daily java

Daily Java:

One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?” “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.” Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” (John 5:5-8)

Jesus saw a man who had been sick for 38 years and asked him if he wanted to get well. The man had a lot of excuses as to why he couldn’t get well, but the main one was that nobody would help him get into what he felt was the magic water.

Jesus got tired of hearing him whine so he healed him and then left. The man got in trouble because of something Jesus told him to do in the healing. Pick up your mat and walk. But it was the Sabbath day when people were not supposed to carry things around. It was an Old Testament day of rest. Instantly the man got crossways with the church police for going against customs and church law.

But Jesus never told him who he was until after he had gotten in trouble. And after he told him, the guy ran back to the police to tell them who it was that made him break the law.

Sometimes you get in trouble for doing something good. And sometimes you get in trouble for doing what other people don’t want you to do even though it is perfectly good. The kids who have their diplomas withheld because they prayed in the graduation ceremony, the woman who lost her job for wearing a cross, the man who got demerits on his job for reading a Bible during lunch hour.

People are stupid. Jesus knew this and told the guy to carry his mat around anyway, even though it was a law not to carry things on the Sabbath. The man probably figured that if he put the mat down, he would get crippled again and he wasn’t about to do that. But the church police were mad because he had broken one of their laws. He was stuck.

When Jesus talked to him later, he told him not to sin anymore or something worse would happen to  him, worse than being crippled. But the man ran back and told the police anyway. A little stool pigeon.

Jesus knew it was against the law and he knew the guy would probably tell. But he did it anyway, even if the guy was afraid and a little ungrateful.

He does the same to us even when we are afraid and ungrateful in our lives. And he didn’t take the healing back when the guy ran and told the police his name.

He really didn’t care what they thought. He was going to do what he was going to do anyway whether they liked it or not.

It doesn’t matter what people think when we try to serve God. We do it anyway. It may break a law, but it was a stupid law and it doesn’t matter, as long as we are serving God. That doesn’t count if we just break laws, but if we are serving God and doing what he wants, we need to do it anyway.

daily java

Daily Java:

Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions. (Psalm 119:18)

To a lot of people I am a liberal. And to a lot of people I am a flaming conservative. It depends on who you talk to. And oddly enough, you can be both.

Those who think I am liberal react to the fact that I do not accept things theological as cut and dried. I feel there is always “an other hand”. They get mad when I question their interpretation or when I do not agree with them. As one man in a church I pastored in Houston told me, “When you came I thought you were smart. But now that you are disagreeing with me, I don’t think so anymore.” When I mentioned that one did not have to speak in tongues to be godly it made another church angry. Another had a translation that was from God and all others were from the devil. Another had a certain kind of music. Another ---.

To those people I did not accept their way of looking at things so they considered me liberal. The fact that I could see both sides of an opinion was too much for them. I read things and was willing to discuss rather than accept. One young man who was a preacher near me in the Bootheel of Missouri, when I told him I was going to move, said, “Oh, no! Where will I go to talk liberal?” He had no one else in the denomination to discuss things with freely like he did with me.

And it scared people to know that I questioned what to them was cut and dried. To them all of the interpretations of the gospel had been given over 100 years ago and there was no further need to question. When I did, it scared them and made them angry.

But, on the other hand, to those who are strongly modern liberals in the church, I am a flaming conservative. I believe in the reality of God and the virgin birth. I believe in literal six days of creation. I believe in the bodily resurrection from the dead and the inspiration of the Scriptures. To them I am a horribly, irretrievably knuckle-dragging arch conservative.

Those people cannot believe that anyone who reads and thinks can possibly believe in absolutes. And I do believe in absolutes. I just do not always choose as absolute what others choose as absolute. There are things that I cannot see a Christian as doing without, certain beliefs that have to be there to really be a follower of Christ. That resurrection, the virgin birth, the scriptures – those have to be there or it is all worthless.

But the things we do, the methodology of our worship and our belief is not absolute. As long as you accept the grace of Jesus and his Lordship in your life, you are a Christian. Deny that and you have denied the very basic part of our faith and rendered it worthless.

But the stuff – worship, speaking in tongues, the translation you use, the music you sing, the way you pray, the way you preach – all that is unimportant. The service to God is what matters.

God does not live in the stuff, he lives in the heart. And when the heart is his, the stuff will be taken care of, whether those around like it or not.

daily java

Daily Java:

Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions. (Psalm 119:18)

I have always had a couple of problems and they have had an impact on my life. One was the fact that I am restless, always looking over the next hill. I have had wanderlust most of my life.

This meant that I moved every few years or more, never staying anywhere long. I needed the new.

There is nothing wrong with that. The apostle Paul was the same way. He never spent more than three years on one place and one ministry.

But there was a problem with that. The problem is that it gave us no home.

I am originally from Texas City, TX, just over the bay from Galveston. Ella is from Houston. And we have been there some during my almost forty years of ministry. I suppose that I consider that home now. For a while, I considered home wherever I was. My home was home. Where my children were and now where my wife is is home.

But that rootlessness gave root to a second problem: I think too much. I was never one to see one side of a problem. I could always see both sides.

There is a bad problem with seeing things in only one way. The problem is that you can be wrong and not know it because you will not pursue any alternative paths. I spent a long time in a denomination that was sure it was the only one going to heaven. When I began to consider that it was not that way, I had to leave. I moved into another denomination that lived by the “our way or the highway” adage and I had to leave again.

