POWER PICTURES!

My folks instilled a strong work ethic into me as a child and I began mowing lawns in the seventh grade with my brother for the realty company that my mom worked for as the office manager.  As a sophomore in high school, I picked up lawn jobs from the Vice Principle when older folks would call the school looking for a reliable student to attend to their yards.  As a junior and senior, I worked after school and occasionally on weekends at a nearby printing company (a lead that also originated with the Vice Principle!).  Then in-between all that, we had our rock band that helped to bring in some pocket change… it wasn’t like we were booked every weekend… but we did get some bookings!

So, by the time I enrolled in my first photography class in 12^th grade, I had a decent savings account and was able to have purchased a nice 35mm SLR camera through my brother-in-law who was in the Air Force.  When we started learning about the development and printing of black and white film, I did my research and bought a mid-range priced enlarger and all the equipment I would need to process pictures at my own home.

My parents were totally behind my efforts and let me purchase and assemble a metal shed in the backyard.  It was actually a pretty nice set-up as I was able to build a nice wooden foundation and floor for it, complete with electricity and running water… and was totally blacked out from any outside light source… which I had to modify with the addition of a turbine ventilator in order to stop the condensation on the inside walls and equipment!  Ten years later I gave or sold that shed to my father-in-law and bought an even bigger one to serve as a more efficient and roomier darkroom!

So, I was pretty self-sufficient from the start and never had to use any of the student darkrooms at the different schools I attended.  I came to quickly discover that I not only enjoyed working in the darkroom but also became pretty good at it!  I enjoyed all the various projects that I got to work on as I developed my techniques.  I learned the intricate connections between the different film types, the correct lighting conditions, f-stops and film speeds and how they would affect the finished print being processed in the darkroom!

But all that expertise did not happen overnight.  It literally took years of education, lots of practice, many out of focus and incorrectly lit photographs, a ton of patience and probably hundreds of rolls of film, which I began to buy in bulk and load myself!  I can’t even count the number of times that I would come home from my main job and then work late into the night… or early morning hours of the day… printing a roll from a photography job or simply for pleasure!

Developing and printing your own film… at least to me… helped me to take control over the finished product.  It enabled me to imagine the desired result throughout every part of the process, from selecting the right film, snapping the shutter and all the way to taking it out of the fixer tray and turning on the white light to properly view the finished print.

I was reading recently of how my photography training and experience is a lot like the maturing of our individual faith!  The articles that I read talked about the need for us to develop clear and strong “POWER PICTURES” inside of us.  PICTURES of what the Word of God says concerning the situations we find ourselves involved in during our daily lives.  These “POWER PICTURES” of the truth of God’s Word, compared to the worry and anxieties of what the world screams at us, are the EXPECTATIONS from which our faith is enabled to successfully work in our lives.

It is the PICTURE that empowers us to imagine the desired result of our faith from conception to completion!  An old favorite scripture of ours from Hebrews 11:1 reminds us that:

“Faith assures us of things we EXPECT and convinces us of the existence of things we cannot (yet) see.” (God’s Word ©)

Or by using our photography analogy, we could say that “Our ‘POWER PICTURES’ of God’s Word printed on the inside of us, assures us of the things that we are actively EXPECTING (or developing) and convinces us of the things we don’t YET see!”

Proverbs 23:7 also informs us that, For as a man (or a woman) thinks (or PICTURES themselves according to God’s Word) within themself, so are they... (TPT)

So, as per my personal photography life experience goes… it takes lots of education, practice and experience (with some burps along the way!) to fine tune a successful faith walk in your life!  Now… isn’t that something that you want to have firmly established in your daily life? 

If you’re anything like me… then the answer is a CLEAR and RESOLUTE: YES!

…And the good news is that you don’t have to spend the HUNDREDS of dollars that I spent on all my photography equipment to get the “POWER PICTURES” that you need on the inside of you in order to see the desired results of your faith!  (Just lots of practice!)

What a DEAL!  So, what are you waiting for?

Have a wonderful weekend, and as you do… keep EXPECTING God’s best in your life!

 

 

Solving The Mystery!

I had the pleasure yesterday afternoon of traveling by way of the internet to the suburbs around Los Angelos to attend the funeral of an aunt on my mother’s side of the family.  I can’t really say that I had a personal relationship with her as I had only met her on a few occasions through the years, but rather that I knew her quite well through all the stories of childhood adventures that my mom regularly shared with us. 

She and my mom were cousins, were very close, were the outgoing one’s in the family and thereby shared many adventurous experiences together through the years until my mom and dad married and moved from my mom’s home state of New York to my dad’s home in California, in the late 1940’s.

In the years that followed they stayed in contact through letters and regular phone calls until my mom’s passing in 2012.  Both sides of my family come from very active and devout Catholic backgrounds and the funeral mass was held at St Jude Catholic Church in Westwood, California, in a beautiful setting, a few miles northwest of Los Angelos.

It was a beautiful and touching service where many of the memories and joys of my aunt’s life were shared.  Watching the service brought back many warm memories of my childhood and the countless Catholic services, activities and events that our family participated in throughout my childhood… and even after Piper and I were married and I became a card-carrying Baptist, I stayed involved as the staff photographer for the local Catholic Diocese newspaper and took pictures of various events and services all around our county.

