Norma’s Going Home…

Tonight I am thinking of a family – a grieving family. Honestly, I have been thinking of them for numbers of days now as together they faced the death of their mother. Her name – Norma. She is that “Proverbs 31″ kind of woman. She has been sick the better part of the 20 years I have been here. She is now whole.

Gloria Gaither quotes a piece she obviously wrote about facing the death of someone she held dear. Janice, you were so kind in your comments regarding my blog several days ago, and I want to give credit where credit is due. Gloria’s comments stopped me in my tracks as I lived them as she spoke them:

“When someone you love is dying, I’ve learned that dying doesn’t happen all of a sudden any more than being born does. It’s a process. There are signs and indications, sometimes false contractions and pain. The exact time cannot be predicted, even estimated really.

Coming into and going out of this world is not an easy thing. These are adventures like no other in the life between. No one can accurately chart the courses or predict the experience. Birth and death are unique to each person. Thank you, Lord for the privilege of walking through this passage as hard and sometimes agonizing as it is. I wouldn’t miss it.

To touch eternity so intimately – to hand off the hand I am holding into the very hand of God changes me. The glitter of glory lands on my face, too and changes the way I see things.

I remember watching my grand babies being born emerging from the embryonic fluids all powdered with the rich white coating of birth. I wanted to turn my face from the agony my daughter was experiencing but the fascination of that moment and her need for someone who had been there kept me so engaged a thousand horses couldn’t have pulled me away. My love for the two, my child and her child held me.

Now the labor of death tells me soon the passage door is opening to a place where an aging body will not be needed any more.  I feel that what seems to be going away from here must in reality be a birth into a new place someone and maybe several someones will be waiting, reading the signs, anticipating. For them and for me the door will be open just long enough for me to glimpse the eternal and for them to have a strange moment of remembering of another time and another place. As heaven sent one of its treasures to us when those sweet babies were born, we are now sending a treasure we have held dear, trusting our loved one to other arms, other hearts.

Thank you, Lord.

Only at birth and at death do we get real about life…

Help me to remember!”

Going Home

Many times in my childhood when we traveled so far
By nightfall how weary I grow
Father’s arms would slip round me and gently he’d say
My child, we are going home.

Going home, I’m going home
There’s nothing to hold me here
I’ve caught a glimpse of that heavenly land
Praise God, I am Going Home

Now the twilight is fading the day soon shall end
I get homesick the farther I roam
But my Father has led me each step of the way
And now he will lead me home.

Going home, I’m going home
There’s nothing to hold me here
I’ve caught a glimpse of that heavenly land
Praise God, I am Going Home

I needed this laugh today…

I know that some of you will have a self-righteous twitch in viewing Ellen – but, hey, this is down right funny!

Trust in the Lord…

To Tammy, Allen, and Alexander – You are in my prayers tonight and this week. For those of you who read my blog regularly, Tammy will be undergoing some tests to prepare her for a needed heart transplant. Nancy and I will be praying for her. Someone told her that she will be able to write a book about her experiences and the testimony that God has in store for them. Alan reminded me that there is enough already for a book. Her life is a testimony to the power of God to touch a life.

George’s time at the altar yesterday was amazing. He stood with me as we thanked God for protecting his daughter who was in a car wreck this past weekend. The wreck was so rough they had to extricate her by using tools to cut the car open to get her out. She walked out of that wreck with no injuries. I rejoiced with his wife and him as they celebrate the protection of God.

Spending time with those who long to please the Father is a blessing. It has been the Lord’s day, and I am thankful. People gather to remember Who is in charge and trying to keep a heavenly perspective. In the middle of Sunday School today Pam was called back to the hospital where she had been faithfully watching and waiting on the hand of God. Her mother is so sick.

Pam, Mary Lou, and David join their father, as they love on mom and wife tonight. Watching people struggle physically, especially ones who are that sick, is tough and especially tough for those who love her as much as these four. It is interesting to watch the face of God reach down and kiss her on the cheek as each one spends very rich moments with her. How one pains to go to heaven. Relief is in sight.