Of course, I spent a short time in one that said all ways were equally good. I thought enough and studied enough that I knew that wasn’t true, so I had to leave. It seemed that I could not find people who agreed with me.

And I never have. I don’t know why I am cursed with this “on the other hand” mentality but I am. And Ella doesn’t always like it, but – on the other hand – she has seen a lot of stuff and been a lot of places she would not have been to if she had married that accountant, Donald, that I tell her she would have had if I had not come along.

He would have been boring and safe and she would have had a good life. For a while. I told her he probably worked for an oil company in Houston and lost his job in the oil bust of the 80’s and got caught embezzling. So she was better off with me. I have not always been smart but at least I never went to jail.

Of course, that is all in my mind. But that will teach her.

But those two things produced in me a dissatisfaction that is hard to get rid of. I am dissatisfied with where I am and I hate it when people come down with theological pronouncements from on high and consider them to be the last word. Even if a denomination votes on it doesn’t necessarily make it right.

Of course, I am not necessarily right either. But I would not be who I am otherwise. Don’t know if that is good or not, but it is so.

Ephesians 3: God’s Mysterious Plan Revealed and Paul Prays for Growth

This is the lesson plan for tomorrow night. If you would like to use it, feel free. Just don't claim it as yours.

Ephesians 3: God’s Mysterious Plan Revealed and Paul Prays for Growth

There are lots of things mysterious to the uninitiated that are not to those who have experienced them. Love is one. Boys make fun of falling in love until one day they do. Sex is a mystery as is holding a job or home ownership. For that matter, even the most mundane things can be “mysterious” if they have never happened to you. Getting hit in the face by someone, falling down, riding a motorcycle, eating an jalapeno, touching a very hot surface, losing a loved one. All kinds of things are mysterious – or at least unfamiliar – to those who have never experienced them personally. The same could be said for coming to know the love of God and being baptized in the Spirit. Those it has never happened to have not the foggiest idea of what it is like. To them it is a stone mystery.

But what is a mystery to one is familiar to another. When I went to Germany in the army, little children were able to communicate better than I could. German (with the exception of something that sounded like Kriskut Schatzi, Hi there Sweetheart, something taught to all GI’s and welcomed about by German women about like a cold slap in the face) was alien until I got a handle on it. When I did, it was no longer a mystery. It was still somewhat unfamiliar as I never got that good at German but it was no longer a mystery. Reading for a child is a mystery until one day it dawns on them. the same is true with math.

The apostle Paul said that he was appointed by God to show them the mystery of God’s plan, his grace and love for them manifested in Jesus. When they heard him and read what he wrote, they understood what he was talking about. It was a mystery to all of humanity before Jesus came, but now is available to all.

As he says in vv6-7, the mystery, the plan was simple. Everybody was welcomed into the kingdom. Not just Jews, but also the rest of humanity had an equal part in the kingdom of God. And Paul marvels at the fact that he was chosen to tell people about it, that God not only saved him, but appointed him a messenger of this plan.
God also uses the church to show this. The church is the sole sphere of God’s influence to humanity and as such is to teach this plan, this revealed mystery. And because of this mystery being revealed, we now know that we can come into the presence of God without the mediation of anybody other than Jesus. We do not have to ask permission or go to a special group of leaders. We just, as Hebrews 9 says, boldly approach the throne of grace.

Paul writes a doxology in vv14-19, a poem of sorts about the greatness of God and his love. Many of these were early church songs that were sung in the assembly. As Ephesians 5:19 says, the early church was singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. This was one of those early hymns. Psalms were from the Psalms and spiritual songs were lighter melodies.

He ends with a comment on the greatness of God. He is not only able to great things, he is able to do greater things than we can even imagine. And all glory is his forever.

QUESTIONS:

1. How can something common be a mystery? Isn’t it just a matter of perspective?

2. Why would Paul keep on being so amazed at God’s intervention in his life? Doesn’t it seem like he would begin to accept it sooner or later? Wouldn’t his continual surprise be lack of faith in God’s ability to save and forgive?

3. If explaining the grace of God is a privilege, why do more not do it?

4. V10 – How is God’s wisdom shown in this whole thing? What is so wise about it?

5. Why do you think the early writers of the Old Testament couldn’t figure this all out? It seems awfully plain to us.

6. Have you ever experienced that love and power in your life?

7. How can God work more than what we can think?

Daily Java:

And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32)

I have found out recently that I am liberal. I never knew it. I always thought of myself as conservative and in recent years as libertarian. The definition of liberal, according to the freedictionary.com is:

“Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.”

Liberal has come to mean people who are willing to involve government in all aspects of their lives. It has come to delineate a group of people who are willing to throw everything away and change society so that it becomes godless.

But that is not what it is. Classic liberalism in fact is defined as this (by conservapedia.com):

“Classical liberalism is a political philosophy that supports individual rights as pre-existing the state, a government that exists to protect those moral rights, ensured by a constitution that protects individual autonomy from other individuals and governmental power, private property, and a laissez-faire economic policy. The "normative core" of classical liberalism is the idea that in an environment of laissez-faire, a spontaneous order of cooperation in exchanging goods and services emerges that satisfies human wants.”