It all came back, the deep reverence, the pageantry, the wonderful music and the sense of awe that always seemed to permeate the beautiful sanctuary with its tall ceilings, stained glass windows, elegant statues and banks of candles.  I was personally touched by the beautiful piano playing that brought me back to the way in which my wife Piper could literally make the piano keys strike the strings in such a way as to sing in worship unto the Lord.  One of my aunt’s nieces also played the violin and then sang with a wonderful operatic voice that reminded me of Piper’s mom’s beautiful voice that would bring tears to your eyes when she hit the high notes with such strength and clarity of pitch and tone.

And while it was a tremendous witness to the life and blessings of my aunt, it also brought back the personal memories of the things that were missing in my faith… and longed for… even though I couldn’t explain it as such at the time!  The priest was very welcoming, eloquent and personable in the words that he spoke (and sang… he had a very good voice!  I had never heard the entire Eucharist service- ie; communion – sung before!  It almost reminded me of a Hollywood musical & I rather enjoyed it!).

But when he explained and shared some thoughts with the various scriptures that were read, I immediately picked up that old sense of a somewhat impersonal, distant and even mysterious gospel that had left me hungering for more of God when I was in high school… And as I’ve shared many times before… until I met this cute, bubbly and exciting young lady who lived with a passion for life and a love for Jesus that I had NEVER experienced nor heard of before.

In Corinthians 4:13 the Apostle Paul exclaimed,

“But we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed, and therefore I spoke.” So we also believe, and therefore we also speak!” (TPT)

Piper’s faith spoke with every word she uttered and through every action she took, and that’s why her life and being in her presence was so exciting to me!  It wasn’t uncomfortable, it wasn’t pushy, it wasn’t argumentative but just a part of who she was… and it is EXACTLY what I wanted!  I didn’t want to know God from a distance anymore... I wanted to solve the mystery of knowing Him.

In Mark 4:11 Jesus declared that,

“The MYSTERY about the kingdom of God has been given directly to you…”

And in Romans 16:25-26 Paul explained that,

“God can strengthen you by the Good News and the message I tell about Jesus Christ. He can strengthen you by revealing the MYSTERY that was kept in silence for a very long time but now is publicly known…” (both verses from God’s Word ©)

You see… we don’t have to look in from afar anymore.  The New Testament writers spoke about and explained the MYSTERY of the gospel at least 27 times.  It’s all there in red, black and white!

I felt that old ache that I had felt in my heart for many years until I saw the answer living before me with brown hair, freckles and a laugh and a smile that came from a heart filled with the love of Christ that would melt my heart in a moment!  I no longer have a distant and mysterious relationship with my God anymore… HOW ABOUT YOU?

Romans 10:9-10 tells us how to achieve a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  It’s really rather simple with a verbal confession and an act of the heart.  Paul tells us,

“That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved, for with the heart man/women believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he/she confesses, resulting in salvation.” (NASB)

It is that easy… but while the conversion and sense of freedom and inner joy is instantaneous, maturity and understanding in the things and ways of the kingdom of God grow within us as we regularly fellowship with the Lord in His Word, find and attend a good Bible believing and Bible teaching church and surround ourselves with other believers!  And the exciting thing is… that you’ll want to do all those things… and the more you do them, the more you’ll grow in understanding, wisdom, peace and joy!

It was the answer that I was longing for… and I believe it can be for you as well!  Have a great week, and as you do… keep EXPECTING God’s best in your life!

Nothing to Do!

♫ “My HOPE is built on nothing less

Than Jesus' blood and righteousness

I dare not trust the sweetest frame

But wholly lean on Jesus'name”* ♪       

 

I can remember back in my Junior High years, when I would plop myself down on the front lawn on a warm summer day… feeling lazy and bored and whining over the thought that I had NOTHING to DO!  I had no plan, no vision and no HOPE for the day… nothing exciting to get me up and moving!  My mom’s answer to this retort of mine was always the same as she’d say, “Well then… Go outside and get some exercise.  Ride your bike or get your friends and play a game of baseball at the school (around the block from our home).”

So, thus I found myself sitting very unenthusiastically on the lawn trying my very best to drum up the slightest bit of energy and excitement in order to take my bike out the garage and peddle down the block a few houses to one of my friend’s homes. 

I did learn years later though, when studying Adolescent Physiology in college, that the fatigue that I experienced during that time in my life, was a normal phenomenon caused in part, by the growth spurt that I was going through… and NOT as I thought my mom thought… that it was just me acting out my typical young teenage antics!  

But on the other hand… I will confess (now) that my mom’s encouragement to get out and exercise was very good advice and is a life-guide that I still follow today in my early senior citizen days!

During my Bible study earlier this morning, I was reading and studying some scriptures about Biblical HOPE (or EXPECTATION as I like to translate it) and then looked at an article entitled “Hope: The Blueprint of Faith.”* from a new book that I had just received as a belated birthday gift.

