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"Helping Others Communicate"

PLAYING OUR PART

8/30/2018

 
If you live anywhere near the state of Tennessee, especially the eastern half, then you will most likely be aware that the most often uttered phrase this time of year is:  “It’s football time in Tennessee!”

I have written before of the singular significance folks here in the Southeastern Conference place on college football.  Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee once described college football in the SEC as something more akin to religion than mere sport!  If that is so, then magnify that tenfold and you pretty much understand the feeling that the good folks in Knoxville have about their beloved Volunteers!

It would be quite natural, therefore, during this week before the opening game of the season, for me as a local pastor to have football on my mind.  (Or should I say that it might be unnatural for me not to be thinking about football in east Tennessee right now?!)

Football is a team sport.  It requires at least twenty-two players on the field for one hour of timed play. Half of these will play offense and half of these will play defense.  But in reality, it requires several more players, for there are special teams players who are employed for special teams play, such as those involving kicking and returns – including kickoffs, extra points, punting, and returns of any such kicks.

Of course, offensive, defensive, and special teams units all have assigned positions.  As a general rule, especially on offense but also on defense and special teams, these are divided into position players and skill positions.  Those who are rightly suited by their large size are usually placed on the line as linemen.

Although usually smaller, those who are strong and swift are usually behind the line.  And those with particular skills are designated for the skill positions, meaning primarily those who are likely to contact with the ball itself.

Thus a typical offense may consist of the largest and strongest (albeit slowest) men on the line blocking, the smaller but swifter and tougher men behind the line as running backs advancing the ball on the ground, and the thinnest but fastest men playing receivers and catching the ball.  Of course, the one running the offense on the field is most likely the quarterback, who has not only ball-handling skills, but a particular knowledge of and interaction with the skills of all the other players.

Over on the defensive side, there is normally a similar setup based on size, strength, and skillset. The largest men play on the line; the medium sized men back the line; and the smallest but swiftest men play in the backfield.

Such is similarly the case with special teams (for kickoffs, extra points, punts, and returns), wherein the biggest difference is that the ball-handling quarterback has usually been supplanted by one who has the unique skill of kicking or else of returning the ball that has been kicked.

Added to this array of players positioned on the field are the myriad of back-up players for each position.  And then, of course, there are the various squads of coaches (offensive, defensive, and special teams) who are particularly adept at honing the skills of each player at each position.  Many of these are former players themselves.

Plus a football team normally consists of trainers, ball handlers, statisticians, and any number of other support personnel whose purpose is to help support the actual players on the field and to improve their given performance and results.

At this point, many who are reading this are likely saying, “Okay, okay, we get it.  But what is your point?”  And my answer is that, in the sense I have described the various positions above, a football squad is a good analogy for understanding how the church works. 

A church is actually a team of Christians who have bonded together to advance the cause of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And those believers who comprise this team are all unique in their God-given skillset.  Some are equipped by God for certain purposes and others are equipped by God for certain other purposes. 

To be sure, none of us have the exact same skillset or combination of skills.  But God in His wisdom has uniquely fitted each of us to fill some role and play some part in the church and her mission.  And we are all far more productive and far more rewarded when we are fulfilling the purpose for which we were suited by God.  Conversely, we are all far less productive and far less rewarded when we attempt to fulfill that role or roles for which we have not been suited by God.

Biblically, the skillset I refer to here is what is known as spiritual gifts.  The Bible addresses these gifts in several passages, including chapter 12 of the New Testament Letter to the Romans, chapter 12 of the First New Testament Letter to the Corinthians, and chapter 4 of the New Testament Letter to the Ephesians. 

At least eighteen gifts are delineated in these combined passages, although some interpreters see as few as nine and some as many as thirty-two.  My personal conviction is that every single believer has at least one spiritual gift.  And many believers have some combination of more than one. 

In summary, I might add that football was aptly described by Hall-of-Famer
“Bud” Wilkinson
as twenty-two men running up and down a field desperately in need of rest being watched by twenty-two thousand people in the stands desperately in need of exercise.

In light to of this, if you are a believer, I trust you have looked into and discovered your own spiritual gift or gifts.  I trust as well that you have found a way to get out of the stands and onto the field and employ the particular gift or gift-set that God has given you in a local church setting.