Classic liberalism sounds more Tea Party than Democrat. Real liberals would advocate for freedom of expression while at the same time keeping structure. It would also hold capitalism up as good.

Why is it that we have moved to such a different definition of liberal? The founding fathers of America were liberal, but not like the President and Democrats are liberal. Those people would enshrine freedom where these people enslave us under the guise of helping us. those people valued individual initiative while these people denigrate it under the aegis of government programs.

A libertarian, under the original definition of liberalism, is liberal.

And so am I.

daily java

Daily Java:

Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life. (John 4:13-14)

1969. I was in the army in basic training in El Paso. We were walking through the part of New Mexico that was close to El Paso and part of White Sands Missile Range. It was hot and we were walking, going from nowhere to nowhere.

The drill sergeants wouldn’t let us have anything to drink. There were two reasons for this. One was that they were trying to teach us to go without water. The other is that they were mean and cruel pieces of trash that liked to torment us.

Or that’s what I thought at the time.

When we finally had a break and sat for a few minutes, we got to drink from our green plastic canteens (that was a stupid design). When we finally got a drink, it was the best hot green plastic water I had ever tasted. In fact, it was the best water I ever tasted. It tasted great.

I could have drunk anything at the moment, but it was water my body was craving. I needed water. Not pop, not lemonade, not beer, not whiskey, not even Gatorade. I needed water.

It is the same with our lives. We get so thirsty in life for something and many times we don’t even know what it is. We try work, we try stuff that we can buy, we try sex, we try money – and when it comes down to it, we are miserable.

That is because we are made to serve God, to love him and to be loved by him. When we put other stuff into our lives instead of him, it just doesn’t work. It may be a temporary relief and it may feel just right for the moment. But in the long run, it doesn’t work.

We have what one guy called a “God-shaped vacuum” in our lives. It is a hole in our souls that cannot be filled with anything else but God. Only God will fit the hole.

That is because we were made in the image of God, in his pattern. That means that he is the only One that will complete us.

We can try everything else – kind of like the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament did – but we will find, like he did, that it is all worthless. Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless! he says in the book. Nothing satisfied him except God and his word.

Only the water he gives – his life, his word, his purpose, his meaning – will make us happy. Everything else will leave us empty, wanting something else. Twinkies and junk food never substitutes for steak. Pop never substitutes for water. Sex never substitutes for love. And nothing substitutes for God.

We want the real thing. And the water of life Jesus gives is that real thing.

daily java

Daily Java:

I am innocent,
    but it makes no difference to me—
    I despise my life.
Innocent or wicked, it is all the same to God.
    That’s why I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’
When a plague sweeps through,
    he laughs at the death of the innocent.
The whole earth is in the hands of the wicked,
    and God blinds the eyes of the judges.
    If he’s not the one who does it, who is? (Job 9:21-24)

I am disgusted with my life.
    Let me complain freely.
    My bitter soul must complain.
I will say to God, ‘Don’t simply condemn me—
    tell me the charge you are bringing against me.
What do you gain by oppressing me?
    Why do you reject me, the work of your own hands,
    while smiling on the schemes of the wicked? (Job 10:1-3)

Reading the Book of Job again. I really hate reading this book. But it is in the daily Bible reading rotation so I do. It resonates pretty deeply in my own life. Beating myself to death for the Kingdom of God and God still allows all these things to happen to me.

I am so depressed right now. And it has spread to Ella, usually an upbeat person, quick with a smile. We sit all day, trapped by economics in our home, unable to afford gas to go anywhere.

As Job is, I am disgusted with my life, but there is no one to complain to except Ella and she doesn’t need to hear it. My prayers go to the ceiling and stop.

And then some moron says, Maybe your heart isn’t in the right place. Or Maybe you aren’t asking the right way.

As if I would force my children to phrase things exactly when they requested things from me or I would ignore them.

He doesn’t hear because he doesn’t desire to hear. He is busy elsewhere. My lifetime of service gives me nothing in his sight. I surely wish I had done something else with my life, something that gave me some retirement and a sense of accomplishment.

daily java

Daily Java:

Once I was young, and now I am old.
    Yet I have never seen the godly abandoned
    or their children begging for bread. (Psalm 37:25)

The problem is, I have. I have seen people who came to the end of a life of long and faithful service and have nothing, barely able to even get some place to live. I am one of them.

I do not understand why God has abandoned me, nor do I understand why he has left us in this situation. And I do not understand how it is that, when I have given my life to him in his service, he has put us in this financial situation. If it were not for government housing, I would be begging a place to live. We barely have enough. On top of it all, Ella is crippled and in constant pain, exacerbated by her falling at least once a month, and sometimes more, always hurting herself more in the process.

Now I will have to admit that we have plenty of food. The freezer is full of good things. And I know that is because we are hospitable. He told us that when we share, he will bless us.

But financially is where we have our problems. We have always been generous with our money, yet we are broke. I took early retirement, but the extra we will pay for our housing cuts into that, so we have not gained that much.

I also know that the people of the Bible were not always blessed financially. Hebrews 11 talks about that. But the problem is, why will God on the one hand talk about how the world will see the child of God as being so blessed and on the other hand leave that same child with nothing.

