Grace out of nowhere!

"The grace of God is His unmerited love for His people proven through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ."

Ever thought much about the grace that brought you to the cross and delivered you into eternal salvation through Jesus Christ? I never thought much about the details, just always understood it was God's grace which is simply God's unmerited favor towards those who will Believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Well, this brings me to a little story I wanted to share.

A little over one hundred and fifty years ago in a rather large community of England a huge prospering church had started three smaller mission churches on the outskirts of town. These churches happened to be in the slums and more poor areas of the community. However, often they would gather at the mother church for one large communion service. People from every church would gather at one location to observe the sacraments of communion.

At the alter area where a communion rail was set up you would have former thieves, burglars, rapist, murderers, bankers, lawyers, doctors, housewives, etc all lined up observing communion together. On one particular special service event a young pastor observed two people taking communion side by side at the rail.

He knew the background behind both men. Neither of these men seemed to realize they were even next to each other at the communion rail. However, the pastor certainly did. You see the one on the left was a Supreme Court Judge out of England. Next to him was a former hardened criminal described further as a thief. This judge had sentenced this thief to several years in prison years before. Now, they are both at the same table, kneeling before the same God in communion.

The story goes on to tell us the burglar or thief once out of prison was converted to Christianity shortly after that. His life change was proven in the years of Christian work and the fact he had left the old life of being a thief behind.

After this particular service, the judge and the pastor were walking home together when the judge ask the pastor if he knew who was kneeling at the communion rail beside him on his right.

The pastor was stunned at the question, because he had assumed the judge hadn't noticed. "Yes I did", said the pastor, "but I didn't think you had noticed."

The two walked along in silence for several more minutes when the judge spoke, "What a miracle grace is."

The pastor replied with a simple, "Yes, what a wonderful grace."

The judge assuming the pastor did not understand his meaning asked, "But to whom do you refer?"

"Well, of course to the conversion of the thief!", the pastor confidently replied.

The judge quickly came back with, "I am not referring to the thief, I am speaking of myself."

The pastor stopped walking and with squinted eyes said, "You're thinking of yourself? I certainly don't understand what you are talking about."

The judge gently begin to explain, "Yes, I am referring to myself in this matter of grace. You see, it didn't cost the thief very much to get converted when he was released from prison. I am not downplaying his conversion, I am speaking of the amount of grace upon the thief. I mean, the thief had nothing but a history of burglary, stealing, thieving, and so on. He could only respond to Christ with a big YES when Jesus came calling him. He had nothing within himself to fall back on to keep him from it. But look at me and my life on the other hand. I was born into a family who were Believers, they brought me up in the church, they taught me from early on in my childhood to be truthful, not steal, to be an upstanding person in the community. I mean I went to Oxford University and received all these wonderful degrees eventually becoming a judge. So, pastor, I want you to understand that nothing but grace could save a person like me. Only the grace of God could make me admit I needed a Savior. Only grace could penetrate such a snobby heart to see that I was just as bad a sinner as any person I had put behind bars. Pastor, it took more grace to bring me to salvation than the thief I was kneeling beside at the communion service today."

Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith and this not from yourselves, it is a gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast."

Interesting view of the grace of God isn't it. Do you understand what it took to bring you to salvation? I feel much like the judge. To bring an upstanding person to the throne of grace is such an odd thing, but yet it is still unmerited favor with God. I don't deserve His grace or His salvation anymore than anyone else does. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

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Forgiven & Forgotten!

"What a tremendous gift from God it is when we are able to forgive and let go of others ills against us - forigve & forget! This is the way our Lord deals with us, when we genuinely ask for forgiveness in repentance, God forgives & it is as if we never committed the sin which made us an enemy to Him in the first place.

I read a story the other day about a young seminary professor who would always introduce his New Testament class with a story from his past.

He and his dad were close and one day he told his dad a lie which hurt his father deeply. For years this young man grew older, but let the lie go unresolved. Guilt built up inside him about the lie and eventually a sense of tremendous remorse began to knaw inside of him. So, finally he sat down and wrote his dad a letter.

In the letter, he reminded his dad of the incident which he lied to him in case he did not remember. He explained in genuine tone his remorse over the lie and asked forgiveness without any explanation or excuse for the lie. The man went about his days when fairly quickly a reply letter came from his dad. It simply read, "Sure I remember the incident and YES your are forgiven!".

To the son this was a tremendious weight lifted from his shoulders as he had carried the weight of the unresolved lie for years. The further payoff came many years later when his mother and father both were much older, became ill, and died within a few months of each other.