Tonight I wonder who is watching in glory. Much like I waited on Nancy as she prepared to give birth to Jason our firstborn. The pains would increase. I would watch and wait on every moment to be the one where she would be invited by the doctor to push with all of her might. It wasn’t long before Jason was born. I wonder who is on Eternity’s side watching as the pains increase for her to slip from this world and find herself in the hands of God. On this side of eternity, three children and a husband hold her hand. On the other side of this believer’s experience stands the Savior with his hand out waiting to greet her. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to find that several others are interested in her arrival as well. It is so unpredictable as to when she will find eternal relief. All we can do is watch as we celebrate the wonderful promises that are ours as we prepare to go home.

In all of this I find that God is faithful.  We are invited to Trust in the Lord…

Today I am smitten in a good sort of way with the song by the Gaither Vocal Band sings…an old hymn “Satisfied”

Donkeys Bray and Cows Moo…

Donkeys bray and cows moo when they run out of pasture—
so don’t expect me to keep quiet in this.  Job 6

I am glad that there is at least one other person in the world that will admit that sometimes life really stinks. If that one person is Job – the most famous sufferer in the world – you would expect his pain to help him get gut level honest about all that is going on. He said that the stuff he is going through is as heavy as all the sand in the world. Don’t give him any of that “Be patient soldier, it is going to get better… or… Trust God!”

He hurts and he is going to God to talk about it. This morning I celebrate the fact that God has ears and a heart, and he hears the cries of his people. I am glad that I can scream at him at times. I am comforted in the fact that he knows all about me. The mess he is going through hurts, and he is crushed. However, he is not alone.

I am reminded of an illustration -”You know you go to a pharmacist, and he has a prescription for your cure. He reaches up on the shelves and gets down some chemicals. Those chemicals in and of themselves could be very poisonous and destructive and harmful to you. Nevertheless, in the hands of a great pharmacist, a skilled practitioner, he puts those ingredients together and when he gets through, he has put together a cure for what ails us. I thank the Holy Spirit of God today that all those things that we think could kill us, even as we cry out to him, God uses to work out his perfect will in our lives. All things do work together for good…even though all things are not good…We ARE in the hands of the Great Physician. What the enemy intends to do us harm, God uses to make us whole.

I asked the guy in the hospital, “Why are you screaming?” He replied, “My leg hurts!” You expect people who hurt to be honest about their pain. “Don’t expect me to be quiet!” You go, Job!

Holy is the Lord

Off the Chain Video…wow!

There is no end to His surprises…

“If I were in your shoes, I’d go straight to God,
I’d throw myself on the mercy of God.
After all, he’s famous for great and unexpected acts;
there’s no end to his surprises.
Job 5:8ff

I am reminded again that we are not insulated from struggles and trials. All who are Godly will do so. It is part of the fabric of our lives. The issue is not if we will struggle, but if we will struggle with Christ or without Christ…with hope or without hope.

Just a few verses beyond this one we are all reminded that God wounds those he loves. At the same time, however, he also dresses the wounds. He brings us through circumstances and situations that at the time seem very painful (that’s because they are) yet are rich with His presence. He is a skilled surgeon and careful physician. He diagnoses correctly, applies the necessary procedures to correct the problem and then with the care of our Heavenly Father watches us as we recover.

We can trust him because He is famous for great and unexpected acts, there is no end to his surprises. Just about the time I think I have Him figured out on any issue, I am surprised at how he works again.

Random thoughts -

One singer writes -

I realize that fallin’ down ain’t graceful
But thank the Lord that falling’s full of grace
Sometimes I take my eyes off him
Sometimes that’s all it takes

“…and God knows the only time I’m winning is when I’m chasing Him…”

Christians – Where God Shows Out!

1How well God must like you— you don’t hang out at Sin Saloon, you don’t slink along Dead-End Road,
you don’t go to Smart-Mouth College.

2-3 Instead you thrill to God’s Word,
you chew on Scripture day and night.
You’re a tree replanted in Eden,
bearing fresh fruit every month,
Never dropping a leaf,
always in blossom.