For only then can the church of Jesus Christ function in the way that she was intended by God to function.  And only then will she, as well as each of us who comprise her, truly advance the cause of Christ and experience the victories and joy that God has in store for us as a result!

SCRIPTURE SOURCES:

https://biblehub.com/niv/romans/12.htm;
https://biblehub.com/niv/1_corinthians/1.htm;
https://biblehub.com/niv/ephesians/4.htm.
SEE ALSO:
https://www.churchgrowth.org/.
QUOTE SOURCE:
https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/football_is_22_people_on_the_field.

BIBLE DRILL

8/27/2018

 
A few years back, Karlen Evins, long time radio producer and host in Nashville, Tennessee, wrote a wonderful little paperback book titled I Didn’t Know That Was In The Bible.  It consists of  collection of some very common English phrases that many people assume are in the Bible.  While some of them are, others are not.

I have attached a selection of some of those phrases here.  Run briefly though this list and see how well you know your Bible.  Do these phrases actually occur in the Bible?

Picture

So, how did you do?  Did you recognize many of these phrases?”  Were others new to you?  Were you surprised to know that so many of them either come directly from the King James Bible or else are based on concepts found therein?

Every so often, George Barna, America’s religious pollster, comes out with yet another report summarizing just how little Americans know any more of the contents of the Bible.  Of course, lacking knowledge of the Bible’s expressions and phrasing is one thing.  Any number of people read from more modern translations today, which can vary slightly from the 400 year old Elizabethan English of the King James Version.

But lacking knowledge of Biblical concepts is quite another matter.  And it is far more tragic.  For the concepts and themes contained in and addressed by the Bible are as old as mankind. And they will be with us until the very end of time.

It behooves us, therefore, to read and study the Bible.  For only therein do we discover who we are, where we came from, and where we are headed.  Only therein do we read about how we were created, how we then rebelled against tour Creator, and how we are flawed and face mortality as a result of our sin.

Then too, only there can we read about God’s great love for us manifested in the sacrificial death of His One and Only Son, Jesus Christ.  And only there do we read about how we can live forever in a wonderful place called Heaven because of the wonderful, marvelous,  matchless grace of God.

Source:  I highly recommend obtaining a copy of Karlen Evins’ book, I Didn’t Know That Was In The Bible (Brentwood, Tennessee: Freeman-Smith Publishing, 2013).  She examines all of the above expressions plus many more, detailing and explaining their origin in and/or relation to the Holy Bible.

WASH DAY

8/23/2018

 
Even those who are not well versed in Christian Scriptures are still likely to be somewhat familiar with King David and his double sin of adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, Uriah the Hittite. Of course, David tried to cover his sin up as long as he could. But eventually, God sent His Prophet named Nathan to confront David with the sins he had committed.

Realizing that he had been exposed, David decided to come clean and confess his sin.  II Samuel 12:13 records these words: “Then David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the LORD.’” However, this simple sentence involved much more than might be evident from a mere causal reading.  Later on, in Psalm 51, we have recorded for us the full measure and passion of David’s confession:

PSALM 51
For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.


1Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. 2Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 3For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. 5Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. 6Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

7Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. 9Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. 10Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. 13Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you. 14Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.


15Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. 17My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. 18May it please you to prosper Zion, to build up the walls of Jerusalem. 19Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous, in burnt offerings offered whole; then bulls will be offered on your altar.


Here, one begins to appreciate the earnestness and emotion with which David sought forgiveness for his sins against God.  One word in particular stands out.  It is the word “wash” in verse seven. 

The Hebrew word here translated as “wash” is not the word used for simply washing your face, or rinsing a dish. It is the word “tə·ḵab·bə·sê·nî”, which refers to the thorough washing of clothes by beating and pounding them against a rock or a scrub board. This makes it plain that David is praying for a thorough cleansing from sin and from the guilt and anguish that accompanies it.

Paul Pattison is a minister living in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, where he pastors the Glad Tidings Church.  In a message he once delivered on David and Bathsheba, he talked about David’s utter remorse after having been confronted with his sin. He then shared a powerful illustration about carpet cleaning.

Most people run the vacuum over their carpets on a regular basis.  But simply vacuuming a carpet is not the same thing as a deep and thorough cleansing.  Carpet cleaning businesses understand this.  And for this reason, they sometimes offer a special service for removing pet urine stains and odors.

