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."