meeting together in unity

How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!  (Psalm 133)

I had a meeting tonight with some of my fellow Foursquare Church pastors in a nearby town. It was a good meeting.

We met together for the express purpose of helping a woman gain her ministerial license. But while we were there, we also had a district meeting. In that we talked, we laughed and finally had some really good barbeque.

It is almost always good getting together with people of like mind. There have been few times in my life when I wished I had not come to such a gathering. Tonight was good. We get along with each other and we hare concerned for each other.

It makes for a satisfying relationship.

I have been in meetings of fellow ministers where it seemed like politics were the order of the day, where the desire for advancement was paramount. That was not necessarily common, but when it happens, it is certainly unpleasant.

But tonight, David, James, Doug, Liana, Nancy, her husband (I cannot remember his name and I hate that – nice guy) and Ella and I all got together and had some good fellowship. We were united in that which matters: God and our love for the church.

I missed Marsha, David’s wife, but I suppose she couldn’t be there. It was a long ways over and a long ways back, but I would do it tomorrow again.

Father God, I ask for strength and power for these people. I ask this especially for Nancy as she is looking toward her license that her life of service in you will be good and profitable both for you and her family. Bless her and keep her. Bless us and keep us also in your grace and love. Give us strength and the power that can only come from you. I praise you. Amen.

daily java

Daily Java:

When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.  (Mark 6:47-52)

Several years ago, a friend of ours was sick in the hospital. We prayed for her and, against all expectations, she was pronounced fine the next day and was released. When I told her we had prayed for her, her response was, “Well, I know prayer helps.” I said, “Sweetheart, prayer does not help. Prayer heals. You are out of the hospital, aren’t you?”

The look on her face was priceless when she realized the enormity of her illness and the fact that it had disappeared. She had indeed, against all odds, been healed.

But it was not long after the healing that it was forgotten. She still did not necessarily believe in miraculous healing even though it had touched her personally.

The apostles had just witnessed a miracle of the first order. Jesus had fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish. The biggest loaves of bread around and the largest fish caught in those waters could not have provided enough food for all those people. It came from the hand of God through the hands of Jesus in the presence of a bunch of men who had trouble really believing in this kind of thing.

But – again that word which kills all belief – the apostles just didn’t understand. It wasn’t that they were stupid or unbelieving. After all, they had given up their lives to follow this man. They believed inasmuch as they could in who he was and what his mission was.

It was just that there had not been enough time for the full realization of Jesus and his power to completely sink in. They still had a barrier between them and their faith.

It is easy to criticize the apostles from our perspective. We have had 2000 years of theological filters though which to see and understand all this. We have read it in a book we know to be true, we have talked about it, been taught about it, studied on it, considered it, translated it from the original Koine Greek, accepted it and to us it is perfectly normal.

I personally have studied the feeding of the 5000 and the walking on water incident since I was a little bitty child. I cannot imagine a world in which it did not happen. But in their world, it was the first time.

One of the Jesus movies faced a problem like this in the filming. The problem was: how do you say and do the things needed to make it a good movie as though it was the first time they were ever done or said? How do you keep it fresh sounding? We have heard and read these things so many times that it becomes old hat.

What if it were you who saw this for the first time? And you needed time to process it? You would look rather hard of heart yourself.

But how exciting it would have been. The storm, the fear, then Jesus comes walking on the water and you thought that maybe it was an omen of your impending death. Then he gets in the boat and everything stops.

It would sure be something to process in your mind for a while before you really came to grips with it.

daily java

Daily Java (late):

And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day. (2 Timothy 1:11-12)

We have been going through a lot the past bit, as well as several things that are coming up.

We got back last night at 8:30 from Tyler and my father’s funeral. It was really pretty good. He was fast becoming unaware of who was with him. He also had cancer in his lymph nodes and a tumor on his spine. He ended up with pneumonia and his lungs had filled up.

It was the best thing that could have happened to him to die. His life was over and he had no need to keep on. He got his reward.

It was amazing at the number of friends and loved ones that were with him at the end. People came for hundreds of  miles just to tell him goodbye. He was loved by so many.

I do not know what will happen when I die. If I can make one small measure of the impact he made, I will have done a lot.

He and I never really saw eye to eye, even though we loved each other. I had not seen him for two and a half years, but I will have to admit that he looked great in his coffin. The funeral directors had done a good job. He looked like he was asleep, except of course that he was wearing glasses and a suit. People rarely ever sleep with glasses and a suit on unless it is in church and then they are sitting up. But he still looked good.

My mother was very accepting. She gave a Do Not Resuscitate order for him and it was used very quickly. At 82, the quality of life was limited with all his problems, so bringing him back again and again would be more cruel than anything.

It makes me so aware of my own mortality. Our generation is one that has always been convinced of its own immortality. We could not go wrong, we couldn’t ever grow old, our mantra was I don’t want to grow up, I’m a Toys R Us kid. When stuff happened to us, we were shocked. The cops and the soldiers are our grandchildren, and we are rapidly wearing out our beautiful young bodies.  The long cool woman in the black dress is in her middle 60’s and is retirement age. And it is a shock to us.

But like Mr John said, I’m still standing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I will until they lay me out and I am loaded into the crematorium and reduced to ashes.

Until then, I will praise my Lord and him only will I serve. I will do all I can to live for him and love him. He is my God and my Lord and King of my life. He is my all in all and I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.


Praise his name.

my father

Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. (Exodus 20:12)

I just got back a couple of hours ago from a 1500 mile round trip to Tyler, TX, to help to bury my father, John, Sr.

He died this past Tuesday of complications related to his Alzheimer’s, cancer and pneumonia. He was 82. All together, the combination of things was just too much for him. My mother, Ruby, was with him when he died.

Ella and I drove the 750 miles to Tyler Wednesday and we had the funeral Friday. There were probably at least one hundred people there. My brother, GW, and I spoke and gave some remembrances of our time with him.

I saw people I had not seen in forty to fifty years and, as it happens so often at funerals, we had a good visit. I will not see them again until we have another funeral, and if it is mine, I won’t then.

My father was a good man. A deacon and an elder in the church, a Bible class teacher, an occasional preacher and a mentor in many ways, he was a great example to me. We often didn’t see eye to eye, as we were different types of people. He was old country and I wasn’t.

He was a hard worker who climbed electrical poles for Houston Lighting and Power for years. Even though his knees were bad, he continued until finally the company promoted him. he would work all day then sometimes at night helping other people. He and my mother were invariably hospitable.

He retired early and he and my mother  traveled around with a group of retirees who went to help small churches and Christian colleges (all affiliated with the Church of Christ) to do things needed.

I could not have had a better role model. And I hope that my model will be remembered by my children, Sam and Abby, as long as they live.

He will always be with me. And I honor him. And I loved and love him.

One day I will see him again. The song at his funeral was What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see, And I look upon His face, The One who saved me by His grace; When He takes me by the hand And leads me through the Promised Land, What a day, glorious day that will be.

Praise the blessed name of Jesus for John Thomas Cliver, Sr.

my father died

My father, John Thomas Cliver, Sr., died today at 1:25PM. I don’t what else to say right now.


Father God, I ask for strength for my mother. Bless her and bless my father’s children and his legacy. I praise you anyway. Amen.

daily java

Daily Java:

Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there.  Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. (Mark 3:1-6)

Jesus was doing stuff that was amazing. And you could tell he was from God doing it. People were being blessed by his actions and by the presence of God in all he did.

But there were people who did not want God to act any way but theirs. This was their church, this was their stuff and God needed to act like he had before.

In their minds, God was not someone who could change. He was someone who remained static and who remained like them. Or, at least, like they pretended to be.

So when Jesus decided to do things a different way, they tried to stop. They even set up little sting operations to try to catch him doing something against their interpretation of God’s will.

They knew the man with the shriveled hand would be there, they knew Jesus would be there and they knew he would heal the man. So they waited and watched. When he did, they would jump out and arrest him, or at least accuse him the sight of everyone of being a heretic, a transgressor of the holy law.

