Develop, Grow and Maintain… NWHM but W – pt 9

Many years ago, my dearly departed wife sweetly asked me if I would tell her that I loved her everyday… Well, she didn’t have to work very hard to twist my arm on that one!  We had always had a very close relationship and I had already been doing that since our dating days in the early 1970’s.  She just wanted to remind me and to let me know how special those few words made her feel!

In a way that wasn’t that much different from my wife’s simple request, the Apostle John wrote to his readers in I John 3:18 saying, “My dear children, let's not just talk about love; let's practice real love.” (The Message Bible)

As I began to draw this ten-part series on “It’s not WHAT or HOW MUCH, but WHO” to a close, I got to thinking… “How do you develop, grow and maintain a close loving relationship with someone special?”  And in the crux of this series… Say… someone really special like God?

Well, the answer to that question was actually pretty simple for me!  In the darkest and most difficult of times during Piper’s and my final journey in the last years of her life, the Lord would quietly show me how intimately He loved me… by comparing His relationship with me… to that of my wife and I… and that was something very EASY for me to understand and put great faith in!  So, that is what I will attempt to do in today’s blog post.

Over the weekend I began to think about how Piper and I got and stayed so close with each other, and my immediate response was that we made a point to make and take the time to be ALONE together!  But it’s not like we just dropped everything, left the kids alone and spent hours together.  Instead, in practice, we enjoyed small amounts of time in each other’s company whenever opportunity presented itself.

When we were dating it was easy to be together because apart from school and work, we had all the time in the world to be together… so whether it was in the physical presence of each other or the hours we spent on the phone, we talked… and talked… and talked… which was an easy habit that we never seemed to lose!  I was telling one of Piper’s cousins in California yesterday, that even when Piper couldn’t communicate and was confined to her wheelchair… I would still talk to her all the time… in the house, on walks, in the car and while shopping at the store!  And it wasn’t unusual to get funny looks from people around us!

Once married and consumed with our growing family, homeschooling, church and my normal two to three jobs, we made time to walk around the neighborhood numerous times a week, if not daily, go grocery shopping together, occasionally driving out to the coast together, and grabbing a burger when we could and eating alone in my Camaro up on a nearby hill overlooking the city.  When we could fit it into our daily schedule, we also got in the habit of reading Christian teaching books aloud together or watching a ministry program on TV.

I’m not sure why, but we also always went to bed at the same time every night.  That afforded us the opportunity to spend quality time together after the kids had gone to sleep to discuss each other’s day, unwind and laugh and most important… to snuggle!  We also made it a priority to get away alone, at least once a year for a two-night holiday, usually on the coast.  And even that didn’t have to cost much money.  When finances were tight, we either found a lodge running a mid-week special and on a couple of occasions, were able to barter our time at a resort with one of the side businesses I had going on!  So, my point is… If there is a will, then there is a way!

Now the same priority, commitment and perseverance can be dedicated to your personal relationship with God!  If you want to have that “SECRET PLACE” type of life where you are able to know Him in a close and intimate way… just like you would have with a spouse or another very special person, then you’ve got to make and take the time to be together with Him alone as well!

And how do you do that?  Again, it’s rather simple!  The best two ways to spend time alone with the Creator of the universe is through prayer and most importantly, by reading/study and practice of the Word of God.  The words written in our Bibles are called “The Living Word” of God for a reason…  Through the action of the Holy Spirit living in you, the Word comes alive and personally meaningful to you when you study it!  Piper would say, and I would concur, that our Bibles should be like a good friend to us!  The more we read and becomes familiar with God’s truths in His Word, the more personally we get to know Him.

In referencing my first paragraph in today’s blog, I would have to say that Piper knew that my biggest aim in our relationship was to love and please her.  I absolutely loved to make her laugh… as she did with me!  But I also wanted to know how to best communicate with her, meet her needs and do the things for her that she really enjoyed and made her feel special.

And in that regard, she would sometimes gently tell me personal ways in which I could talk with her, touch her, encourage her and like I said, all around love her and make her to know that she was the most special person in the world to me.

I can recall one time a while back, when I came home feeling rather needy and approached her saying, “Give me a hug…” and by the reaction on her face I knew that I had definitely taken the wrong approach!  She wasn’t necessarily angry with me, but also had a tough day and would have enjoyed a little compassion from me before demanding of her.  So, in her normal “take an event and turn it into a teachable moment” character, she softly asked if I could ask for a hug and not just demand one!  And that made perfect sense to me, (also made me feel a bit foolish at my selfish antics) and defiantly was another tool that I added to my Jim and Piper relationship toolbox!

Those same approaches or relationship tools are also discovered when we spend time with God.  His Word is filled with all kinds of vital information that can help us in our interactions with Him.  Contrary to some common misconceptions, communication with God does not have to be a hit and miss event.  I know of many people whose prayers are nothing but a bunch of words that the individual praying is “just a hope‘in and a pray‘in” that God might answer… But that’s not the way God designed it to be.  The Bible tells of specific ways to pray for different kinds of needs! *

When we spend regular time in the Word, we learn more and more about our heavenly Father.  We learn the things that He enjoys from us, we learn how to best approach Him with the various needs in our lives, we get more comfortable in His presence and… I firmly believe that He gets more comfortable with us as He gets to know us better and better.

My favorite verse of Scripture on the subject of knowing God is found in Ephesians 3:19 where the Apostle Paul prays for us saying, “You will know Christ's love, which goes far beyond any knowledge. I am praying this so that you may be completely filled with God.” (God’s Word ©).  In the original Greek, the word “know” used to explain our knowledge of Christ’s love, refers to a close and very intimate kind of love and is the “The Jewish idiom for sexual intercourse between a husband and wife.” (Thayer’s Greek Definitions). 

Is that the way that you “KNOW” the love of Christ… or WANT TO KNOW His love toward you?  Is that the type of relationship that you have with our Heavenly Father… or want to have? 

