Come On Home!

When I officially started dating my wife during the second week of school during our senior year in high school, it was an instant connection!  I had dated or what would probably better be defined as “hung out” with another young lady (a mutual friend of ours) during the summer between our junior and senior year, but it was more of a general friendship than anything else.  When Piper and I started our daily routine of walks through the school corridors and around the P.E. fields at lunch, it was like we had known each other all of our lives.  Ha… we even got in trouble by the school principal for walking in front of the school at lunch because we were holding hands in public!  That’s why we switched to the fields that were not visible from his office windows!  (Ah come on... you would have done the same thing!)

But like I said, it was an immediate connection of our hearts.  I felt like I could share ANYTHING with her and she felt the same with me.  In some respects, it was kind of uncanny!  During those early times together we shared openly and intimately from the deepest recesses of our hearts with total trust in each other.  And that is a practice that has continued throughout our 43 years together. 

I think that this is probably the hardest part of living with my wife’s current battle with Alzheimer’s.  Even though I still intimately share with her on a daily basis, the conversation is pretty much one sided as she no longer has the ability (in the natural) to fully comprehend and/or respond back to me with more than just a few short words of agreement or understanding.  This breach in the unique intimacy that made us one in union through Christ, the ability to almost think and act as one, the foundation that made us a team in life is almost unbearable at times, but as I have mentioned before, it is my continually fed faith and focus on Jesus and His Word that keeps me together during the roughest times.

This morning as I was reading about intimacy with God from my new book “Signs, Wonders and a Baptist Preacher” by Chad Norris, a Southern Baptist Pastor in South Carolina, I thought about all of this and then suddenly began to consider how our loving heavenly Father must feel when we breach the intimacy we once had with Him.  In Jeremiah 9:23 -24 the Lord tells us that people should not brag about their worldly wisdom, strength or riches, but “if they want to brag, they should brag that they understand and know me.” (God’s Word ©)  The word “know” is the Hebrew word “yada” which refers to an intimate knowledge of God.  In the Greek it is translated “ginosko” which is the word used in Ephesians 3:19 where Paul prays for us “to know the love of Christ.”  Once again talking about an intimacy such as shared between a husband and wife.

Just as I long for a return of that intimacy between my wife and I, the Lord longs for that intimacy between you and Him as well.  Such a closeness that His thoughts and His words and His actions becomes yours.  Where our loving heavenly Father and you become as one!  Isn’t it about time that you came back into that meaningful, unique and wonderful relationship with Him?  He is just waiting to hear your voice again.  Let this weekend be the re-beginning of a budding relationship and closeness to our heavenly Father.  Have a great weekend.  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today?”

Lost Innocence...

This morning as I settled into my study time in the quiet of the cool, foggy morning, I was immediately drawn back into my thoughts on the simplicity of the Gospel.  I recalled back in the late ‘70’s and 80’s when I was excitedly hungry for and to be honest, rather ignorant of the things of God.  As I have told parts of this story before, we left the Baptist church that my wife had grown up in and where I had served as Youth Minister because we desired to know more about God.  It was not that the church was not a loving, soul-winning congregation, but because it seemed that salvation was as far as they got.  Like I said, we were hungry and wanted to go deeper into the full Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I clearly remember when we walked into that motel room on January 1, 1983 where the little Christian fellowship pastored by a Rhema Bible Training College graduate was meeting, and sitting there totally captivated by the depth of the Word that flowed from the Pastor’s lips.  Those were exciting times.  It was like my wife and I and our growing family could not get enough of the Word.  We attended every service we could, which was pretty much everyone!  For six months we traveled over an hour one way each Sunday morning to lead Praise and Worship as our church conducted another service in another town, we met for long fellowships with the Pastor and his family (with their five very rambunctious boys), and simply soaked in the Word!

There were many firsts for us during those years.  We saw people’s legs grow out right in front of our eyes, witnessed the healing of backs, saw people receive financial miracles (including ourselves a time or two!), we were involved in countless moves of the Spirit of God during all kinds of services and were also a part of countless individuals joining the family of God.