But as he did so often, Jesus went another way. he called the man up in front of everyone. Then he asked if the Sabbath, one of their most holy ordinances (of course it was, since it involved them) and asked if it was legal to good deeds on the Sabbath.

That flummoxed them. If they said no, they would look like idiots. If they said yes, Jesus would say, okay and then do what he wanted. So they did what the cowards always do: they remained silent, watched while he did what he did and then went away to meet in private to plot his downfall. In fact, to figure out how to kill him.

They were more willing to kill an innocent man than they were to change their ideas of God and his church. I use church because that is our way of thinking.

People who are invested in their own ideas to the point of excluding all others are willing to commit symbolic murder than to admit that maybe God does things differently than they want. They are willing to drive someone out of the church than to let them do things differently than they want.

This happened to Jesus. Jesus did not die because of the way he talked, or the way he parted his hair. He died because he did things differently than the way those in charge wanted it done. And they were more willing to kill him than change.

Sometimes people are allowed to become entrenched in a church to the point that they run the church. And they will drive out preacher after preacher who disagrees with them and their way of looking at the Bible and the church.

They are more willing to tear the church up than they are to change.

After the Jews had killed Jesus, on the day of Pentecost, many of them realized the grievous error they had made. And they changed. But many never changed. And their nation died. Oh, a semblance remains even today, but the power of that nation operating through the power of God is gone. It is one more small nation among many.

When a church does this over many years, sooner or later the church dies. It is infected. It cannot live long. This is a cancer that destroys it. It becomes one more small church among many.

And like the nation of Israel, it needs to die. It becomes an embarrassment and a hindrance to the will of God. In a town, especially a small one, all know of the reputation of that church, and it will never recover.

Israel didn’t. But in the end, Jesus won.

daily java

Daily Java:

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-13)

It is hard to be a leader in the church and to have people look up to you. So many want it but they want it for the prestige and not for the work. It has long been my contention that I look askance on anyone who campaigns for a leadership position in a church.

That is not to say that I do not welcome volunteers and people who desire to lead. 1 Timothy 3:1 has the apostle Paul writing: Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. In other words, it is good to want to be a leader. But it is when that desire is  overwhelming and you can tell it is for the wrong reasons that it becomes bad.

Leadership is a delicately balanced thing. There is the responsibility that so many do not see, and the knowledge that you have to be careful in your leading.

I have been pastoring for 37 years, an astonishingly long time to me. It seems just yesterday that I began. During that time, I have learned so much and yet, at the same time, feel I have so much to learn.

If I had it to do again, I would be a pastor again. There would be things I would do differently than before, but that life situation and marrying my wife again I would do.

Thank God for leaders.

daily java

Daily Java:  

The Lord also said to Moses, “Give the following instructions to the entire community of Israel. You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” (Leviticus 19:1-2)

There was an old Simpsons cartoon about the children of Israel as they were coming out of Egypt. There were several characters in the nation that were played by Simpsons characters.

There was Homer the Adulterer, who was proud of his accomplishments. Another guy was  well known for his prowess as a thief, a third for lying. They were held in some esteem by the Israelites because of their abilities.

Then Moses spoiled it all by coming down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments, outlawing their specialized fields. They were irritated because now they had to get new jobs.

Even though that was a stupid cartoon, I laughed out loud. Their reactions to being told they were wrong after making a career out of their wrong doing was funny.

The thing is, though, they were. And they could not be followers of his and do these things.

God told them that the defining characteristic of the Israelites would be that they were holy as he was holy. In other words, they were to imitate him and not each other. He was their standard and not what they wanted to do.

That is still true. We are to imitate him, not the world. And that is hard.

The old song by Debbie Boone, You Light Up My Life, has the phrase “It can't be wrong when it feels so right.” The problem is it can. Just because it feels right in our hearts doesn’t really mean anything.

Jeremiah 17:9 says The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve. It is God who determines right and wrong. We can’t. our thoughts and feelings get in the way.

That is why the apostle Paul said in Ephesians 5:1, Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children. When we imitate him, we imitate all that is holy and good and righteous. He is our standard.

That is the whole point of the Bible: to give us a standard, an explanation of the standard and the good that comes from following the standard.

Be holy. And the only way you can do that is by giving yourself to God and allowing him to consume you.

daily java

Daily Java:

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

Mission work has to be one of the hardest things a Christ follower can do. and probably one of the most exciting. Moving into an area where there are people who have never heard the gospel of Jesus and beginning to teach.

Sometimes it is just a desire to plant a church of your denomination. There may be a hundred churches there already, but you want one of your particular flavor. And that is okay.

Sometimes it is moving into a city where it is woefully underchurched and trying to reach those thousands or millions that are without Jesus.

Sometimes it is going into an area that is antagonistic to the whole message of Jesus and trying to bring his grace into a pagan or infidel society.

Whatever the avowed purpose of bringing the church, it is hard. Harder, of course, in cities that are antagonistic to your message. These would be places like the Middle East where it if often against the law to convert from Islam.

But I have to admit that bringing the church into a city where there are lots of churches can be as hard. Complacency sets in and people do not care. It is a result of overexposure and undercaring that results in thousands of people who don’t even bother to go anymore. They no longer care.

One thing is for certain, in the places that are antagonistic to the gospel, the people are stronger in the faith. They have to be. To keep something in the face of such resistance brings real strength. It is the kind of strength the apostles and early church had in the first century. The kind of strength that Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego had in the book of Daniel.

Their comment to persecution: our God will deliver us, and even if he doesn’t, we still will not do what is wrong. That is strength.

It is the kind of strength I strive for here in Lincoln. The church is small and has gone through a tumultuous time since I have been here. That was due to some who felt it was their divine right to determine what went on in the church and who resisted change of any kind.

That hurts a work and hurts a preacher. It saps the joy right out of a work. For the past year I have been sitting here trying to figure out what I should do, what I shouldn’t have done and all without the denominational support I thought I would have.

I believe that it is easier and more productive to plant a new church in a city than to bring a dead one back to life. that said, however, I am in a dead one and this is where the Lord has put me. But it has deepened my depression.

I had a burst of optimism when I began this fast  a couple weeks ago, but I am not sure if that is my natural Pollyanna side coming out or not. Time will tell. The three words that have come to me, I am still mulling over.

Can it be that I am not a failure? Can it be that God is not through with me? Can it be that God not just shunted me here to this small church in the middle of nowhere just to put me out of the way so he can do other better things?

I wait.

Father God, I ask for power to your missionaries of every stripe and kind that preach your word. empower them, give them fruit in their work and help those whom they bring in to be strong and bear fruit themselves. Show me your way. give me your joy. Set me free from this prison so that I may praise your name. I praise you. Amen.

homesickness

Samuel continued as judge over Israel all the days of his life. From year to year he went on a circuit from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah, judging Israel in all those places. But he always went back to Ramah, where his home was, and there he also judged Israel. And he built an altar there to the LORD. (I Samuel 7:15-17)

Like a bird that strays from its nest is a man who strays from his home. (Proverbs 27:8)

Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. “Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. (Mark 6:1-3) 

Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”  (Matthew 8:19-20) 

I have been feeling a strong sense of homesickness lately. And the bad part of it is, I am not sure where I am homesick for.

The old song says:

I've been so many places in my life and time
I've sung a lot of songs and I've made some bad climbs
I've acted out my life in stages with ten thousand people watching
Oh, but we're alone now and I'm singing this song for you.

That song resonates strongly inside me. We have lived so many places. As a minister in denomination that did not prize longevity, I have gone from one end of the United States to the other. And while I was doing that, it never occurred to me that one day I would wish I hadn’t.

I am a Texas City boy. I really only lived in TC for maybe three years before I was drafted, but it was there that so many of my memories are centered. My parents moved there in 1966 and I went to tenth and eleventh grades there, fell in love with 2 or 300 girls while there, kissed a girl, had the comic star in a play (South Pacific), worked at my first radio station, learned to play the guitar – all kinds of things.

I know that TC is not the same. I have seen modern pictures of it. And I have no one there to whom I am related and probably any old friends are gone. But still, I feel such a pull there.

