Benediction

September 30, 2023

When I was a teenager attending Westside Baptist Church, pastor Ellis always concluded worship services with a benediction, much as pastors have done for generations. These days, I hear all sorts of benedictions, most of them made up by whomever is leading the service. Somehow, these extemporaneous and manufactured final exhortations seem to me to fall a bit flat and somewhat short of the blessings God intends his people to have. 

The best of these blessings come straight from Scripture, and the most common of them comes from Numbers 6:24-26:

“The Lord bless you and keep you; 

the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;

the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”

Pastor Ellis used this blessing upon occasion, but it’s not what I remember most. He had two blessings that he pronounced over us time and time again. The first is the blessing I pray over my grandchildren nearly every time we meet, even if over the phone. It comes from Hebrews 13:20-21

“May the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

This truly is my prayer for my grandchildren—that they be complete in doing God’s will, empowered by the covenant strength of God himself, sealed by the very blood of Christ.

And then there is this second of Pastor Ellis’ blessings upon us, found in the Scripture I read this morning from the tiny letter of Jude 24 and 25:

“Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”

Neither of Pastor Ellis’ blessings focused on what we might do for Christ, but rather on what God in Christ has done and continues to do for us. Being told what we should do may or may not bless us. Our ability and will to follow Christ easily wavers, but the love, power, and faithfulness of our God never fades, and being reminded of this at the conclusion of worship is truly the blessing I need for the week ahead. Pastor Ellis is with the Lord for many years now, but his blessings still resonate in my heart and life.

 

Vintage

  September 29, 2023

Some things are better old. Aged cheese, vintage wine (so I’ve been told; I wouldn’t know a good wine from a bad one), Linda and me. We both like antiques, probably in part because we are ourselves of that general vintage. I like that word—vintage—it sounds better than old. 

We live in a world infatuated with new. IKEA has built a fortune by not building anything; it ships it to you so you can put it together. In a couple years, you just throw it out. Something in me rebels at that way of thinking. We have photos on the wall in our back room; parents, grandparents, great and great-great grandparents, a mini family tree that reminds us of our roots. We have stuff that’s been handed down for generations; my great-grandfather’s Civil War musket, his discharge papers from that same conflict. My great-grandmother’s platform rocker sits in our back room; the same rocker that I was sitting in when I squished my brother’s finger; Linda’s dresser that was her grandmother’s, her father’s racing goggles. 

Two of my favorite antiques are my upright basses, a 1936 King Moretone, and a 1952 Epiphone. The wood has settled in, so they sound so much better than newer ones. I just love playing these instruments even though Linda questions why I need two. Telling her that having a backup bass doesn’t impress her at all. After all, I don’t have a backup wife!

Speaking of wife, vintage is good. We’ve learned each other’s quirks and laugh at things that years ago would have gotten under our skin. The statistics for marital longevity are appalling; it’s no wonder that so many teenagers struggle with depression and anxiety when the stability they should be able to count on explodes in their faces. Like anything with any miles on the odometer, we both have our share of dings and dents. The paint is a bit faded, the upholstery sags in places, but we still have many miles to go, and traveling together suits us fine. Unlike IKEA, even though we built our marriage ourselves, we aren’t about to get tired of it and toss it out. “Till death us do part” is still our mantra, and a good one it is. We both like vintage.

Wealth

 September 28, 2023

I have to admit I’m conflicted. I recently watched a short video clip of a Christian speaker talk about building wealth as God’s plan for his people. Part of me resonated to his words when he said there’s a difference between being broke and being poor. And yet, when he said, “There’s nowhere in the Bible where it says being poor is a good thing, that poverty is a blessing from the Lord,” I immediately thought of the Beatitudes where Jesus himself said, “Blessed are the poor,” and of how often Jesus turned conventional thinking on its head. 

This man went on with this food for thought: “Broke is a temporary financial condition. Poverty is a lens that only sees meager possibilities. When you only see meager possibilities, it’s going to severely limit God’s ability to get involved.” This makes sense to me, but I still have this nagging doubt that surfaces whenever we who have more than adequate means justify our financial status. It seems a little self-serving. And yet, many well-to-do people are very generous with their resources and do much good for the work of Christ. 