But as I thought on all that this morning, I realized that in some respects, much of that excitement had become lost in me.  It would seem that we took much of the simplicity and innocence of living the Gospel and turned it into a religious show.  Like I’ve said repeatedly, I think we as a church, became more interested in the demonstrations of the power of God than in the individual of Jesus Christ Himself.  What I am coming to clearly understand once again, is that the demonstrations of God’s power are simply a natural side effect of our intimate, personal relationship to the One who is the power of God, Jesus Christ! 

We as a church need to be more focused on the person of Jesus Christ than on the power.  This morning a new spark of excitement was rekindled inside of me!  I look forward to getting back to where I was in the late ‘70’ and ‘80’s.  And what is really exciting is that this time I am re-gaining the innocent excitement and expectation with the additional wisdom and knowledge of the things of God that I have accumulated over 35+ years of Christian experience, through Bible School, and hands on church leadership.  Wow!  I can hardly wait to see what exciting adventures in faith await me!

So I would encourage you today to put aside religious traditions, the mistakes of the past, and any showmanship of the faith and ask our loving heavenly Father to return you to, or in some cases give you for the first time, an innocent, exciting and expectant relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.  That’s what true Christianity is all about.  That’s the simplicity of the Gospel.  Simply seek Him and His righteousness with all your heart “and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33 KJV)  Wow… what a life… kinda like the book of Acts!

Have a great day today.  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today?”

The Filling Station

When I went in to wake up my wife this morning, she was laying with head in her hand on the pillow.  As I knelt down at her side and spoke to her… okay I not only spoke but I sang a few “Good Morning” choruses to her as well, I noticed that the light from the window to her right was being reflected in the diamond on her wedding ring.  (the same ring I purchased with my mom from a long departed jewelry store in downtown Santa Rosa in the summer of 1973)  With our proximity to the coast, it was a typical foggy summer morning here in Northern California, so it wasn’t the sun that was being reflected but the brightness bouncing off the cloud cover!  It is not unusual to go spend the day on one of our county beaches on an overcast day and still come home red as a beet!

What was different this morning though was that the light reflecting off the large diamond on the engagement ring that is set between two smaller ones on the wedding band seemed to be blinking!  This caused me to stop talking and touch her hand to see if she was shaking, which she wasn’t, and then bend over and look up out the partially opened blinds to see if anything was blinking outside.  After looking all around I deduced that there was nothing unusual going on to cause the phenomenon, but yet the diamond seemed to be blinking on and off!

After having just read a section in the new book I am reading (Signs, Wonders and a Baptist Preacher by Chad Norris) on how God’s supernatural should be natural to Christians, I leaned back on my knees and said, “Okay Lord, what are you trying to show me?”  And being the extremely sensitive to the voice of God individual that I am… I heard absolutely NOTHING!  So I just stared at the light that continued to blink and then started reading aloud from a couple of pages of healing scriptures to my wife.

As I personalized the verses so it was like the Lord was speaking directly to and about Piper, I began to sense His presence in and around her.  It was then that the meaning of the light dawned on me.  It was as if the Lord was giving me a visible window into His working on the inside of her in providing a healing and a cure.  I suddenly recalled a conversation with our last Pastor when he was talking about all the WORD that Piper has inside of her.  That WORD along with the new additions we were adding this morning are “spirit and life” (John 6:63) to her!  Maybe… just maybe… that light that seemed to be blinking on her wedding ring wasn’t a reflection from the light outside our window, but the light of His life that is working inside of her!

Is that light blinking from the inside of you today?  Are you continually filling up on His light of life that works on the inside of you when you need it… or are you running on empty?  Maybe its time to stop at the filling station.  Have a great day.  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today?”

Doing The Right Thing!