The verse that caught my heart was from Romans 5:5 where Paul wrote,

“And this HOPE (of Jesus and His Word) is not a disappointing fantasy, because we can now experience the endless LOVE of God cascading into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who lives in us!” (The Passion Translation) 

I had to giggle a little when I first read this statement of Paul’s as I remembered when someone had labeled a stand of faith that Piper and I had been pursuing in the early 1990’s as “A La, La Land Fantasy” and sternly lectured me to NEVER DO IT (or anything like it) AGAIN!  And while that adventure in faith didn’t go quite as we had desired it to and there were some difficult times, through it all... God exceedingly blessed us and we learned some important lessons.  In the end, we came through it totally out of debt, with the best paying job I’d ever had and were given a fresh new start!

So, needless to say, we did not see our HOPE or EXPECTATIONS that we had based on God and His Word to be a “disappointing fantasy” but a learning experience where we regularly saw the endless LOVE of God working in, for and through us unto others!

As I was reading the different materials today, I began to gain a clearer conception of the important interactions between HOPE and FAITH.  Hebrews 11:1 in the King James Version teaches us that,

“Now FAITH is the substance of things HOPED for, the evidence of things not (yet) seen.”

This instruction from the writer of the book of Hebrews makes it easy to understand that our ACTIVE, NOW FAITH gives a tangible substance to the things that we are HOPING for!  In other words… without HOPE your FAITH has NOTHING TO DO!**

Another way to look at it would be to say that HOPE is the blueprint and FAITH is the building materials to build the project… or the desired result of your stand of FAITH.  They definitely go together.  You can’t have one without the other!

You see, HOPE that is based on the truth of God’s Word, is the inner image or the picture that the Holy Spirit paints on the inside of you.  The opposite would be DESPAIR which is the picture of the impending disaster which in effect… is telling you that there is NO HOPE!

Colossians 1:23 cautions us to stay clear of the lies of doubt and unbelief that the enemy of our faith attempts to get us to focus on… BUT instead to,

“…continue in FAITH without being moved from the solid foundation of the HOPE that the Good News contains.” (God’s Word ©)

I’ve always tended to be a guy that has needed to have a vision, a plan or a dream cast before me.  And that has got to be the most frustrating thing that I have been struggling with since Piper’s homegoing.  Up until recently it has been very difficult for me to even imagine a future without her.  But God has been gracious, loving and kind and continues to walk me through these life changing events… and I am excited to say that He has dropped a new vision into my heart that is definitely stirring the old spirit of adventure, excitement and expectation that drove me forward in the past!

How about you?  What is the HOPE… or do you have a HOPE that is acting as the blueprint for your FAITH?  Remember, without HOPE, your FAITH has NOTHING TO DO!  How do you find HOPE?  Well, you take time to talk to God about it in prayer, you spent quality time in His Word, you fellowship with believers at church and you continue to walk in LOVE… fully expecting our heavenly Father to respond to your requests!

And all along the way… Rejoice and be Thankful in knowing that He has got you covered!

Have a wonderful weekend!  We’ve got crazy strong winds today and thunderstorms forecasted for tonight and tomorrow… Praise the Lord! 

Keep EXPECTING God’s Best and you won’t be disappointed!

 

*“Hope: The Blueprint of Faith by Kenneth Copeland from the book “One Word From God can change your Destiny” ©1999 – Kenneth and Gloria Copeland

**Like me sitting on my parent’s front lawn with NO ENERGY, NO DESIRE and NO HOPE to DO ANYTHING on those hot northern California mid-summer days! (He! He! Probably in the mid to high 80-degree weather… maybe even… low 90’s!  Days that wouldn’t necessarily be thought of as HOT here in Oklahoma though!)

Who's The Fool?

How was your celebration of Easter this last weekend?  I had the pleasure of hosting our two girls and their families over at our house on Sunday afternoon.  Needless to say, we all had a very enjoyable time laughing, telling stories and watching the antics of our two grandchildren.  I thought that I had done a pretty admirable job in baby-proofing the living room… but somehow, little Silas still found potentially unsafe objects that he could play with. 

Most of all though… I think that Fiver had the best time playing with the grandkids, swapping licks, and chasing each other.  As soon as they left, he hit the floor and didn’t seem to have any thought of moving until I prepared his dinner a little while later!

One thing that I’ve come to notice in Piper’s absence on all the holidays and special family events, is that I feel kind of lost… or out of touch and a little bit clumsy when it comes to how to respond to them.  You see, while Piper and I did a lot of things together, we tended to lean on each other’s expertise for whatever the task was at hand and therefore she always took the lead for these special holidays and events, and I happily played the role of her able-bodied assistant. 

Similar to the way in which I would plan out and finely detail ministry events and even family vacations, she would plan and prep for the holidays well in advance.  Therefore, we would have plenty of advance notice and understand what was coming and when!  Now that she is absent from my world and luxuriating in heaven, I find that I am realizing what event is coming upon us… just a few days before the event… and then clumsily scrambling to get things done!  Tell me the truth… Is there anyone else like that out there?