4-5 You’re not at all like the wicked,
who are mere windblown dust—
Without defense in court,
unfit company for innocent people.

6 God charts the road you take.
The road they take is Skid Row.

Every time I read this Psalm I am reminded when God sees his reflection in his children He is pleased, and we are blessed. Oh the joy to know that we are filled with the Holy Spirit. God has taken up residence in us. What a special lot we are that God would choose us to “tabernacle” inside. Spending some time with Nehemiah, Ezra, Jeremiah, Hosea and those guys have proven to be helpful for I am reminded that we are not the first generation to turn our back on the One who lives within. May God forgive us.

The verse for my day was the first. I am reminded that I do not hang in the old places. I am different now. I do not wallow in sin saloon. I no longer live a dead end life for when Christ died for my sin, I died – when Christ was buried – I was buried. When he resurrected, I was resurrected and now that he is seated in the heavenlies, I, too, am seated with Christ in the heavenlies. When I die, I will discover that I have already been there for years. I do not have to attend “smart mouth college”. I have chosen to sit at the table where the Word of God is shared and to drink deep and find refreshment for my soul there.

If there is any claim to fame this morning it is in the One who traveled to Calvary, the grave, and now is seated at God’s right hand victoriously in the presence of the Holy One. We are different. He lives within. Let Him out…

Faith in God and Faith in Each Other

“They agreed they were in this for good, completely together in prayer, the women included.  Also Jesus’ mother, and His brothers.”  Acts 1:14 “The Message”

The story of Jesus doesn’t end with Jesus. It continues in the lives of those who believe in him. The supernatural does not stop with Jesus. Luke makes it clear that these Christians he wrote about were no more spectators of Jesus than Jesus was a spectator of God—they are in on the action of God, God acting in them, God living in them. Which also means, of course, in us. (Peterson, Eugene H.: The Message : The Bible in Contemporary Language. Colorado Springs, Colo. : NavPress, 2002, Acts.)

Imagine being alone. They were familiar with his presence. They spent time with him. They depended on Him. They knew nothing of a life without him except for three or four days following his crucifixion. They saw him die. They knew he was buried. They had experienced his resurrection power in His presence with them and had just seen him go out of sight into eternity. Orphans, they were. Stuck between what was and what was to come.

What did they do? They all got on the same page and prayed as they awaited the coming of the Holy Spirit. They made a commitment to God and to each other. And it was a powerful one.

We are not alone! We have his presence living in us. We are his children. He is our God. His Holy Spirit lives in us. For some time now our staff has been praying that our practice would catch up to that truth. We long to see the people in our church have Faith in God and faith in each other. We pray that we would all individually commit ourselves to be yielded to the control of the Holy Spirit.

Unity – what a word.

It starts as we place our renewed faith in God. It can only continue as we have faith in each other as we follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

Sticks and Stones…

4 When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall he exploded in anger, vilifying the Jews. In the company of his Samaritan cronies and military he let loose: “What are these miserable Jews doing? Do they think they can get everything back to normal overnight? Make building stones out of make-believe?”

³ At his side, Tobiah the Ammonite jumped in and said, “That’s right! What do they think they’re building? Why, if a fox climbed that wall, it would fall to pieces under his weight.”  Nehemiah “The Message”

The enemy will try anything to get my mind off Christ and my focus off what He longs for my life.
The enemy waits until you are down – your walls crushed, the doors to your city burnt and broken, spirits are broken until he makes his move. He thinks you are defeated.

I don’t want to stay down. While you are trying to get up, rebuild the walls of your life, trying to get your focus in life in the right place, it is remarkable how the enemy uses people around you to feel like you are not making sufficient progress. Old Sanballat ridiculed the people. He made fun of them. I guess old Sanballat did not know the size of Nehemiah character nor his God. He would soon find out however.

I guess one can prepare to have folk that will disagree with them. They will ridicule you. If they can’t deceive you, then they will try to force you to change your ways. The enemy is never short on man power. He has his people from all over the place ready and waiting to do his bidding. Numbers should never scare the child of God. God and you are a majority wherever you find yourself.

