I Can Do It Myself!

If you have had children of your own, you have heard the emphatic words, “I can do it by myself”! Depending on the situation, as parents, we usually responded in one of two way: 1) “OK. Fine. Go ahead and do it by yourself.” 2) “Why don’t you go ahead and try it. If you can’t do it and need help, I will help you.” One response is out of frustration and the other is flowing from a nurturing, caring parent.

I understand the “I can do it by myself” mindset. I am almost 72 years old and still have that attitude about most things. I am hesitant to ask for help and am blessed (or maybe cursed) with the thought that I will exhaust every possible way to do something by myself before I ask for help. For most men, asking for help can be a sign of weakness or defeat. I get it. I’m that way.

It is hard to slowly start losing some of our stubborn independence because of the aging process. I have been on blood thinners for almost 10 years now. Internal bleeding is your deadly enemy. I am banned from ladders. Kathy and my children are like ladder Nazis! If I am carrying a ladder, people come out of the woodwork asking me what I am doing. So, I now have to ask one of my son-in-laws to do things that would require me to use a ladder. To ask for help may seem like I am being a wimp, but I choose to see it as wisdom. When someone says or implies that I can’t do something, there is this small voice in me that says, “you just watch me!”

This dance between independence and needing other people is a delicate one. I see both of them in Scripture. On the one hand, we have confidence that we “can do all things through Christ who gives us strength” (Phil. 4:13). On the other hand we desperately need one another in the Body of Christ. We need the encouragement from other believers. We need the gifting of other people in the church to make our own gifting complete. We are not the Lone Ranger when it comes to our walk with Jesus. Christ is most edified and our own life is strongest when we have the help and fellowship of others in the Church. I might be able to “do it by myself “, but I would rather do it with others who love Jesus and His Word. I am super grateful for my church family.

Church Rat

I was thinking back to my childhood. During my grade school, junior high school, and high school years, I was what you call a ‘gym rat”. I spent countless hours playing sports. I loved to hang out at the gym and play basketball, or on the field to play baseball or football. All summer long I would spend it with my friends who were also “gym rats”. There was something that drew me to get together with my friends and do the thing we loved to do—play ball. That same love has carried over into my retirement years and I am still somewhat of a “gym rat”. I play racquetball 3 or 4 times a week. In the spring, summer, and fall, you will find me on the golf course 3 or 4 times a week as well. It is in my DNA.

On Christmas Day, 1974, I became a believer in Jesus Christ. Through the years I have developed another great love—I have become a “church rat:”. A church rat is someone who spends as much time as possible with other believers. I love being at the church. It is full of people who love the Lord like I do and they are interested in many of the same things I am interested in. I love hearing the Word of God taught to a bunch of people who are hungry to be taught. I love watching God’s people interact with one another and encourage one another. I love singing with all of those people. I love seeing people use their spiritual gifts. I am privileged to attend a great church with great leaders and hundreds of everyday heroes of the faith. As the return of Jesus draws nearer and nearer, I find myself longing to be with God’s people more and more. I feel lonely when I am not with them. That is the life of a “church rat”.

I imagine Jesus coming back and finding me in one of two scenarios: 1) wholeheartedly worshipping with the other Christians in our church, 2) witnessing to someone who does not know Christ. Such are the dreams of a church rat.

He’s Coming Back!

We are living in unprecedented times. The church is closer now than ever before to seeing the actual return of the Lord Jesus Christ. World events are increasingly becoming more apocalyptic. Creation is beginning to groan and cultures are beginning to unravel. What do we make of these things? What is our response to be in these days of uncertainty?

Nearly 25% of the Bible is prophetic in nature, the majority of which points to the first and second coming of Jesus. Since every prophecy of the Advent and life of Jesus came true, we can be assured that all of the prophecies about Jesus’ second coming will be true and trustworthy as well. If the prophets told us He was coming to earth as a Suffering Savior and He did, then we can be absolutely sure He is coming again. We can trust the promises of His second coming because the promises of His first coming were accurate down to the last detail.