I haven’t quite figured out exactly what it is that bothers me about wealth. Maybe it’s a bit of guilt on my part; after all, I am financially far better off than most people in the world. But there is more. This morning I read 1 Peter—all five chapters. His overall theme is how we as Christians are supposed to handle not prosperity, but suffering. The word itself shows up sixteen times in these five short chapters, not including allusions to it. 

Peter’s recommended response to suffering is embodied in the word “submission.” He repeatedly tells us to submit to various levels of authorities, even those which are unjust and oppressive; not exactly the kind of advice we like to hear. Any way you cut it, Peter’s advice cuts against our infatuation with wealth and comfort.

I’m still conflicted. I like the comforts of my life and the benefits off having the resources I need, but if I have to lean, I’ll lean into Scripture and do my best to be a good steward of that which God allows me to manage for his purposes, and pray constantly for the grace and wisdom I need to be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ.

Bruised Ribs

 September 26, 2023

Last week I think I bruised a few ribs when I slipped and fell while cutting wood. I’m grateful that’s all it was, because when I went down, I had a running chain saw in my hand. In the split second when I lost my footing, I managed to get the saw at arm’s length, keeping me from losing any body parts. I went back to work and finished the job, and the next day tackled a second pile of logs. 

This morning I woke early, so decided it was time to get back to my daily workouts. My fifty squats and pushups weren’t a problem, but when it came to crunches, I only got in ten before my ribs demanded that I quit.

It got me to thinking. St. Paul told us that we are the body of Christ, and that if one part hurt, the whole body is affected. We know that a malfunctioning part of the Church can run the whole enterprise off the rails. We’ve seen it all too often when a pastor has an affair, or the church treasurer embezzles funds. It happens in less noticeable ways, too; a gossip betrays trust, a harsh word wounds a child, or criticism poisons fellowship. Even more sinister are the secret hidden sins we harbor. We imagine that because nobody knows, it hurts no one, not realizing that from that sin a spiritual poison begins to spread throughout the body.

An injury to our souls has effects beyond what we may initially think. We may brush off that raging criticism we endured, but our confidence is rattled. That impure thought upon which we dwelt is gone now, but our passion for Christ is dulled, our ability to pray or witness is crippled. In the life of the spirit as well as life in the body, everything is connected, which is why we are exhorted to regular times of confession and repentance, and even more, to the spiritual disciplines which guard us against the inner wounds before they happen. 

Most of the day, my ribs don’t bother me, but until they’re completely healed, there are some things I cannot do without wincing. The same is true for my soul. I can normally handle a lot of things, but if I have allowed the Enemy to have a toehold in my heart, when it comes to the important matters of life, all I’ll be able to do is wince in pain. Reason enough there to watch my spiritual step. I want to be able to tackle all God gives me without reservation and without wondering whether or not I’ll be able to take the deep breath of the Spirit that I need.

Wood

 September 25, 2023

There’s something particularly invigorating about flexing one’s muscles in real and purposeful work. I try to work out three or four times each week. Sometimes the workouts last for nearly an hour, but more often they are only about twenty minutes. It’s not ideal, but is better than nothing. I’ve never been athletic, but about twenty-five years ago, God spoke to me: “Your body is my temple, and I don’t like the shape it’s in.” When God speaks to me, he doesn’t beat around the bush. If instead of speaking through the Scriptures, he speaks directly to my heart and mind, he can be pretty blunt. So, I started an exercise regimen that I’ve continued more or less all these years.

I’m 74, and other than some minor issues that often come with aging, I’m pretty healthy. I’m not on any medications other than vitamins, and even those I often forget to take. Other than my bad hearing and less than 20/20 vision, I have no complaints. As I was watching a baseball game with my brother last month, I commented that we could step up to the plate as much as any of the young men who were playing, but it might get a bit dicey when we tried running the bases.