Well… it’s available for you and me… but we just need to make and take the time on a regular basis to DEVELOP, GROW and MAINTAIN that intimate level of relationship with Him!

… and in the process, have fun doing it!

 

*Take a look at books like “The Art of Prayer – A handbook on prayer” by Kenneth E. Hagin available at bookstores (Amazon) or at www.rhema.org

 

Locked and Loaded!

This morning I experienced one of the most difficult chores that I’ve had to do with the absence of my wife.  Today I had to… shave the back of my neck!  Okay, okay!  Laugh if you must… but have any of you guys ever tried to do that? 

Unlike my wife who was very coordinated, ambidextrous, and double jointed in her fingers… I have to contort myself into some very uncomfortable positions and use a big hand-held mirror to reflect the image of my neck from the bathroom mirror, in order to complete the job!  It was soooo much easier to have her sit me down, lather up my neck and shave away! 

I can still picture her holding on to the disposable razor in her right hand, while she dipped the lather laden blade under the running water and gently brushed downward with her forefinger, cleaning off the blade between the strokes on my neck.  She had a way of manipulating her little fingers that always caught my attention, whether it was shaving my neck, slicing vegetables or playing the piano.  Its funny the things you remember when someone special isn’t there anymore!

In my Christian growth over the years, I’ve learned to have an “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” attitude. (Philippians 4:13 EMTV)  It’s helped me to take on various chores… like shaving my neck and caring for my wife throughout the various stages of Alzheimer’s.  It was definitely a learning curve and while some around me fretted and worried over her needs, I simply jumped in with both feet knowing that, as I trusted Him, that God would help me all along the way… which He did!

Psalm 91:1 in The Passion Translation assures us that, “When you sit enthroned under the shadow of Shaddai, (or in The SECRET PLACE) you are hidden in the strength of God Most High.” 

I like that particular translation for the truth it conveys about the strength and ability that we gain from God when we position ourselves in His Secret Place.  I’ve spoken in the last few blog posts of how The Secret Place is somewhere we can go in prayer to be alone with God.  But I have also come to understand in my own life, that it can be a State of Mind, an Attitude and/or a Way of Thinking, Talking and Acting in our daily lives.

The Apostle Paul said that it is a choice that we make.  The choice between allowing ourselves to be motivated by what we see and feel in the natural realm, or being motivated and led by the things of the Spirit… according to the promises in God’s Word for you and me.

Romans 8:5-6 declares, “Those who are motivated by the flesh only pursue what benefits themselves. But those who live by the impulses of the Holy Spirit are motivated to pursue spiritual realities.  For the mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set controlled by the Spirit finds life and peace.” (TPT) 

Paul even went on to emphasize his point saying, “In fact, the mind-set focused on the flesh fights God’s plan and refuses to submit to his direction, because it cannot!” (Romans 8:7 TPT) 

And let me stop right here and say… BOY… was Paul ever right!  I had the surprise of my life in the midst of caring for my wife, whose health was rapidly declining right before my eyes… when I saw people close to us, falling apart as they chose to be motivated by what they saw happening… instead of putting their faith in what God’s Word said about the situation.

It still reminds me of the old westerns where you see the sign posted outside the saloon requesting everyone to check in their guns before entering.  I was aghast because it seemed like some folks (of whom I would have thought differently) checked in their faith before entering into Piper’s presence.

But I have since come to understand that developing the ATTITUDE for life, that comes from spending time alone in the Secret Place… takes a lot of practice… and even some trial and error!  And I think that this is where the differentiation between many people occurs.  Some of us know all about spending time with God in The Secret Place and even do a lot of it… but NEVER practice it… NEVER do it!

While others of us spend the time alone in The Secret Place (in prayer and in reading and studying God’s Word) and then go out and practice and/or take corresponding actions of faith that prove what we say we believe in.  James, the leader of the church in Jerusalem teaches us in James 2:18 that, “One person has faith, another has actions." My answer is, "Show me how anyone can have faith without actions. I will show you my faith by my actions." (GNB)

It became painfully obvious to me throughout the eight years that I took care of Piper, that those who had taken what they had learned in The Secret Place, put it into their hearts and then took the appropriate corresponding actions, developed their faith and were (as per our western example) locked and loaded and came out to help us and encourage Piper and me… firing both barrels! 

While the others… well… they reminded me of the documentary on the Gunfight at the OK Corral that I watched last night, when the leader of the outlaw cowboys, Ike Clanton, actually ended up begging for leniency and then running the other way when the shooting began.  A LOT OF TOUGH TALK BUT NO ACTION!

So, what do you think?  Are you practicing what you hear and learn when you spend time alone with God in The Secret Place?   Is it a State of Mind, an Attitude and/or a Way of Thinking, Talking and Acting in your daily life”?

Is your faith locked and loaded and ready to fire when the situations in your life demand your immediate actions?

Hummmm… That’s a question that only YOU can answer!

Shhh... It's a SECRET... or is it?

“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High 

                           shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”  (KJV)

 

In commenting on Psalm 91:1 in his C-2000 Through the Bible Commentary, Chuck Smith wrote that:

“There’s a place that you and I can live, in Christ Jesus. A place of glorious safety, a place of glorious peace, of joy, where you and I can experience God’s power and God’s protection, God’s goodness.”

I know that I talk about her a lot, but my wife was a living example of this explanation of The Secret Place that the Psalmist and other writers of the Old Testament have written about.  Whether it was in the middle of the kitchen preparing to serve the delicious meal in the midst of a large family holiday gathering, or a Youth fundraiser dinner, or at a youth retreat in the great outdoors, cooking over an open fire for 25 youth plus attending leadership… and don’t forget the new family dog… Piper was the one you wanted to be right in the middle of it all! 