To show potential customers their need for the service, they will darken the room and then turn on a powerful black light or lamp that emits long-wave (UV-A) ultraviolet light but not much visible light.  Inevitably, the ultraviolent light emitted will cause pet urine crystals to glow brightly. 

Invariably, to the horror of the average homeowner, every drop and dribble of pet urine can now be seen.  What is more, it almost always does not just show up on the carpet alone, but also on doors, walls, drapes, furniture, lamp shades, etc…

More times than can be imagined, the homeowner is left chagrined. Some have even begged the carpet cleaner to shut off the light, not wanting to see the ugly stains.  Virtually everyone decides to have their carpet deep-cleaned as quickly as possible in order to feel comfortable in their own home once again.

Of course, the point of the story is that the stains were there all along, and were going nowhere until they were dealt with properly.  One can ignore the, turn a blind eye to them, or even willfully cover them up and pretend they are not there.  But in the heart, everyone who has seen them exposed by the light will forever know they are there until such time as they are properly expunged.

In a similar fashion, God shined the light of His Holy Word on David’s heart and exposed the ugly stain of sin. But He did not do this just to make David feel guilty and dirty.  He did this in order to prompt David to desire a clean heart!  And when David did, God provided for him the very cleansing that he needed.

And here is the good news!  God still works this way!  Yes, His Word still exposes our sinfulness.  Yes, He still desires for us to repent of the sins He exposes.  But above all, He still washes such sin thoroughly away! 

As the Apostle John tells us in his First New Testament Letter (chapter 1, verse 9):  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Earlier (in his New Testament Letter to the Romans, chapter 3, verse 23), the Apostle Paul had affirmed that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”  He follows that up immediately in verse 24 by reminding us that just as all have sinned, so can all be cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ and made righteous in God’s eyes.

Years ago, the famous hymn writer Elisha Hoffman penned these piercing words:

Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing pow’r?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

Are you washed in the blood,
In the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb?
Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?


If not, my friend, then today could be wash day for you!  No matter how dirty or repugnant the stains they may hold, give the innermost recesses of your heart to Almighty God today.  You will soon find that you share the joy of salvation that David so longed for and eventually found!  And you too will then be declaring God’s praise for that fresh clean feeling that only He can give!


SCRIPTURE SOURCES:

https://biblehub.com/niv/psalms/51.htm;
https://biblehub.com/hebrew/techabbeseni_3526.htm;
https://biblehub.com/1_john/1-9.htm;
https://biblehub.com/niv/romans/3.htm.
HYMN LYRICS SOURCE:

https://library.timelesstruths.org/music/Are_You_Washed_in_the_Blood/.
SEE ALSO:

https://www.facebook.com/pg/GTCMoncton/posts/.

SUCH AS I HAVE I GIVE UNTO THEE

8/20/2018

 
Years ago, the publication titled Our Daily Bread carried a wonderful little story about the power of the Gospel, or “Good News” of Jesus Christ, to change lives.

It involved an incident that unfolded in the life of the famed evangelist, John Wesley, who lived from 1703-1791. It seems that Wesley was returning home from a service one night, when he was ignominiously held up and robbed. The thief, however, soon found that his victim had only a little money and some printed Christian literature on his person.

Frustrated, the bandit prepared to slip away into the night.  But, to his surprise, just as he was leaving, Wesley called out and said, “Stop! I have something more to give you.” The surprised robber paused. “My friend,” said Wesley, “you may live to regret this sort of life. If you ever do, here’s something to remember: ‘The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin!’”

At this, the astonished thief turned and hurried away into the darkness.  He left John Wesley alone, praying that the words he had thrust upon the man’s ears might bear fruit.

That prayer was answered.  Fast forward several years later, to a day in the future when Wesley was greeting people after a Sunday service.  He was approached by a stranger who now surprised him - even as he had once surprised that very same stranger.

The man, now a believer in Christ and a very successful businessman, was the very same individual who had robbed Wesley years before! “I owe it all to you,” said the transformed man. “Oh no, my friend,” Wesley exclaimed, “not to me, but to the precious blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sin!”

I love this little story.  As a Minister of the Gospel, John Wesley has always been somewhat of a hero of mine.  I remember to this day having first read of him - of his life and ministry and writings - while I was a student in Seminary.  He was a key figure in American church history in general and of the first Great Awakening in particular.