I recognize that God is not fair. He is loving and good, just and merciful. But he is not fair. He will allow one of his children to be homeless. He will not always give them even what they need. As the book of Job points out, he will allow them to be severely damaged without it even seeming to bother him.

“My faithful servant who has served me all my life?” God says of Job to the devil. “Sure. Kill him in all but actual body. Hurt him, maim him, kill his children, damage his health, impoverish him, let his friends turn on him, baffle his wife to the point of madness. Sure. Whatever you want.”

Is that really a God of love?

Now I recognize that probably Job is a epic poem, a parable, maybe based on a real life situation.  But it is in the Bible for us to look at and learn from. What do we learn from the book of Job. We learn three things, he wrote in his normal overly analytical way.

One is that sometimes there is no good reason for something happening. Job’s problems were nothing more than a bet between God and the devil.

Second is that we do not understand sometimes why things are happening and God doesn’t tell us.

Third is that God will not keep bad things from happening to his people, nor will he necessarily send good things, no matter what the rest of the Bible says.

If this book is meant to teach (Romans 15:4 – Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled.) then what it teaches has to be true. It doesn’t teach what we want, but what it teaches is true.

The only problem is that it teaches things I do not really want to know, aspects of God I would rather be without. It shows more of an uncaring God than anywhere else in the Bible, a God who will allow and even encourage the harming of his children for no good purpose. And one who will not tell his children why nor even really answer their questions. In fact, he is a God who will even tell his child to shut up crying out in pain.

Hard picture. But I have seen it too much and I am one of those to which it is happening.

However, that line from the movie Robin and Marian keeps coming to mind. The older Robin Hood (played by Sean Connery) is telling the old Maid Marian (played by Audrey Hepburn) about the horrible things he has seen under the leadership of King Richard the Lionhearted (played by Richard Harris). He has been on the Crusades and has seen and done some terrible things in the name of war.

Marian asks him, “Why did you stay? Why didn’t you leave?”

To which he replies, “He is my King. Where else would I go?”

That reminds me of the apostles in John 6 after Jesus talked about figurative cannibalism in service to him (John 6:53-56). Many disciples thought it repellent and left. He turns to the apostles and asks, “Are you also going to leave?” To which they answered, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.”

He is my God and I will ever serve him. But I do not have to like everything he does. I may be a sheep, but I am not a blind sheep.

daily java

Daily Java:

When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12)

There is a reason we die, but it is not the reason we think.

Someone the other day said that there was a reason for a person’s death. And he was right, but not in the way he thought.

Contrary to what we think, the Bible never says that God takes us when he is ready.

For instance, it was Acts 12 and the church was growing and needed its leaders, yet the apostle James, one of Jesus’ inner circle of three, was killed. What’s more, God stops them from killing the apostle Peter. Why did James die and not Peter? Was it James’ time? What about the fact that the church needed James as much as they needed Peter?

In 1979, the entire faculty of my seminary was killed in a plane crash. For what reason? What could God have in mind for taking four of the most godly men I knew? Was there a reason? What could it possibly be that would leave an institution that taught his word without valuable teachers and four families – two of them young families – without their husbands and fathers?

In 2010, I drove through a blizzard to get to Lincoln to preach. That same weekend, that same blizzard, the pastor of a good church in Lincoln flipped his car driving to Omaha and was killed. His wife lived. So a church that turned out to be a bad move for me was blessed and a church that had been there for several years lost it relatively young senior and founding pastor.

What was the reason? There was none. There is not a reason for everything that happens. The reason we die is because Adam and Eve brought sin into the world and humanity was cut off from the Tree of Life. God kept us from living forever in our sin. And so we die.

As Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 says:

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.

A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest.
Sometimes things just happens. My mother-in-law lived for ten years with no mind in her Alzheimer’s and another young man, powerful in the kingdom died early. Some idiot lives into his hundreds and John the Baptizer, one which Jesus called the greatest man who ever lived died at age thirty. A really stupid person lives a life of health and prosperity and a baby born to godly parents dies early with a painful disease. What’s the point?

The apostle Paul said in Romans 8:28: And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. What this means is that God takes the bad that happens – the death, the pain, the suffering, the disease, the poverty – and, if you love him and are called, uses it to his glory.

Small comfort sometimes, especially when it your loved one who is gone or suffering.

It is not the will of God that you suffer or die. There is not a time that God has in mind for each of us to die. That is fatalism or determinism. God does not have our lives controlled down to the time of our deaths. That is not to say he couldn’t know them if he wanted, but he does not take us or punish us with suffering. Job found that out in the book of Job. His suffering was not only without any good reason, he didn’t even understand why and God didn’t tell him why.

All we can do is serve him and allow him to work in our lives, turning those times of suffering and deaths of loved ones to his glory, remaining faithful to him always. He is Lord.

daily java

Daily Java: 

When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.” So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’ But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began. (Luke 15:17-24)

Why do people do what they do? And if they do good things for another reason, say, fear, is it still a god thing. Does the motive have to match the act?

The son took all his father’s money and left and promptly threw it all away. Half of the money the old man had worked for and saved and was going to bless his sons with when he died was gone, wasted.

But when the son was completely flat broke, he was hungry. And he got to thinking about his father’s house where even the servants (at least in his mind) sat down to a banquet each night. They were never hungry, they were never cold, they were never alone. Even the servants were happy.