Wherever she went, she brought with her a contagious serving of God’s peace, God’s power and the accompanying senses of joy, calm and safety.  If personal temperatures got a little heated in the kitchen, she had an uncanny sense of humor that would draw everyone into laughter, causing them to forget why they were getting annoyed.  She was quick on her feet (and thinking) and could come up with a solution in almost an instant.

But those skills that she possessed did not come overnight.  Granted she was endowed with a wonderful sense of humor, had an encouraging spirit and an outwardly joyous disposition, nevertheless, she still had to work at honing the gifts and talents that were given her.

And how did she do that, you might ask?  Well, its elementary my dear Watson… she spent regular time in The Secret Place!  Psalm 31:19-20 tells us all about it…

“Lord, how wonderful you are! You have stored up so many good things for us, like a treasure chest heaped up and spilling over with blessings—all for those who honor and worship you! Everybody knows what you can do for those who turn and hide themselves in you.  So hide all your beloved ones in the sheltered, Secret Place before your face. Overshadow them by your glory-presence…” (TPT)

Unlike me, she wasn’t one to rise up early to get in the Word first thing but would always set aside time during her daily activities to be alone in the presence or The Secret Place of the Lord. 

The key to finding and living within the parameters of The Secret Place is found at the end of Psalm 31:19 where the Psalmist explains, “Everybody knows what you can do for those who turn and hide themselves in you.”  It would therefore seem that the secret to The Secret Place… is you and I making the quality decision to individually stop and turn away from our busy schedules and make the effort and the time to hide ourselves away alone with Him for a predetermined period of time… on a regular basis.

It is a decision that each of us has to make on our own and then stick to it.  It is something that is between you and the Lord.  It doesn’t need to be advertised or be a big thing… it just should be a consistent thing that we do!  Psalm 31:20 goes on to tell us of the result of our going into The Secret Place declaring that the Lord hides His beloved ones in the shelter of The Secret Place of His presence and overshadows us with His glory!

After growing up with my wife from our teenage years until the beginning of our senior years, I can say without a shadow of a doubt, that Piper’s regular time hidden away in The Secret Place of the Lord is what gave her the ability to let her light shine in an even keel, spreading peace, joy and encouragement wherever she went.  And speaking for me… I would also say without a shadow of a doubt, that my daily time in The Secret Place of the Lord is what empowered me to care for my wife 24/7 for eight years with a smile on my face (most of the time…), strong faith in my heart and with lots of patience when the naysayers spoke and acted against us.

So, while The Secret Place may not be such a big secret to those of us who have an on-going and ever-growing personal relationship with the Lord… it is a place that each of us needs to go on a regular basis… in SECRET… away from the rest of our world!

Have you been to The Secret Place yet today?

The SECRET - "Not What or How Much but WHO" - pt6

We didn’t realize it at the time, but as it turned out, leaving the Baptist church at the end of 1982 became a defining moment in Piper’s and my life.  When I look back in our history, it is easy for me to pin point that place in time as when Piper and I began to write the story of our lives in earnest.  From the very beginning of our marriage, we desired to start many of our own unique family traditions.  But that move from a traditional church denomination and its beautiful church edifice, seemed to set us free to follow what we sought to discover as the Lord’s special leadings for us.

For the previous twelve years, accounting for our dating days and first seven years of marriage, Piper and I had been heavily involved in her family’s church.  Therefore, we saw her family a lot and spent many Saturday and Sunday afternoons at their home for meals and fellowship together… and for the first three years of marriage, we rented an apartment within walking distance of both Piper’s parent’s house and her maternal Grandparents home.

When my maternal Grandmother passed away around 1980, my parents gave us the opportunity to rent her house from them at a discounted price in order to help us save up for the future purchase of our own home.  That said, by the end of 1982 we were living somewhat equally distant from both of our parent’s and had begun to split our time fairly evenly with both sides of the family.

When we started to attend the little church that met in a hotel room on that first Sunday in 1983, we began an adventure that I’m not too sure that either side of our family understood!  Throughout the following few years, my dad would occasionally ask me if we had ever considered going back to the more traditional, established, well known and respected Baptist church that we had previously attended, and with a smile, I would always answer “No… Why would we?”  Then I would explain how happy we were where we were, how much we were growing in our faith walk (an explanation that neither of my folks seemed to understand for years to come) and how much I enjoyed the ministry there as Piper and I, among other things, had been leading the praise and worship services since about a month after our arrival. * 

I would also have to say here, that while Piper’s folks seemed to understand our move from their church, they also had their reservations about a church meeting in a hotel room and our new denomination’s Charismatic/Pentecostal roots, the use of southern colloquialisms by some of its leaders and its lively and somewhat free form of singing and worship.

With the advent of our growing family, my job at Hewlett Packard, Piper’s involvement with Women’s Aglow Fellowship and the beginnings of her home schooling in connection with the Independent Study Program at the Santa Rosa Christian School, our lives and community involvement became much more independent from our extended family and seemed to take on a life of its own!

The Apostle Paul told his readers in Philippians 4:13 that, “Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.” (The Message Bible)

As Piper and I jumped into this new phase of our lives, we began to closely focus our spiritual attention on the ONE that Paul spoke of in the above verse.  This scripture is basically telling us that it doesn’t matter WHAT I have, or WHERE I am… but what should matter the most to us as Christians, is that we can successfully make it through anything we face in this life… because of our relationship with and our dependence on the ONE by whom we are called… ie; through our faith in Jesus Christ and the truth and power of His Word.

The Passion Translation speaks of this type of relationship as a SECRET weapon that we should be trained to use by stating Paul’s words as, “I know what it means to lack, and I know what it means to experience overwhelming abundance. For I’m TRAINED in the SECRET of overcoming all things, whether in fullness or in hunger. And I find that the strength of Christ’s explosive power infuses me to conquer every difficulty.” 

I would say that we spent the next 20+ years training “in the SECRET of overcoming all things.”  Then in 2006, we took three years of advanced training in Bible College.  I used to joke with Piper that we came home in 2009 having received “Special Forces” training “in the SECRET of overcoming” in order to face the horrendous attack on Piper’s health. 