But as important a person as he is considered to have been, Wesley knew in his heart that the only real significance he had was as one who represented his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and pointed others to Him.

The New Testament Book of Acts (in chapter 3, verses 1-10) records an incident in the life of the Apostle Peter that was somewhat similar to that experienced by Wesley:

1One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 5So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.

6Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” 7Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. 8He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.


The most important thing we can ever offer to anyone is the power of the Gospel!  May those of us who have received this power ourselves always be faithful to share it with others when and where we are given the opportunity to do so.

SOURCE:  Our Daily Bread, October 1, 1994.
ALSO AVAILABLE ONLINE: Cf.: 
https://bible.org/illustration/power-change-lives.
SCRIPTURE SOURCE:
https://biblehub.com/niv/acts/3.htm.

APPLIED LEARNING

8/16/2018

 
Well, here it is the middle of August, and students everywhere across America are either back in school or else preparing to return to school very soon.  For me personally, counting from kindergarten until graduate school, I managed to head off to school a total of 24 times!  I like to think each of these trips was worthwhile and that I at least learned something along the way.

For this reason, perhaps, I am also a great believer in education. My own schooling benefited me enormously; and I now encourage every young person I encounter to get all the education he or she can. 

Nonetheless, I also recognize that there is a big difference in simply going to school and actually learning something.  For that matter, just earning a degree is not the same thing as having gotten an education.

A wonderful story, circulated in the financial industry for years, serves to illustrate this point…

Few know that Bill Gates was once a student at Harvard. He dropped out to give all of his attention to his new love: computers. His mother was a Regent at the University of Washington and was upset that her son had dropped out of school. She asked a family friend, respected by Bill in his own right, to talk to her son and persuade him to go back to Harvard. The man agreed to have lunch with Bill.

During lunch, Bill laid out the case for personal computers and the urgency of the situation. Bill was so effective that not only did the friend fail to persuade him to go back to school, but he wrote out a check for $25,000 to help start the new Microsoft Company. Many years after that lunch meeting the business man said, “The only mistake I made that day was not giving him every penny in my check book.”

Education is important.  One should certainly get all that can be gotten.  But knowing what to do with that education is even more important.  For in the end, what we do of necessity exceeds what we merely know.

Of course, what is true in the educational world is also true in the spiritual world.  The Apostle James, in his eponymous New Testament Book (chapter 1, verse 22), tells us that we must:  “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.”

Christians are admonished repeatedly throughout the Scriptures to study the Word of God.  But James is making the point here that it is not enough merely to know the Word of God.  We must also find ways to live this Word out in our lives. 

I am quite sure Bill Gates learned some important lessons while at Harvard University.  But I am equally certain that he would not be the person he is today, nor would he have had the far reaching and lasting impact he has had on this world, if he had not decided it was more important to act in the business world than just to study and know business principles.

And as believers, we do well to study the Word of God.  But we do far better to take what we have learned and act upon it.  For it is the latter more than the former that allows for the fullest impact of the Word of God, not only upon us, but also upon all those we encounter.

STORY SOURCE:  Attributed to Jeff Moormeier, while working at Merrill Lynch, as told to and related by Kenneth Squires, while serving as Pastor at Marysville First Assembly, Marysville, Washington.

Cf.:
https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/14791/church-prac
tices-by-kenneth-squires?ref=TextIllustrationSerps
.

SCRIPTURE SOURCE:
https://biblehub.com/james/1-22.htm.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

8/13/2018

 
Picture
In his work, Cultivating A Life For God, church planter Neil Cole reflects on once having visited the famed Rodin Museum in Paris, France and writes:

A few years ago I was going to France to conduct some leadership seminars for missionaries in Europe…  A friend of ours heard that we would be in Paris and began to urge us to go to the Rodin museum. 

Rodin was a French impressionist sculptor. Though many do not realize his name, most are familiar with his work. He created the Thinker. What you may not realize is that the Thinker was really a study he had done to sit on the top of his greatest masterpiece - The Gates of Hell.

For years we have been wondering what it is that the Thinker is thinking about. No, he's not wondering about where he left his clothes the night before. What the Thinker is contemplating is an eternity of judgment separated from God.


I myself have always had an appreciation for art in general and for sculpture in particular - so much so that I have kept a copy of Rodin’s sculpture titled “The Thinker” on a shelf in my study ever since I became aware such a sculpture existed.