Yesterday afternoon I was talking on the phone to an older friend.  I had done a lot of work for this lady at her home before we went to Oklahoma and then again after we returned and I had quit my position at The Home Depot.  She was one of the few people that supported, counseled and encouraged me in those hard days when Piper was first diagnosed and we began to fully understand the drastic changes that were unfolding in her health.  As we talked, she began to tell about how amazed she was at the way I hung in there with my consistent care and positive attitude concerning my lovely wife.

When she inquired as to how I do it, I simply told her without any hesitation, that it is because I keep my eyes focused on the truth of God’s Word and NOT on what I see!  With that she commented that she couldn’t do it and doesn’t possess that kind of faith. (This coming from a women that single-handedly took care of her sick and dying husband for years before he passed away in their home about ten years ago.  That’s why I began to work for her as her home on 2 acres had been neglected during that time as she was so focused on her husband’s care!)

As we talked about it, I let her know that I work on keeping that focus strong each day.  I shared a little bit of our regular schedule in the Word beginning with my daily quiet time for an hour or so each morning before I get my wife up and then the way I read to my wife from various books on healing and recite healing scriptures at specific times throughout the day, up until the time she goes to sleep at night.  It is just part of our regular daily activities that we have made to be a high priority.

As I read from Philippians 4:8 this morning, the Lord confirmed that we were doing the right thing in keeping our attention on the Word.  It says, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” (KJV)

What was especially encouraging to me was what I noticed when I looked up some of the original Greek words mentioned in this verse.  In particular I learned that “if there be any virtue” is actually talking about doing the right thing, that which is constituted as “manliness, bravery or strength of mind in regard to danger.” (Strong’s)  In other words, real strength of character is demonstrated by keeping focused on and trusting in God’s Word!

According to God’s definition then, it takes a real man or a real women to make it important enough to spend regular times in the Word in order to stay on top of the daily situations that we face!  Deuteronomy 28:13 tells us that we will be “the head, and not the tail” as we “observe and do” (KJV) what it says in the Word.  But in order to do this successfully it has to be so in you, that you do it automatically, and that comes only by staying in and focused on His Word on a regular basis.

It is the only thing that has kept me going in the darkest of nights, when friends and family questioned my character (even to the point of implying that I was stupid!) and especially when I see a beautiful, talented, vivacious, loving, strong and confident women of God fighting the battle of her life!  So what will it be for you… the world or the Word?  For me the answer is simple: “but, as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15 KJV)  Have a good day.  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today?”

The Fog is Burning Off!

When I finally gave up and pulled myself out of bed this morning, following a night tussling with strange dreams and long periods of sleeplessness, I opened the living room blinds to a dark and dreary looking morning!  And that certainly didn’t help the mood I was fighting to get out of!  So what did I do?  I shuffled into the kitchen and got a pot of Toasted Hazelnut coffee brewing in the coffee maker.

From there I sort of felt my way into the study, angled my feet around the dog who has taken to sleeping under my computer desk in the nook that the chair fits into, and began to read my notes from my weekend quiet times on Philippians 4:4-7.  By the time I got to verse seven from the NIV Bible where it says that “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”  I was feeling noticeably better!

As I meditated on that special place of peace and then read the verse from numerous other translations that I had scattered across my desk area, things began to look brighter around me.  Now mind you, it was still as dark and dreary outside the window as it was when I got up, but I was beginning to see things a little differently!  Suddenly a light went on inside and it transcended the blah, tired and bleak way I had previously felt!  Hallelujah!  God’s Word Works!

Now as I sit at the kitchen table approximately four hours after I dragged myself up, the sun is pouring in the windows, the sky is bright blue, the fog has burned off and the thermometer hanging on our patio cover is rising past a glorious 70 degrees!  That scene outside our kitchen is a vivid reminder of how God can (over a relatively short span of time) change our outlook when we are down and feeling alone in life, into a blooming, sun-shiny outpouring of His love.

Sure, I’m still a little tired after last night’s events, but my attitude is positive and my expectations of God’s goodness happening in and through my life today is continuing to expand.  Why?  Because I fed on the Word instead of feeding my feelings!  Isn’t God Good!