We lived in Spokane, WA, in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. We loved the city, we loved the church, we loved so many things about it. The leaders in the church there hurt us, and we ended up leaving. But we loved the city and if we could, I would go back. Again, I know it is nothing like the city we left, but still, I feel the pull.

We lived in Germany for six months after we were married while I was in the army. We loved Germany and even made tentative – very tentative – plans to go back to do mission work. But we didn’t. I would love to go back to Darmstadt to visit old roots. Many of those are no longer there as I have found out recently, but it was a beginning of a life long love affair with my wife.

I would imagine Jesus felt that same pull. Even though he knew he might not be accepted, he went back anyway. And they hated him. I wonder if he ever went back.

Thomas Wolfe said you can’t go home again. And it is true. Home always eludes you when you try to find it. And as the old saying goes, home is where the heart it. Where Ella is, there is home.

Wherever we move, when we unpack, we are at home. And even if we are staying in a motel room it is still home, because she is there.

I felt that feeling the first time in 1979 when we were living in Spokane and we saw a TV special with Kenny Rogers. He went to Crockett, TX, to do a TV show. Listening to all of the people with such broad Texas accents (something I have never had but Ella does in spades) made us homesick for the first time in our lives.

And I feel that so strongly. Nebraska is an odd place and one I never wanted to live in. I suppose if I stay here long enough, I will grow accustomed to it and consider it my home.

But I, right now this minute, am so homesick and so far away from home that it hurts. If I could just figure out where home is. I feel so strongly like an expatriate that has forgotten where his country is.

daily java

Daily Java:

And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. (1 Corinthians 12:28)

Christian colleges and the like are responsible for my education. I appreciate them. I guess the only problem is that they were all from a radically different denominational group that the one in which I am today. The perspectives of my education and the place where I am with God today are poles apart.

It is an odd thing overcoming your educational bias. You are taught one thing by godly men and then you learn something better. But the men who taught you are still godly men, just with a different perspective. It does not make them better or worse than you, just different.

That is the beauty of the Christian faith. We can be different. That group was aggressively anti-Pentecostal. That was due somewhat to ignorance, as the Lord had not baptized them in his Spirit.

But I know for a fact that those men had the Spirit of God in them, even though they would have felt me to be a heretic today. And the sad thing is, they would have and many do.

Their teaching, however, set me on a course in life as a lover of knowledge. I love to learn things and I think I have a good grounding of the word of God, both linguistic and philosophical. If there is anything the teaching of a legalistic institution can give you, it is a definitive knowledge of the word of God.

I find as I get older, the knowledge I received from that schooling has been better, sheer knowledge wise, than any other I have seen from almost any other denomination. It was word heavy, memorization heavy, very comprehensive.

When we graduated from that time of study, we knew our Bible, we could quote it backwards and forwards. We were walking, talking, living preacher machines. We didn’t know social graces or pastoral ability, or anything else. But by the Lord above, we could preach and we knew what we were saying, at least in the context of that denomination.

We could debate and argue and 90% of the time could talk anybody, no matter their denomination or belief into a corner. Our sheer knowledge was amazing. Perspective was lacking, but a lot of that was that we were young.

In the ensuing years, I have had the chance to put it all in perspective, which is really what education is for. It is designed to give you raw materials from which you make your life philosophy. And the raw materials they gave were great amounts of raw, intensive Bible study.

Yes, it was slanted. All study is slanted because people teach it. You cannot help teaching your ideas and opinions. You are human. But other people can take your ideas and opinions and from their own maturity distill the truth.

I thank God for my teachers and my education.

daily java

Daily Java: 

 If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Today on our 21 day fast we pray for America (that the Lord will bring us back to the roots of our beginning of spiritual hunger and commitment).

This is the country that is closest to me in my prayer. It is good to pray for Central and South America or Europe or the East, but America is the one that is, as is normal, closest to my heart.

This is, after all, my country. I served in the army defending it, I live here and it is my heritage. Those who try to tear it down – and there are a lot in Hollywood these days – do so out of some kind of foolishness that I just do not understand.

It is what I have heard a lot lately called oikaphobia, the fear or hatred of the familiar. Xenophobia is the love of the strange or the stranger. It was fun to go through Germany and the little bit of Europe we lived in when I was in the army, and I am glad Ella was there at least for a little to experience it.

But I live here. This is where my family is, where my roots are, where all that is familiar to me is. And I love it. I could probably live in Europe. In fact, we had planned to go back and do mission work there in 1980, but it all fell through. But America is good.

There is no better country, no more exceptional country in the world than America.

But – and here is the problem – but, it has been moved from its Christian center to something that looks the same on the surface, but underneath is rotten. And you can tell it by our kids.

Children always reflect the parents. Children reflect America today. Tattooed, pierced, promiscuous in odd ways, afraid to speak the wrong thing, sometimes even lacking the ability to read and write.

The dumbing down of education has produced a group of future and present adults that are ill-equipped to live in a world that is not constantly reassuring them of their worth and value. The school system spends so much time on self-esteem and equality that they neglect knowledge and fortitude.

End of the rant. What can we do? 2 Chronicles 7:14 says to turn and pray. That is what we can do. doesn’t seem like much at first, but then you realize that when we pray, we tap into the power of the universe.

If enough of us fast and pray for America, I hope that God hears us and that it is not too late for this formerly great nation.

an open letter to my dad

An open letter to my Dad

Dear Dad:

I was thinking about you just now and wanted to tell you hi and to give you a get-well letter.

I came across a picture the other day that really hit me. It is in Freeport, TX, in the 1950’s. we were at a gathering of some kind, I believe at Howard and Linda Dickson’s house, probably after Sunday night church at the Freeport Church of Christ. We met a lot after church and sang. Then we would eat stuff and have a good time.

You worked for Houston Lighting and Power as a lineman at the time. You were a strong man, one that I stood in awe of. You were healthy and sun burned. In the picture you are looking at your sons, Gerald, your youngest, and me, Johnny, your oldest. I don’t know what we were doing, but whatever it was, we were doing it knowing that a lot of people loved us and that you were watching.

You were a good leader in the church. If I am not mistaken, you were even a deacon in the Freeport Church of Christ. And you were an elder in churches later. You led singing and preached and taught and led by example. In general you did whatever you could do to make the church better and to advance the cause of the Lord. There was nothing you wouldn’t do for the church or for others. I have seen you work hard all week and then go help someone in their garden or building something or working on their car. You were always there for people.

You were a good man. You were honest and ethical and tried your best to teach your boys and you little daughter, Nancy Lea, who is eleven years younger than I am, all of those things.

Last night while I was praying in our Monday night prayer meeting, I thanked God for the influence you had on our lives as children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. That influence is what kept me strong all the years I was in the army and before I became a minister of the gospel in 1974.

I do what I do today in large part because of that influence.

I pray that the Lord heal you. But above all, I pray that the will of the Lord be done in your life. You are a godly man, even though you have trouble remembering things now. Your life has been exceptional in that regard. You loved your Lord, you loved your wife and you loved you children and would do anything for them.

My prayers are also with Mom that she be the kind of person she wants to be. She too is a godly woman and
I love her.

I love you. And may God bless you.

Johnny

daily java

While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him this message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.” (Matthew 27:19)

Years later, when she looked back on that day, she was filled with a combination of both grief and joy. It was a strange mixture considering the appalling events of the day.

She remembered it clearly 30 years later.

Her husband had been about his business as usual. He was Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea, one of the hardest places on earth to govern. These people were maniacs. They didn’t listen to reason or accept authority in any way except their own. They went, not to the wisdom of the emperor for their advice on living, but to some old tattered scroll written gods knew how many years ago.

It was just plain silly. And Pontius had had nothing but trouble from them from the first day he came in. That first time he entered Jerusalem with all of his trappings, all of his standards and representations. He told them that this was the beginning of a new day, that he would bring them, kicking and screaming if need be, into the new order.

They could take it or he would kill a few. That would show them.

However, to our utter astonishment, the older leaders first and then after a moment all of them knelt down, bared their necks and invited him to go ahead and kill them. They said they would rather die than disobey their god’s law.