For this reason, I suppose, once I first read Cole’s story nearly two decades ago, it never left me. Then, a few years later, when my wife and I were privileged actually to go to Paris, we visited all the traditional tourist spots: the Eiffel tower, the River Seine, the Bastille, the Arc de Triumph and, of course, Notre Dame Cathedral.

But while there, I made it a point to also visit the Rodin Museum. And with my own eyes, I saw that Rodin’s most famous sculpture, that of “The Thinker”, was indeed part of his larger work titled “The Gates of Hell”.  Cole was right.  “The Thinker” was actually pondering the very gates of Hell itself, and likely all that entails – fire, brimstone, worms, darkness, torment, agony, and above all, eternity apart from God and His love.

Picture
In truth, it behooves us all to reflect upon such a place.  Hopefully, as we do, we will grasp the fact that God never intended men and women to go to such a terrible place.  In fact, in the New Testament Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25, verse 41, the Bible tells us that Hell was originally created for the devil and his angels who had rebelled against God.

Thus, men and women will only wind up in Hell because they have chosen to follow the Devil rather than God.  Later on in verse 46 of that same chapter, Jesus Himself tells us that it is the wicked who will suffer eternal punishment; but that the righteous will experience eternal life.

And the way to know that one has eternal life in Heaven as opposed to eternal punishment in Hell is to embrace the grace and mercy made available through God’s son, Jesus Christ.  As the Apostle John tells us (in his first New Testament Letter, chapter 5, verse 10-12):


10Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. 11And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

For my part, I have found this gift of eternal life being offered through Jesus Christ.  I trust you have as well.  If not, I trust you will ponder where you could spend eternity.  Trust me… it really is something to think about!

SOURCE:  
Neil Cole, Cultivating A Life For God (ChurchSmart Resources, 1999), p. 120.

SEE ALSO: 

https://www.cmaresources.org/cultivating-a-life-for-god.

SCRIPTURE SOURCES:  

https://biblehub.com/niv/matthew/25.htm and
https://biblehub.com/niv/1_john/5.htm.

PICTURE SOURCES:

By AndrewHorne (talk) - Own work (Original text: I (AndrewHorne (talk)) created this work entirely by myself.), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15582363.

By Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France - Le penseur de la Porte de l'Enfer (musée Rodin), CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24671002.

GOOD MEDICINE

8/9/2018

 
The writer of the Old Testament Book of Proverbs tells us that a cheerful heart is good medicine (chapter 17, verse 22).  How right he is!  We all need a good laugh on occasion - if for no other reason than merely to relax and alleviate stress.
 
Such is the purpose of today’s post; for I myself have had a full week and felt the need, as it draws to a conclusion tonight, for a little lighthearted humor. 
 
As I have alluded to elsewhere on my webpage, Paul Powell is one of my favorite authors.  He has compiled several books of humorous stories; and from time to time I peruse them just to laugh a little.
 
In one such book, he has gathered the following list of things that will help you to know whether or not you might qualify as a redneck.  I offer them here for your merriment.
 
“You Know You Are A Redneck If . . .”
 
- You have at least one old refrigerator on your front porch.
- You can entertain yourself for more than 15 minutes with a fly swatter.
- Your boat has not left the driveway in 15 years.
- You burn your yard rather than mow it.
- The Salvation Army declines your furniture.
- You offer to give someone the shirt off your back and they don’t want it.
- You have the local taxidermist on speed dial.
- You come back from the dump with more than you took.
- You keep a can of Raid on the kitchen table.
- You keep flea and tick soap in the shower.
- You’ve been involved in a custody fight over a hunting dog.
- You have a rag for a gas cap.
- Your house doesn’t have curtains, but your truck does.
- You wonder how service stations keep their restrooms so clean.
- Your lifetime goal is to own a fireworks stand.
- You have a complete set of salad bowls and they all say “Cool Whip” on the side.
- Your working TV sits on top of your non-working TV.
- You’ve used your ironing board as a buffet table.
- You’ve used a toilet brush to scratch your back.
- You think fast food is hitting a deer at 65 mph.
- Your richest relative buys a new house and you have to help take the wheels off.
- You think potted meat on a saltine is an hors d’oeuvre.
- There is a stuffed opossum mounted in your home.
- You consider a bug-zapper quality entertainment.
- Directions to your house include “turn off the paved road.”
- Your family tree does not fork.
- Your wife’s hairdo has been ruined by a ceiling fan at least once.
- Your mother has ever been involved in a fistfight at a high school game.
- You’ve ever bar-be-cued Spam on the grill.
- You’ve ever worn a tube-top to a wedding.
- You think beef jerky and moon pies are two of the major food groups.
- You have more than two brothers named Bubba or Junior.
- Your father encourages you to quit school because Larry has an opening at the lube rack.
- You think the Styrofoam cooler is the greatest invention of all time.
- You had a toothpick in your mouth when your wedding pictures were taken.