A few people questioned us about our decision to uproot our family when we did to move to Oklahoma, but you know… After being in prayer for a year about the potential move, Piper and I were in total agreement and knew that we knew that it was right and that without a doubt, God had called us to go exactly when He did.  

And with all the training in the Word of God, training in faith that was based on our ever-increasing personal depth of knowledge of how intimately God loved us** and having 20+ years of experience with the faithfulness of God… we crossed the border back into California in 2009 having already set in action in us, the mode of trusting in our training to operate without question in “the SECRET of overcoming” that we had been taught… to meet every challenge that was ahead of us.

Have you operated in that mode before?  Are you trained in The SECRET?

Stay Tuned…

 

*We soon came to learn that leading the praise and worship (song) part of the service at a Pentecostal church is very different than either the traditional hymns sung at our old Baptist church or the song services we had led during our youth meetings or regional snow camps where we led music a few times.  It was a definite learning curve for both of us with the new songs, styles of worship, and the art of leading the congregation into the presence of the Lord before the preaching of the Word for Sunday services or mid-week meetings.

**See: Ephesians 3:19

Following the WHO

 Psalm 23:6 in The Passion Translation tells us,

“So why would I fear the future? For your goodness and love pursue me all the days of my life…” 

When Piper and I left the reception hall for a stop at her grandmother’s ranch to pick up her car and then head up the coast for the beginning of our honeymoon, this verse aptly described what we felt and looked forward to in our marriage.  And looking back today, I can honestly say that once again, God was true to His Word!

Once home from that wonderful week we split between the northern California coastline and the majestic redwood groves, not too far inland from the Pacific Ocean, we jumped into our normal work routines in our secular jobs and with our involvement at the Baptist Church. 

At that point, the only visual difference one might have noticed at the church was that there was another space available in the church parking lot as Piper and I now tended to come together, and that my very familiar black MGB had suddenly turned into a shiny dark blue model.  I had been hit by a drunk driver after work one evening a few months before our wedding and while I came out of the incident unscathed… my car did not.  As part of the body repair process, I also decided to have the car painted a different color.

The car was finished a few days before the wedding and even though I wanted to take it on our honeymoon, I was concerned that someone might write some “just married” phrases on the car and ruin my new paint job… so I kept the car hidden away in my grandmothers’ garage until we returned from our honeymoon.

Within a few months I went on the church staff as the part-time Youth Minister, and as would become my life-long pattern when it came to ministry positions, put in a whole bunch of extra time that was not on the paycheck.  But it didn’t matter as I soon felt a clear calling to the ministry and loved every moment I could spend ministering to the youth.

With the calling, I talked to our pastor and he explained that the best course of action for me was to go to seminary.  So, I filled out the preliminary paperwork and discovered that I needed to finish my college degree before I could proceed any further.  But during what ended up being a two-year adventure attending classes around my full-time job and ministry work, different things began to happen that caused Piper and I to re-visit our course of action.

Piper and I had become involved with the Charismatic movement before our marriage and had been baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues.  We were growing in our ever-increasing knowledge and understanding of Pentecostalism, with a definite leaning toward what we believed to be the truths of the Word of Faith message. 

We had been very open in all of this with the Pastor, who trusted and supported us and simply told us to “use our heads” when it came to sharing it with those under our charge in the Youth Ministry.  But it did tend to put us in quiet odds with some individuals in the congregation.  We even had some friends who were students at the seminary I was planning to attend, who had talked to me in private about what they considered to be our “unbiblical” beliefs.  

That conversation amongst other things, caused us to re-consider our plans to attend that particular seminary… as we thought that it might not be the best fit for us.  But I pushed on through and completed my college studies anyway and received a BA in Psychology with emphasis in family and adolescent psychology.  From there we continued to seek the Lord for His next steps for us.

After five years, both Piper and I began to feel a sense of restlessness at the church and found ourselves hungering for greater knowledge in the depths of the Bible that we agreed wasn’t available there.  In the mean time, there had been some restructuring in the church leadership and the departments that we were heading and when the youth were put under the Christian Education Minister’s direction, Piper and I became the leaders of the College-Career group.

We continued to pour our hearts into our involvement in the church activities, but with the beginnings of our growing family, the hunger for more understanding and substance in and from the Word began to give us both concern for the future of our children’s growth in their Christian beliefs.  I can remember like it was yesterday when Piper and I sat down to talk and realized that we were in total agreement and even used the same term in saying that we were concerned that “our kids might starve spiritually” if we stayed there much longer.

Don’t get me wrong, the church was teaching solid Bible truths, but at that time seemed to major almost exclusively on evangelism and not too much into the rest of the rich truths that the Bible teaches us in order to be better, well-rounded, strong and successful individuals in the world.

We had bought one of the new-fangled VCR’s and had been recording different Pentecostal ministries that broadcast their services in the early morning hours, so we could watch them after my swing-shift work schedule at Hewlett Packard.  Their Bible teachings excited us and helped immensely in quenching the tremendous hunger for more of God that we were feeling… and needing in our lives.

It was interesting to me that while our Pastor (whom I always greatly respected… and whose memory I still do) told us that it was wrong for us to leave, the regional superintendent of our Baptist denomination honored our desires, but had strongly suggested that we stay at the Baptist church, saying that our congregation needed the message we had.  But our ever-increasing desire for deeper truths and our concern for our kid’s future spurred us on to finally say good-bye to our friends and family there. 

So, after the last Sunday service at the very end of December in 1982, we took a great step of faith and began another assimilation in our Christian walk and went to visit a small Pentecostal fellowship, pastored by a couple who had graduated from Rhema Bible Training Center, in a town called Broken Arrow in Oklahoma.  They were meeting in a room at the El Rancho Tropicana Resort/Hotel (where the Oakland Raiders held their summer practices) in the southern area of our hometown.