Of course, Pontius backed down. They were like rabid dogs.

And now, they had this guy who was a teacher of some kind that they hated. And they brought him to Pontius to see if he would kill him for them. He said no, of course. He hadn’t done anything much wrong except teach. It wasn’t like he led an insurrection or anything.

But they insisted, even hinting that they would tell the emperor that he was disloyal. He didn’t need that. The reason he was here in the godforsaken country in the first place was because the senate and all were mad at him for some things he had done and were punishing him. He didn’t deserve these people, but what could he do? Either resign or go here.

And now, there was almost a full scale revolt right in front of him.

But this afternoon, I had a dream. I am not sure what it was, but it left a large fear in me, fear on behalf of this man, this Jesus.

I told Pontius not to do anything with him, that he was innocent. I do not think I could stand it if you killed him. I thought he might even be an emissary of the gods.

And sure enough, Pontius washed his hands of the whole mess and told them to go do what they wanted. He wasn’t responsible for other people did, was he? They had their own minds. And they were crazy. He sure couldn’t do much there.

I was disappointed in him that he gave Jesus to the soldiers to beat and torture. They are horrible men.

So the Jews did kill him. Along with the help of the soldiers, they killed him in a horrible way. I have never liked crucifixion. It is messy and it looks so painful. You hear the guys screaming and moaning. It destroys my appetite every time there is a mass crucifixion.

But this time, I thought and thought about it. It almost destroyed my soul.

Fifty days later, I was near the temple – we don’t live far from it anyway – and a group of people began to talk about the man, about Jesus. They told what he had done and where he had come from.

He had not come from the gods, which is what I had expected. He was from The God, and he was not only from The God, he was the Son of The God.

And I believed it and gave my heart to him right there.

Of course, no one would let me go to their church, since I was Roman, so I worshipped in the governor’s palace. Soon I had several that were believers with me. We were Christ-followers.

It wasn’t long before Pilate left Judea. He was never the same. He died not long afterwards. By that time, Gentiles (which is what I found out I was to my surprise) were welcomed into the church.

We had decided to retire to our villa in Rome. After Pontius died, I helped a number of people find the Christ, the Lord.

And now, 30 years later – who can believe it – I am part of his church here in Rome. One of the apostles, Matthew, wrote about me in a letter that is circulating through the churches. That was a pleasant surprise, although it also brought up again the disappointment in preventing what happened.

But then again if it had been prevented, I would not know the Lord now.

So every time I think about that day, it is with a mixture of grief and joy. Grief that he had to die, joy that he did anyway and gave me life.

It is a long was for the daughter of a vineyard owner from Rome and the wife of a federal governor to come. Praise God that I have.

holding hands for the first time

Ella and I met at a bowling alley after a church event. We hit it off very well. We saw each other the second time at a youth devo in Clear Lake City Church of Christ.

I was waiting for the bus (I had forgotten this but she told me today). She said her friends said, there he is. They were all watching for me. She got off and we went inside. I met her little sister, Joyce, but I was interested in Ella. We talked nervously a bit then went into the auditorium and sat together.

It was a huge auditorium as Clear Lake Church of Christ was a huge church. John Allen Chalk was speaking that evening. He was big on the youth circuit in the Churches of Christ. I heard little of what he said.

A momentous event was going on right where I sat. It was the decision on whether or not to hold her hand. Would she let me? We sat and feigned interest in the talk, moving our hands closer and closer until one of us – joined. We were holding hands.

It is hard for older people to remember the earth-shattering event of holding a girl’s hand. You sit quietly for a few minutes in case it was an accident and she jerks her hand away when she realizes you were holding it.

Then after a few minutes, you settle your hands a little more and a little more until you are holding hands.

We left that night as, if nothing else, hand holding friends. I wanted to be more.

We met again in a couple of weeks at her church, the Sun Valley Church of Christ in South Houston. There was a concert of a choral group from the college where I attended 15 years later. Nothing of importance there, just interesting.

There was a youth thing afterwards, everybody sitting around doing kid stuff with the college students, most of whom were not much older.

We didn’t get along that well that night. It seemed a bit flat, and I began to wonder if I had made a mistake. Not sure what it was but it was just not there for us.

The more I thought about it later, the more I was determined to give it one more try.

I got my job with Southwestern Bell Telephone as a coin collector, taking money out of pay phones. So that meant I had to move to Houston.

I found an apartment from some people named Mixon. It was an efficiency on the back of their house. That meant, of course, that I slept on a fold out couch and that it was impossible to hide the clutter that a 19 year old bachelor who was a slob at heart would leave around.

There was a stove, but no oven. Instead there was a small toaster oven that I could use to do moderate stuff – which of course was all I ate. I ate a lot of packaged chicken fried meat substance and grilled cheese sandwiches. The dishes sat in the sink sometimes for a week at a time, collecting rust and little flies. It was horrible.

But I liked it. I had a 1962 Mercury Meteor with a small dent in the driver’s rear end. But it was my car, my apartment and my job. I drove from Texas City to Houston Wednesday and Thursday. Friday was Good Friday, which the telephone company and everybody else that was decent in 1960’s America had off. I moved my few possessions to the apartment, threw them somewhere and then was through. Like any self-respecting young man, it took two trips and ten minutes to unpack.

Saturday I went out to lunch at a cafeteria, again the 1960’s idea of special eating. I wore a sports jacket, plaid pants and a turtleneck. Mr Cool. I walked around the mall it was in for a while, came back to my new home and went to bed.

Sunday was Easter Sunday. I showed up in my best outfit: a white shirt with a gray and red striped tie, black pants and a black and white houndstooth blazer.

I was there two hours early.

She showed up a little less than an hour before church. Her parents opened up the building and all. She was wearing a blue and white delft pattern dress that fit her great, along with gray Mary Janes. She looked great. She saw me and smiled and that was that.

I married her  a little less than two years later.

Her friends were astonished. Not only had she been the quiet one who practically never dated, she was the first to get a guy’s senior ring. She was the first to go steady. She was the first to get engaged and to be married.

I thank my God that I went ahead and showed up that Sunday morning. It was his doing and his prompting, I believe with all my heart.

I have loved her since I met her and will until I die.

today is valentine's day

Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love. (Ecclesiastes 9:9)

Today is Valentine’s Day, our 40th together. we had a couple before while I was in the army, but they were apart.

Valentine’s Day brings back so many memories.

Our first one was in Germany. We had only been married a month. The love we had for each other was so new. I don’t remember what all we did, but it was done, not only as it would in a new marriage (wink, wink, nudge, nudge), but also in a whole different country. It was great.

None of the Valentine’s Days really stand out, though.

There was the one in which we were together after being apart for a couple of months. It was a bittersweet reunion. It is bitter because you realize that the separation made the reunion better, it was sweet because I realized I loved her again.

There were 38 others, again none of which particularly stand out. We never did a lot for Valentine’s Day, despite the commercial establishments’ fervent desire that we do. We have found that love is not bought, but celebrated in different ways than what the stores want.

One of the commercials on TV that I particularly hate is the Kay’s Jewelers’ commercial. “Every kiss begins with Kay.” I suppose that if you had a relationship with a prostitute or one like that it would be true. But my wife loves me in spite of the fact that I have never been able to get her the things I would like to get her. That love is far more valuable than that which can be bought with a diamond.

We met in February of 1969. There was a youth night at one of the gospel meetings in the Houston area – Pecan Park Church of Christ, at the time one of the major churches in the Houston area. As they did after every youth gathering, the kids went out somewhere to do something. It could be bowling, putt-putt golf (big at the time), skating, whatever. They had reserved a bowling alley that night, as there were several hundred kids coming.

I had trouble finding the bowling alley – Pasadena Lanes – and just as I was about to give up, I saw the sign. My little brother, Gerald, was with me. he was only 15 so I was ready to dump him somewhere. Clint Eastwood didn’t travel into town with a little brother, after all. I have no idea what happened to him that night. He went home with me, but I do not remember his presence at all.

