Say It While You Have the Chance

Yesterday, I got the news that an old friend had passed away.   Chester Henry was the first Pastor that I worked for after graduating from BBC.  My time working for him was short and tumultuous, but I learned some very needed lessons while serving under him. 
During the first semester of my senior year at BBC, Ken McCormick, Pastor of Tri-Cty Baptist Church in Gladstone, OR, came to speak in chapel.  He issued a call for students to consider the Great Northwest of our own country as a mission field.  During that service, I felt that God was calling me to the state of Washington to start a church. Over the next few months, as graduation approached, I looked for contacts up there that might be able to help me get started.  My dad called one day and told me that a man who had pastored in Wisconsin for a while was now in Spokane, WA and might know of opportunities in that area of the country.  I really didn't know Brother Henry.  I had seen him at camp, but had little contact with him, but I wrote him a letter asking if he knew of any churches in the region who were looking for someone in the areas of youth or Christian school ministry.  His response was that there were very few churches in that area that were big enough to have staff, but that his church had a Christian school and might be needing someone in the fall.  I took that as a very positive response, but when March and April and May passed without further word, I began to lose hope that anything would come of it.  I graduated from BBC and moved to Crane, MO, where I had served as Youth Director of Crane Bible Baptist Church during my Junior and Senior years at BBC.  The summer flew past with no news.  Then during the last few days of July, Brother Henry called and said that if I could get packed up, spend a week in Lewisville, Texas for administrators training and be in Spokane in two weeks, I had the job.
Get this! I was 20 years old and single and I had been hired as the Principal and High School Learning Center Supervisor at Baptist Temple Christian School aaannnddd Youth Director at Inland Empire Baptist Temple.  But armed with my BBC diploma and my ACE Administrator's Training Certificate, I hit the road in my beat up '72 Malibu sure that I was ready for anything that life could throw at me.
1700 miles later, I showed up on the doorstep of IEBT and dove head first into Chester Henry's philosophy of ministry.  We worked seven days a week for the first three months I was there.  I found that his expectations were high and that he didn't believe in handing out a lot of praise.  Looking back, I probably hadn't earned much.  I struggled with the dual roles of authoritative administrator through the week and counselor and confidant on the weekends.  Those that I was so desperately trying to get close to as their Youth Director, I was having to discipline and motivate as their teacher and principal.  It is a difficult job, at best, but when you are just a couple of years older than the kids that you are trying to reach and teach, it is very close to impossible.
Add to it my inate desire to be liked by everyone that I come in contact with, and you have a formula for disaster.  By late January of 1981, it was evident to both Brother Henry and me that I wasn't the man for the job.  I had lost control of my classroom and the youth department was floundering.  I felt like a failure, so I walked into Brother Henry's office and told him that I would resign, effective at the end of the school year.  He was gracious and suggested that since the problem was fueled by my dual role, he could assign the Youth Department to a young couple in the church and I could concentrate on my duties with the school.
The change, although gradual was like night and day.  My effectiveness with my students improved and I started a bus route with a friend of mine so that I was still actively serving in the church.  God blessed our efforts and we built that bus route from 0 to 56 in only three months. 
In the end, if I hadn't already tendered my resignation, I probably would have stayed.  I look back on my time in Spokane as my "back side of the desert" experience.  Although it was pretty tough, there are memories and friendships that I made there that I dearly treasure.
Just recently, I came across Brother Henry's daughter on Facebook.  I told her that I would love to get in contact with him again.  I would have liked to thank him for giving me the opportunity to serve in Spokane.  I would have thanked him for the philosophy of hard work and self-discipline that he instilled in me.  And I would have apologized for any problems that my immaturity may have caused him as my Pastor.  But his death this week has robbed me of that opportunity.
This is just one more example of the importance of not allowing your words of love and gratitude to go unspoken.  In just a few weeks, it will have been 30 years since I left Inland Empire.  The church and the school are no longer in existence. But the mark that they made on my life and ministry have followed me every step of the way.

This Changes Everything!

“This Changes Everything!”

I serve a Risen Savior! He’s in the world today. I know that He is living, whatever men may say! Jesus Christ our risen Lord, has conquered death and the grave and because He has, we no longer have to live in fear. Because of Adam’s Fall, we were born in sin, condemned to death and separation from God, but His coming to earth in the flesh changed everything. As a matter of fact, no one that ever came face to face with Jesus walked away the same.
In Luke 8, we see the story of a man whose life was in such a mess that he could no longer live among other people. His outrage and his demons had destroyed every relationship that he had ever tried to build. Satan had him so wrapped up in chains of addiction and destruction that he lived among the tombs, a dangerous outcast from society. In his extreme state of mental and spiritual bondage, he continually ran around in nakedness and rage, until the day that he met Jesus. His encounter with the Savior changed everything! His demons were vanquished, his mind was put at ease, and his relationships were restored. The result was a powerful witness to the ability of Jesus Christ to deliver from the bondage of addiction and spiritual oppression.