So he made a little speech which I believe he never really thought his father would require. But just in case, he asked if he could come back as a servant. After all, he had wasted his inheritance and had no right to what was left.

But his reason for doing so was not sorrow at hurting his father, nor was it guilt for hurting his brother or his family. It wasn’t even really a desire to make things right.

The reason he wanted to come back was that he was hungry. That’s really about it.

However, the father really didn’t care what his motive for coming back was. He just wanted his son back. The son came in with his little speech and the father brushed it aside and said in effect, “Nonsense, you were never not my son. And you are more than welcome to come home.”

That was all. No long period of probation, no plan of restitution, no punishment. He didn’t make the son become a servant and gradually, after his trust was restored, he could move into an associate sonship, then after many years of faithful service and all, he could once more become a son.

No. he just said, “My son is back and let’s celebrate.”

Were there repercussions? Probably. The other brother was mad that he got taken back so easily. He felt there ought to be a probationary period or something. And the son had, after all, spent his inheritance. It could even have been that the older brother was mad that it had all been so easy for his brother to just take off, bust himself and come back. He may have never dreamed it would be that easy and was mad he hadn't thought of it himself.

But the overall reason the son came back was that he was hungry. That’s all. And the father accepted that reason.

I have come home in the past because I was hungry and lonely and I was accepted and loved. If people on earth could do that, how much more could God?

daily java

Daily Java:

It’s better to live alone in the corner of an attic than with a quarrelsome wife in a lovely home. (Proverbs 21:9)

My wife and I get along well. We rarely have any real arguments and they never become large ones. It makes for a perspective in our home that makes it hard to understand other ones.

I have known people who were constantly arguing with their wives. There was always anger. They lived with it, slept with it, ate with it, raised their kids up in it. And I really cannot imagine it.

I have been in a couple of situations where I could begin to see it at times in my life with relationships and friendships with other people, but I have always known it would not touch my life.

And it hasn’t.

For one thing, my wife is extremely agreeable and loves me strongly. She has spent her life trying to make me happy and doing things for me. she is and has always been a homemaker and has made my home. She is that kind of person, the kind that will do almost anything to make my life easier and happier.

In fact, there were times in our past that I had to tell her that I married her, not the house. Yes, I like the home, but when she wore herself out trying to micromanage the home. It was counterproductive to her health.

Now that she is unable to do the things she used to do, many of them I have had to take over. And, of course, the physical part of the home is not as important to me as it was to her. I do not keep everything dusted like she did, or the floors mopped or whatever.

But even so, we still have a good home.

I have told her in the past that I have known men who would kill to have such a home. They have tried and tried and have never had such a thing: a happy home where they can go and just sit, a wife who pampers them and loves them, where it is an easy and restful atmosphere.

And I just happened to get it. What a blessed man I am.

daily java

Daily Java:

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. (2 Timothy 1:7)

The number of scary commercials the past few days really struck me. I have heard several times one with the voices of little children warning us that leaving them alone in the car for even a minute can get them killed. Another with children’s voices tells that without a GPS you will get lost and you will all die. Another was that you need to put leftover food into a shallow dish and refrigerate it immediately and clean your individual cutting boards (God forbid our food should mix) or you will die. The headline read: “Apple slices recalled due to listeria danger.” Be careful of the apples or you will die. If you vote for a certain candidate, you will die. If you do not vote for a certain candidate, you will die.

It is fear that drives us. Fear dominates us every day. Fear is in most of the headlines. And we are afraid. After 9/11, it seemed that all of a sudden the world got to be a scary place, and we began looking around corners everywhere for things that will hurt us.

Of course, it was before that, too. Remember the Tylenol scare of the mid-1980’s? Or the arsenic that was found on 2 grapes and an apple somewhere? Even further back, AIDS? Pintos would explode if hit right (or wrong)? There were razor blades in the apples at Halloween? Don’t eat yellow snow (maybe not that one)? It’s ten o’clock, where are your children? The bomb could explode at any time so we had to learn how to hide under our desks? Communists were everywhere?

We can only be so afraid before sooner or later it becomes the dominating force in our lives, replacing all else. It gets rid of love, it gets rid of human relationships, it makes us afraid to even let our children out of our sight. Our young people are afraid to even enter into relationships and get married out of fear.

It is a scary world today, we say. But it always was one. Bad stuff has always been around. But of course, with the advent of 24 hour cable news and on the spot reporting, it has looked even worse. We see it immediately and we get scared that it might happen to us. And we are practically gibbering with fear.

In 1985, we were talking about the Tylenol bottle that was found with an injection mark in the top and it almost put Tylenol out of business. Someone said that nobody would dare now to take a Tylenol. I took the bottle they were waving about in fear, shook two into my hand and threw them down my throat. The others gasped at my audacity. My response: I refuse to be afraid.

I refuse to be scared. I have the power of God in my heart and in my life. And as the scripture says in 1 John 4:18:

Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear.

If God is with me, there is no need for gibbering fear. I mean, I am not going to be foolish, eat ground glass or food out of a dumpster, play solitaire on the freeway; but I will not be afraid. I will live my life as a child of God and one of those protected by his grace, not as some slobbering scaredy-cat. I have that Spirit of power, love and self-discipline in my life. I have no room for fear.

daily java

Daily Java:

Haughty eyes, a proud heart, and evil actions are all sin. (Proverbs 21:4)

The Bible says it is the attitude that will condemn you, not just the action.