But… putting all of that aside, we did have a nice family gathering… even if I did have WAY too much food!  I’m not sure if I’ll ever get the knack that Piper had in expertly planning and purchasing the food supplies for family and church events!

One “knack” that I have developed though, since she got sick, was to really personalize my understanding of God’s Word… and in particular… concerning what each of the Biblical Holidays that we celebrate… really mean to me!

The first thing that I did early on Easter Sunday morning was to open up my Bible and study Luke’s version of the Resurrection of Christ found in chapter 24, verses 1-49.  I could spend weeks discussing the miraculous events that are described in this chapter and perhaps I will at another time, but for today’s post… there was one verse in particular that stood out to me.

This event took place later in the day on that first Easter when,

“Two of Jesus’ disciples were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus, a journey of about seventeen miles.”  (Luke 24:13 TPT)

And as you can imagine, their heads were probably spinning with questions over all that had happened over the last few days that culminated with the report of an empty tomb and the rumor that Jesus had risen from the dead.  The two men where in deep discussion about the events that they had witnesses when Jesus (unbeknownst to them) suddenly joined them on their journey.

He asked what they were talking about and the men were shocked that the stranger seemed to know nothing of the startling situation that was shaking up the entire countryside.  I got the impression from the discussion that followed, that the men were almost making fun of the stranger’s ignorance of the current events.  But then Jesus made a comment that really opened my eyes to some things that I have vividly experienced in the past... and see history repeating itself in our country today.

After listening to the two men’s retelling of the morning’s activities and witnessing the look of shock and confusion on their faces,

“Jesus said to them, "How foolish you are! You're so slow to believe everything the prophets said!”  (Luke 24:25 God’s Word ©)

His comments must have gotten their attention as they raptly listened to Him while He promptly took them through the Old Testament scriptures and shared all the teachings and prophecies of Moses and the prophets that talked about the coming of the Messiah.  I think that it is even funnier that after all of that, the two men still didn’t recognize Jesus and because of the late hour of the day, convinced Him to stay with them.  But they finally recognized Him when He broke bread with them, blessed the bread and gave it to them to eat.

It was the specific choice of Jesus’ words in Luke 24:25 that especially grabbed my attention.  Once it was pretty clear to Jesus that these men… who had been hanging out with Him for three years… still didn’t comprehend the what and why of what happened when He arose from the dead, He called them “FOOLISH!”  One translation repeats the exclamation twice in order to make Jesus’ point even more pronounced.

Various other versions insert different descriptive words saying, “How INCONSIDERATE, UNTHINKING, SENSE-LESS, DEFICIENT IN UNDERSTANDING or THOUGHTLESS you are.”  The word “FOOLISH” in the original language is defined as “unintelligent, sensual, unwise, inconsiderate and brutish.” (Strong’s, Thayer’s and Mounce)

Therefore, the use of the word “FOOLISH” has a deeper connotation than our modern understanding of someone who is simply acting silly, unwise or rash.  Jesus seems to be declaring that individuals who are slow to believe the inspired words of the sacred writings… which today would include the New Testament as well… are in effect, acting inconsiderately and thoughtlessly toward others, aren’t thinking straight, are living without much common sense… and plainly stated… are deficient in their ability to understand the gospel truth!

And as you can imagine, that statement of His hit home with me, as Piper and I had been accused of acting according to all those discrepancies as we sought to follow what we understood to be the way of faith during her time of infirmity… When according to Jesus’ understanding… the ones making the false accusations… were the actual guilty parties! 

And history repeats itself over and over again… as we have seen the political party in power in our country making the same accusations of the other party… only to be clearly and decisively proven incorrect – NOW- as the truth continues to come out!

I also thought it to be very interesting when I observed that the two men were so wrapped up in their own storyline… that they totally missed it when Jesus Himself – as living proof to the prophecies of old… stood in their very midst.  We saw that unfold in our lives some five years after people prophesied that we were going to go broke and then continued to speak of it as is it were fact... even after we had moved to North Carolina and paid cash for a new home.

In the political world, we see the same as the devastating policies of the DNC are falling apart at the seams, inflation is at all time highs and crime is running rampant in Democrat run cities across the country… while the leaders of the DNC continue to deny it, lie about great gains and turn a blind eye to the death and devastation in our cities!

So who then… is the INCONSIDERATE, UNTHINKING, SENSE-LESS, DEFICIENT IN UNDERSTANDING or THOUGHTLESS ones?  Those of us who are quick to follow after, believe and then DO the truth of God and His Word… or those who don’t?  The truth of the matter is pretty easy to see… whether one wants to deny it or not!

If you’re anything like me… then you don’t want to be considered SLOW to dig in and LIVE according to the principles laid out in the Word of God… wouldn’t you agree?  I don’t really care anymore if people want to call me “FOOLISH.”  What makes ALL the difference to me though, is what JESUS thinks about my life…

HOW ABOUT YOU?    

Celebrating Easter!

What are some of the first things that you remember during the Easter season?  Is it childhood memories of Easter egg hunts around the yard at the family gathering or at church or a big basket of brightly colored, shiny, wrapped candies with your name on it?  Maybe it is a special church service with lots of singing and possibly a play put on by the precocious members of the Children’s Church.