I walked into the door of the bowling alley and surveyed the situation. You can imagine the theme from Good, Bad and Ugly in my head. I was not a particularly brave guy. In fact, I was then and am now fairly shy. So I didn’t really know how to insert myself into situation where I might meet girls.

A lady named Betty Richter came over to me and asked, are you alone? I said yes. She picked me up almost bodily and plopped me down into the midst of five girls. And I married one.

I knew the minute I saw her that I wanted to know her better. I am not sure why. She asked me again the other day why that was, and I said again that I didn’t know. With me it was love at first sight. With her, it took a while. She had never dated to speak of and had had a bad experience somewhere in the past with a jerk looking for an easy score.

Needless to say, she wasn’t an easy score and he never called back. He drove a 1967 fast back Mustang. No reason to point that out except that she did when she mentioned him. That summer, when we were with a group of her friends at a ball game, one of them pointed him out to me. I don’t know if they wanted me to go over and pound him or not, but I restrained myself.

We courted over the summer. I had a good job with the telephone company as a coin collector, taking money out of pay phones. It was not particularly demanding but was endlessly interesting. you saw everywhere and everybody in that job and I liked it, especially as a 19 year old.

Her friends were amazed. She was the quiet girl who never went out and all of a sudden she had, not only a boyfriend, but an older boyfriend who had a job and car and apartment (which she would never go to out of fear – I could not get her to step foot in that apartment, not sure why).

But I got drafted late that summer and went to Germany. I came home on leave from Fort Gordon in December of 1970 and gave her a ring. She went back to the short end of the semester that was such a stupid idea at colleges at the time engaged to be married. Her friends were somewhat astounded.

Again, the quiet girl was the first to be engaged and the first to get married. For which I was grateful.

Looks considered, there were better looking girls at the bowling alley that night. Not that she was bad looking. She had a quiet inner beauty and a pure beauty on the outside. Couple that with the fact that she was good looking, too, and she was a catch.

If I had it to do again, I would marry her again. I truly love her. Thanks be to God.

desire for chuch stuff as opposed to hunger for God

My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. (Psalm 130:6)

Today we pray for Central and South America (that the Lord will continue the revival that He has begun and that it will flow over into the rest of their region and the world).

The revivals that are springing up around the world are amazing. While in America, the church seems to be dying, in Central and South America, in Asia, in countries with horrible climates for Christianity, they are flourishing in great numbers.

The reason is desire. These places desire something better. America, on the other hand, has about all it needs and doesn’t feel the need for Jesus and his grace. They’ve got all the material possessions they need and are fine, thank you.

In the other places, poverty is the norm. there is no dependence on stuff, so they find God.

I wonder if in this economic downturn, we will find a resurgence in the need for God. As people lose what they have and find it was so transient in the first place, they may find the need for God even stronger.

Sometimes it is hard to see God for all the stuff. It blinds us to his power. When we feel we have power, we do not feel the need for his power. However, when we lose that temporal power, there is still that God-shaped vacuum in our hearts that we had learned not to notice.

When that new found desire becomes strong enough, we seek the only solution. And that only solution, the only thing of any lasting value or power, is God.

But he will not compete. He will not argue over who is most important in your life. You take him, he is glad and will do anything he can to help you and guide you. You decide not to take him and he will allow that too. He will not force you to be in his will.

In Central and South America and all the other places where the need for him is becoming apparent to people, they see that and accept him.

Of course, problems ensue. Most of those countries are antagonistic to Christianity. And they will do anything to stop it. But, as history has shown from day one of the church, the more they try to stop it, the more it grows.

Praise be to God and to his awesome power.

I have come two weeks into this fast and have lost 40 pounds. I didn’t lose this much this fast last time, but this time I was on the Atkins diet for a month before. That probably accelerated the process. My digestive system also reacted very negatively this time for the first time ever. That has been hard.

Yesterday I felt the faint gnawings of hunger. We went to the store yesterday and got a few things. One of my hobbies is recreational grocery shopping. I shop at grocery stores like I shop at thrift stores. I go in for nothing in particular, kind of look around, and if I find something I buy it.

The same with grocery stores. I have a route (being the obsessive/compulsive personality that I am) that I walk in each store. To the right, through the produce, past the meat counter, past the cheese and dairy products and then the bakery. Then I go down the center aisle and out. If I find nothing I want, I buy nothing. But it is amazing at the good deals you can find with frequent trips to the store and an openness to bargains and day-old meat.

But as I looked, it became apparent that I was hungry. Everything looked desirable, even the bologna. And I hate bologna.

As I said at first, desire is when you want a specific thing. Hunger is when you are hungry.

It is the same thing with God. People think they seek the Lord when they want good praise music, or jumping up and down preaching, or a good tongues dominated prayer service or nicely dressed people. When they don’t get it, they are angry and feel their hunger for God is not fulfilled.

That is not a hunger for God. That is a desire for stuff. It is spiritual materialism. They want the trappings of worship without the reality and body of worship. They are looking for spiritual pizza or ice cream or hamburgers or mashed potatoes with gravy.

Real hunger is when you just desire God and to worship him however you can. Real hunger is when you desire his presence more than you desire anything else.

Father God, I ask that you bless these in Central and South America. Give them strength in overcoming the opposition. Give them power in living for you. Give us here that same hunger. Give me that hunger for you, that desire for what I can give to you. I praise you. Amen.

daily java

Daily Java:

This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites. (Leviticus 16:34)

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.   (Romans 3:21-24)

The old system had atonement once a year. Once a year the High Priest would bring the blood of the sacrificial lamb into the temple and release the scapegoat into the wilderness. Only then was atonement accomplished. But it was limited atonement, only good for a short time.

With Jesus we have perpetual atonement. He made that sacrifice of his life so that we could keep ours. He was the perfect lamb slain for our sins. In him w have continual release of sin and continual salvation.

He is the only way to God and his is the only salvation. He is our Lord.

grace over law

These are the regulations concerning contamination by mildew in woolen or linen clothing, woven or knitted material, or any leather article, for pronouncing them clean or unclean.  (Leviticus 13:59)

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  (2 Corinthians 3:17)

I was reading in my daily Bible reading this morning in Leviticus. Several chapters in Leviticus were God’s commandments to Moses. The commandments were excruciatingly detailed. They covered every possible part of life, including several that were just in case you had forgot something.

This section had dealt with uncleanness and isolation from the camp. It had to do with sores on your body and if they were a certain color or the hair on the was a certain color. Then it ends with restrictions of mildewed stuff, whether clothing or possessions.

The amount of laws was enormous, so many in fact, that I wonder how in the world they were able to keep them all. This was a pre-literate society in which most could probably not read. After all, there had never been any reason to do so, since the laws of God were not yet given.

So that meant that Moses probably had to find different people (probably Levites) and, by the Spirit of God, tell them what God had said and then go to them when you needed clarification on a subject. They were walking Torahs.

But there was no way you could keep them all without messing up somewhere. They were just too all-encompassing. It was as if God said, okay, you want a law, here’s a law. And there was no way to keep his detailed law.

Then Jesus came and nailed the handwriting of ordinances to the cross (Ephesians 2:15). He took all of that away and gave us a new and better way – the way of grace.

When the Lord sent his Son and then his Spirit, he sent freedom: freedom from restrictions and freedom from laws.

He knew we couldn’t keep all those. But he also wanted us to know that. We were stuck and he took us out and gave a better way.

His law is love (Matthew 22:36-40). His works are faith (John 6:29). He does not sit over now and tell us all of the things to do or not to do. He leaves that up to us and our relationship with him.

Ephesians 2:8-10 says For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

We do not do what we do to be saved. We do what we do because we are saved. That is the whole difference between the old and the new covenants.

Thank God I live now.

daily java

Daily Java:

For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

(Ephesians 2:18-20)Today we pray for the immigrant population (that the Lord will give us favor and grace concerning immigrants and that we will be moved with great compassion for them).

The US has always been a nation of immigrants. Except for the tiny few that were here already, everybody in America came from somewhere else. This is a nation of 3 million people whose families all came from somewhere else.