So… enjoy a meal of His Word today and let the nutritional fortifications of His truth turn your dark and dreary, fog shrouded morning into a bright and expectant day!  And then… have a great day.  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today?”

Drive 'Em Crazy!

Our house is set amongst a group of similarly designed cluster homes situated in a beautiful park like arrangement.  Most of the homes are formed into groups of four with three of their patios connected to the each other.  Meandering pathways lined by impeccable green lawns, lush greenery and tall trees intertwine their way in between the different homes.  If there is anything that might detract from living here it would be the closeness of the residences.  But it is a pretty tight-knit and friendly community which tends to negate any potential problems.

As I meditate on the Word in the quiet of the early morning in my study, I enjoy glancing out the large window that sits to the left of my desk area and enjoy the picturesque scene outside the window.  Almost every week day that stillness is broken as my neighbor’s door bangs open and the Mom and her two little kids come out, as I assume she is off to work and the kids possibly to daycare.  It is an enjoyable sight to me as the little boy usually is the first one out and bursts upon the pathway with joyful frolic, running across the wet grass and jumping up and down on the sidewalk as Mom attempts to wrangle him and his younger sister to her side and shoo them down the walk to the parking area.

I would imagine that Mom has all kinds of things on her mind including the time, the events scheduled that day at the office, dropping off the kids and a myriad of other important items.  To the cute little boy though, his only thoughts are of the moment and the fun and games at hand!  Their daily antics always put a smile in my heart as I watch them scampering down the path with Mom carrying her purse and a large satchel full of the kids things with both arms around the kids pushing them toward the car while both of the young ones skip merrily along the way!

Those precious kids are doing exactly what Paul encourages us to do through Philippians 4:4 were he says to “Rejoice in the Lord always.  Again I say, rejoice!”  (NKJV)  My neighbor’s kids aren’t concerned or worried about the day, they are just happy to enjoy the events happening before them.  I’m sure that they are secure in trusting their Mom and Dad and are therefore free to rejoice!

And you know what?  That’s exactly how you and I should be because of our secure trust in our heavenly Father and the truth of His Word!  It is the kind of lifestyle that He wants us to pursue in our daily lives.  A couple verses later Paul even goes so far as to tell us to “Never worry about anything, (but just) pray and ask God for everything you need…” (Philippians 4:6 Easy-To-Read Version) 

Can you imagine the audacity of the Apostle making such an outrageous statement?  How could he possibly even think that we could, or would even want to not worry about everything that we are faced with each day?  Worry is what we’re supposed to do isn’t it?  Why, people will think of me as being uncaring if I don’t worry!

Well, your right!  Many will think that you are uncaring and many other things if you don’t respond in anxiousness and worry when troubled times arise in your life!  I can personally vouch for that!  But it is what God tells us to do BECAUSE once we put the situation into His hands it is out of our control and in His!  Therefore, we’ve got NOTHING to worry or be anxious about, for Romans 8:28 tells us that “All things work together for good to them who love God…” (God’s Word ©)

I guess it all boils down to the question of what you are looking at once you commit the situation to God.  Are you keeping your eyes on the physical situation or on the impossible possibilities of the all-powerful and all-knowing and all-loving God?  I had close relatives rip into my kids with questions and accusations about why (they thought) I was doing so little to help out our situation soon after my wife’s problems were diagnosed.  There were big concerns being voiced about our finances, medical care costs and our living quarters among other things.

Once we received the official diagnosis (or “name”) of her health problem, my wife and I immediately went to the Lord, commanded the disease to bow it’s knee before the mighty name of Jesus (see: Philippians 2:9-11) and then began to rejoice and thank the Lord for her total and complete healing.  At that point the problem was totally in His hands… so why worry about it any longer?  From that point on we walked around with a smile on our faces and peace in our hearts.