 
Now, admit it.  You feel better already, don’t you?! 
 
But if not, just to punctuate Powell’s list, let me add one more for good measure.
 
The attached photo is of an authentic redneck houseboat that I took with my very own smartphone camera while on vacation in Alabama last year!  Honestly, you cannot make this stuff up!


Picture
HUMOR SOURCE:
https://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/66830.pdf.
 
SCRIPTURE SOURCE:

https://biblehub.com/proverbs/17-22.htm.

ALL FOR US!

8/6/2018

 
On occasion, I use an illustration in one of my messages that seems to resonate with our church family far more than usual. This happened this past Sunday when I was talking about what the apostle Paul had to say in the first chapter of his New Testament Letter to the Ephesians (chapter 1, verses 5-8):

5God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. 7He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

The particular illustration I used was an attempt to illustrate how being adopted into God’s family entitles us to untold riches in His grace.  It came from a book titled Practice Resurrection that was written by Eugene Peterson. 

Though now retired, Dr. Peterson was for many years the James M. Houston Professor of Spiritual Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia.  In addition, he also served as founding pastor of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland.  Although best known for his widely acclaimed paraphrase of the Bible titled The Message, he has written over thirty other books as well.

Given that so many people commented on the story and/or requested its origin, I thought it best to re-post it here today along with its original source.  The story as related by Dr. Peterson reads thus:


Fred and Cheryl went to Haiti 25 years ago to pick up a child they had adopted. Addie was five-years-old. Her parents had been killed in a traffic accident that left her without a family. As she walked across the tarmac to board the plane, the tiny orphan reached up and slipped her hands into the hands of her new parents whom she had just met. Later they told us of this "birth" moment, how the innocent, fearless trust expressed in that physical act of grasping their hands seemed almost as miraculous as the times their two sons slipped out of the birth canal 15 and 13 years earlier.

That evening, back home in Arizona, they sat down to their first supper together with their new daughter. There was a platter of pork chops and a bowl of mashed potatoes on the table. After the first serving, the two teenage boys kept refilling their plates. Soon the pork chops had disappeared and the potatoes were gone. Addie had never seen so much food on one table in her whole life. Her eyes were big as she watched her new brothers, Thatcher and Graham, satisfy their ravenous teenage appetites.

Fred and Cheryl noticed that Addie had become very quiet and realized that something was wrong—agitation … bewilderment … insecurity? Cheryl guessed that it was the disappearing food. She suspected that because Addie had grown up hungry, when food was gone from the table she might be thinking that it would be a day or more before there was more to eat. Cheryl had guessed right. She took Addie's hand and led her to the bread drawer and pulled it out, showing her a back-up of three loaves. She took her to the refrigerator, opened the door, and showed her the bottles of milk and orange juice, the fresh vegetables, jars of jelly and jam and peanut butter, a carton of eggs, and a package of bacon.

She took her to the pantry with its bins of potatoes, onions, and squash, and the shelves of canned goods—tomatoes and peaches and pickles. She opened the freezer and showed Addie three or four chickens, a few packages of fish, and two cartons of ice cream. All the time she was reassuring Addie that there was lots of food in the house, that no matter how much Thatcher and Graham ate and how fast they ate it, there was a lot more where that came from. She would never go hungry again.

Cheryl didn't just tell her that she would never go hungry again. She showed her what was in those drawers and behind those doors, named the meats and vegetables, placed them in her hands. It was enough. Food was there, whether she could see it or not. Her brothers were no longer rivals at the table. She was home. She would never go hungry again.