In other words, you haven’t actually done a bad thing. But you sat around thinking about it. You are just as guilty. You haven’t taken things from poor people to enrich yourself, but you look at them as if you were better than they. So the guilt is there as much as if you actually stole from them.

What does that mean? Does it mean thoughtcrime – a word coined by George Orwell in the book 1984 – has been invented by God? We may not do something but because we thought of it, we are guilty and going to hell?

No. What it means is that you can keep the body clean but unless you also keep the mind clean, it does no good. It also means that legalism will not save you. Simply by not doing something you are not made holy. Your holiness comes from your attitude, from your heart, from the very way you conduct yourself.

God is not looking for ways and reasons to send us to hell. If he had been, we all would have gone long ago. If he had been, it would have been a waste of time to send Jesus to die for us to bring us back to him.

It was Jesus himself who said he did not come to condemn, but to save. It was he who said he had come to bring people back to the Father.

If it were true that he was looking for reasons to send us to hell, why bother with the bringing back part? Just forget it, look around for those who had managed to not actually do anything and save them.

That is what we do with politicians. We are looking for those who have never done anything wrong (and maybe never really done anything period). Maybe they are greedy, or grasping, or lustful, but they have never actually been caught in a sin so they are fine.

God looks at the heart, not at the actions. He knows the actions are going to be bad because we have all sinned. We start off sinning. We’re lost from the beginning. So what is the point of trying to pretend we are anything we aren’t?

It is the insides, not the outsides that will save a person. I would rather have a child who makes a lot of mistakes but whose heart is good than a perfect child with no real feeling for me either way.

daily java

Daily Java:

How an eagle glides through the sky,  how a snake slithers on a rock, how a ship navigates the ocean, how a man loves a woman. (Proverbs 30:19)

I was 23 and living in Houston, TX. Ella and I had been married for a couple of years and were shopping in the big Sears store in Pasadena, TX, for something. I sat in a chair outside the try on rooms and was beginning my life of waiting for Ella to try stuff on.

A teenaged girl was trying on formals for a prom or something. To get from the try on room to her mother required going by me. She was aware of my presence and the fact that I was watching her. It was not lust or anything but sheer boredom. I would have watched flies I was so bored.

I was dressed as I usually was: flannel shirt, bell bottom jeans, chukka boots. My hair was moderately long and large and I had muttonchop sideburns and a big, bushy mustache. You know, every girl’s dream (or so I modestly envisioned myself).

Actually, I knew I was never handsome nor was I going to be. So I always tried to go with interesting: a big burly, hairy guy.

Anyway, she had three formals. Her mother had picked out the one she liked but the girl was going to try them all on. She walked by me with formal number one on. I watched her walk by and made no real facial comment or anything, but she was watching me to see which one I liked or if I would even make any kind of notice. She and her mother talked about it and she came back to the dressing room.

She walked out in number two. It was an attractive gown and a good color for her. it also fit her well. I guess I did something with my face that was approval. She looked good in it. Her mother made a couple of comments, but it was not the one the mother wanted.

Back in and back out in number three. Neutral from my viewpoint. Back into the dressing room. Then the discussion.

The mother wanted number three, nobody wanted number one, but the girl wanted number two in spite of her mother’s wishes. The reason? I had looked at her approvingly when she came by in it. She was intensely aware of my presence in that way that young women get when young men are around and I liked the dress. So she liked it because I had made an approving face.

It surprised me. I am not nor ever was a chick magnet, nor did I have legions of girls looking to do my bidding. But I was near her age and made an approving face at her dress, so that was the one she wanted. Her mother probably never knew why her daughter wouldn’t choose what to her was the best dress.

But I know that I have done things or not done things because I knew someone was watching me. And whether I knew them or not, it mattered that they saw me.

Just one of those things that comes back to my memory.

daily java

Daily Java:

Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. (Proverbs 5:18)

Ella had her birthday this past week. It was the annual observance of her 39th birthday. We hold the  observance (obviously since it is called annual) every year. And every year it surprises me.

When I was a young preacher, I went to visit with an old couple. He was still in command of most of his faculties, but she was obviously mentally out of the loop. She was deep in the throes of what we called at the time senility, but probably what we would call Alzheimer’s today.

He and I were sitting in the living room talking. She was just sitting staring. She was obviously gone mentally. But as we talked, he looked at her and mentioned the fact that to him she looked the same. They had been married a long time and she didn’t look all that different to him.

My thought was that the old geezer had slipped several cogs. She was a drooling old woman sitting staring vacantly at the coffee table. I was, you remember, a 26 year old young man, with little or no perspective of my own.

Ella is having problems in her life. She has trouble doing many of the things she used to do so easily. She has also had several celebrations of her 39th birthday by now. She has to ride a scooter and takes about 7/8ths of a pound of drugs a day to deal with the constant pain brought on by her MS.

Yet – and here is the amazing revelation that I have almost forty years later – when I look at her, I do not really notice that. It is not that I sit and stare at an older woman all day thinking, boy howdy, she has changed. The change has been so gradual that I only notice it once in a while, usually when I look at an older picture. She really does not look all that different to me.