We watch and pray. We are resting in the sovereign hand of God. We are seeking His face and walking in His peace. He is powerful. We keep our focus. Keep building! Don’t stop! Keep at the work to which God has called us.

Faith and Fear are not bedfellows. We must live by faith. God is in control. We trust him today!

Out of the mouth of babes….

Awake while others sleep…

10 When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were very upset, angry that anyone would come to look after the interests of the People of Israel.  Nehemiah 2  The Message

Nehemiah wanted Jerusalem to be protected again. The wall was destroyed. He wanted to protect the city again. God had given him a window of opportunity and  softened the King’s heart to let him have at the task. Nehemiah shows up at the city only to find that the enemy had done their homework.

Sanballat and Tobiah were in good control as the enemy. They watched as Nehemiah and his crew arrived on the scene. The two enemy leaders had already made alliances with some of the Jews on the inside. They thought they had it made. Nehemiah was ready and willing to be God’s man at God’s time.

Nehemiah was awake while others were sleeping. I am reminded again this morning that fighting for a public safety issue like the one we are facing in Florence County is of the highest importance. My wife, children and 1400 members need to be protected from the work of the enemy who would want to increase liquor sales by the drink in our restaurants on Sunday. Florence County is fourth in the state now in alcohol related deaths which has cost our county in unseen costs exceeding 17 Million dollars according to figures from the Department of Public Safety. We have seen 33 precious souls die this year in Florence County alone and almost half of them in accidents where alcohol was related.  Friday, Saturday and Sunday combine to become the number one time folk 21 – 34 die on the highway due to alcohol. Those pushing this whole issue are convinced it is economically viable. They will be making 7.8 million by the year in revenue, the city of Florence will gain 280.000.00 in sales tax and permits, EMS, Fire and Police not counting the Sheriff’s Department and Highway Patrol will expend extra expense on dealing with the deaths these extra 16 hours have the potential to bring, while we pay one million dollars per death (over 30 million so far) not to mention that a family will have to bury a loved one. It is a major public safety issue.

The Sanballat’s and Tobiah’s are frustrated that we would be out in force trying to get people to vote anddoing all we can to try and rebuild the wall of public safety. I am discovering today as in Nehemiah’s day that there are people inside and outside who don’t care. Oh to God we would see a faithful group of men and women who will vote NO on November 4th to kill this referendum for the next four years.

If we were to loose, I can promise you that they will be back. We must be awake.

The enemy is banking on the hope that we will be sleeping.  We slept through the lottery vote.  God help us to be awake now!

A Quiet Heart!

Psalm 131

A Pilgrim Song

1God, I’m not trying to rule the roost, I don’t want to be king of the mountain.
I haven’t meddled where I have no business
or fantasized grandiose plans.

2 I’ve kept my feet on the ground,
I’ve cultivated a quiet heart.
Like a baby content in its mother’s arms,
my soul is a baby content.

3 Wait, Israel, for God. Wait with hope.
Hope now; hope always!

Travis Wright – Thanks for turning me on to Andrew Peterson. Wow! I have new favorites. Now for those of you who are not familiar with the Right Mos Famous Travis Wright, he is a delightful child of God who had the unique privilege of getting to know my son, Jason. If there is anything good about him, it is because he hung around my son at Charleston Southern University. Wow! What a gifted young man. God’s hand is on him, and I appreciate following his blog regularly.

The verses above reminded me of “resting” again. I have from time to time been afflicted by the likes of Ken Smith and Fred Kosin who are careful to remind me of my need to discover and develop a “quiet heart”. People like me with a big dose of ADDDDDDD do not normally find time to develop a quiet anything must less stop and rest in the presence of God.

Words and phrases that surface:
Humble
Trust
Manageable
Governable
Entirely, at God’s disposal
Quiet Strength
Isaiah 30
Blessed are they that wait on the Lord.