My family were Scots-Irish. Ella’s were German. When they got here, they tried their best to become a part of the American landscape, the melting pot that was the United States. It was a difficult thing to do, leaving behind all of your cultures and traditions and adopting whole cloth brand new ones.

But it was worth it. You became an American, a member of a prized country.

I suppose that is what is hard for so many today. Today immigrants come to America and expect to keep doing things the way they did where they came from. They have not really changed lives, just locations.

And it doesn’t work. Instead of a melting pot where every one takes on the flavors of everyone else, we have become a salad, where each ingredient is different and the only ting biding them is the dressing. America is the dressing for a lot of people who will never come together in any common bond or identity.

That is the way it is in the church. When we come to Jesus, we become one with people all over the world. we are unique with unique talents and abilities. Yet we also are merged into the one church. What we do is not to stand out, it is to serve. It is not to gain recognition, it is to worship the one true Audience – God.

When we forget that, we become like the immigrants who come into America or England or France or anywhere else and expect things to be exactly like they were where they came from.

Service to God and membership in his family renders us accountable and servants to each other. 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 says: Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf.

Just like ingredients in a loaf of bread merge to become the one bread, so we merge to become the one body.

daily java

Daily Java:

Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and they plotted to arrest Jesus in some sly way and kill him. “But not during the Feast,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.”  (Matthew 26:3-5)

A new pastor comes into a church that has had problems. Some of the members have been allowed to do what they wanted and felt empowered to be in charge. The new pastor does not recognize their presumed authority. And they become angry.

They work as hard as they can behind the scenes to break the pastor’s influence. They constantly complain, gripe, caterwaul about everything that is done, no matter how minor. They are a thorn in the flesh to the pastor and to the church.

Finally, one day they realize they are not going to reclaim their former position. They leave in a large loud manner, telling the pastor how inadequate he is, using terms and descriptions of his abilities and efforts that they know will hurt him.

And then they leave, many times taking their unwilling and embarrassed families away from their church homes. Then they try their best, after they have left, to siphon off members. There is a big turmoil in the church. Younger members who are weaker leave because they cannot stand the stress and end up not going anywhere. The church is reduced in number and in influence in the community.

All because one or two men did not get what they wanted.

People are willing to destroy the church rather than not get what they want.

Something pretty bad happened to us several years back. I said they really didn’t understand what they were doing. My son disagreed vehemently. He said they knew what they wanted. I said, yes, they knew what they wanted and they worked to get it. But they didn’t really understand what they were doing.

Like the chief priests and elders above, they were doing what they thought was the way to handle church things.

The Jews had always killed the prophets who told them things they didn’t want to hear. Jesus said this same thing in Matthew 23. It was their “business as usual” attitude.

People who come in the church do the same. Sometimes it may be underhanded and clandestine, sometimes it may be overt and outright. Whichever way it is, it is sin.

People who tear up a church and try to kill its influence and the influence of the pastor are sinning. If you do not like something, leave. To spread discord and rumor, to oppose at every turn is sinful and those who do it are in danger of the kingdom of God.

It is an odd blindness, a spiritual bondage. And if not corrected, the people who do it may find themselves in hell.

daily java

Daily Java:

Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. Moses then said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD spoke of when he said:
     Among those who approach me
          I will show myself holy;
     in the sight of all the people
          I will be honored.” (Leviticus 10:1-3)

Aaron remained silent.

God told the priests that they were to use acceptable fire, not just any old fire. But Nadab and Abihu had a problem with authority, a bad problem for leaders. For people to accept your authority, they have to know you also accept authority.

When they brought in the contraband fire, God destroyed them. And here is the worst part, Aaron could not mourn.

I would imagine that he was not surprised at it. He had probably always had problems with the boys and it came, although as a shock, as no real surprise.

This was in the same vein that the incident at the Jordan River when Achan stole some of the money from the pillage of Jericho that was supposed to be a tribute to God. God had told them that everything they got from Jericho was his. Achan took a very small amount, causing the Israelites to lose their next battle. He and his family were destroyed.

It is also like the incident in the early church with Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. They saw people bringing in stuff to the apostles and decided to cash in on the glory. They sold some land and only gave part to the Lord, claiming to have given all of it. They didn’t have to give any of it, but the Lord told the apostle Peter they had lied and both were killed by God.

All three of these were relatively minor infractions, things that would hardly be noticed today. But God was making a point. The point was: I am serious about what I say. Each of these was a watershed moment for the people of God.

With Nadab and Abihu, it was do what I told you. With Achan and Ananias and Sapphira, it was don’t lie to me. In all three cases, you can imagine that for a while they were very careful. it put the literal fear of God into their lives.

Our culture has become so phlegmatic over this kind of thing with a who cares attitude. What would happen if God came down and reiterated his comments to these five people? Would it make a difference?

It did to the Israelites. They whined and griped and caterwauled all the way through the desert, but they never again went against God’s will on what to do. instead they became inflexible and began to worship the things they did.

I don’t know about the results of Achan’s and Ananias’ and Sapphira’s sins. Things in the nation of Israel kept declining until God destroyed the who batch of them. The church kept going with its lies and deceptions until today. For a while, in both instances, they were careful. But because it was not repeated, they went on with their lives.

It is like the guy who eats all the wrong food and gets a heart attack. For a while, he is assiduous in doing and eating what he needs to do and eat. Then, after a time, he slips back into his old ways. And it happens all over again.

When I finish this fast, I do not want to slip back into my old ways. Lord help me.

daily java

Daily Java:

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:13-15)

I have been thinking about the old song the Beatles sang, Yesterday, in which they were longing for a time that is gone.

I am 61 years old. It is truly hard to imagine. What happened to my life?

I know I have been alive. I have memories, scars, momentoes, yet I am already 61 years old. At best I only have about 30 years left.

I remember so much. And so much of seems just yesterday.

I talked to an old man and woman back when I was in seminary. As were visiting, his wife sat at his side, obviously without much thought going on. It was apparent that she had what we called at the time senile dementia. As we talked, the old man said that she looked to him just as she did when they were young. My thought was that he was senile too. The old woman looked nothing like a younger person.

As I get older, I see what he meant. My wife looks so similar to me. I look at old pictures and at her today and she has changed her essential lines remarkably little. Looking at her, except for her disability, it is hard to imagine 40 years have passed.

When I was contacted for my 40th high school reunion, it almost staggered me. Had it been so long? I knew that on one level, but on another, more visceral level, I had not accepted it. Looking at my friends from high school, and how much older they were, I almost went into a funk.

But it has been that long. I have outlived so much in our culture. My generation went through the music and sexual revolution, the disco craze, the eighties, on into the nineties with the president of the US helping to erode our sexual mores even more, and are into a culture now of fear. America has changed so much. And so have I.

I have been a minister of the gospel for 37 years. I left the denomination I was raised in, and had two degrees in, and pastored in for 20 years. Since then, I have been a part of four different denominations. Three of them I was glad to come into, and found out quickly that I did not fit. Theologically I have shifted around so much that I am almost not recognizable as the same preacher.

And there have been so many things happen in my life, some great and some tragic. I have triumphs and terrible mistakes. I have been well-off and homeless. I have pastored large churches and small ones. Ella and I lived in Europe for six months and my family has lived all over the United States. I have gained and lost 400 pounds probably.

And where I am today, both professionally and physically, is a place and a situation that I never dreamed I would be in.

Not that it is bad. It just surprises me. if my life has had nothing else, it has had surprises.

And it has been so short.

tonight's lesson on romans: chapter 13

Tonight's lesson on Romans. If you can use is in any way, feel free.

Romans 13: Submission to the Authorities and Debt to Each Other

A Christian has the duty to respect authority, no matter whether they agree with it or not. This passage was written in the first century in the time of the Emperor Nero, one of the most viciously anti-Christian rulers ever. If Paul meant it then, he means it now.

The 1960’s and 1970’s saw a surge in resisting authority, along with badmouthing and demeaning those in power. When we do that, we resist what God put in place to make our stay here on earth better.

We have to remember that the Christian will do what is right automatically. He doesn’t need a policeman to tell him. He does it out of respect for God. Those who need a policeman to be around are those who are outside of God. The police, the judges, the president – all are there to keep our society ordered and peaceful.

