40 Day Challenge

As most of you know, our church has been challenged by Pastor Danny to set aside 30 minutes a day, every day, for 40 days to read the Word aloud with our families, beginning and ending in prayer. Today I received the following in an email newsletter from author Ray Comfort at Living Waters. I must say that I know too well the “excuses” he mentions, as we have been fighting many of them in this challenge. I hope that his thoughts might encourage you and strengthen your resolve to have a “family altar” time, too.

If you want “godly offspring,” it is essential that you make the time to establish a family altar. Build it out of the unmovable rocks of resolution. You will need to be resolute about this because it will be a battle. Your flesh will fight it, and you can be sure there will be a continual spiritual battle within your mind. “Circumstances” will constantly crop up. Your kids will occasionally groan when you announce that it is time for devotions. Loved ones may subtly, subconsciously discourage you. However, your time of family devotions should be a priority for your whole family. Don’t be legalistic about it, but as much as possible, put all other things aside before you postpone or cancel family devotions.

It will be an altar of sacrifice, as you sacrifice your time, your energy, and sometimes your dignity. For years, our kids heard, “Six o’clock—reading time.” My wife and I dropped whatever we were doing, and the children learned to do the same, and we gathered as a family. Making it a priority for your family’s growth will speak volumes about its importance in their lives.

Again, you will find that there are many excuses for not having devotions. You may be pressed for time, feel tired, or think you are unable to teach the Bible. However, there is one very powerful reasonwhy you should have daily devotions: the eternal salvation of your children. (Adapted from How to Bring Your Children to Christ…& Keep Them There.)

Malachi 2:15 But did He not make them one, Having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, And let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.

Birthday Gift

For our grandson’s first birthday I made him a leather covered Bible; that was two years ago. This past weekend was Connor’s third birthday and on Sunday he took, for the first time, his Bible to church with him. He thought it was the best thing of the weekend and kept repeating “my Bible; Pap made Bible for me.”. I was really touched by how Connor loved that Bible. It was very cute to see him carrying it all over the place, looking at the tooling I’d done on it, and leafing through the pages. And add in the sense of pride I got because he understand that I had made it specially for him and, well, it was some thing I’ll never forget.

This made me think about how our Heavenly Father must feel when we spend time in and appreciate His Word. He gave us the precious gift of His inspired Word to guide us and to teach us all we need to know to be reconciled to Him and live this life in the center of His will. We should have the same childlike enthusiasm for that precious gift as Connor showed for his first Bible. And we should hope and pray for ourselves and our families that we never loose it.

In Tune

The other day my wife was mowing the lawn; she always does the mowing since I’m unable to do so. Our grandson, Connor, was in the yard playing while she was working. Every so often he would holler at her or say some thing to her. Every time he spoke to her she paused and replied. I found this a little odd since normally when she is mowing and I need to get her attention it takes a lot more than speaking to her: yelling, waving my arms, maybe even throwing some thing at her is required. Obviously she was much more attuned to Connor than she normally is anyone else while she was working.

The Bible teaches us that if we will draw closer to God, He will draw closer to us. The more open our spiritual eyes and ears are the more apt we are to clearly hear the Lord when He speaks to us. Spending quality time in the Word and prayer is the best way to become attuned to hear His every call and feel His sweet presence.

Where is Petey?

Late last summer we found a lost dog: he was a Shih Tzu pup, maybe four months or less old. To make a long story short, we ended up rescuing him and he’s now a part of the family.

Today Petey, the name we gave him partly because our grandson says is so cutely, escaped (again) from our fenced in yard. Overall he’s a great dog, other than this need to escape and roam. But I digress … Petey belongs to Connor; just ask him and he will tell you “Petey my dog”. Today’s escape came at a bad time: I was watching Connor alone and couldn’t go after the spunky, quick, and agile pup. And Connor worried his little self (he’s almost three) half to death over Petey being gone. He looked out the door, the window and yelled “Pete! Come here!” more times than I can count. His distress pushed his nap time back by about two hours, and I thought he was going to cry himself off to sleep over worrying over that dog! Thankfully Connor finally drifted off to sleep with minimal shedding of tears.