As a child raised in the Catholic Church and attending Parochial School, Easter was always one of the biggest celebrations of our church year.  I must admit that I miss all the pageantry of the church at this time of the year.  I mean it was a big deal, beginning a little over six weeks before Easter Sunday with the receiving of ashes on Ash Wednesday.  The celebration of this special Mass, culminating with the priest marking a cross of ashes on the foreheads of the congregation, begins the season of Lent.  Briefly stated,

“Lent is a 40-day season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at sundown on Holy Thursday. It's a period of preparation to celebrate the Lord's Resurrection at Easter.”*

In order to honor and remember Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross celebrated during the Holy Week leading up to Easter Sunday, our family kept the tradition where each member voluntarily fasted something (usually a favorite food, treat or activity) for the 40 days of Lent.  During this period, Fridays were also considered to be days of abstinence and for us it meant that there was an absence of meat and fish was always on the menu!

While in Parochial School, we would walk across the playground to the nearby church numerous times during Holy Week and participate in the Stations of The Cross.  Our family would also attend at least one such evening service during the week.  The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops explain the Stations of the Cross saying that,

“The Stations of the Cross, also known as the Way of the Cross or Via Crucis, commemorate Jesus's passion and death on the cross. There are 14 stations that each depict a moment on his journey to Calvary, usually through sacred art, prayers, and reflections.”

The Cathedral of St Eugenes in my home town, is lined on either side with gorgeous stained-glass windows depicting these 14 stations where the priest and the congregation would stop and participate in a sacred reading and a time of prayer and reflection at each station.

So, needless to say, by the time Easter Sunday came, we were primed and ready to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus… even if we didn’t totally understand it all!  For us kids… at least in my family, the candy and huge and delicious family meal with my cousins and Grandparents that afternoon, was secondary to the special service filled with procession, pageantry, the Cathedral choir and countless bouquets of beautiful, sweet-smelling flowers!

Like I mentioned early, those memories were something that I missed when I moved over to the Protestant church, although Piper’s Baptist church had a wonderful music program and an excellent Choir which always performed special songs on the various church holidays.

On the positive side, the Protestant churches we attended, and especially the Word of Faith, Full Gospel denominations, tended to teach a much greater depth of detail and understanding concerning the Biblical meaning of Jesus’ resurrection and of its vital importance to the individual Believer, along with the corresponding impact that Jesus’ actions have on our lives.

In fact, I recently came across a couple of verses in the book of Galatians that perfectly summarizes Jesus’ sacrificial actions on the cross, for you and me.  Paul writes,

“I (now) live in a relationship with God. (For) I have been crucified with Christ.  And it is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me.  (And) The life I now live, I live by believing in God's Son, who loved me and took the punishment for MY sins.”  (Galatians 2:19-20 God’s Word ©/KJV)

And it really is as simple as that!  Jesus took the punishment for our sins, was crucified, buried, arose on the third day, ascended into heaven and now sits on the right hand of God so that we can once again, have free access to God the Father and be a part and parcel to the truth, blessings and power of heaven… and then share that truth with EVERYONE!

Therefore… However you celebrate Easter Sunday this weekend, enjoy the pageantry, the special music, the Children’s plays, the meaningful Sermons, the delicious family dinners and all the candy you can eat… But… JUST DON’T FORGET the real meaning behind the celebration… and honor the One who gave His Life, so that we can freely approach the Father with any need or thought and… after our life on this earth is done… live in eternity with Him.   Then, share that GOOD NEWS with a friend!

 

* https://www.usccb.org/prayer-worship/liturgical-year/lent

Days of Discovery!

I was thinking this morning of how these last 3 ½ years since my wife’s passing onto glory, have been an eye-opening time of DISCOVERY for me.  I’ve known many people over the years who deliberately spent time following high school to travel, work and/or experiment with alternate lifestyles, in a search for who they were.  I’ve also known others who simply floundered for many years until they found or stumbled upon some direction for their lives.

My life, on the other hand, was quite different than those.  I started dating my wife-to-be on the first day of our Senior year in high school and in many respects…everything just sort of fell into to place from there.  It may sound like an old cliché - but I can’t think of any other way of describing our relationship… except to say it was like a match made in heaven!

We had very similar personalities, likes and dislikes, moral and religious convictions, a hunger for the things of God and an excitement for life that was definitely based on a “Can Do/Let’s Do It” attitude!  Most of all though, I believe that we had humble hearts and wanted to see and do the best for each other.  Simply said, somewhere, early on in our relationship, we just became as one, an inseparable team that saw and always planned our future together.

We went to college together, got involved in the leadership of local church groups wherever we were during those years, began working, were married, went into Christian ministry, started and raised our family and never looked back!  And it was a very enjoyable and satisfying life.  It seemed that we were an unstoppable team that would last forever… and then… out of the blue, Piper was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and life suddenly went on hold.

Our love and commitment for each never stopped though and I spent the last eight years of her life taking care of her 24 hours a day… 365 days of the year.  “In sickness and in health,” the covenant we entered into on our wedding day many years before, was never questioned and never wavered… and I said Good Bye to her in the early morning hours on Sunday, September 2, 2018.