What a picture of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ!  He has adopted us into His family and He now meets our every need - beyond our wildest dreams!  All His riches and all His fullness provided for us as His children!  What mercy!  What grace!  What love!  All for us!

SCRIPTURE SOURCE:
https://biblehub.com/nlt/ephesians/1.htm.
STORY SOURCE:  Eugene Peterson, Practice Resurrection:  A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ (Grand Rapids:  William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2010), pp. 159-160.
SEE ALSO:
https://www.regent-college.edu/faculty/retired/eugene-peterson.
AND:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_H._Peterson.

NOW YOU SEE IT

8/2/2018

 
Paul Laurence Dunbar was an extremely gifted writer who lived from 1872-1906.  Sadly, he died far too young at a mere thirty-three years old from tuberculosis, for which there was no known cure at the time.

Nevertheless, in his relatively short life span, he still managed to produce thirteen volumes of poetry (containing over 420 poems), three short story collections, and four full-length novels.   

He is best remembered today for the colorful language, conversational tone, and brilliant rhetorical structure contained in his wide body of work.

By way of a sample, his poem titled “Dreams” contains the following profound lines:

What dreams we have and how they fly
Like rosy clouds across the sky; 
Of wealth, of fame, of sure success,
Of love that comes to cheer and bless;
And how they wither, how they fade,
The waning wealth, the jilting jade -
The fame that for a moment gleams,
Then flies forever, - dreams, ah - dreams!


Impressed?  So am I!  But you and I are by no means the first to be struck by the talents of this gifted author.  His home in Dayton, Ohio has been turned into a museum and is open to the public. 

Years ago, having visited Dunbar’s home, Henry Simon, of Belleville, Illinois, shared the following story about what happened after the famed poet died. 

According to Simon…

Dunbar’s mother left his room exactly as it was on the day of his death.  At the desk of this brilliant man was his final poem, handwritten on a pad.  After his mother died, her friends discovered that Paul Laurence Dunbar's last poem had been lost forever.  Because his mother had made his room into a shrine and not moved anything, the sun had bleached the ink in which the poem was written until it was invisible.  The poem was gone. If we stay in mourning, we lose so much of life.

As of late, I have reflected much upon the admonition Simon applies to this story.  And I have decided that he is right:  “If we stay in mourning, we lose so much of life.”  To this end, my sisters and I have now met and begun the process of sorting through my mother’s estate. 

To be sure, her house is full of sentimental bric-a-brac.  And after thirty years of memories there, the temptation is to preserve it as a sort of shrine to one who meant so much to us.

But this is not what life is about.  Life is meant to be lived, not only in the past, but also in the present, and above all, in the future.  This is what mother would have wanted.  And we honor her memory best, not by enshrining the material things she left behind, but by taking the values she instilled within us and transplanting them into own children and grandchildren.

I do not know what the world was deprived of in the gradual fading and eventual loss of Dunbar’s last poem.  But my suspicion is that it may have contained some of his most thought-provoking and challenging words.

And this thought has motivated me to find the best my mother had to offer - be it her words of wisdom or her Godly example or her spiritual provision - and then to make it available to all who would embrace it.  And my mom had much to offer.

You see, God blessed my mother with a creative spirit.  She could draw, paint, write, and sew - to name but a few of her talents. I see now, more clearly than ever, what a blessing it was to have all that talent being expended in the home where I grew up. 

And for this reason, I have been so excited to discover and assemble all the myriad things she created, from sketches to oil paintings to poems to volumes of stories about her life and experiences penned by hand expressly for my sisters and me. 

I hope that the Lord will allow me the time and opportunity to complete the task of assembling, editing, and making available for a much wider audience this tremendous treasure trove of material.  

Doing so is the best way I know of to honor my mother’s memory and insure that her life continues to matter.  More importantly, doing so will allow me to glorify the God who created her and endowed her with the talent she so abundantly displayed.
 
SOURCES:

HENRY SIMON ILLUSTRATION:  Available widely online.  See, for instance:
http://higherpraise.com/illustrations/grief.htm.

PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR MUSEUM SITE:
https://www.ohiohistory.org/visit/museum-and-site-locator/paul-laurence-dunbar-house.

SEE ALSO:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Laurence_Dunbar.

    Cleo E. Jackson, III

    Occasionally I will add
    a few thoughts to my blog. If you find them inspirational, I will be
    honored.

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