As long as the authority does not tell you to do something that is against your belief in God and his grace, that you cannot do ethically, you have the responsibility to obey. After all, you are God’s representative here on earth and as such, are examples to other. If you are disobedient to authority, you malign the name of Jesus.

QUESTIONS:
1. What if you do not like the person in power, and do not agree with their way of governing?
2. Does a Christian have the right to campaign and vote against the president?
3. Where does the campaigning and political discussion stop and disrespect set in?
4. How can God establish bad people (Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Kim Il Sung in N Korea)?
5. What about bad policemen? What do you do about them? Is it wrong to turn a bad policeman in?
6. In paying taxes, is it wrong to use any loophole you have?
7. What do you owe that you do not give?
8. V8 seems rather plain. A lot of people use it to say that a Christian cannot be in debt. Is that what it means? If not, what?
9. The apostle Paul sums up a lot of the ten commandments into one rule. Is the Old Testament really that easily summed up? There are a  lot of rules and regulations in there.
10. What does it mean in v11: wake up from your slumber? How do we sleep?
11. How does a Christian behave indecently?

a visit to a coffeehouse

Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy. (Psalm 33:3)

Tonight we went to a coffeehouse and heard a man play the 12 string guitar. He was purely instrumental, said he couldn’t sing, and played in a New Age style. He was very good, but he was a bit predictable in what he played. His style was that of a talented person noodling around on the guitar.

I found out, however, that he cannot read music and he plays by ear. He said he also plays each song exactly the same way each time. Hard as that to believe for me (I read music but am only average on the guitar), I have heard of several musicians lately who do not read music yet are world renowned musicians.

Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix were two that couldn’t read music but were very good at what they did. I can read music, but all I am is a consistent banger on the guitar.

It was enjoyable, but there were very few there. I suppose that the 3 degree temperature and the 15 mph north wind kept a lot of people inside. We had a good time, though, listening to him and I can see going back often.

I have always wished I could play like that. But growing up in a non-instrumental church there was never any real opportunity to do so. It was one of those things that never came up.

Ella was the same way in her playing the piano. All she did was play a few songs her dad liked and that was it. She never learned to really play like she could have in a church setting where instruments were allowed.

As I get older too, my hands are getting arthritis. It makes them hard sometimes to work right. I also have carpal tunnel syndrome, one of those new diseases, in my hands. It is really bad in my right hand, especially with the way I sleep with the sleep mask. I put it on, turn over and wake up several hours later with my hand dead.

Nothing I can do about it, but it does make my hand hurt when I play for a while. I get to where I can’t feel where the pick is in my fingers. I am afraid I will lose the pick one day and be playing energetically and cut my finger on the strings. That is a real fear, although it probably will not happen.

I just have to accept the fact that I probably will not get any great amount better. I just hope the arthritis and such holds off until I am ready to die. I like playing and singing. I do look forward, however, to the day when I have a praise band and someone else leads. That way I can play when I feel like it and not have to all the time.

It was a good evening. It was also different from what we ordinarily do.

One thing, though. The coffeehouse is basement level and has red brick walls. It reminds me of my coffeehouse so much that it was almost painful at first. I miss it and would give a lot to have it back. It also was the kind of coffeehouse we wanted to open in Kansas City, especially with the live music. It probably is good we didn’t. Ella probably couldn’t handle it.

daily java

Daily Java:

But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. (Matthew 24:36)

I read again of a guy who has a book out (at least it is free) that says that 2011 will be the last year for the human race as it is now, that God will come again either in late 2011 or 2012, I was not sure. Either way, he is full of beans.

Jesus made it clear here and in a couple of other passages that nobody knows when he was going to come back, not even himself. When he comes back, it will be like a thief in the night. In other words, it will be suddenly. We will be standing around doing stuff like normal and then – bang! – he will be here.

And one thing is for sure – I have said this before and will say it again – if God the Father did not tell Jesus when he was coming back, he sure isn’t going to tell some preacher so he can have a book, website and followers. That is for certain.

If he did, he would be placing that man or woman above Jesus. And you remember that Jesus is King. Nobody is above him. It is arrogant to presume such.

I suppose that it is fear of the unknown. We feel we have to unlock all the mysteries of space and time. We cannot stand it that God has a secret and we are dying to know it. That is part of the human psyche, I guess. We want to know the unknowable.

Deuteronomy 29:29 says The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law. In other words, we have our stuff and God has his stuff.

He has revealed to us the “mystery” that the Old Testament people were looking for so hard in order to show us Jesus. That mystery, of course, was Jesus and his redemptive power. It was grace triumphing over law. It was manifest love.

Just being able to look into a Bible makes us more aware of the will of God than people living even 300 years ago. We have greater access to the written word than the vast majority of humanity through history. But yet we want more.

And wanting more is not necessarily bad. But when you start making up stuff for those who are desperate for more, you sin the sin of both arrogance (the presumption that you know something even Jesus didn’t know) and either you commit the sin of lying or it is just that you are crazy.

In the movie Braveheart, there was a man who claimed to talk to God as we talk to each other. It was obvious that he was mentally unsound and everyone around, including himself, knew it.

Those who claim to speak for God on hidden things are either liars with an agenda of self-aggrandizement or crazy. They are not prophets.

Just ignore them.

doing things to the best of your ability for God

The Israelites had done all the work just as the LORD had commanded Moses. Moses inspected the work and saw that they had done it just as the LORD had commanded. So Moses blessed them. (Exodus 39:42-43)

After the Israelites had finished the tabernacle and all of the stuff that went into it, they brought it to Moses for inspection. He pronounced it good.

You can imagine the relief they felt. They had worked hard on all this. They had built the tabernacle, all of the equipment in it, had made the priests’ clothing, had done everything God had said in just exactly the way he had said. And now they were through and waiting for the nod from Moses.

I would imagine that Moses was impressed. It had been a lot of work and a lot of expense. A large amount of gold had gone into it all, along with special cloth and wood. All of this had to be gotten from somewhere as they were in the desert. They had gone to a lot of trouble to do it, but they wanted to please God. So they did it to the best of their ability.

The interesting thing, too, is the fact that Exodus 37 said that God had given that ability to a couple of men and they had gotten the best of helpers. These were not some weekend carpenters. These were craftsmen, skilled and able.

And they did a lot, especially with what they had. Moses knew it, recognized it and blessed them.

It is a good feeling to do what God wants in a way that you know is good. When you finish, you have a great feeling.

Jeremiah 48:10 says, A curse on him who is lax in doing the Lord’s work! It is not only the fact that the Lord doesn’t care for it, it is also the fact that you feel bad doing substandard work. He will take it, like you would take a sloppy gift, but he would just feel sorry for you, not proud of you.

You like doing good. You like the feeling that comes from quality work. Shoddy workmanship always leaves a bad taste in your mouth, whether you do it yourself or buy it.

They could have slapped some stuff together and then be surprised when God was not pleased. Nobody really likes to have sloppy stuff given them as a gift. And nobody really likes giving sloppy stuff to someone else. It is a shame that people dress so casually to go to church today. There was a time when people put on their Sunday-go-to-meeting-clothes to go to services.

Now you hear more and more that God does not care what you wear, just what is in your heart. That is true, but it is a measure of disrespect to go to pay homage to someone dressed in sloppy clothes. I have fallen in with the casual way too, mainly because I got tired of being the only one dressed up. You get to feeling like a freak.

I hear a lot of people brag on their casualness by saying “If you see a person here wearing a suit, you know he’s a visitor.” I doubt that there will be a sudden resurgence of dressing up, although I do see a lot of ties at the young people’s stores. Part of the Mad Men thing, I guess, dressing like the mid-60’s.

But I know that I want to give God my best. And I try my best to do it.