About five minutes after he fell asleep I hear Pete-dini at the front door; the UPS man across the street had inadvertently scared the little critter home. Connor and Petey are both still napping now but I look for a happy reunion in an hour or so.

This all got me thinking about the lost folks in our lives. What if we were so concerned over their relationship, or lack thereof, with Jesus that we could do nothing but fret and worry, shed tears and and cry out for them? I am made to believe we would see many would made restless by the Spirit and convicted of their sins. And that we would see lost sheep seeking desperately after the Savior.

God’s Word teaches we need to have child like faith. Maybe we need to seek after some child like zeal and angst for those we love and know are lost, too.

Billy … who?

Over the course of the past week I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and spending several hours with a young couple. Wednesday night, during what was probably our last conversation, the subject turned toward the Lord and His Church. I can’t recall how exactly but Billy Graham came up in our conversation. The lack of response from them prompted me to ask if they knew or had heard of him; to my surprise, neither of these young folks had. I took a few minutes to pause there and tell them about him and his ministry, even sharing a YouTube clip with them.

All day today, and most of last night, this has been weighing on my mind: How could two bright young people have never heard of this iconic man? I suppose that “we” take it for granted that the next generation knows about great people of the Faith, such as Dr. Graham. We also figure they know basic tenants and truths of God’s Word. In many instances “we” are dead wrong: they don’t have a clue.

The Bible says we are to teach the things of God to our children and our grandchildren. Just because most of the 40+ demographic grew up with at least basic Biblical knowledge doesn’t mean that the ones behind did. In fact, we dropped the ball and are seeing the results of that fumble nationwide, if not worldwide.

And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. (Romans 13:11 KJV)

It’s not too late. But we don’t have any more time to waste either. An untold number of souls are on the wrong side of the balance today.

Assembly Required

This afternoon I sat down to assemble a mini-trampoline that we bought out grandson, Connor, for Christmas. We chose this model because it had very high ratings and reviews; the only negative mentioned (by almost every reviewer) was the difficulty and time to assemble it: average 3 1/2 hours. I was quite pleased when I was about half way done in only 45 minutes. But I knew the hardest part, installing the mat and bungee cord, was still ahead. As I began to study the instruction I noticed that one step was completely impossible to do. No matter what, I was going to have to do this step differently than the instructions because it just couldn’t be done as described.

As I laced the last hole, using my own method, I was pretty pleased with how well I got the thing together. Then I noticed some thing: there was a step right before the “impossible” one that absolutely had to be done first. I was so focused on the unattainable step I missed the necessary first part, causing me to have to unlace the whole thing and start over. I still finished well under the average time of 3 1/2 hours (only 1 1/2) but would’ve been done even quicker if I’d not focused so much on the impossible and went in order.

It seems to me in our walk of faith we tend to focus too much, too often on the “impossible” step as well. How much more growth could we see individually and in the Church if we focused on the Word of God and His promises rather than what we see as the impossible step, what ever it may represent? The Bible tells us that all things are possible with God. The Word promises that we can over come all things through Christ Jesus. We have the hope and promise of some place far better. And we are told if we will be obedient the Comforter will guide us, direct us, never leave us. I could go on and on. If only we would keep our eyes on Jesus and our focus on God’s Word instead of that “impossibility” in our lives we could be so much more of use to our Lord, so much more a help to one another, and see lost sheep brought into the fold. What a mighty and wonderful thing for each one, each church, if only…

A Wonderful Day

John 15:11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and [that] your joy might be full.

I hope that each of you had a wonderful Easter; I did. I was privileged to attend both morning and evening services at my home church, with the honor and privilege of bringing the evening message, had a very nice dinner with my family and spent some quality time with my wife and grandson after dinner. But you know what really made the day for me? During the morning service a young man gave his life to Christ! What a more wonderful and appropriate way to celebrate Easter than to see one die out to sin and be raised to eternal life? There is none. Every child of God should be filled with joy from this news.

