12-30-06:

This weekend the calendar takes a turn and we have the starting blocks of a new year.  
As we turn a page in time, we turn it with our hopes and dreams, and yes a few unwanted fears that seem to want to follow as well. Allow me to share one of my favorite pieces of thought. I have mentioned it several times over the years, but its message is timeless. It comes from King George VI’s New Year Broadcast of many a year ago.

Next page, please:

The Hand of God

I said to a man who stood a the gate of the year:
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown."
And he replied, “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

So I went forth, and finding the hand of God trod gladly into the night.
And He led me toward the hills and breaking of day in the lone East.
So heart be still; God knows; His will is best.
The stretch of years, which winds ahead, so dim to our imperfect vision is clear to God.
Our fears are premature; in Him all time hath full provision.

12-23-06:

It is wintertime and so we can see the stars a bit more in the clearer and colder skies of the season. I would like to share with you one of my favorite bits of Ralph Waldo Emmerson’s comments on the world above.  It has been an inspiration to me for many a year and I tuck it softly into the memory bank of some of my favorite sayings. 

“If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how men would believe and  adore, and preserve for  many  generations the remembrance of the City of God which had been shown!  But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile….”

The psalmist David sung it this way:  “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork(Psalms 19:1).”

That’s why it is always good and rewarding to look up---and not---just down and around

12-16-06:

“One important source of unhappiness is the habit of putting off living to some fictional future date. Men and women are constantly making themselves unhappy because in deferring their lives to the future they lose sight of the present and its golden opportunities  for rich living.”  W Beran Wolfe    (I have attached a recent commentary I wrote for the UCG Home Page that shares the importance of making each day count as we move in a new way forward

12-2-06:

Worry is wasting today’s time to clutter up tomorrow’s opportunities with yesterday’s trouble. And, if you are sitting down reading this just think of worry this way—it is like experiencing a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but doesn’t get you anywhere.

11-18-06:

When God measures a man, He puts a tape around his heart, not his head. We are reminded of this in 1 Samuel 16:7— “But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees;  for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”   So, what have we been staring at this week?  Perhaps, it is time to refocus.

11-11-06:

Veterans Day is this Saturday. It reflects upon a time long ago when on the 11th hour of the 11th day on the 11th month of 1918 the guns of war went silent and only the birds could be heard in the wasteland of death and dying and the peal and toll of church bells began to fill the air. Silence crescendoed into jubilation as the “War to End all Wars” was over.  Well, events since then tell us a different story, but that hope still lies deep inside each of us that such a time will come. This upcoming Sabbath is a day of rest and its very root word of “Shabath”---means literally “to cease.”  The Sabbath is a time to honor God and reflect on His glory------not only for what He has done in the past, but for what He will yet do in the future.  There is another time of “ceasing” around the bend. Just imagine that future time when we will be able to witness once and forever an event recorded in Micah 4:3—They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore.”  Now that will be a day to celebrate----forever---with God, who makes it all possible.  

11-4-06:

Two combined thoughts: Great minds have purposes, others have wishes.”  Washington Irving
Thus:  Difficulty is the excuse that history never accepts.”  Samuel Grafton.   
Yes, “homework time” for all of us!

10-28-06:

“Happiness grows at our own firesides, and is not to be picked up in stranger’s gardens.” ---- Douglas Gerral

10-21-06:

“Believe me, every man has his secret sorrows, which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.”----Henry W. Longfellow

10-7-06:

As we move towards worshipping God in the sites where His name has been placed during the Feast of Tabernacles, let’s remember the admonition of Jesus in John 4:21-24:

9-30-06:

Leviticus 25:9-10 “Then you shall cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet sound. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, & proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you;  & each of you shall return to his possession, & each of you shall return to his family.”  The festival of Atonement portrays our ultimate spiritual liberation by God through Jesus Christ. Now, that’s something to think about!