The last four days (minus Sunday), I’ve been cutting up the trees we had taken down along the creek behind our house. Bending over a log with a chain saw makes use of a combination of muscles my exercise regimen hasn’t touched, so by the time I’m done, my back aches and I’m pretty worn out. But though I haven’t given many hours each day, I’ve gotten quite a bit done. I have more firewood than I know what to do with, and I’m not even half done. 

I mention all this to say how grateful I am for the health and strength to tackle such a job. I’m fully aware how blessed I am; every day I see in the obituaries people younger than me, and know of so many who are dealing with chronic health issues the likes of which I cannot imagine. I don’t believe the adage that when you have your health, you have everything. If I had to choose between my health and my faith, I would choose my faith in Christ; his death and resurrection that assures me of the forgiveness of my sins and gives me hope. Nonetheless, I am grateful tonight for the strength to cut wood, and for the warmth it will give us in a couple months.

Stropping the Edge

September 24, 2023

I learned something tonight from my son. Matthew’s hobby is forging knives. He prides himself on only sending out of his shop a knife that is literally razor sharp. He often tests them on his arm, which is usually bald. He said that a razor isn’t dulled by losing its edge. What happens is in the act of shaving, the resistance of the hairs puts a microscopic waviness into the edge. It doesn’t need sharpening; it needs stropping, which straightens out that microscopic waviness. After each use, the barber strops the edge on leather to realign the edge.

He went on. “Life is like that. We don’t always need a major grinding, but God uses the daily spiritual disciplines of Scripture, prayer, meditation, and worship to straighten out the irregularities that happen in day to day living.” Keeping sharp for God happens on the microscopic level more often than in the major readjustments. 

Jesus told us as much when he was washing his disciples’ feet at the Last Supper. Peter at first remonstrated, saying that he should have been washing Jesus’ feet instead. Jesus replied by telling Peter that if he refused, he would have no part of Jesus, whereupon Peter blurted out that he wanted Jesus to wash his head and hands as well. 

Jesus replied, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean” (John 13:10). Notice the word Jesus used: a bath. When you have been cleansed by the washing of the Word and the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:26), you don’t need another bath, but as you walk this world, your feet get dirty. We need the regular foot washing of the Holy Spirit that comes in tiny doses through these daily disciplines. 

My spiritual edge needs regular stropping to straighten out and stay sharp. I’ll bet yours does, too.

 

Sloth

 September 23, 2023

It’s not often Linda and I have an entire day to ourselves. Today was the day. She wanted to sleep in till 8:00 am, but my spare hearing aids that I had in their charging case by the bed hadn’t actually been plugged in for a few days, and about 4:00 am, she wakes me up. “Do you hear that?” she asked. 

“Hear what?” I responded. It turns out that when the charging unit is low on power, it signals its imminent demise with a high-pitched squeal that is exactly the same pitch as the ringing in my ears. I’m used to it. Didn’t bother me one bit. Linda on the other hand, was not amused when I rolled over and went right back to sleep while she tossed and turned.

Emma woke me up about 5:45, so I let her out, exercised, read my Bible, and began fixing breakfast. It was a less than auspicious start to what turned out to be a wonderful day. 

We visited a couple shops she wanted to see, came home and did up some more wood for winter, then watched grandson Nathan’s soccer team beat Fredonia 4-1. Nathan is goalie and made some pretty amazing saves. The evening is ending with me practicing jazz licks on my bass, a video call with granddaughter Abi, and now writing. 

It’s a pretty ordinary day except that for us, it was extraordinary in its simplicity and pace. It’s good to slow things down once in awhile. In fact, I might just adopt the sloth for my mascot. I don’t have any pearls of wisdom, nor anything newsworthy to offer tonight. I’m writing merely for the discipline of it. I may be sloth-like, but I don’t want to get lazy.

God’s Promises

 September 22, 2023

“[Abraham was] fully convinced that what [God] had promised He was also able to perform.” —Romans 4:21 

I’ve changed the wording as noted for clarity’s sake, but the message here remains. As I read these words this morning, it occurred to me that we tend to make two mistakes when it comes to believing God’s promises.