As this babe in Christ begins his walk of faith I’m sure his heart is filled with the joy of the Lord. Jesus said that He has given us His joy that we might be full. Oh, if only we would step out in faith and take hold on His Word, how filled with joy we could and should be. And it’s so easy to do: Just follow Him, pursue that which glorifies our Father, produce the good fruit, and then watch as our cups begin to run over!

Legacies

Proverbs 10:7 The memory of the righteous is a blessing…

Our church family is mourning the recent loss of a beloved father, grandfather and brother in Christ. After learning of Bro. Waitman Davis’ passing on Wednesday I was blessed to hear several wonderful memories that some of my brothers and sisters have of him. Adding those touching stories to the personal memories of him I have somehow makes him all the more precious to me.

During one of my conversations, Sis. Vaunda and I had the same thought at nearly the same moment: these memories are a part of his legacy. What kind of legacy are we leaving with the memories we make with those around us? Bro. Waitman’s left memories of how kind and loving he was. How devoted to his family and church he was, among other things. But the most significant memory attached to his legacy: his love and devotion to his Lord. Now that is a legacy worth leaving and remembering.

Hard to Admit

This is a little hard for me to admit: Yesterday I was a whinner. Okay, I said it and it’s true. I was having myself a private pity party and I’m ashamed of it now in retrospect. Let me explain:

It rained here all day yesterday. With my body, cold and rainy days equal stiff and sore joints. And I babysat my grandson who I dearly love all day kind of unexpectedly. And he was a little, well, a lot, grumpy. I ended up letting him sleep on my lap for about four hours: the problem was I dumbly chose to sit on our chase chair in a 2/3 reclined position with my legs dangling over the too short end. It was his comfort and well being I was thinking of at the time, not ergonomics. So, after he left I was in a lot of pain; my legs barely would work and I ended up in bed very early. But at about midnight I awoke with a stomach ache that kept me up till about 2:30 am. As I drifted off to sleep I was still grumbling about to myself, how I hurt, had missed church, would be tired today, etc.

As I pittied myself I thought of a testimony my friend and brother in Christ had sent me concerning his painful battle with cancer. In his worst times he praised God for whatever he was going through, not complained about it as I was. Then I recalled how dragging my feet through the house was very much like I was when I had to re-learn to walk after my first surgery. How ashmed I felt.

So I say to you now, I’m not complaining about hurting; I can feel the pain now whereas before, when paralyzed, I couldn’t. I’m not complaining about missing church; I’m thankful I have a good church and wonderful church family to go to. I’m not complaining about being tired; I’m glad I can get out on my own and go. I could go on but I think you see my point and my repentant attitude, which I thank God for showing me that I was in need of. And I also better understand what Paul meant when he wrote:

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.

Christmas Day

For the most part, Christmas day is about over with now. Gifts have been opened, dinner made, eaten and cleaned up, and most of the visiting is done with. One trip this evening and it’ll be completely over with.

I find the older I get the more disenchanted I am with Christmas. I know a lot of it is from the blatant commercialization of the day we celebrate our Lord’s birthday. But I think it is deeper than that this year. I think I feel guilty for not doing more to represent what the true meaning is myself. Yes, I am but one person but I could and should make whatever difference I can to whoever I am around during this time of year. And I don’t think I’ve been doing as good a job as I could be.

I praise Him for how He has seen fit, when I’ve been obediant, to use me. I am thankful that He deems me useful in any way for any work He’d have Me to do. But I pray that not just at Christmas but always I will do a better job for Him. Christmas is ideal because it lends itself to an “opening” whereas other times of the year not as much so. But if He wants and I’ll listen I can be effective for Jesus year round.

I hope that the few opportunities I’ve had and taken advantage of have been pleasing to Him. And I pray that if they were He’ll use them to His good will and work that maybe someone saw the Light of Christ shining brightly enough through me to arouse something in them, to wonder what the real deal of Christmas is all about. And I pray that He will use whatever tool/person He sees beat suited to reach that person a little more.