9-23-06:

A very learned man once said to a little child who believed in Jesus Christ, “my poor little girl, you don’t know whom you believe in. There have been many Christs. In which of them do you believe?”  “I know which one I believe in,” replied the girl. “I believe in the one which rose from the dead.”

We worship that same Christ.  His rising from the dead is the welcome mat to the Feast of Trumpets. For since by man came death, by Man came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order; Christ the first fruits, afterwards those who are Christ’s at His coming (1 Corinthians 15:21-23).  We have a lot to talk about, share and be thankful for this coming Holy Day.  He not only rose from the dead, but yes, He is coming back! 

9-16-06:

The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything.  They just make the best of everything.

9-9-06:

A Christian is:
A mind through which Christ thinks
A voice through which Christ speaks
A heart through which Christ loves
A hand through which Christ helps
                                                                   
Jesus’ first and last recorded words to Peter were “Follow Me.” (Matt. 4:19, Jn. 21:19)
And this is how!

9-2-06:

Is there something eluding you in a certain sphere of life in which there seems to be no immediate answer?  Perhaps the solution begins with the simple wisdom expressed long ago by a sickly young man who later would become President of the United States.

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”   Theodore Roosevelt
Simple, but true—now, what about you?

8-26-06:

A little boy, whose father was away from home most of the time, looked at his dad’s picture on the wall an said to his mother, “Mother, I wish Father would come out of that frame.”

Is God real to you, a person near at hand?  Or is he more like a picture on a wall, a motto or doctrine, or something wonderful to look at and think about but still in frame?

Have you wished he might come out of the frame, and become a glorious living reality?  Have you cried, “ Oh, that I know where I might find Him?”
-Victor Havner

Paul spoke of such a quest in Acts 17:27-28---“so that they should seek the Lord in the hope that they might grope for Him, and find Him, though he is not far from any one of us: for in Him we live and move and have our being……”
 
And Job’s summation of that quest as rendered in Job 42:5 gives us confidence that such a far deeper relationship may be ours—“I have heard you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.”

8-19-06:

Jesus Christ said, “that no man knows the day or hour” of His return. So what are we to do?  Here is some sound advice: Plan as though Christ were not coming for ten years, but live as though He were coming in ten seconds.  God’s Spirit can provide that balance in us----if----we will use the gift that God has granted to establish such spiritual equilibrium.

8-12-06:

The morning news brought words of despair concerning a planned terrorist operation that would have affected multiple targets. It has been suggested that this horror-in-the-making would have been the largest planned terrorist’s exercise since “9/11” Once again, a plot to blow up innocents in mid-air was thankfully foiled.  But just the thought!  And such a sad thought-----that terrorists would be willing to give “someone else’s all for their cause.”  Sadly, they think they are doing their god a favor by doing such thing.

Four thoughts immediately popped into my head when this was announced.

1) What a different and wonderful God we worship and follow. A God who, speaking through His Son, told us---No man has greater love than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends (John 15:13).”  In our way of life, we are continually reminded that people of this world are not simply “infidels,” but all have the potential to be children of God & thus our friends. Such understanding allows us to look at people differently. It creates a framework in our hearts to recognize; it is we who lay our life down for others, not the other guy goin’ first for our cause.   Remember: Jesus sacrificed no other human being other than Himself.

2) I was reminded of the importance of “Blessing the Lord with all my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul. And forget not all His benefits (Psalms 103:1-2).”    One of the benefits of knowing God is to have His angels protect, guide & preserve us so that His perfect will for us might be completed in His time frame-----not the evil timing of some thug.  Have you expressly thanked God for His angelic protection?

3) I was reminded that God has said, You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrows that fly by day…nor of any destruction that lays waste at noon day (Psalms 91:5-6).”  Why? Because God has said, “ I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me? (Hebrews 13:5).”

4) God has called us to step forward in a walk of faith, but it takes some thinking, reading & doing. As we do, please remember, God never said it would be easy, but He did say it would be worth it.  