The first is distinguishing between God’s promises and what we would like God’s promises to be. This is an easy mistake to make. When I was praying for my brother-in-law’s healing, I was absolutely convinced that God had spoken in my spirit that he would recover. I drove down to see him in the hospital. The next day he died. I wanted his physical healing so much that I wasn’t able to distinguish between my desires and God’s promise. 

I am far from the only one who has made this mistake. I’ve listened to countless Christians tell me with absolute certainty that God had spoken to them, and listened again when their dreams fell apart and they were struggling to understand why God didn’t keep his promise. The real problem wasn’t God’s integrity, but their understanding.

The second mistake in this regard has to do with this business of being “fully convinced;” in other words, How strong is my faith? We generally do pretty well with matters we can figure out, or with problems we deem solvable, but Paul isn’t speaking here of things likely to occur. He speaks of Abraham “hoping against hope,” facing a humanly impossible problem. I have lots of faith if I can see possibilities in a situation. It gets a bit dicey when I’m facing something that seems entirely impossible. 

When it comes to faith, it’s important that we know what God has and hasn’t promised, and it’s critical that when it comes to those actual promises, we have absolute confidence in our God who does the impossible.

God’s Pleasure

 September 21, 2023  

“The Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation.”

—Psalm 149:4 

Here is an amazing statement: “The Lord takes pleasure in his people.” Too many Christians labor under the mistaken idea that God is mad at them. I know; I lived with that cloud over my head for years. It was always easier for me to see where I failed than where I succeeded, and those failures clouded my understanding of grace. 

It isn’t too hard to imagine God being pleased with us, with him blessing us from his goodness, but imagining him taking pleasure in us is a step beyond that for many, is hard to accept. Many of us have been so ingrained with the concept of original sin that it’s hard for us to accept ourselves, let alone take pleasure in what we see when we look in the mirror. 

But the Scripture is crystal clear: God takes pleasure in us, much as a husband takes pleasure in his wife, or a parent takes pleasure in her child. If you are in a relationship where you find little pleasure in your spouse or children, what about a favorite pastime? I take pleasure in my bees, even if they occasionally sting me. I take pleasure in playing my bass, even though I’m not very good at it. As much as we may find pleasure in activities such as these, or in loving relationships, God takes even more pleasure in us. Knowing this changes everything! 

God not only seeks and saves us by his grace; he not only sanctifies us through his Holy Spirit and his Word; he not only forgives and corrects us; he takes pleasure in these imperfect, often insignificant, and wayward people who call themselves children of God. Lay your head down on your pillow tonight with this thought: “God not only is pleased with me; he finds pleasure in me.”

Falling

 September 20, 2023

I’m not looking forward to the next time I have my annual checkup. I’m at the age where one of the questions on the form you have to fill out in advance is, “Have you fallen in the past year?” No one asked me that thirty years ago when I fell off a ladder and ended up hanging upside down over the edge of a shed roof. But next year, I’ll be dreading that question and all the implications the doctor will surmise from my answer.

I was cutting up some of the trees we had taken down a couple weeks ago. This particular stack of logs was lying on a slight slope, and I was on the downhill side, cutting 16” chunks for the splitter when I stepped back and to the side to position myself for the next cut. I didn’t see one of the smaller chunks that had rolled behind me, so when I stepped back, I planted my foot on a 6” section. It rolled and I went down. Landed on the right side of my ribs. Fortunately, I was able to hold the still running chainsaw at arm’s length as I hit the ground. 

I got up and continued cutting till I ran out of gas (the saw, not me), and decided to call it a day. I am grateful it was a short trip to the ground, and that I had the saw extended to my side. Landing on a running chainsaw is not an experience I care to have. Someone says God watches out for children and fools. He did so today, and I am thankful tonight that though my ribs are sore, I still have all my parts intact. 

God is Good

 September 19, 2023

“the goodness of God leads you to repentance”

—Romans 2:4 

These words, the conclusion of a rhetorical question Paul asks his readers, are food for thought. Sometimes, we tread upon God’s goodness, as the first part of this question supposes. Here it is in it’s entirety: “Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?”