Imagine the impact in Jesus’s day of these two words, “Born blind.” All of his life this beggar on the side of the road had lived in darkness. His only recourse was to depend on the generosity of others. He could do nothing to provide for himself and really had no hope of anything ever getting any better. The account in John 9 tells us that his parents were still living, offering him at least one source of help, but as the years passed, this source of supply would have in that culture become an obligation that he was expected to fulfill, leading to more hardship. And once they were gone, he would have no one to care for him or give him a sighted perspective on the world in which he only marginally lived. His life was hard, cruel, and unforgiving...until the day that he met Jesus. Jesus’ disciples were no different than anyone else that had observed him begging on the street. They weren’t concerned with his condition or his need, only who might be to blame for it. But when Jesus looked at the man, He saw right to his heart and recognized someone whom, if healed would serve as a faithful witness to the glory of God. So Jesus spit on the ground and made eye salve out of the dust. He covered the man’s eyes and said, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.” And when the man obeyed in faith, he came again, the Bible says, seeing. The miraculous event touched off a firestorm of theological debate. The Pharisees would not acknowledge that what Jesus had done was a miracle from God, and so they asked the man again and again what the meaning of all this could be. His simple answer was that whoever Jesus was, He had changed everything. He said, “I don’t know much about Him, but I do know that once I was blind, and now I can see.” The power of Jesus Christ to heal the sick and wounded was only one of the many ways that He showed us that He was and is the Son of God.

That night, in the upper room, He gathered his followers around Him and warned them that life as they had known it was about to change. They had been with him for over three years. They had seen Him heal the sick and raise the dead. They had listened to His teachings and had watched Him walk on water. They saw him rebuke the Pharisees and drive the moneychangers out of the Temple. Everything that they had experienced with Him pointed to the fact that He was the Messiah and would sit on David’s throne. But Jesus knew that what they had witnessed was only the first chapter of the story, and what they were expecting was near the end of the book. He knew that there were many difficult twists and turns ahead before they could enjoy the promised blessings of being His followers. And so, He took them to a quiet place, away from the crowds, out of the glare of the spotlights to teach them a few pivotal lessons that would prepare them for the long road ahead, once He had finished His work here. What He taught them that night turned their world upside down. If they were going to rule with Him, they would have to learn to wash feet. If they were going to sit at His banquet table, they first would have to partake of the bread of His broken body and the cup of His shed blood. He told them that, despite their time together, one would betray him and the rest would desert Him in fear during His hour of greatest need. But despite all of this, He loved them and was going away to prepare a place for them so that, when He returned, they could all be together again for eternity. He promised that He would send a Comforter to them and that as a result, they would be emboldened and empowered to change the World in His name. It was a beautiful, solemn occasion that changed everything once again.


 

 
We often speak of the change that took place in the disciples after the resurrection, how they became powerful witnesses capable of turning the world upside down once their faith was confirmed by the marvelous miracle of the empty tomb, but I am beginning to think that the transformation started a little earlier. The catastrophic emotional earthquake that hit them when they saw Jesus hanging on that cross was the beginning of an excruciating three days of doubt, turmoil and confusion. Their hopes and dreams had been dashed to pieces. The things that they had come to believe were thrown into major conflict. They had to think that their lives were in peril and their world had come to an end. From our perspective on this side of the resurrection, we can see that it was all a part of God’s plan, but from their side, it must have been almost intolerable. It is not unlike the upheaval in the lives of those who find themselves in some dark valley. It is often impossible to see God’s plan in it all and what life has thrown at us seems hopeless. But God’s ways are not our ways, and often He uses the worst of circumstances to accomplish His greatest blessings. It is often in our darkest hours that the Light of God shines the brightest. Those disciples found themselves in a situation where they didn’t even know what to pray, all they knew was that things had changed and God was going to have to do something big to set it right. But praise the Lord, Sunday was coming.

On that early Sunday morning, as the disciples made their way to the tomb, they had no idea how much their world had changed. They were going to lay their hopes and dreams to rest in a sealed grave. All that they had envisioned for the future over the past three years lay broken, bloody and cold, wrapped in a sheet in a borrowed tomb. Any joy, peace, or worship that their hearts may have once held, had quickly run dry as the One they believed to be the Messiah, had died a cruel and agonizing death on the cross. How could they face tomorrow? How could they face their friends and neighbors to whom they had loudly proclaimed, “We have found the Messiah! Come and see!” The future that so recently had seemed bright and eternally hopeful, now seemed to be a black void filled with confusion. But all of that changed when they arrived at the tomb! The massive stone was rolled out of the way, set aside like some discarded wrapper. The Roman soldiers had fled the scene and the burial niche was empty, except for the cloth that His body had been wrapped in and the napkin that had been placed on His head. Their minds raced with a combination of confusion and hope. Any number of possible explanations ran through their minds, but the truth seemed too impossible to even hope for. Then they saw the angel. His message are the words that still shake the world today, “Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as He said.” The resurrected Christ changed the world for eternity. Death is no longer the unbeatable foe. The grave is no longer the inescapable prison. Our sin is no longer an unbreakable curse. And hell is no longer our eternal destination. Because Jesus lives, death has lost its sting, the grave has lost its power over us, sin’s price has been paid and heaven has opened its doors to all those who call on His name!