Piper and I were fully committed to follow what we both felt to be the distinct voice of the Lord instead of the voice of many folks around us whose opinions we were learning… needed to be secondary to His.  We were discovering that following the WHO we knew - was of more importance to us in the early years of our marriage than anything or anyone else! 

…and as we had in those early years, we soon realized, once again, that we had no reason to “fear the future… for God’s goodness and love were continuing to pursue us all the days of our lives…” (Psalm 23:6 TPT – personalized)

Is that a lesson that you have learned as well?

Not WHAT or HOW MUCH but WHO! - Pt 4 – Opinions & Character

In the latter days of Piper’s and my courtship, my mother would occasionally ask me about my decision to leave the Catholic church and follow in my soon-to-be wife’s footsteps with the Baptist Church.  I tried my best to explain what I was feeling and all the things that were being stirred up inside of me, but it just didn’t seem to make sense to her, and while she and my Dad always supported my choice, I could tell that she was a little sad about it.

One time we talked about the sacraments of the Catholic church and how special they were to her… and then she stumped me when she stated “But how could you not want to have the last rites and a beautiful Catholic funeral service at the end of your life.”

Like I said, that question took me by surprise and I had to think about it.  After a few days though, I came to realize that I had learned enough at that point in my fledgling Christian walk, to understand that the events and/or trappings of religion were of much less value to me than my slowly deepening, personal relationship with the head of the church… ie; Jesus Christ.  In Ephesians 1:22, Paul explained that, “God has put everything under the control of Christ. He has made Christ the head of everything for the good of the church.” (God’s Word ©)

I’ve learned a lot over the years since that time, but at that point, it looked to me that my family’s Catholic upbringing had trained us to place the liturgy of the Catholic church at the same level… or maybe even higher than the truths of the Bible… especially since we were not taught to read the Bible on our own, but to listen to the priest’s whose job it was to interpret the sacred teachings to us.  When I attended Bible College, I had an interesting class on church history that helped me to understand how and why the Catholic church had developed their tenants of faith.

Not to sound like a broken record (to those of you who even know what that means…), but my girlfriend, fiancé and eventually wife, was a living, breathing example of her Christian faith.  She didn’t just believe in and attempt to live her life according to a set of written standards, but had integrated her personal relationship with Jesus Christ into everything she did.

Up until the time we got together, I always strived to live what I considered to be a good life according to what my church taught… but there were always times when I felt that other people’s opinions of me and my actions were more important than God’s.  After all… they were right there with me in the present.  I had to live with them… and as far as I knew at that time… God was up in heaven occupied with much more important things than watching over me!

But my special girl’s daily life example, began to unhinge many of my long held mis-beliefs!  One time that I’ll NEVER forget was when we had gone to a movie one weekend in our SRJC days.  About half way through the movie there was a scene where one of the main characters starts getting, shall we say, very friendly with a gal and at one point began to remove some of her clothing.  I wasn’t really comfortable with what was unfolding in the scene, but hey… we were literally sitting in the middle of the theater surrounded by a full house of movie goers… so I figured that somehow it would be okay. 

But NOT with Piper… she immediately leaned over and said “I want to go!”  I looked over at her like she was crazy and told her that we couldn’t just leave in the middle of the movie (thinking that it would be way too embarrassing), but she just repeated herself and said “I want to go!”  Then I did the smart thing and started to get upset, again, thinking how silly we would look… but in an instant, my whole world flipped upside down when she looked me in the eye and started crying right then and there in the middle of the crowed theater.

Well… I didn’t need to be told THREE times and (feeling like a TOTAL fool because I had let her down and caused her to get hurt) I took her hand, stood up and proceeded to climb over everyone seated to our left as we made our way to the aisle.  I am not exactly sure what happened after that, but obviously we talked through it, and I apologized profusely for being selfish and more concerned about what other people might think of me, over my wonderful girlfriend’s feelings.  (and it must have worked because she didn’t leave me alone and walk the short distance to her home!)

That night taught me a lesson that I would ALWAYS remember!  A lesson not only about putting her needs first as well getting an upfront and personal view of the character of person she was, but also of the character of person that I wanted to become as a Christian man.  A man whose faith in God and the truth of His Word was more important to me than people’s opinions of me!

Where do you stand when it comes to other people’s opinions of you and the way you conduct your life vs the way that God and His Word say to conduct your life?  Whose opinion of you is more important.  One of my currently favorite verses that I have been beginning and ending my day with since my Piper’s promotion to heaven, is found in the first part of Proverbs 3:5 in The Passion Translation of the Bible.  Here Solomon encourages us to “Trust in the Lord completely, and do not rely on your own opinions…”  I then, like to take the liberty to add: “nor those of anyone else who disagrees with the Lord’s!” 

It has taken me quite a few years since that BIG lesson I learned in the early 1970’s with Piper at what is now called the “Summerfield Cinemas” across the street from the tennis courts at Howarth Park in Santa Rosa California, just around the block and down the hill from Piper’s parent’s home.  But I am at a point in my life NOW, where His opinion is the ONLY one that counts to me. 

How About you?

Not WHAT or HOW MUCH but WHO! - Pt 3

By the time Piper and I both came home after attending a year at Chico State University in the fall of 1974, I was working full-time at Sears and developing a photography business on the side.  Piper enrolled at the SRJC in their Early Childhood Development program and was also soon employed as an intern teacher at a local Pentecostal church’s large pre-school.

From then on, I was pretty much attending her Baptist church full-time and we were fully ensconced in their services, events and outreaches.  We were there just about every time they opened their doors.  A church event did not seem complete until my little black MGB and her red Pinto woody wagon were parked next to each other in the church parking lot!  And besides her church’s activities, we had also branched out and become involved in some community charismatic meetings.