There’s no doubt many people mistakenly believe that because God is a God of love, mercy, and forgiveness, that no matter what they do, it’ll all work out favorably in the end. This kind of thinking completely misses the point. God’s goodness is not a license for bad behavior, but an incentive to change. “How is that,” you ask? It’s really quite simple and logical.

If God were not good, there would be no point in repentance. If God is not good, what incentive is there to change? Why not just keep up the bad behavior? After all, if God isn’t good, our being good wouldn’t make any difference in the end. We might as well keep on with the sinful practices we were doing because an evil or indifferent God wouldn’t care. Only if God is good do we have an incentive, a reason to be willing to repent, to change our thinking so it conforms with his. 

Some skeptics think if there is a God, he is a bogeyman waiting to squelch any sign of pleasure and happiness we might have. If they’re right, we might as well get away with as much as we can. But the Scriptures assure us that our God is good, and that gives me hope. If God is good, I have good reason to change my thinking and behavior to correspond with his. His goodness means a change on my part is always met with grace and mercy on his part. His goodness leads me to repentance.

Old Guys Working

 September 18, 2023

Ten years ago when I began writing nightly articles, I wrote about things for which I was grateful. Over the years, it morphed into Scriptural commentary and life insights that God was giving me. Lately, either I’m getting lazy or I’m not listening to God as well as I once did, because there seem to be plenty of nights when my mind just isn’t working. 

Tonight I want to give thanks for my brothers in Christ. Last Monday night I told the guys at our Monday night Bible study of one of our Christian sisters in need of getting a pile of wood split and stacked. We’re mostly retirees, so getting a wood splitting party together during the day is eminently doable. So we did it. The original plan was to gather at the Country Cow (a great place for a man’s breakfast) for breakfast, then over to our sister’s home. The Cow is closed on Mondays, so we just met at her house for what I thought would be an hour’s work.

Four hours later, we had the last piece split and stacked. Our sister fixed us a wonderful breakfast of eggs, bacon, coffee, and toast, along with bottles of water to keep us hydrated through the morning. This evening, one of the guys commented that I had billed this as an hour’s work. “If I had said four hours, no one would have showed,” was my only defense. 

Old guys working; it can’t be beat for fellowship with a purpose, and I am thankful tonight for them, for their friendship and faithfulness to put our Monday night studies into practice.

Power

 September 16, 2023

There’s every good reason to keep reading the Bible even when you’ve read the same book dozens of times: God’s revelation from the Holy Spirit which was transmitted through inspiration to the writers and becomes illumination to our hearts when we read it, culminates in the transformation of individuals, and at times, entire societies. But it often takes repeated exposures for that illumination to actually dawn in the human heart.

In my reading this morning from Romans 1, two verses caught my eye. We pick up the conversation mid-sentence in verse 3, where Paul is describing the Gospel he preached…

“concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead…For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” —Romans 1:3-4, 16 

First of all, notice that Paul didn’t say Jesus became the Son of God by means of the resurrection (implying that he was a mere human prior to that event); he was “declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection of the dead.” In other words, by the resurrection, God unequivocally declared to all the world that Jesus Christ is his eternal Son. The power of the resurrection declares for all to hear who Jesus is. 

Later in the chapter, Paul uses that word “power” once more, this time connecting it to God’s work in us. In other words, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead has the ability to save us from our sins. The question naturally follows: “Why don’t we see this power in peoples’ lives?” The answer is in that word “believes.” It is available only through faith, and not faith as a single intellectual declaration, but as a genuine confidence that the power that raised Jesus from death can actually work in me to change me.

Every time I’ve fallen short and sinned, EVERY time—it’s been because at the point of failure, the problem wasn’t that I couldn’t have held out longer; it’s because I failed in that moment to believe that God had the power to save me. At that point in time, faith was an abstract intellectual matter, not a vital, living trust in the God who raised Jesus from the grave. Paul here connects God’s work through Christ with his work in us, and that connection is summed up in the word “power.”