Quiet Heart

I am so prone to carry out plans without seeking the approval of God or seeking his guidance before hand. It looks like I would learn after a while. I find myself seeking peace and protection from things like people and things rather than in the quietness of my heart resting in the sovereignty of God. Why do we meet our needs in the flesh instead of waiting on the blessing of God? I know I am not the only one that ignores the guidance of God. I am certain that I could find someone to blame rather than take responsibility for my own life.

If my heart ain’t quiet it is because I let it get that way! Now there…

I will cultivate a quiet heart today. He can be trusted. Rest in the Lord.

By the way, Wright, find me a great song that has to do with developing a quiet heart…I have looked this morning…

It’s our Granddog “Lacey”

Thanks to Jeremy for getting Lacey at our local Animal Shelter. Thanks, Sandra Johnson for the picture of the three of us. Nancy and I have really fallen in love with this fur shedding delight, we call “Lacey”.

Most of the church members have already heard about Lacey and have never had a chance to see her. We were at our daughter’s tennis match. Lauren Johnson and Kimberly were playing doubles against two girls from Wilson High School when Sandra lifted her camera and clicked a picture of Nancy, Lacey and me as we watched the girls play.

Kimberly and Lauren won!

Parents were proud!

Risk your life…

26“He said, ‘That’s what I mean: Risk your life and get more than you ever dreamed of. Play it safe and end up holding the bag.  Luke 19

The chapter started with that little tax collecting weezle Zacchaeus. What a champ. Stealing from people and setting himself up for the future. “It’s all about me” was his theme that is until he ran into this man named Jesus. His life was radically changed. The world around him could tell the difference. Talk about a risk. He was living one. He was hated. Now his life changed. We are left with the difference a day with Jesus made in his life. Jesus did not give a lick how people thought about him. He simply cared about a man called Zacchaeus.

He then tells a story about ten men who invest what he gives them. One decides to bury the money that was given to him by the master before he left on the trip. His perception of who the master was kept him from investing the money the master gave him. The master returns and discovers that the servant had not made one dime of interest for him. He made no effort. He risked nothing and by doing so risked everything.

The thing that blew me away is this man had plenty of gifts. He did no harm with what he was given. He gave him back exactly what he gave him. The sad thing is that he did no good with it. He did not risk what he was given to see it become a blessing in the Kingdom of God.

For the past several weeks, I have been praying for “miracles” – not prayer requests but miracles. Finding people who have been so blessed, blessed beyond compare. We need Sunday School Teachers in our children’s area, youth, and adult areas. However, people seem to want to take what God has given to them and bury it in a napkin and when the Master comes (,and he will), they will take what they were given and give it back to Him. They do no harm. They are not out deviate doctrines. They are not out in rapturous passion calling people to some cult. Not they come and sit and sit and soak and soak…doing no harm. It is sad to me they “do no good” with what they have been given. Oh that God would answer my prayers for men and women to take the talents that God has blessed them with and serve him. God we need a miracle!

Before I leave this, I make a commitment to myself to be a person who risks. Risk my life and get more than you could have ever dreamt of. Oh, God to see that happen in my own life.

Thank you Rick and the Celebration Choir for reminding me to pour my love on Jesus.

It stopped me in my tracks!

The Late Dr. Rick Ferguson

Thanks to the late Dr. Rick Ferguson, I had the chance to run into the following illustration from some of his notes. I could not help but clip them and let them do to your heart what the words did to mine. I have for the past several weeks wondered where the brothers and sisters in Christ went who were willing to lay their lives down for Christ. I have been in discussions with people who faced loved ones going on the mission field and dealt with the struggle of sending a loved one to a country that is not “safe”. That is especially true of Muslim countries. I wonder why folk are not willing to teach the Bible to children and youth. What happened to our commitment to Christ, since we have become comfortable American Christians. Have we forgotten?

These words rattled my cage. I have not been called to reach into Nigeria. My current assignment is Florence, SC. One old sage reminded me recently – The only way the enemy would win at anything is for Good men and women to do nothing.