After all, he gave me his best when he sent his Son to bring me back to him. Praise his name.

my vision

MY VISION

The church I see God using me to build is large in number, diverse in character and contemporary in structure.
- A dynamic, oddball postmodern church made up of younger to middle aged outcasts and misfits.
- Informal hard rock worship, time conscious, fast paced
- Casual dress
- Cell groups made up of help groups (i.e. AA, NA, weight loss, anger management, etc)
- People from all walks of life who have been touched with the love and grace of God and have been snatched from the fire. People who in all likelihood would never come into a regular church building for regular worship. People who for the most part have disdain for the modern church because of its irrelevance to their lives.
- Preaching to a group of people in a modern style: questions and comments from the audience as Jesus did. Interactive preaching in a conversational style. Preaching from need and not from notes.
- Class situation on Sunday nights with mostly discussion groups held around the city, taught by people who are carefully prepared beforehand and are trusted leaders. Wide variety of classes.
- Shepherding groups led by elders.
- A coffeehouse ministry with good coffee as a cornerstone ministry. Held on Friday and Saturday nights with bands and light snacks.
- A Thursday night worship service.
- Worship installations up all the time with spiritual resources and personal space available at all times.
- The local church building as an open-doored hangout. Sofas, visuals, newspapers, books, food, drink and plenty of places to plug in your laptop.
- Opening hours 10am to midnight.
- A place to work, rest and pray.
- The community as a network, not a spoked wheel dependent on a few at the center.
- A healing community
- Technologically current, relevant communication of clear absolutes with Bible based miracle solutions
- Premium child care during the worship times
- Community involvement, including food for anyone who needs it.

daily java

Daily Java: For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.    (Isaiah 64:3-4)

Today on our corporate fast in the Foursquare Church we pray for church planting (that the Lord will revive our church planting nationally with healthy, reproducing churches).

Church planting has always been close to my heart. We planted a church in Odessa, MO, (suburban Kansas City, MO) in 1996. It ultimately failed because of  the simple fact that I did not know what I was doing. But I will have to admit that I loved it.

We went broke, our house burned down, we ended up living in our storefront church in the back section and we scrabbled for money the entire time. We both had trouble finding work. But it was great. To me anyway. I am not sure Ella had that good a time.

Church planting is hard. It takes a lot out of a person. But I would like to do it again. However, I would only try it if I knew I had a core of people who were geared up for it. It is just too hard by yourself.

The church I have in mind is an interesting one. I have seen it in other places and tried to get it in Odessa. As I mentioned, we got infected and I had to close the church. I ignored some warnings out of desire to do the right thing and the warnings, although small, were right. In fact they were right for two people in that setting.

One of them was for a man who I set in a leadership position who was not suited nor qualified, spiritually or morally. It hurt when I found out the extent of his betrayal and lies and it was the last straw. Unfortunately, for me anyway, most had seen it but me. The Pollyanna side came out too strongly and I looked to the best. He really had little best as it turned out.

The other was the man who married my daughter. He was just about my best friend, but he too turned out to be a liar. It hurt my daughter a lot, but it also hurt me.

In that setting, I had made several friends, all of which ended up turning against me. To this day, I do not know why. It was strange. The day I closed the church, we had 6 in attendance. Only one besides my family was there.

After two years of scrabbling, my heart was broken and I was through. For three weeks I went to the Episcopalian Church across the street and let myself be drowned in their liturgy.  I figured that no one in the Episcopalian  Church ever heard from the Holy Spirit and they would be safe for me.

But – and here is a problem for me ever since – my heart is still there. It is still in the church planting.

The church I see I posted one other time:

-Unlocking doors;
-church interiors as public spaces in the city;
-worship installations staying up all the time; -the local church building as an open-doored hangout;
-sofas and tables and chairs,
-visuals, newspapers, books, food, drink;
-good coffee;
-plenty of places to plug in your laptop;
opening hours 10am to midnight;
-spiritual resources and personal space available at all times;
-a place to work, rest and pray; the living room only bigger.
-Rolling community – like the Cheers bar: as one set of characters leave another set arrive. All are connected by the bar staff [who themselves come and go] or one or two members who exchange groups. Everybody does some connecting in this way.
-The community is a network, not just a spoked wheel dependent on a few at the center.

I still want it. And today, I began to see an idea for the church here. Not sure what it is, but I am waiting for the Lord to develop it.

As I have said before, I will go anywhere he wants me to go and do anything he wants me to do. I only ask that he show me.

What an adventure it was. The coffeehouse with its Christian rock bands, the Coffeehouse Band we had, the feeling of fellowship and ecumenism we felt, the feeding of people who needed it, the ex-inmate ministry, the clown ministry, the community involvement, the contemporary atmosphere of the church. It was exciting until it began to die from the lies.

I know the Lord has more for me. I wait on him.

daily java

Daily Java:

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:23-25)

Today has been a good day. We had a good service in church this morning with good response. The sermon went well and seemed to go over. There was the typical sleeper but she always does.

After church we had 7 people over for dinner. Left over spaghetti and tacos, two things that go over well here. The group was a mixed bag of people, my favorite kind of gathering. Our friends from North Platte left about 1:30 and everyone stayed and talked until 3:30.

It was good. I, of course, sat not eating so I did the serving of the stuff in the hot dishes. After an initial surprise at my not eating, they all got used to it. They knew I was on the fast. Lunch didn’t bother me. It was later while we were watching a movie that I found myself hungry.

That is the hardest time for me on any diet or fast or any other time. I can almost eat more at night than I can at meals. One of my favorite things is to make pimiento cheese at night and I will sometimes eat the entire batch while watching a movie.

So not having snacks is harder in many ways than not having dinner. It helps to fix for Ella. It gets the food urge out of the way to make it for someone else. I never taste anything I cook and Ella tells me that I do not use enough salt. But I figure that if she needs more, she can add it.

But the lunch today was part of my ministry. In fact, it is a large part, if not the main focus. As a teacher I feed people. I feed them in my teaching and I feed them at my table. We are blessed with a big table – a 48 inch antique oak round table – that will feed, with the right kind of chairs, 10-12. I can put 10 around it without a lot of problem and 12 if I use folding chairs.

One of these days I want to get some good chairs that are dining chairs so we can put more around it more easily.

As they left this afternoon, one commented that they needed this. And they all agreed with her. They do. Everybody does. It amazed me to hear that in churches, many people had never been to the pastor’s house for any reason, much less dinner. I want them to know that I love them and am their shepherd. The shepherd feeds his flock in every way he can. Sitting around the table visiting, talking about inconsequentials, is one of the best ways to insure fellowship.

This church has gone through a lot of problems in the past couple of years and I believe, as I told someone yesterday night, that they have clamed now. They are without that stress that the people here who wanted power and control engendered. I do have to make sure that the calmness doesn’t morph into complacency and a dead church. That will take some doing.

One of the hopes I hold is the strong church. I want this church to be strong and powerful in him. And I will do what I can do effect it by the power of God.

titles

But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. (Matthew 23:8-12)

I have never really liked the designation of Reverend. It seems rather audacious. Especially since Psalm 111:9 says of God that holy and reverend is his name.

I know. The NIV along with several others say awesome instead of reverend, but still.

I came from an iconoclastic background that eschewed honorifics of any kind. The minister was never the pastor or Reverend or anything but brother. That was a corporate theology that was the kind that is fine if you choose it, but ugly if mandated.

I have always preferred not to have to use the title. I use it if needed and have for a while, and the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel has given me full permission to use it.

But it is when it is expected that it becomes bad. In fact it is as bad as when it is forbidden.

It is always surprising to me when a minister comes into church and expects you to recognize them and their position. That is wrong.

Jesus said that we are not to love titles. God is our Master and our Teacher and our Father. I have no problem with people using those, but when they become part of their requirements it becomes bad.

Jesus himself came as a servant. John 13 shows him washing his apostles’ feet much to their chagrin. He wanted them to know that if he could do that for him, they had nothing to brag about.

Whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

That is what I believe. And that is why you can just call me John if you want to. If I am you pastor, you will know it. Requiring the title doesn’t make me that. If you love me and respect me, you will accept me. If you don’t, calling me the Right Reverend John Cliver will not make any difference.

And there is nothing worse to me than someone who does not respect me calling me Pastor. He is lying and I hate it.