8-2-06:

In a cemetery not far from New York City is a headstone engraved with a single word:  “Forgiven.”  The message is simple and unembellished. There is no date of birth, no epitaph. There is only a name and the solitary word “Forgiven.” But that is the greatest word that can be applied to any man or woman or written on any gravestone.”

“I am writing to you, my dear children, because your sins have been forgiven because of Jesus (1 John 2:12, NLT).”

7-29-06:

God’s promises show His heart; your prayers show yours.

7-22-06:

“If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how men would believe and adore, and preserve for many generation the remembrance of the City of God which had been shown! But every night come these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.”                 Ralph Waldo Emmerson

Psalms 8:3-“When I consider your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained…………..”

7-15-06:

A mission board once wrote to David Livingstone, “Have you found a good road to where you are in Africa? If so, we want to know so we can send other men to join you.”  Livingstone responded, “If you have men who will come only if there is a good road, I do not want them.  I want those who will come if there is no road at all.”

With that spoken, consider the words found in Isaiah 6:8-Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?”  Then I said, “Here am I!  Send me.” 

7-8-06:

“In prayer, it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart”—John Bunyan

6-17-06:

I’ve often used the following story in sermons and articles. With Father’s Day around the corner, I couldn’t resist once again sharing a truly meaningful moment in the life of a father and son. It will take you a few moments to read, but it is the story about fathers and what they bring to the table of life.

A Quaker family lived in Pennsylvania. Against the father’s wishes, the son Jonathan ran off and enlisted in the cause of the North during the Civil War. 

Time passed and no word from Jonathan. One night the father had a dream that his son had been wounded in action, was in distress, and needed the care of a father.
So the father left the farm, and discovered where the troops might be.  He made his way by horse-drawn buggy until he came to the scene of action. He inquired until he found the commander and asked about his son.  The commander replied that there had been heavy action earlier in the day and many had fallen wounded.  Some had been cared for, but others were still left out in the trenches.  But he gave permission to the father to go and try to find his son.  He told him where the action had taken place. It was now about dark, so the father lit a lantern, and the light fell across wounded young men, some calling for help, many too seriously wounded to cry for assistance. 

The task seemed impossible.  How could he find his son among all those wounded and dying?

He devised a plan. He would methodically comb the scene of action with his lantern.  But that wasn’t fruitful. As he stumbled over body after body he almost despaired.

Then he began calling loudly, “Jonathan Smythe, thy father seeketh after thee.” Then he would walk a little ways and call again, “Jonathan Smythe, thy father seeketh after thee.”

A groan could be heard here and there. “ I wish that were my father.”

He kept diligently at his search.  Then he heard a very faint, barely audible reply, “Father, over here.” And then, “I knew you would come.”

The father knelt down and took him in his arms, comforting him with his presence. He dressed the wound, carried him to the buggy, took him to a place of seclusion and nursed him back to health.

Such a story is akin to the words of Jesus found in Luke 15:20-“…..but when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and  kissed him.”

6-10-06:

Some of us may be hesitant to step forward in certain endeavors of life because we sense our own inadequacies or feel that others will judge us harshly.  The truth is each of us has something to contribute in our way and our style. Perhaps Henry Van Dyke says it best when he said, “The woods would be silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.”
So “sing” what God has put in you and let those notes fall where they will.  

5-27-06:

Our country observes Memorial Day this weekend. As we reflect on those who have fallen in the field and offered their fullest of human devotion, let us not leave them dead and buried, but consider what it will be like when those vast green cemeteries with endless rows of crosses and Stars of David give up their dead. Yes, a great resurrection of humanity in the future is coming! And, will they ever be surprised with the world that greets them—a world in which “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore (Isaiah 2:4).”  I don’t think they will miss or long for the old action. General Robert E. Lee, once put it this way---“It is well that war is so horrible, lest we grow fond of it.” Oh yes, something better is coming for all those fallen heroes. It is called the Kingdom of God.  And you and I have been given a responsibility to pray—“Thy Kingdom Come”---not just for us, but for them.    

