping for something that will restore the shattered bonds of family and community, something that will make sense of life.... We must show the world that Christianity is more than a private belief, more than personal salvation.  We must show that it is a comprehensive life system that answers all of humanity's age-old questions.  Where did I come from? Why am I here?  Where am I going? Does life have any meaning and purpose?  Christianity offers the only viable, rationally defensible answers to these questions."

The only way that we will ever have a genuine impact on our society is if our faith in Christ makes an outwardly visible difference in how we deal with the problems that life throws at us.  The only way that we will ever win our neighbors to Christ is if they see in us the answers to the difficulties that they are facing.  Our faith must influence our home life and marital relationships.  Our walk with God must impact our ability to get along with our neighbors.  Our adherance to the Scriptures must be the determining factor in our business dealings and social interactions.  In other words, what we believe must determine how we live our lives from day to day. 

In the very simplest terms, Jesus said that the whole world would know that He came from the Father if the disciples would simply show genuine love for each other.  Did you hear that?  The entire credibility of the Gospel rests fully upon our ability to show that the love of Jesus has the power to influence how we get along.  We are His witnesses!  If we are going to make a difference, we have to be credible witnesses of the life-changing power of truly knowing Christ.  In order for that to happen, our corn is going to have to touch our potatoes.

Written in Stone

There are some things in life that are fleeting and temporary.  They last for a while, but then they fade away.  Other things stand the test of time.  They may become worn and weather-beaten, but they remain.  It is these things that our hope is built upon.
In Caesarea-Phillippi there was an interesting marker.  It was a cone-shaped stone with scripture etched into a metal cover, attached to a long pole.  It sat in a pit of sand and when you rolled the stone around its axis, it left Scripture verses written in the sand.

It was a fun way to see the verses written in the sand.  The only problem was that the writing was temporary.  If someone walked through the sand box, the words were obliterated and the message was lost.

On the other hand, at site after site, we found inscriptions written in stone that had endured the test of time.  They had remained true to their writer's intent for hundreds, sometimes, thousands of years.

Today, our family is mourning the loss of my wife's brother, Scott Slabaugh.  He passed away last night after a brief but painful battle with pancreatic cancer.  However, we do not mourn as those who have no hope, because we have a promise that is written in stone. 

I know that Scott is alive and well today in the arms of Jesus, because only a few days ago, I saw the place where my Savior and Scott's defeated the grave and took away death's sting.  Written in the stones of that empty tomb are our guarantees that the promises of God are true, the threats of Satan are without foundation, and that death is no longer anything to fear.  At midnight last night, Scott simply stepped through the door that took him from this life of pain and suffering to a greater life of joy and bliss in the presence of God.  We mourn our loss, not his passing.  Our tears are for the pain that separation brings and the fact that we will miss him here.  But we have promises written in stone that we have not seen the last of our dear brother.  He is enjoying the presence of the Lord and his reunion with the ones that have gone on before.  And if he could say anything to us today, I think it would be, "Hold on, it won't be long and it's worth it."