And suddenly… for the first time in 48 years…since my junior year in high school… it was just “ME”… and not “WE!”

So yeah… you could say that the last 3 ½ since her passing has been a time of DISCOVERY for me!  And as I began to look into the subject (ie; ME!), it became rather obvious that there were many places that were standing kind of rickety as half of their foundational support was missing!  I guess one never fully realizes how much they have come to depend on someone as integral to their lives as their spouse of many years… until they are gone!

So, that, as understood by anyone who has lost a spouse, has been my story for these last years in her absence.  I Corinthians 13:1, in The Message Bible, tells us,

“If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the CREAKING of a rusty gate.” 

As most of you know, I have been reading this chapter on Christian Love, or better yet… as the chapter on DOING Christian Love… every day for a few months now, but today I had to laugh when I got a slightly different take on the end of this verse when I began to wonder if I still had areas in my life… especially since Piper’s homegoing… where I still CREAK like a rusty gate?

Dictionary.com informs us that the word “CREAK” is defined as “making a sharp, harsh, grating or squeaking sound; or to show weakness or frailty under strain.”

So, I laughed initially, for at my age there are many times when my hips or particularly my knees seem to “CREAK” and grate when I bend down or stand up… but I also laughed with a tinge of sadness, because there have been times during my current period of DISCOVERY when having to go places and or do things that used to be second nature for Piper and I to do together… sort of “CREAKED” or grated against my weakened confidence to do them on my own!

But while I may have had to temporarily say goodbye to the LOVE of my life… there is another LOVING Presence that has not and will never leave me… or you, for that matter!  And that is the LOVE of Jesus Christ and the truth of His Word, for Whom Psalm 23:4 in The Passion Translation promises us that,

“…The comfort of Your LOVE takes away my fear. I’ll never be lonely, for YOU are near.” 

And it is the intimate knowing of His LOVE for me that has been the firm foundation on which I have established my footing… and the cure for my “CREAKING” while I DISCOVER the next plan, vision and DREAM that He has for me to complete.*

Then there is I Corinthians 13:7 which also assures us that the believing and DOING of God’s LOVE,

“Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.” (The Message) 

So, that is the story of what been happening with me.  It’s the story of my new days of DISCOVERY and it is the answer and peace that I have found through the never ending, constant companionship of Jesus and His Word… that tells me of His LOVE for me.

It is also the story of my future… and it can be yours as well!  Just reach out, take His hand, trust in Him always and go forth into your new days of DISCOVERY ahead!

Have a great rest of the week, and as you do… keep expecting to DISCOVER God’s best for your life!

*See: Ephesians 3:17-21

Farsightedness

I think that one of the most important lessons that I learned through some 35 plus years of active church ministry and leadership, was the importance of my words… what I said, when I said it and how I said it.  I cringe at times today, when I think of some of the dumb and thoughtless things that I said during my early years as a young Youth Minister at the first church we served in. 

Biblically speaking… I really didn’t know much of anything!  I did have some natural education and training from college classes as a Recreation Administration major during my time at Chico State, but I was still a rather young pup when it came to my understanding of the truths of God’s Word. I am thankful for the assistance and patience of my mature Christian wife and for my innate hunger to learn new things that enabled me to read books, research curriculums and attend training classes for most anything that had to do with Youth Ministry!

What took more time and experience… and learning from my mistakes though, was my ability to think before I spoke and not let just any silly remark escape my lips when in one-on-one conversation with another individual.

One of my long-time favorite and well-used scriptures… the first verse I ever memorized during those early years while attending our first Junior High Snow camp… is found in 2 Timothy 1:7 where the Apostle Paul gave vital advice to his young protégé saying:

“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (KJV) 

This scripture also has a special place in my heart, as the Pastor of our church once confided in me and shared that I reminded him of young Timothy in the Bible… a complement that I have never forgotten and tried to live up to throughout the years since then.

I felt led to take another look at this verse during my personal Bible Study time yesterday and did a deep dive into the final phrase, in order to get a better understanding of Paul’s thoughts behind God giving us “a sound mind.”  It is explained in the original language as having “moderation, self-discipline and prudence” (Thayer’s and Mounce)  The Oxford Online Dictionary defines “prudence” as “wisdom, judiciousness, common sense, discretion, far-sightedness and good management.”

The idea of “far-sightedness” clicked within me, so I further checked with the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and discovered that it means to have “the ability to anticipate and plan for the future.”  Well… that gave me an almost instant “A Ha!” moment, causing me to lean back in my squeaky desk chair* and think aloud, “In other words… to stop and consider the effect of what your current comments (or words) could have, down the line, in the future.”

Let me give you a personal example.  When Piper got sick and her diagnosis was made clear, there were things said and done by a few individuals that really surprised, hurt, upset and frustrated me.  And to be honest, as my whole world seemed to be collapsing around me with the starkness of the medical analysis of my wife’s life-threatening condition… there were a few choice things that I wanted to say to these folks!