At Chico we had joined both the Christian College group InterVarsity and the Catholic Newman Center and regularly attended their events.  During that time Piper had given me my first complete Bible.  It was a large orange covered New American Standard Bible.  I still didn’t know very much about the Bible at that time, but I sure felt self-important with that big book that I proudly carried to church and our college group meetings as we walked around campus together.  But as I’ve mentioned in past blogs… I was drawn to that book in a special way.  At times it almost felt like it was calling my name!

The first thing I did – and continued to do for many years later with every new Bible I picked up – was to put a tab on the Table of Contents page so that I could quickly find the book of the Bible that was being taught or preached on… without looking like I didn’t know where it was!  That book got a lot of use over the years that we dated.  Today it is a WELL-WORN tattered, stained and torn book that still get some regular looksie’s.  In the first year of our marriage, Piper surprised me and presented me with a hand-made (machine sewn... I had given her a sewing machine for our 1st Christmas), custom blue jeans Bible cover for my orange book, that she designed and sewed, complete with pockets front and back.  So now the book was not only special to me but COOL as well!

In those days and months leading up to our wedding, Piper’s and my conversations over our faith continued, but I began to notice that many of the scriptures she talked about, spiritual thoughts we shared and even the Christian lingo people spoke in the foyer of their beautiful church, that used to seem foreign to me… was suddenly beginning to make sense to me… and I not only enjoyed hearing it, but also being a part of the family of God.  It was then that I began to feel a real connection between me and Jesus Christ… the “Mystery Man” of my childhood, was also becoming very familiar to me!

I never responded to all the different “Altar Call’s” that were made in the many services we attended because I always felt that I was already a Christian.  But I clearly recall one night a few weeks prior to our wedding day when Piper and I had been to a special service.  After I had dropped her off at her home (complete with a few… okay… maybe more than just a few… good night kisses) I could literally feel what I would later learn was the presence of God in my MGB as I drove back to my parent’s place.

I can’t even explain the way I felt, except to say that the atmosphere in that little two-seater was charged with an energy of peace and joy that I had never experienced before.  It was slightly similar to… but yet 100 times better and stronger, than the night I asked Piper to marry me (in that car… I know… very romantic…) some two years before!

I was thankful that my parents had already retired for the evening as I stumbled in the front door and down the long hallway to my bedroom.  I don’t think that I even turned the light on, but closed the door and threw myself onto my bed where I began to quietly worship the Lord!  After a while, I finally stopped talking and singing to the Lord and just laid on my back with a big smile on my face.  Then I suddenly got serious and said “Lord, I’ve always believed that I was saved, but tonight I want to make sure.”

The Apostle Paul tells us the exact formula to get right with God in Romans 10:9 where he declared, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and you believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.” (EMTV)

So right then and there, laying on my back in my little twin bed, I closed my eyes and verbally confessed Jesus as the Lord and Savior of my life, while believing in my heart that Jesus had shed His blood for me on Calvary and died for my sins, and that God had raised Him from the dead, so that I could live forever with Him… totally cleansed and forgiven… as a born-again Christian.

I’m not sure if I actually got any sleep that night, but I couldn’t wait until the next day when I could tell Piper what had happened to me!  From that night on, I lived my life with a greater certainty of my present and future.  The Word of God written in the big jean covered Bible of mine began to take a greater and stronger place in my life.  And while I didn’t necessarily feel a great desire to hit the streets and tell people about Jesus, I did soon discover that I really enjoyed teaching others about Him. 

It’s when that creative gene in me began to bloom!  Both Piper and I wanted the people we had the honor to lead in Christian ministry, to come to know Jesus as a trustworthy, fun, rewarding, loving and all-inclusive, miracle working God with Whom they could ALWAYS depend on.  So, we tended to use a wide variety of teaching tools, drama, music, film and other fun methodologies by which to present the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But just like I had a whole live-time ahead to learn about, cultivate and make a wonderful life with my new wife, I also had a lot of things to learn and develop in my Christian life and within my personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  But don’t take that wrong… it was to be a VERY GOOD thing… and the best was yet to come!

Have a great new week, stay tuned for part 4 in our series on it’s:

 “Not WHAT or HOW MUCH but WHO”

…and as you do, keep expecting God’s best for your life!

Not What or How Much but WHO! - pt 2

For as long as I can remember, I have felt a closeness to God.  I was raised in a strong and devout Catholic home, attended two Parochial Schools for all but one of my elementary years, served diligently as an Altar Boy and received all the Sacraments of the church through the rite of Confirmation as a teenager.  And then a funny thing happened on my way through life… I met a special and unique young lady who would soon become my best friend and later on, my wife.

I quickly came to learn that she attended a Baptist church, and for all right and purposes, I should have been very cautious about any unlikely conversation that steered itself toward religion…  For as my dear Dad always joked throughout my childhood, anyone who went to a church other than the Catholic church was known as a “Pro-test-ant”… protesting against the belief’s, practices and liturgy of the Catholic Church!  But what turned out to be a big surprise for me, was that we tended to talk A LOT about our individual Christian beliefs… and instead of scaring me off… it intrigued me!

I had never heard anyone talk about God… much less Jesus Christ in such familiar terms.  I’m sure that I mentioned in previous blog posts, that from what I saw and heard in Parochial school and during church services, Jesus was a sort of a “Mystery Man” to me.  His name wasn’t mentioned a lot and when it was, it was followed by the nun or priest making the sign of the cross or genuflecting in great reverence. 

I always remember going into the sanctuary at St Eugene's Cathedral one weekday afternoon and seeing a man I knew to be the father of one of the students in my class, kneeling at one of the side altars, with his arms extended straight out to his sides (like Jesus on the cross) and praying earnestly.  I remember thinking how uncomfortable that had to be and that it must be some kind of sacrificial prayer or indulgence for a deceased loved one that he was making to God.  I wasn’t exactly sure why… but it just didn’t look or feel right to me.  To me… it looked like he was begging God for answers.