5-20-06:

The encouragement of scripture is to look ahead and realize that a better world is headed our way, but at the same time we are cautioned not to worry beyond the present day.  God encourages each of us to seize the present and transform it by what we know about tomorrow.  Yes—one day at a time just as one penny at a time eventually adds up to a dollar.   But at times, we get stuck on “overload” considering what lies beyond the day or where we received the penny.  Consider for a moment this observation penned long ago by Henry David Thoreau. Perhaps it was written for where God has planted you today.  You decide.

“I saw a delicate flower had grown up two feet high, between the horses’ path and the wheel track. An inch more to right or left had sealed its fate, or an inch higher; and yet it lived to flourish as much as if it had a thousand acres of untrodden space around it, and never knew the danger it incurred.  It didn’t borrow trouble, nor invite an evil fate by apprehending it.

5-13-06:

4-29-06:

It is interesting to consider what others, those who have gone on before us, were doing during this immediate time after the Passover Season.

The Israelites were complaining!               Exodus 15:23-24  (the water at Mara) 
Also, they were doing their own thing!    Exodus 16:25-28   (wrongfully collecting manna)
The disciples decided to go fishing!           John 21:3  

How about us since April 11th, 2006 (the New Testament Passover)?  What have we been up to?  As we review and ponder the above-mentioned history, we don’t have to duplicate the past, only replicate Christ in the here & now as we walk down a new and different path.

4-8-06:

As we approach the New Testament Passover, let us consider the words of the Apostle John as found in 1 John 4:18-19—“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
We love Him, because He first loved us.”

The Festival of Passover is not about our personal smallness or inadequacies, but about the greatness of the love of God the Father and Jesus Christ. As we approach our renewal of the New Covenant, let us fully focus on the greatness and goodness of God. While it is an evening of sober reminder, it is also an evening of great joy, because of the victory over the death sting of sin that has been won through the offering of God’s own son.

Let us focus squarely on the loving declaration found in John 3:16-17. As you read it, ask God to convict you more than ever of His great love for you. He truly desires to see you out there on Tuesday evening with all of His other children

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

3-25-06:

Over the years, I have used the following description many a time in messages concerning Jesus Christ.  It puts into words the life of our champion. Indeed, He is matchless. I hope it will help you consider the greatness of God’s gift to us, His Son, as we approach the New Testament Passover. 

The people who hanged Christ never accused Him of being a bore; on the contrary, they thought Him too dynamic to be safe.  It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personality and surround Him with the atmosphere of tedium.  We have very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certified Him “meek and mild,” and recommended Him as a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies. To those who knew Him however, He in no way suggested a milk-and-water person; they objected to Him as a dangerous firebrand. True, He was tender to the unfortunate, patient with honest inquirers, and humble before heaven; but He insulted respectable clergymen by calling them hypocrites; He referred to King Herod as “that fox”; He went to parties in disreputable company and was looked upon as a “gluttonous man and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners”; He insulted indignant tradesmen and threw them and their belongings out of the temple…… He showed no proper deference for wealth or social position; when confronted with neat dialectical traps, He displayed a paradoxical humor that affronted serious-minded people, and He retorted by asking disagreeable questions that could not be answered by rule of thumb……But He had a “daily beauty in His life that made us ugly,” and officialdom felt that the established order of things would be more secure without Him. So they did away with God in the name of peace and quietness.  -- Dorothy Sayers

Luke 3:22—“……You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.

3-18-06:

The woods would be silent if no birds sang except those that sang best---Henry Van Dyke

The Apostle Paul put it this way—“For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves.  But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise (2 Corinthians 10:12)”

3-11-06:

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Follow God, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail”       Author Unknown, but the reader now knows the way and why!

3-4-06:

“Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.”   George Bernard Shaw.

Jesus Christ said this 2,00 years earlier—“The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body is also full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body is also full of darkness.  Therefore take heed that the light that is in you is not darkness (Luke 11:34-35).”