I will have to admit, she has changed physically less than many women I have known. I know. General stuff has changed, but she still has the same quality of look that she has always had. I still remember the 17 year old girl in the bowling alley after the big youth rally in Houston. I still remember the girl I proposed to. I still remember our wedding day. I still remember all of the stuff that came since.

When I look at her, I do not see her with the eyes of today, but with the eyes of an almost 42 year old marriage. I have known her since 1969 and since we have gotten married, have seen her every day. I have kissed her over 50,000 times, probably more. We have been through so much.

But we went through it all in a day by day relationship. It is not like we only see each other once a week or once a month. It still amazes me to see my Facebook friends I went to high school with. There was a forty year gap from the last time I saw them and they are different. I would not have recognized them if I had met them on the street.

But I have to admit that Ella has changed less than many I know. Her basic quality was always sweet and still is. She has shifted in size and stuff in the past forty some odd years, but who hasn’t? She still looks the same to me.

And I am glad. I would hate to look at a woman every day and think, wow, she has gotten old. Of course, she would be thinking the same thing about me. I am not the tall, strong, vibrant guy I was either. In fact, in spite of her illness, she has worn a lot better than I have.

I just want to sit with her on the couch while a self-important little preacher comes to see me and to tell him the same thing. She looks the same to me.

daily java

Daily Java:

You thrill me, Lord, with all you have done for me!
    I sing for joy because of what you have done.
O Lord, what great works you do!
    And how deep are your thoughts.
Only a simpleton would not know,
    and only a fool would not understand this:
Though the wicked sprout like weeds
    and evildoers flourish,
    they will be destroyed forever. (Psalm 92:4-7)

It seems like bad things happen all the time. It seems like that even to a Christ-follower who loves the Lord.

And it may be true. After all, as good as Job was, he had nothing but bad things happen to him. He had a good family and it was taken away. And for no reason except he seemed to be the recipient of a bet between God and the devil. The devil said he would fall if he were not blessed and God said he wouldn’t.

So the fight was on. But Job didn’t desert God. He remained faithful through his entire life.

God has done so much for me. he has given me an understanding of his will that many do not have. He has given me a wife that loves me unconditionally even though I do not deserve her.

And even though I do not deserve him, he remains with me, continuing to give me that knowledge and understanding, that ability to teach and preach his love and his grace.

I do not understand why he does. And I keep questioning. Yet he does. Whenever I go to teach the Sunday evening class, he gives me understanding. He gives me the ability to keep on writing even though my life is in shambles.

He stays with me even though I try my hardest to leave him behind.

I do not understand why. Yet he does.

I suppose I ought to shut up and accept it. But I have trouble doing that. He has brought us through this past couple of years even though I did not think he would. we have continued to have what  we needed.

And he has been with us.

Only an idiot, a simpleton would think that he has deserted us. But why has he not. I feel like he has.

I have no church to preach at. I have no denomination to call home. I have no real income except the pathetic excuse of an early retirement that I draw.

Yet we have all we need in food and in things to wear and in life in general. We are even able to help others.

So obviously he is with us.

I just wish he could be with us in the way I want: a church to pastor, a people to accept me and love me, a people I can teach.


Of course, he has given me all that here at Firm Foundation.

But still, I feel so alone. Maybe I am just an idiot. That could be true.

daily java

Daily Java:

The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. (Psalm 53:1)

I love the Beatles and like listening to them. I still remember the first time I heard one of their songs. 1964 in eighth grade – “I Want to Hold your Hand.” It was so different.

All I had heard of them was that my parents (along with 95% of all adults I ever listened to) didn’t like them. They were revolutionary, discordant rock and roll, the devil’s own music.  Mop top degenerates, singing mindless lyrics (“Yeah, yeah, yeah!”)

But secretly (little revolutionary I was) I liked them. I grew into their songs and even sang some of them in a quartet in choir. We went around to various functions – 2 girls, Marian Armstrong and Cathy Clawson – and 2 boys – me, of course, and either Stan Van Horn or Paul Francis – and sang Beatles songs in such a good way no one could refuse to hear it.

Musically the Beatles were very good. So when they broke up I was upset, but kept up with the individual Beatles. So I listened to John Lennon’s Imagine and thought it was cool, neat, heavy, man. But as I got older I began to realize that the man was an idiot with an idiot’s view of paradise.

“Imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try, No people below us, above it's only sky, Imagine all the people, Living for today. Imagine there's no countries, it isn't hard to do, No need to kill or die for and no religions too. Imagine all the people, Living life in peace. Oh, You, you may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope some day you'll join us And the world will be as one.”

Beautiful melody, inane lyrics to the max. A world of just happy people all standing around with flowers, loving each other, peace reigning. And all because the people had finally realized the futility of religion.. All of us living in peace, doing – something. I am not sure what we would all be doing in such a vacuous world.

But that song impacted a generation and is now viewed as an anthem of a perfect world. Just get rid of all that religion stuff, all that God stuff, just don’t worry, man. Let it all hang out and do your own thing, baby.

Of course, that is the recipe for a world going to hell, but we would go to hell so musically, led by a guy who fooled himself and a whole generation of people.