When my girlfriend talked about Jesus, she did it with a smile on her face and joy in her voice… In some respects (don’t take this wrong), it was similar to the way she came to talk about me.  It was with an expression of, like I said earlier, close and loving familiarity, respect and honor… it was like they were not just friends… but Best Friends!  Yet a close friend of whom she had the utmost respect and honor for.

When she prayed she spoke in normal everyday conversational terms.  When she asked the blessing over the meal it was like she was talking to a friendly benefactor.  When we prayed over our meals at home, it was a traditional Catholic prayer taken from a book of prayers that we might occasionally add a line to if it were at a special event or if a special guest was present.  And in a public restaurant, we always prayed a silent prayer over our food… but not Piper!  She’d grab my hand, bow her head and softly ask the blessing… I have to admit though, that for some reason, I thought that was pretty cool, so I adapted to her bold tradition very quickly!

The more we talked about our individual views on faith, the more I wanted… or maybe even NEEDED, to understand what she possessed that I didn’t.  She seemed so confident when she went to pray over request.  For me it was always kind of a grab bag.  I never really knew how to pray.  I didn’t know if God was actually going answer me or not, if He really cared about my day-to-day life, or just the big events. 

The examples I had been taught seemed to involve almost begging God, paying to light a candle in the church foyer, promises to give up things in order to get God to move on my behalf, and/or to pray all kinds of prayers of repentance for any misdeeds.  Prayer for Piper on the other hand, was an inviting and spontaneous event.  It was almost as though she looked forward to it… which she did!

My understanding didn’t come quickly, but we sure did talk a lot about it!  I’m pretty sure that I wore a pathway into the hall carpeting in our home as I would walk up and down for hours at a time… almost every night from the kitchen where the wall phone was mounted, to the door to my bedroom, or as far as the 25ft extension cord would allow me!  My Mom would kid me about how their once coiled phone cord lost its coil and hung straight down and touched the kitchen floor!

By the time we graduated high school, I had begun to regularly attend Piper’s mid-week Youth Group meetings and more than just occasionally on Sunday mornings!  By the time we entered Junior College, we were leading the College-Career Group, which Piper had suggested that we rename “Faith Action!” …and everyone agreed!

By then, I was totally in… hook, line and sinker!  I enjoyed everything we did with the church group, and of course with Piper, and was beginning to realize that there was a lot more to being a Christian than I had ever known.  But to be totally honest… things didn’t really begin to hit home with me… personally… until a few years later when Piper and I were engaged, had spent some time at Chico State University and began to plan our wedding in earnest… but that will be for another blog post!

Stayed tuned to follow my journey of understanding as I began to realize that it is not What you know or How Much you know... but WHO you know!

...and speaking of Who you know... Today would have been Piper's 68th Birthday!  So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Sweetie!  I hope that you're having a fun party in heaven and... have a slice of cake for me!

 

 

Convention Week!

I made the decision and commitment last Monday to attend the meetings held at the weeklong Southwest Believer’s Convention in Fort Worth Texas… via online streaming.  I rearranged my schedule so that I could participate in the majority of the meetings and not be interrupted or distracted by the everyday responsibilities at home… and believe me when I say that it is not as easy as it may seem!

For years Kenneth Copeland Ministries also held a West Coast Believer’s Convention in Anaheim California in the convention building right across the street from Disneyland.  Piper and I and the kids had the pleasure of attending some of those conventions over the years, so I knew exactly what was in store for me with the even bigger convention held in the ministry’s hometown area.

The first time we drove the 8+ hour drive down to the southern California convention, we only had our two older children and they were old enough to attend the concurrent Children’s ministry activities while Piper and I were in the arena. *  At the time they had Willie George Ministries and His Gospel Bill TV team running the children’s adventures.  So, it was a big deal for our kids as they were well familiar with the weekly TV series and the ministry in general through their Children’s Church curriculum that Piper and I taught from at the church.

Piper and I were very much in touch with the Willie George Ministry, their teaching integrity and their staff.  We not only helped to support the ministry, used their ministry materials and curriculum (in the 80’s and 90’s we both felt that they were by far, the best Children’s Ministry material available.) but also attended their yearly regional meetings at Piper’s sister’s church in Hayward California.  Then we had the opportunity to spend a week at their specialized Children’s Church Leaders Convention at their top-of-the-line Children’s Old West Style camp and TV set located in Adair, Oklahoma, northeast of Tulsa. 

We were actually on a first name basis with some of the ministry’s leadership.  While at the camp, we were fortunate enough to be booked into one of the very few private rooms instead of staying apart in the dorms.  We also got to share a meal with Jim Wideman who had taken over the leadership of the Children’s Ministry when Willie George started Church on The Move in Tulsa. (with over 12,000 members at that time)

So, my point of all that information was that the kids had a blast while Piper and I did the same with the adult speakers.  I can’t hardly describe the strong anointing that fills the arena with the praise and worship times that practically raise the roof on the building and the astonishing revelation and solid Bible based teaching that comes forth in those kinds of meetings.  We always walked in with high expectations and were never disappointed!

We usually went down there strictly for the meetings, but on one trip we planned an additional few days, so that we could go to Disneyland as well… which was almost a let-down after the action-packed adventures and teaching the kids got at the convention!  At Disneyland, Piper decided to leave the kids convention ID tags on them for added protection and identification.  At one point we came across a small gathering of parents and kids surrounding Micky Mouse.  As we pushed on through, Mickey suddenly turned toward us, got Piper’s and my attention, pointed to the convention tag of our older daughter and gave us a thumbs up!  We burst out laughing and he turned back to his audience!

As I sat in the privacy of my study listening to the familiar speakers in the crowded Fort Worth Convention Center, I couldn’t help but to be drawn back into time with the feel of excitement that was thick in the air, and the words of truth that came forth.  I also couldn’t help but to recall how excited Piper would get at these conventions, how she would furiously take notes and shout “Amen’s”, laugh aloud or sometimes stand and do a little jig when a revelation hit home with her… and of course, I was right there next to her doing the same on all accounts!