Prophecy is also purifying in its’ purpose. Jesus commands us as His followers to be ever ready for His return. His imminent return is a strong motivation to remain faithful and obedient to His Word, the Bible. It is like the old Boy Scout motto: “Be Prepared”.

I have to admit to you that I am not, or maybe I should say was not a prophecy buff. I was not driven to try and ferret out all of the fine details of end times prophecies. Until about 3 years ago, I was not intently focused on prophetic events. But, now I am much more interested. We are seeing things happen, not just in America, but on a world wide scale. Unprecedented things. Deceptive leaders worldwide with seemingly sinister motives. The world has never seemed so susceptible to a one world leader than it seems to be in our day.

These things make me want to be intimately related to Jesus and ready to meet Him face to face any moment. I have heard it said that the purpose of prophecy in the Bible is not to satisfy our curiosity about the future. It is to intensify our purity in the present.

1 John 3:2,3. “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

Quite regularly, I think about the purifying effect of prophecy and the fact that Jesus could return any time. When I am tempted to sin, one motivating factor in my life is that Jesus could return when I am right in the middle of that sin! How embarrassed would I be to be doing something less than God-honoring at the time of the rapture?

Shining Like Stars

Philippians 2:14-16 “Do everything without grumbling or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure, ‘children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.’ Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the Word of Life…”

I find this verse remarkably encouraging in these days.. We are living in days where evil is very prevalent. Men are full of deception and wrong is exalted above right. These are precisely the times Paul was referring to in the above passage. The encouraging thing to me is that Christians can shine like bright stars in the middle of such deception. As the days get darker, our light will be brighter.

It seems as though deception is the rule these days. We can’t even trust any news sources. Even “conservative” news sources have an agenda and are presented with some sort of slant to get people to come to their side. It is hard to remember when we could simply sit down and watch the news to be informed rather than persuaded. Perhaps Huntley and Brinkley in their early years? Walter Cronkite? Those are names that anyone younger than the boomer generation may not remember. With so many years of slanted news, is it any wonder our culture is so deceived.

Jesus told us things would be this way. Deception is a frequent topic in Scripture. It began in the garden of Eden (Gen. 3:13) and is referred to at the end of the Bible in Revelation 20:10. Satan started his deceptive mission only three chapters into the Bible and is actively pursuing it right up to the end of the Bible. As David Jeremiah said, “From Eden to the end, he’s spinning webs of deception and smothering our world.”

I have been reading the Olivet Discourse preparing to preach a couple of messages on it soon. It is Jesus’ answer to the question by four of His disciples about the signs of end times events. Jesus began His response by saying, “Take heed that no one deceives you.” (Matt. 24:4)

I’m excited about how we can light up a dark world by remaining true and faithful to Jesus and His Word! It can be done and Jesus will be glorified!

COOPER

Cooper and Papa getting in trouble together

Cooper is our grandson who has already had 3 open heart surgeries. He is so full of life and loves an adventure—especially if I have thought it up! We share a bond in that we are the only two people in our family of 32 to be on blood thinners. So, everyone always wonders what Papa and Cooper are up to. Truth be told, no one really likes us to be out of sight.

This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago. Cooper’s mom came around the corner just as I was encouraging him to climb to the next rung. She took this picture and said, “I knew I should check on you two”! When I ask to take Cooper somewhere with me, it requires a lot of faith for his mother to agree to it! It sounds funny, but it is really not. Aisha has some serious PTSD from all of the surgeries and severe health scares with Cooper. Actually, I think our whole family has some level of PTSD from all that this 4 year old has already been through. He is incredibly resilient and his smile will knock you off your feet.

Cooper has brought something super important to our family. That is the understanding that we only have one day at a time. We don’t know what tomorrow holds and we certainly don’t know how long any of us will live. We have learned to not take anything or anyone for granted. And, we have Cooper to thank for that.

Has he only been with us four years? It seems like 10! It is amazing how much trauma and trial can be packed into four short years. But, if the Lord were to call him home, we would all feel like we have had a rich, full life with him. When someone has physical issues like Cooper, we seem to love harder, play fuller, stand closer than we do with those who seem healthy and strong. But should we? Shouldn’t we treat all of our friends and loved ones like we only have them today?