As far as finances, we were actually doing okay at the time as my re-established lawn-care business was growing, I was on part-time staff at our church and we had money saved in case of emergency.  Obviously also unbeknownst to those questioning our ability, was that I had already been pursuing medical care aid and insurance programs for quite a few months, was in the process of filling out the required paperwork and we were just waiting for the required waiting period to be completed before we could physically apply.  So as far as we were concerned, everything in the natural was in motion and in the spiritual realm, God was (and still is) working steadily behind the scenes!  I had quietly and confidently done my part by pursuing all the avenues to stabilize our situation and we were confident that God was doing His part.

From this personal experience, I can almost guarantee it that when you DO Philippians 4:4-6 people, even some seemingly strong Christians, will get upset when you DON’T WORRY after you’ve asked God for help!  They’ll say that it’s just not natural to NOT WORRY!  Well, I guess their right… It’s not natural, it’s SUPERNATURAL!

So… (He! He!) if you want to drive some people around you absolutely crazy, just be happy, full of joy and rejoice as you cast your cares upon the Lord and NOT WORRY about ANYTHING!  Then after the initial confusion at your response wears off, they might just ask you WHY?  Then you’ll have an open door to share of your faithful and unshakeable trust in the Lord and how much He LOVES you and THEM!  Have a great weekend.  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What JOY am I expecting today?”

Eleven Different Herbs and Spices

Over the last week I have been contemplating the idea of the “simplicity of the Gospel.”  I came upon this view in my personal journey through and questioning of just about everything I thought that I believed in my Christian walk.  As I have mentioned before, the battle that my wife and I have been facing had forced me to take a serious look at everything I stood for.  My thought being that if we are to beat this attack upon her health, then I needed to be very secure and unshakably trusting in what I understand to be God’s truth on the matter.

What I have discovered is that not much has changed in what I believe, but yet everything is different!  Sound confusing?  Well it's not, really.  I still firmly believe that it is God’s will to heal all, as Jesus demonstrated through His actions when He physically ministered to people on this earth, that God’s Word is the ultimate truth on every matter and for every situation, and that God the Father has established certain spiritual rules that govern how things work for us according to His kingdom principles and authority.

But what I have come to intimately learn, as I have been writing about lately, is that all of this is to be seasoned with copious, heaping helpings of His love as demonstrated through His grace toward each of us.  I am coming to believe that because He loves us so much, that everything that I believe in His Word is not always as black and white as I used to think.  Please don’t get me wrong here.  I still believe that there is right and wrong, and specific do’s and don’ts, but yet they must be filtered through His grace.

With all this in mind, I am coming to understand that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is much more simple than many of us have made it out to be!  I believe that God wants us to simply take His Word for what it says and not try to turn it into a complicated series of steps or formulas that must be followed in order for It to work in our lives.  I think that He would have us to take it at face value (but not out of context) and:

¹⁾ Read it,

²⁾ come to Know it personally and intimately,

³⁾ Obey it, and  

⁴⁾ Expect it to do what it says it will do!

As my sweet wife and I have walked along the path that we currently find ourselves on, we have received all kinds of “counsel” from well-meaning people close to us that has been rather limiting with a sort of “my way or the highway” mentality, implying that their way is the ONLY way that God will work in our situation.  Be it one particular manner of receiving her healing, the dependence on natural foods, vitamins, and eleven different herbs and spices (oophs… sorry, that sounds like a Colonel Sanders ad… forget the herbs and spices… but you get my point!) or that there is simply nothing left for me to do but hope and pray that she gets some faith before it’s too late!

But you know… as I continually pour through the Word, I see a God that loves my wife with a love that has no measure, no end and a countless array of ways to reach her!  To put it rather simply, God tells us that His “Love never fails” and that it “Never comes to an end.” (I Corinthians 13:8 NKJV/God’s Word ©)  And to me, that is the bottom line and foundation of the ENTIRE gospel!

I’m sure that I’ll have more thoughts on the simplicity of the gospel in the coming days as I continue to seek Him on this subject.  But for now, I would challenge each of you to consider just how simple and straight forward His Word is.  Read it from the viewpoint of how much He LOVES YOU!  Don’t make it complicated, just accept His love and with heaping helpings of GRACE, share it with someone else.  Have a great day.  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today?”