But like I stated previously, there were lessons that I had learned concerning the need for me to take responsibility for my words… and those experiences helped me to keep my mouth shut… when it came to my personal thoughts on what was said.  I understood that people were hurting and that we all handle needy situations in different ways and whether these folks would later remember what was said and done or not… I didn’t want to add fuel to the fire and destroy future relationships.  I also acted in order to honor my wife… and it didn’t hurt that my older son had wisely told me that “Someone has to be the adult in the situation!”

It has taken a lot of practice over the years… with lots of trial and error, but it has become much easier these days for me to stop and think for a moment about what would be the right thing to say… before I speak… that would best fit and bless the current conversation and assure for the best future outcome.  Piper was unique in her family in that she had the knack to seemingly always say the right thing… even… and maybe especially… in the midst of heated or tense situations.  It was something that I always admired in her.

2 Corinthians 5:15 tells us “For it is Christ’s love that fuels our passion and motivates us…” (TPT) and I’ve come to see and then learn personally, that Christ’s LOVE is precisely the power that motivated Piper with just about everything she believed, said and did.

So, what do you think about all that?  Have you ever considered the responsibility that each one of us has over the comments and/or words that we speak to others?  I’ve come to see it as a must in my life… and I think that the Apostle Paul would also agree with me.

Have a great week, and as you do… Keep EXPECTING God’s best in your life and then share that best through your words to others!

 

*See: our last blog post entitled “Screeching Words”, http://pjberruto.blogspot.com/2022/04/screeching-words.html

Screeching Words...

I have an older desk chair that I bartered for way-back-when in 1992.  It definitely has that ‘80’s chrome business look and sports a green seat cover that has never matched anything in any room it’s been in over the years, but it has held up well and is still very comfortable and supportive in all the right places.  It has also traveled across country on numerous occasions during our various moves over the years.

Lately though, it has developed a loud screech when I rotate it to the left or right… so much so that it definitely has gained the mis-taste of my dog… and tends to pull my concentration away from whatever story I am writing at the moment and make me focus on the sound it makes… I’ve been known to get so involved in my writing, be it this blog, or a puppet skit or a play or a song… that I lose all sense of time and activity around me… only to be drawn back, in the past, to reality at the sound of my sweet wife’s voice gently calling “JIM!”

I’ve tried my usual go-to remedy of WD 40 on all the moving parts and springs that I can see, but to no avail.  My next step will have to include a few tools in order to remove the seat and explore the unseen workings underneath!  But it doesn’t make the ear-piercing noise every time and in fact, I had forgotten about it temporarily, until I was reminded of it this morning when I read from I Corinthians 13:1 in The Message Bible which declared,

“If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.” 

I’ve opened some gates and car doors alike, that make a lot of uncomfortable-to-the-ears noises when they are opened… haven’t you?  The driver’s side door on my parent’s old 1951 Chevy definitely liked to screech at times when it was opened… especially when I would slowly and romantically open the door for my high school sweetheart to slide onto the front seat next to me.  The high-pitched sound tended to spoil the ambiance of the moment after a dinner date at a nice restaurant and a quiet handholding walk back to the car!

The King James version references this sound to that of a “tinkling cymbal” with the word “tinkling” meaning, “to vociferate, that is, (by implication) to wail; figuratively to clang, or to raise the war cry.” (Strong’s/Mounce)  In other words… it is not only an irritating sound, but can cause one to become anxious, like as the sound of an enemy’s war cry… sort of like the fear that the Confederate Rebel Yell elicited in the ranks of the northern armies on the battlefield during the Civil War.

I learned many lessons about the God kind of LOVE, along the way of our final journey with Piper’s declining health.  I have first-hand experience of words of LOVE being spoken without the actions and heart motive to back them up.  This false interpretation of God’s true LOVE resulted with the sound penetrating my ears with the same power and discomfort of a loud, ear-piercing screech.  On the other hand, I have had people I didn’t even know stop and share heart-felt words of LOVE, that they offered to back up with action, that were received into my hurting heart like the sweet, soothing salve of the balm of Gilead (See: Jeremiah 8:22).

I Corinthians 13:7 informs us that the DOING of the God kind of LOVE,

“Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.”  (MSG) 

I discovered the hard way… that the imitations of God’s LOVE can stop the progress of God’s intervention in our lives.  They can easily cause the one on the receiving end of such false information to be side tracked into questioning their own faith or be drawn into the arena of anger that generates fear and unforgiveness… while the purveyors of such mistaken and thoughtless words can end up losing all positive contact with those with whom they spoke.  For those who either knowingly or unknowingly share such untruths, it leads down a slippery slope that can eventually end up without a way out!

I am pretty sure that most of you would agree that true Godly LOVE isn’t always the easiest or most convenient way to enter into someone’s life, but it definitely is the right choice to bring a healing balm into the midst of any situation.  I like the way that The Passion Translation states the Apostle Paul’s concluding thoughts of the God kind of LOVE while we all wait for the second coming of Christ saying:

“Until then, there are three things that remain: faith, hope, and love—yet love surpasses them all. So above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run.”  I Corinthians 13:13 

That’s gonna be my plan… to live the rest of my life with the God Kind of LOVE in my words, actions and heart, being the beautiful prize for which I run!