Cooper has taught us all to hug more, say endearing things often, listen carefully to each word, think about heaven, and trust Jesus for each day. Cooper has given us all so much and we are the richer for having him in our lives. We don’t know how long we will have any of our loved ones with us on this earth, but we do know that we can spend eternity together. And, that is not just pie in the sky by and by. It is the promise of our Savior. It is settled. It is sure. It is our hope.

“Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.”

Ever Have A Dream?

Have you ever had a dream that involved some kind of ministry for the Lord? After 40 years of pastoral ministry, I have had lots of ideas—some fruitful and some, not so much.

Kathy and I taught two weekends of marriage retreats during the first and third weekends of April. These weekends are a vital ministry of our church, Jefferson Baptist Church. They are held at the beautiful Odell Lake Resort. The lake itself is beautiful and if you add 6 feet of snow, it is off the charts!

Pastor Mike asked us if we would be willing to do the teaching at the two retreat weekends this year. We are committed to supporting the pastors at our church in any way we can, so the answer was “yes”. We thoroughly enjoyed both weekends. There were 18 couples the first weekend and 26 couples the second weekend. There was a good mixture of age groups, but predominately younger couples. Those couples brought so much life to Kathy and me. It is invigorating to be around them and to experience their joy for life and remember what it was like when we were young like that.

As Kathy and I were driving up to Odell Lake for the first weekend, we recalled a dream we had as a younger married couple. The dream was to have a camp or retreat center where married couples could get away and be encouraged in their marriages and be catered to at the retreat center. It was a dream we talked about often. Kathy’s parents had 40 acres of timberland up the North Umpqua River. It was beautiful and would have made the perfect retreat/conference grounds. However, that (another story) was not to happen.

As we were praying through the list of couples that would be attending the first weekend retreat, it suddenly dawned on us that we were actually getting to do what had only been a dream 40 years earlier! We did not have the retreat center, but we were going to be encouraging married couples in a beautiful setting and the Resort staff was going to cater to them and spoil them in any way possible. Snowmobile rides, Clydesdale drawn sleigh rides, snowshoeing, cross country skiing and great food. The Resort provides comfortable lodge rooms or individual cabins all of which portray the Hallmarky Rustic feeling.

God has been good to allow some fruition of our early dreams. It has encouraged us to stop and take inventory of many of the things we talked about and hoped for early in our Christian lives. As we do, we are finding that God has been faithful and has often times done things that we have only mentioned in passing as something we would desire to do for the Lord. Be careful what you dream for!

Revival, Renewal or Resignation

I saw in the morning news where the city of Minneapolis has allowed the Muslim call to prayer to be broadcast throughout the city 5 times per day from 5:30 am to 10pm. I wonder how they would respond to a Christian request along the same lines. We are indeed living in strange and strategic days in the history of our nation. What do we do? Should we organize protests? Should we write to our congressmen? The days before the election of George Washington as president of the United States were as dark or darker than the days we find ourselves living in. The writings of the French skeptics had swept the land, and the nation was on the verge of being totally secular and irreligious. The influence of The Great Awakening had waned, and the presence of Christians on college campuses was virtually nonexistent.

Robert Morgan tells us how the secular takeover of America was subverted in his devotional All To Jesus. “At Hampton-Sydney College, one student found Christ—Cary Allen. Then another student, William Hill, acquired an evangelistic book that he hid in his trunk and read secretly. One Saturday Hill locked himself in his room to read the book when someone knocked on the door. It was another student, James Blythe, who, entering the room and seeing the book, started sobbing, saying he had locked his Bible in his trunk and had turned his back on God. Hill and Blythe gave their lives to Christ, and, together with Cary Allen, they began secret prayer meetings. When word leaked out, a mob of students harassed them. But a revival broke out on that campus, resulting in half the students coming to Christ. Spreading to other schools and churches, it paved the way for the Great Revival of 1800 that, in many ways, laid the spiritual foundation for America.”