And today, two thousand years later, this Risen Christ whose finished work on the Cross fully satisfied the price demanded for mankind’s sin, is still changing hearts and lives today. If you are here this morning and you have never accepted Christ as your Savior, this can be the day when He changes everything for you. For His finished work on the cross to be applied to your need, you have to understand a few things. First, you are a sinner, we all are, and that sin has separated you from God. It is what will lead to your eternal destruction if you do not turn to Christ. The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death, both physical and spiritual. But the good news is that God loves you, even as a sinner, so much that He is willing to pay the price of sin for you. That’s why Jesus came. That’s what His death accomplished, the payment for your sins. And His resurrection proved it to be true and that our hope for eternal life is valid. All that He asks is that you acknowledge Him as Lord of your life, believe in His resurrection, and call upon Him for salvation. So, what better day could there ever be for Jesus Christ to change your life forever than on the day when He changed everything? Won’t you call upon Him now?

Death and Life, Endings and Beginnings

This has been a pretty hectic week.  In the last nine days, I've driven almost two thousand miles and have run the gambit from foreboding anxiety to deep sorrow to excitement to anticipation to hope for the future.  In other words, I have experienced life on this earth as we have come to know it.  Last Thursday, I traveled to Jefferson City, Missouri, to visit with Ron Fisher, our treasurer for the the last few years.  He was at the end of his journey. Ron suffered for the last year and a half with kidney failure and a myriad of other ailments caused by it.  He had lost weight until, at the end, he was no more than about 130 pounds.  That afternoon, I was able to speak with him and laugh and pray with him and though I knew it would be the last time I saw him on this side of the river, he assured me that he was ready to go home.  On Sunday we got the news that Ron had been promoted to glory and we prepared for the funeral in Jefferson City and the Memorial Service here at IBC. 
On Monday, Shelley and I attended BBC's Sports Awards Banquet and it really sank in that Bobby's collegiate career was over.  He was chosen as BBC's MVP for the second year in a row and we were very proud of our son's accomplishments.  But as his basketball career comes to an end, we are anticipating the beginning of his new life after college as he moves through the application process for a wonderful job that would involve teaching, coaching basketball, and ministry.
I also received news this week that Clint Kidd, one of IBC's teens has been accepted to Moody Bible Institute.  It has been Clint's dream to go to Bible college in a place where he could get a taste of the broad spectrum of real world problems that he may face in his future ministry.  Moody is located in the suburbs of Chicago and offers its students a wide range of ministry exposure to any number of cultures and social classes.  Clint's high school life in small town America is about to come to an end.  In just a few weeks, he will graduate from Grove High School and launch out into a new world of experiences and opportunities to serve God.  Even the ceremony that commemorates the end of his High School years acknowledges that in this ending there is a new beginning.  It is called a commencement, not a conclusion, a commencement.
All of this week's experiences display the conundrum that is life itself.  In every ending there is a new beginning.  For Ron, this week was not truly the end of life, it was only the beginning.  He is more alive today than he has ever been.  Our sorrow for the loss of a friend and loved one is only temporary.  The rejoicing in heaven for a child of God who has finally made it home will last for eternity.  So in reality, the end of the temporary has only opened the door for the beginning of the eternal.
 In Bobby and Clint's cases, the end of one phase of his life has opened the door for the next, more exciting, longer lasting, more fruitful phase which is about to begin.  The details are uncertain, but in faith we know that God will lead and provide.  It's really not that much different.  When I spoke with Ron on Thursday, he knew that he was about to "graduate."  While the transition process was a little scary, he knew that God had already prepared a place for him on the other side.  And so it is with every ending here on earth.  In the ending we find a new beginning.
Tomorrow, we celebrate the reason for our confidence in this hope.  At Calvary, what looked like a tragic ending, an earth-shattering defeat, was transformed on resurrection morning into the consummate victory over man's greatest enemies, death and the grave.  And in that gory ending we find that eternal life has its true beginning.  The one source of joy, peace, and comfort that can be found in Ron's passing is that because Jesus rose again, we too have hope for a day of resurrection.  Tomorrow, we will not be celebrating  bunnies, Easter eggs, and the return of Spring.  We will be remembering the sacrifice of the cross and the victory of the empty tomb.  "He is not here.  He is risen , as He said..."