2-25-06:

It has been said that no man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when tomorrow’s burden is added to the burden of today that the weight is more than a man can bear. Never   load yourselves so, my friends. If you find yourselves so loaded, at least remember this:  it
is your own doing, not God’s. He begs you to leave the future to Him, and mind the present.

2-4-06:

How often do we think about our friends?  Perhaps right now, we could use a friend more than ever. Desiring to have friends is only right and very human.  It is worthy of prayer to ask for such a gift and it’s worthy of our efforts to prepare ourselves to be a friend.

Consider for a moment a few thoughts about friendship:

If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone.  A man should keep his friendships in constant repair…..  to let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of this weary pilgrimage.    Samuel Johnson

So long as we love, we serve; so long as we are loved by others, I should say that we are almost indispensable; and no man is useless while he has a friend. Robert Louis Stevenson

As we navigate through our human acquaintances, let’s be realistic: At times, they will be there for us; at other times, they will not be there for us; and, at other times they will disappoint us. But, let’s remember a very important friend that each of us has every day. He is always faithful, always there, always the same.  John 15:15 says it all in reminding us---“No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends…………….”

1-28-06:

Here are Seven Things You Will Never Regret: 1) Showing kindness to an aged person,
2) Destroying a letter written in anger, 3) Offering the apology that saves a friendship,
4) Stopping a rumor in its tracks that was destroying a reputation, 5) Helping a young person find themselves when they can’t see beyond the moment, 6) Taking time to show your mother consideration, 7) Accepting the judgment of God on any matter.

1-21-06:

Allow me to share this story. A little girl was sent on an errand by her mother. She took much too long in coming back. Mother, therefore, demanded an explanation when she finally did return. The little girl explained that on her way she had met a little friend who was crying because she had broken her doll. “Oh,” said the mother, “then you stopped to help her fix the doll?” “Oh no,” replied the little girl. “I stopped to help her cry.”

1-14-06:

One of my favorite scriptures in the Bible is found in Isaiah 6:8: Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying; “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, Here I am! Send me.”

Oh, to have the spontaneity and availability of an Isaiah. The example is there, but so often we are hindered---not by God or others, but by our own self-image. We consider ourselves unworthy to be used by God or of any possible worth to others that God brings into our lives. Our minds and hearts get trapped by our personal fixation on our limitations rather than focusing on God's possibilities through us to glorify Him.

Allow me to share one of my favorite readings from a gentleman named Joshua Loth Lehman. He speaks to me, and perhaps it will speak to you as well.

No one of us escapes limitations……..Some people are gifted with their hands, some people are gifted in the realm of art or music, some people are gifted in the realm of abstract ideas. Almost no one is gifted in all three realms. We are all limited, and we must accept ourselves with our limitations, recognizing that we can do what others cannot do, that we can contribute where others cannot contribute.

To accept ourselves with our limitations means also that we will recognize how variable and flexible our lives can be. The great thing about life is that as long as we live we have the privilege of growing. We can learn new skills, engage in new kinds of work, devote ourselves to new causes, make new friends, if only we will exercise a little initiative and refuse to become fixed and rigid.

Let us then, learn how to accept ourselves---accept the truth that we are capable in some directions and limited in others, that genius is rare, that mediocrity is the portion of almost all of us, but that all of us can contribute from the storehouse of our skills to the enrichment of our common life. Let us accept our emotional frailties, knowing that every person has some phobia lurking within his mind and that the normal person is he who is willing to accept life with its limitations and its opportunities joyfully and courageously.

1-7-06:

“The early believers were not looking for something to happen, they were looking for Someone to come. Looking for the train to arrive is one thing, but looking for someone we love to come on that train is another matter .” (Vance Havner Quote Book)

Such a statement jolts us into considering our focus: Is it on what, when or who?

Our answer tells it all; as to whether the Gospel is merely a travel schedule describing an arrival time---or---a love story.