There is no way of knowing what God will do in response to a small group of people praying for revival and renewal. Let’s not simply resign ourselves to the fall of our nation to Islam, or secularism, or whatever other insidious tool Satan may use. Let’s pray for revival and earnestly seek God to intervene in a miraculous way. Do we believe God can change things? Are we willing to put those beliefs on the line in passionate prayer for revival and renewal in our day, or are we going to just think that God used to do things that way but He no longer is in the business of changing hearts and lives and nations?

Can we intercede for the hearts of men to be changed? We must long for renewal not simply the continuation of the status quo lifestyle we have enjoyed in America.

Racquetball in Heaven?

I just returned home from playing racquetball. It is such a great game! I love the guys I play with and I love the exercise it provides for my aging body. I have played faithfully 3 times/week for the last 20 years. I have noticed that I can’t reach as many balls as I used to and that my legs are much stiffer the day after playing. I’m not sure why that would be 😎. I have tried many other forms of exercise and the one thing I have learned from all of those attempts is that if I hope to be faithful at exercise, I must be chasing a ball! I am convinced that if I quit playing that my muscles would atrophy at a much quicker rate than if I keep playing, keep moving, keep trying to win racquetball games. It is much the same with the spiritual discipline of Bible Reading. If I am not faithful to read my Bible regularly, my spiritual life will atrophy and I will become stiff and unproductive in my walk with Jesus. I do not want to go backwards in my Christian life. One time, I asked a man why he didn’t bring his bible to church (this was long before cell phones and iPads) and his reply to me was that he had “already read it once”. The Bible is a living letter from God to us. It is always revealing more and more to us every time we read it. The Bible is not stagnant nor is it boring. It is inexhaustible and for us to say we have read it once and do not need to do so again is nothing short of arrogance. I doubt there will be racquetball in heaven, but I do know there will be the Bible in heaven. Isa. 40:8 says, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God endures forever.” I think it would be wise for me to be more diligent to read the Bible everyday than to play racquetball everyday.

Rain, Rain, Rain

For the past 3 years, we have been living in our 40’ fifth wheel. I love it when I am curled up in a warm bed listening to the rain on the roof. Last night, the rain was incessant and the wind was really howling. It seemed somewhat unnerving. But Jesus reminded us in the Sermon on the Mount that, “God sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. Have you noticed how much worse the weather seems in the dark of night? I found myself longing for daylight this morning. There is something about the light that makes the storm more bearable and less frightening. The same is true of our spiritual life. We are living in unnerving days. There are things going on that are precursors to the return of Jesus Christ. Those things; crazy weather patterns, natural disasters, government overreach, clandestine meetings by world leaders, threats and saber-rattling among the nations of the world, can seem overwhelming. My answer to all of those things is to focus on the Light of the World—the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone can cause the darkness to flee.

Your Name Written in Stone

I have been camping in and foraging through the Book of Revelation for the past 3 weeks.  I am not sure why my spirit is so drawn to that particular book these days, but I must wonder if the Lord’s return could be soon?

Revelation 2:1-17 was written to the church at Pergamum which was the victim of a particular heresy marked by 3 things–idolatry, immorality, and infidelity. The overcomer in the church kept himself from all three, and his reward is proportionate with his conduct and purity in the face of this heresy.

One of the rewards for faithfulness until Jesus comes is “…I will give each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it.” (Rev. 2:17)  I believe this name will reflect the way we have been in secret, when no one is watching.  It will reflect the intimacy (or the lack of it) with Jesus in our thought life and in our alone moments.  This name will be indicative of what only Jesus could know about us.

What will the Lover of our Souls’ pet name be for you on that day?  What will His secret name for you reveal about you?  What will be written on the white stone engraved specifically for you?

We should carefully guard our heart and our thought life as the day of the Lord’s return hastens.

2 Cor. 10:5–casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,

1 Peter 3:15–But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts...

2 Tim. 2:22–but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart

I don’t want my name to be one that might indicate the Lord Jesus saw more hypocrisy than truth living and dwelling in me when no one else was able to observe me.

I am looking forward to receiving my new name–how about you?