How about you?

I pray that you all have a spectacular weekend.  Ours is supposed to turn warm and sunny… with a noticeable absence (I hope) of the strong winds we’re still experiencing today!  These winds may not emit a screeching sound, but they do vibrate off the trees, windows and our glass chines on the front porch to produce a low, tingling roar that most definitely is unsettling to my dog!  He and I will both be happy when they stop!

But until then, we are… as well as I believe that you are… EXPECTING God’s best in our lives!

ONE DAY

I was feeling kind of wiped out this morning as I sat in my study, reading my Bible and holding on tightly to the morning elixir in my insulated coffee mug.  Last night had been a long night.  I knew that a night of spring storms was supposed to be keeping us company and wasn’t that surprised when I heard the awaking call of the clap of thunder around 1:30 AM.  The lightening and accompanying thunder booms were on the loud side and seemed to be coming on the scene with an unusual amount of regularity.  So, I got up and wandered into my study where I knew that the dog would be hiding… under my desk!

And sure enough, he greeted me with a very questionable look on his face and seemed to be attempting to move his bulk even deeper into the cavern between the chair and the wall.  There had been a severe thunderstorm warning issued earlier in the evening, but none of my weather apps said anything about the potential of tornadoes.   But just in case, I went back into my bedroom and grabbed my portable emergency broadcast radio and returned to the study where I sat on the floor next to the dog, to render comfort when necessary.

He wasn’t shaking so I knew that he was handling the noise pretty well!  After a while I returned to my bed and tried to sleep… but alas… sleep seemed to evade me!  So, I spent the next couple of hours reading, checking on the dog, praying and then reading some more.  Sometime in the midst of that activity, the thunderstorms quieted and I must have finally fallen asleep. 

The next thing I knew, I was hearing the dog moving around on the floor next to my bed and I was almost 20 minutes past my normal wakeup time… and I am sure that Fiver wanted me to stick to our normal morning schedule so that he could have his breakfast on time!

And so there I was a little while later, chugging my coffee and desperately trying to see and think through the fog that still seemed be enveloping me.  It didn’t help that it was still raining and unusually dark outside, but the coffee did help along with my absorption of the energy-packed Word of God!

So then, as I was reading through Paul’s definitive chapter on the God-kind of love, in I Corinthians 13, I found myself drawn to a particular phrase that he kept repeating in verses 11 and 12 where he wrote,

“When I was a child, I spoke about childish matters, for I saw things like a child and reasoned like a child. But the day came when I matured, and I set aside my childish ways.  For now we see but a faint reflection of riddles and mysteries as though reflected in a mirror, but one day we will see face-to-face. My understanding is incomplete now, but one day I will understand everything, just as everything about me has been fully understood.” (TPT)

Most Biblical scholars that I’ve read, Pastors and Bible School instructors and the writers of the majority of the Bible commentaries that I own, agree that the “One Day” that Paul is writing about, is when Jesus arrives at the time of His second coming.  The Message Bible, in talking about this day when things will be completed for us, seems to confirm this by directly referring to the one coming as “The Complete” with a capitalized “C” saying,

“But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.” 

In my sleep-deprived induced state of energy deficiency this morning, I suddenly had a “Come to Jesus” moment when I sat at my desk in awe-struck wonder and realized that my sweet, departed wife is NOW living in her “ONE DAY” that the Apostle Paul wrote about!  WHOA! 

Think about that for a few moments!  Piper and every other loved one that has gone on to their heavenly reward before us, is NOW present in that “ONE DAY” standing and seeing and understanding the TRUTH, “face to face” with Jesus where they “understand everything, just as everything about them has been fully understood.”  

As I searched for personal comprehension of those thoughts, I found myself imagining what it will be like when I get there and enter into that “ONE DAY,” standing “face to face” with the COMPLETER Jesus!  What would you do, think and say in the midst of your personal “ONE DAY” promotion in life?  WOW!

One of my first thoughts reverted back to something that I had read in the previous wee hours of our thunderstorm experience today, where the evangelist Smith Wigglesworth quoted Paul’s words in Galatians 2:20 when he enthusiastically wrote about his own need to be free of himself and full of God saying,

“I live in a relationship with God (where) I have been crucified with Christ.  I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live I live by believing in God's Son, who loved me and took the punishment for my sins.” (God’s Word ©) 

Those words cut deep down into my heart and make me want to be free from me and my self-driven desires and be instead, as full as I can of “CHRIST (who) lives in me” …when I come “face to face” with Jesus in my “ONE DAY” time of life…

How about you?

“ONE DAY” …I wonder what will it be like?  Don’t you?  I can only imagine and have read enough books about heaven since Piper’s homegoing, that I have a little bit of an idea of how AMAZING and WONDERFUL it will be.  So, I aim to strive to live my life demonstrating less of me and more of JESUS in my daily walk.  Wouldn’t you think that’s a good idea for all of us?

Have a good day… and as soon as I fully wake-up… I EXPECT to do the same!