There is no world without God and only a fool would say so. Romans 1 says that you can see God in everything you look at and that we all worship him innately, just automatically. We are made that way because we are made in God’s image.

We are made to serve him and life will never be any good until we do. There will always be something missing as long as we are not serving God.

As I said, I liked the Beatles and listened to them a lot over the years. I still do. But there is a difference between listening to something and subscribing to it.

Without God life is nothing, no matter how beautiful the song may be that says otherwise.

Psalm 27

Psalm 27

A psalm of David.

¹ The Lord is my light and my salvation—
    so why should I be afraid?
The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger,
    so why should I tremble?
² When evil people come to devour me,
    when my enemies and foes attack me,
    they will stumble and fall.
³ Though a mighty army surrounds me,
    my heart will not be afraid.
Even if I am attacked,
    I will remain confident.
⁴ The one thing I ask of the Lord—
    the thing I seek most—
is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
    delighting in the Lord’s perfections
    and meditating in his Temple.
⁵ For he will conceal me there when troubles come;
    he will hide me in his sanctuary.
    He will place me out of reach on a high rock.
⁶ Then I will hold my head high
    above my enemies who surround me.
At his sanctuary I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy,
    singing and praising the Lord with music.

jesus got angry

Sometimes you just get angry. And there is nothing wrong with that. God made us to be angry on occasion. Anyone who tells you otherwise is being foolish.

The key is to make sure you are angry for the right things and the right reasons. There is nothing worse than someone who is just angry or who flies off the handle for the wrong reasons.

That kind of person can do far more harm than good.

But the person who is angry for the right reasons, that person can do a lot of good. By his anger, he shows that there are things that are worth getting involved with, that are worth expending emotion over, doing something about.

For instance, your daughter is raped. It would be a fool to not be angry. Your house is broken into. A strange person would go, Oh well.

My van was stolen the other day. I got it back almost immediately (some kids took it on a short joy-ride – weird thing to do with a 1995 Ford mini-van) but it made me mad. They got it stuck in a neighbor’s garden and he had some of his prize vegetables ruined. It made me mad, although there was nothing I could do about it.

On the other hand, what about going down the street and seeing someone beating on a woman. That would make me mad and I would do something about it. What about seeing someone robbing a store and you were able to do something about it? You would be angry over the injustice of it – someone was taking things that were not his and threatening harm to someone weaker than he.

Jesus was angry in John 2. People had turned the temple, the house of God, into a flea market and were selling all kinds of things. They were also taking advantage of those who were coming to worship by not allowing them to use anything but “official sacrifices” to worship God. And, what do you know. They had “official sacrifices” that you could buy, and even had special “official money” to pay for it that you could get at a “special exchange rate.”

After a while Jesus says (life the Klingon Worf in Star Trek) “Enough!” and he makes a whip and throws them out, throwing their stuff all over the floor.

There is a place for getting angry and a place for not. It is not good to get angry at just a discussion or because someone took the piece of candy you wanted. Or called you a name. Or accidentally farted when he went by you.

When you get angry at everything, your anger is worthless. When you only get angry at things worth getting angry at, your anger means something.

Jesus’ anger meant something. And he scared people because they could tell he was a strong man. They also knew they were doing wrong.

Jesus got mad when it counted. He didn’t over little things. He got angry over this, he got angry over hypocrisy, he got angry over lying. But this is the only place in the Bible where he did something about it.

That is because this mattered. This was special.

daily java

Daily Java:

And now, son of man, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Call all the birds and wild animals. Say to them: Gather together for my great sacrificial feast. Come from far and near to the mountains of Israel, and there eat flesh and drink blood! (Ezekiel 39:17)

In 1985 I had gone back to college to get another degree. As part of my support, I drove to a church 100 miles away every Sunday to preach. It was a small country church in the middle of nowhere in central Tennessee.

Near the church was another church that the little settlement had been name for. It had been there for over 100 years and had an old cemetery behind it. Since I stayed there all day, I liked to walk around the area and especially in the small cemetery.

One fall I was walking around in the cemetery looking at the gravestones and just kind of thinking about nothing. There were chickens from the house next door walking around in the cemetery.

Behind me in the leaves, I heard something running toward me. When I turned around, I saw that a rooster was running at me full bore.

Not knowing what else to do, when he got near me to attack me, I kicked him full of the face. Since I had on Hush Puppies at the time, it didn’t make as much of an impact as I wanted.

He rolled backwards and came up again to charge me. I kicked him a second time. He rolled over and stood looking at me. I turned to leave and heard him yet again. Again I kicked him so hard, I was amazed he was not damaged.

We looked at each other, this small rooster and I, and I backed out of the cemetery.

The next week I went back, this time wearing wing-tips. I was going to show him what for. But the chickens were all gone. The cemetery was empty, devoid of chickens.

I went back and told my friends at school, but many of them didn’t believe me. I had a radio show at the time in which we made up funny things to talk about and I guess they figured it was just another funny thing I made up.

But it was real. I had been attacked by a chicken in a Tennessee graveyard.

Sometimes things happen to you that are just plain weird. And sometimes people will not believe you.

It is the same when you tell people that one day the Lord will return and they just kind of look at you. He is not here now and they cannot see him nor imagine him coming, so the just figure you are being goofy. But you know it to be real because One you trust – the Lord himself – has told you. And you know him not to be false.