Romans 10:17 tells us, “So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” (Bible in Basic English)  A more specific translation of that verse according to the original Greek reads, “Faith, then, is birthed in a heart that responds to God’s anointed utterance of the Anointed One.” (The Passion Translation)  In other words, faith comes to us when we receive a personal revelation (understanding, direction or leading) from a scripture being taught and then put it to work in our lives. 

It was those types of scripture-based revelations and directions that helped me plow through the hardest of times when Piper was sick and people around me were adversely questioning every move I made.  It was revelations like that which came in abundance to us when we made the time to go and saturate ourselves in the anointed teaching of the Word of God at these very special conventions.  And my experiences last week were exactly the same.

It was exciting and overwhelming to me at the same time, when speaker after speaker brought out truths from the Word that confirmed some of the many actions that Piper and I took during her prolonged illness, things that I believed that the Lord was teaching me through that long battle and now in the almost three years since, the directions and leadings that I have felt Him giving me as I seek to move forward.  I am always at awe and comforted when He does things like that.  He really does care for us in every portion of our lives.

A couple of the most important messages that I took home with me was God’s strong desire for me to get my DREAMS fired up again and back to the forefront of my life (even or especially without Piper at my side) and to know in doing so… that time is speeding up and that activities that took many years to happen in the past are happening with almost lighting speed today… and at 68 years old… I can’t afford the completion of God’s destiny for me to take as long as it had in the past!

As I sat at my desk in front of my laptop for hours on end last week, I found myself totally absorbed in the proceedings that were taking place a relatively close 316 miles south of my house.  I’d shout for joy, scream out “Amens” or “YES!” or at times jump up from my seat and dance a little jig! 

Then I’d laugh again while I looked at a couple of the pictures of Piper posted in front of my desk and smile knowing that she would be doing the same exact things as I was, if she were here, and that she’d have a huge, ear to ear smile on her face and even be glowing a little from the reflection of the glory of God’s Word and the faith radiating from the thousands of people in attendance there and from the others of us watching from literally around the world… all at the same time!

I mean who knows… she just might have been doing all of those things from her front row seat in the heavenly theater near God’s throne!

This week, starting yesterday, I am committed to go back through my pages of notes and pray and learn how I can put all that good and solid teaching and personal revelations from God’s Word to work in my life in the weeks and months ahead!

I pray that each of you have a great new week, and as you do... that you keep expecting God’s best in your life.  Our next blog will continue on with the new series I introduced a week ago on the subject of it’s not so much…

WHAT or HOW MUCH you know… but WHO you know!

 

*Which seats 7500 people.  Whenever we went, the bottom floor was filled to capacity as well as a good portion of the upper levels.  The same could be said for last week’s convention in the Forth Worth Convention center which seats 13000.

Not Bragging

I was thinking after posting our last blog to our blog site* over this last weekend, that I purposely use lots of personal examples in order to emphasize the points that I am trying to make.  But until then, I had never considered the thought that some readers may think that I am bragging about how good that I have done things, or lived my life.

When in reality, I only use those examples because they are so personal to me and hopefully demonstrate the activity and power of God working through the faith of an everyday, normal guy who has made his fair share of mistakes in his life… but does continually endeavor to learn to “Trust the LORD with all my heart, and not rely on my own understanding.  But in all my ways acknowledge Him, so that He will make my paths smooth.” (Proverbs 3:5-6 God’s Word © - personalized) 

When I went back to college as a married man with our first child on the way in 1979… this time with a definite plan and purpose (seminary/ministry)… I discovered that I really enjoyed school and learning facts, figures and detailed information.  After barely maintaining a “B” average in high school and a high “C” average in junior college, I began to see lots of “A’s” on my quarterly reports in college… and surprisingly enough, graduated on the Dean’s List – PTL!

The same could be said for my time in Bible College almost thirty years later and in-between those years with the countless management classes I took at my secular places of employment and the vast myriad of training classes and conferences that Piper and I attended with the different churches we served in.

When it came to ministry and my working knowledge and understanding of the scriptures, I desired to be a well-equipped servant of the Lord so that I could be of great encouragement to those we interacted with.  I never possessed the gift to quickly memorize and practically apply scripture to life’s situations like Piper did.  I had to work at it… and still do!  I’m not saying that Piper didn’t study the Word, she just seemed to be able to process it, explain it and then live it in simple, usable terms… a lot faster than me! 

Over the years though, I have attained a wealth of Biblical knowledge and understanding.  I can… and rather enjoy, teaching the Word of God to just about any age group!  Piper and I both together and individually, have counselled countless adults, married couples, youth, children and their parents, throughout the thirty some years we participated in active church ministry.  We’ve led classes with Catholics, Baptists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals and even one in the local Mormon Ward!  I can honestly say that we gained a very diverse and ecumenical experiential background!

But after all of that… when Piper was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in the summer of 2007… I learned a very valuable lesson.  I may not have been as quick to learn and process Biblical facts as Piper in the past… but this time, when it affected her very life… understanding and the reasoning for it came very rapidly to me! 

Throughout the following eleven years (and up to and including today) I’ve learned and lived within the reality that it is not so much:

 WHAT or HOW MUCH you know… but WHO you know!

So… today’s blog post is a little teaser of what’s to come over the next few weeks!  I hope that you’ll join in with us**… and tell a friend or two… as we explore this break-through subject and fact of our Christian faith.  It is a subject that can and will literally change your life… not just in eternity… but right now… today!

Have a great day as we also dive into August and the warm days and adventures that go with it!  Then, as you do, keep expecting God’s best for your life!

*http://pjberruto.blogspot.com/

**You can follow us on Face Book or on our blog site at: pjberruto.blogspot.com