Birth Story

 September 14, 2023

Everyone has a story. Last night, our daughter Jessie stopped by to do a short video of her birth story for use to promote this year’s Walk for Life. It’s quite the story, but I won’t be the spoiler; you’ll have to log onto her Facebook page for Options Care Center. When we were done, she asked about our birth stories. Both Linda and myself came up blank. Neither of us remember our parents talking about when we were born, and we never thought to ask them while they were still with us.

I can however, tell the story of my second birth, when I came to Christ. Sunday mornings, I would watch my friend Jack Pease staring sadly out the window of his parents’ car as they drove off to church. Cheerfully waving goodbye to him didn’t seem to help his mood. Then one Sunday morning when I was about eleven, I joined my friend Jack in that sad journey; my mother had decided we were going to start attending church. I was less than thrilled.

I can’t remember how long we were there when my brother came to Christ. I saw such a change in him that I thought to myself, “If this can help him, maybe Jesus can help me, too.” One night at a pre-teen meeting in the basement room off the kitchen of the Westside Baptist church, an elderly gentleman gave a talk using a light fixture with one of the wires going directly to the outlet, and the other one cut in two with the two ends submerged in a bowl of water. He slowly stirred salt into the water and we watched the light begin to glow. 

“You are the salt of the earth, the light of the world,” he told us. “But only if Jesus Christ lives in you.” He gave an invitation, I raised my hand and outside the door of that room, talking with the pastor’s wife, I gave my life to Jesus. I’ve been back to that church, and although it has grown and changed, I can still point to the very spot where I invited Jesus Christ into my life.

One little twist to the story: the gentleman who spoke to us that evening was a widower. My grandfather wasn’t a Christian, but every day, pastor Ellis would drive across the city and out to Clifton Springs where he was hospitalized, dying from colon cancer. Before he died, pastor Ellis led him to Christ. And a few years later, my widowed grandmother and the man who led me to Christ were married. So my spiritual father became my earthly grandfather.

That’s my (new) birth story. What’s yours?

Disconnected

 September 13, 2023

It’s often been interesting to me how seemingly disconnected events can come together to create something completely new. How would counseling at Odosagih Bible Club Camp in 1966 and sitting in a college classroom two years later to watch a movie on mental institutions possibly be connected? And what impact could those two events have today? Well, I’m about to tell you. But first, the story of Esther from the Bible.

Esther was a beautiful young orphaned Jewish girl who was born in exile in Persia somewhere around 480 BC. When was rounded up for the king’s harem, her guardian cousin Mordecai kept a close eye on her even after she became queen. Already we have a remarkable set of coincidences. Haman, a man descended from one of the traditional enemies of the Jews had been promoted to near second in command in the kingdom, and was fuming because Mordecai  refused to give him homage. So he shrewdly manipulated the king into condemning all the Jewish people to death, not knowing that Esther herself was Jewish. He had an enormous gallows built on which to hang Mordecai.

That very night, the king had insomnia and asked for some court records to be read to him to try to lull him back to sleep. Instead, he learned from the records that Mordecai had foiled an assassination plot against the king, but had never been rewarded. In the morning, he was trying to figure out how to reward him when Haman entered the room. The king asked how to honor someone, and Haman, thinking there was no one the king would want to honor more than he himself, made a suggestion. The king sent Haman to publicly honor Mordecai, his sworn enemy. Things were beginning to fall apart. 

A young Jewish girl whose cousin foiled an assassination plot, a sleepless night and some dull court records…all this and more were threads woven together to accomplish God’s purposes and deliver his people.

Counseling at Bible Club camp, watching a movie on mental institutions—how could they possibly be connected? Well, Esther Sampson was the Bible Club director for that camp, and also roommate to a certain young lady who sat down next to me as the movie began. “Hi. Remember me?” she asked.

“Nope,” I answered. This young lady insisted that her roommate had earlier introduced us, a claim I still dispute. What is not in dispute is that seemingly unconnected events can indeed come together for divine purposes. More than fifty years later, those disconnected events that came together that night still reverberate with the harmony of God’s orchestrated plan. Children were born, and grandchildren; people came to Christ and were taught the faith. The highs and lows of life have been woven together into a tapestry no one could have predicted. It has been woven by God’s own hand, the tapestry of my life, and it is very good.