Listen:

Cemetery behind Kirk Chapel in Nigeria

We often talk today about “Closed Countries” in reference to nations where it is illegal to evangelize and peach the gospel. But the truth is, there is no such thing as “Closed Countries”… There are just some countries where people are going to have to die to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Maybe the truth is, there are no “Closed Countries” only “Fearful, Cowardly Christians.”

“In regard to spreading the gospel today, we talk so much about “closed countries” that we have almost lost God’s perspective on missions— as though He ever meant it to be safe. There are no closed countries to those who assume that persecution, imprisonment and death are the likely results of spreading the gospel. And Jesus said plainly that these are likely results. “They will deliver you up to tribulation, and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.” (Matthew 24:9 RSV)(Future Grace…Piper, p.345)

The Apostle Paul was very willing to face suffering, even give up His place in the Kingdom of God if that would bring his Hebrew brethren to faith in Christ…

Do you want to see people saved so desperately, that you are willing to go through whatever suffering or persecution is necessary to impact them with the gospel of Christ?

Do you have such a passion to see people saved, you are willing to pay any price necessary in personal suffering to be a witness and testimony to them?

I often have people come to me and say “Oh pastor, would you pray for my husband or my son or daughter that they would be saved?”

I want to say to them, “I am willing to pray for them to be saved, but do you really mean it when you tell me you want to pray for their salvation? Do you realize their salvation may cost you a high price? Are you willing to suffer and even lay down your life if that is what it takes to bring them to Christ?”

Missionaries often have to pay an incredibly high price to take the gospel to unreached people groups in the world. They often go and serve with the attitude that “they love not their own lives unto the death.” (Rev.12:11)

“The death” spoken of here, is the death of a Christian martyr, laying down his/her life for the sake of the gospel.

Cemetery behind Kirk Chapel in Nigeria

In the village of Miango, Nigeria, there is small church called Kirk Chapel. Behind the chapel is a small cemetery with 56 graves in it. Thirty-three of them hold the bodies of missionary children. Some of the graves stones read:

Ethyl Armold: September 1, 1928 - September 2, 1928

Barbara J. Swanson: 1946 – 1952

Eileen Louise Whitmoyer: May 6, 1952 – July 3, 1955

For many of the families this was the cost of taking the gospel to Nigeria.

Charles White told his story about visiting this little graveyard and ended it with a tremendously powerful sentence. He said, “The only way we can understand the graveyard at Miango is to remember that God also buried His Son on the mission Field.” (Piper, p.346)

God, how can I encourage my friends to remember why it is that we signed on to start with?  Help me recatch the passage that says “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow ME”.  Oh, God help me pay the price!

I always wondered how he will deal with them…

2-3“On the Big Day”—this is God-of-the-Angel-Armies speaking—”I will wipe out the store-bought gods, erase their names from memory. People will forget they ever heard of them. And I’ll get rid of the prophets who polluted the air with their diseased words. If anyone dares persist in spreading diseased, polluting words, his very own parents will step in and say, ‘That’s it! You’re finished! Your lies about God put everyone in danger,’ and then they’ll stab him to death in the very act of prophesying lies about God—his own parents, mind you!  Zechariah 13 “The Message”

I have always wondered how preachers get away with it.  Kenneth Hagin, Sr., Oral Roberts, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Benny Hinn and others who through the help of television and other venues have pilfered their visions and rants and seemingly get away with duping people spiritually.  I watch and listen to the slick Madison Avenue promotions of those who are bilking millions of dollars out of unlearned and undisciplined people all in the name of Jesus.  Again last night I watched a man of the “name it claim it” ilk talk of buying a jet all at the hand of sharing what he called the wisdom that scripture gives us about sowing and reaping.  Ok!  I am not a Creflo Dollar fan nor a Mike Murdock fan.  I want nothing to do with their deception.

However, I am reminded again this morning that God holds us as leaders in the church responsible for how we lead.  Zechariah 13 reminds me that one of these days those of us who are called of God to lead will stand before the One who takes our calling and the investment of his anointing on our lives seriously.  The God of the Angel Armies is willing and ready to call us to accountability.  I am humbled at my calling.  I also tremble before all seeing eye of God.