He was the oldest child, so it was he duty to go to the parents home and start the process of sifting through their belongings. He ventured into the attic and found an old trunk with many momentos they had kept throughout their life together. Everything that was really precious to them monitarily was in that trunk.

As he was wiping tears away at the memories his parents had kept from he and his siblings childhood years, he came across that letter he had sent to his dad asking his forgiveness. He wiped the tears back, opened up the letter to re-read what he had written. As he turned the letter over on the backside was written in his father's own handwriting a word "FORGIVEN!" and it was underlined. His father had forgiven him and when his dad was done with something and beyond he would write it down and underline it meaning "finished".

By the letter being in that old trunk of mementos, with the word FORGIVEN written on it was his dads way of saying I have no unfinished business in this trunk. This was a tremendous gift his dad had given to him not only at the time of the reply letter, but years later when he found the letter as a treasure and the word FORGIVEN written on it. His dad had relinquished all traces of the hurt, the resentment, and the bitterness over the years.

In the same way, our heavenly Father will forgive us when we are genuinely remorseful and repentent before Him. I understand from my own experience, we sometimes need to ask for forgiveness from someone, and at other times we need to simply forgive someone and let go of the hurt and pain they might have caused. Either way forgiveness whether given by us or received by us is a gift from God to be treasured. God is here to help us in either situation.

In Matthew 6:14-15 Jesus tells us, "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." This is speaking about an attitude of heart and action from that attitude.

Geroge Herbert once wrote - "He who cannot forgive others breaks the brdige over which he must pass himself."

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Taste His Goodness & Thirst For More!

Have you ever tasted the goodness of God after a long thirsty spell, and yet once the thirst was quenched by God Himself, you end up thirsting for more? We are never completely aware of how much grace we need from God, but once tasting His goodness we find He has more waiting for us & wants us to desire Him even more. Read Ps 42:1-2

It is amazing to me how thirsty we can get even after having just drank our fill from a never ending stream of water. His grace never stops flowing as I continue to thirst for Him even when I have been filled. Most of us lack that authentic burning desire for our Triune God, but He wants to be wanted! In His sovereign ways He will move us to thirst after Him mostly by pouring out His grace all over us. Also, His mercies are delivered to us fresh each morning many times even as we sleep. How could we ever not want our God after experiencing His gracious goodness...it makes me thirst for Him even more!

It is a spiritually dry land we live in today. People are starving for what God can give them yet they are drinking from every fountain in town except the one fountain that delivers a never ending stream of fresh water...Jesus Christ!

So, just a deer pants with his head hung low for a fresh stream of water to quench his dry thirsty mouth, we too must come to God with this same humble desire to be quenched in the fountain of His never ending love.

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Our Hypocrisy Shines Through Our Externalized Religion!

The Hypocrisy Jesus was talking about: "You use great , wonderful words, but you don't mean them. You talk about love, but you don't love. You talk about forgiveness, but you don't forgive. You talk about acceptance, but you don't accept." Too 'churchy' in word w/out sincerity at heart can externalize our religion. It is right attitude along with right words that count.

People outside the church have been listening to our empty words for decades and want nothing to do with our church or religion at all, because they heard us talk about loving them, but only received a bunch of stiff necked hypocrites. They were different than we were, they heard from the church we should accept those different, but all they received was snobby nosed outwardly religious zealots. We cannot influence the world around us as a church if we are praising with our lips while our hearts are stone cold towards the people we are claiming to minister to. The church has little affect today because of such hypocrisy.

For Reference: Mark 7:6-7 "Jesus replied to the Jewish leaders saying, 'Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written, 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vein; their teachings are but rules taught by men.'"

For me, I must watch the very words I use to make sure they match up with my heart. Do not be mistaken though, truth must be said. Sin is still sin in the eyes of God and God will not overlook our sin apart from the blood of Christ covering our life. But my challenge for 2010 is to deliver my words with more emphasis on grace than of anger. A persons words can sure be mistaken for hatred when delivered in the wrong way. Grace filled truth penetrates a person's heart much faster with more effectiveness than vile empty platitudes.

"Lord, I must confess my own times when I have suffered from the sinful illness of hypocrisy by worshipping outwardly, but my heart was dry as dead men's bones. I am truly grateful and thankful you have forgiven me for these ills against You. Teach me daily to worship You and exalt You both in spirit and in truth as Your holy Word says to. Thank You, Jesus, for not counting this against me and in your patience can teach me true worship through prayer, meditation on Your Word, listening intently to the great men of God You have placed in my life weekly, and singing the old hymns and new praises. May I be forever to the praise of Your wonderful glory. AMEN!"

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"Follow Me!"

Matthew 8:18-22 & Luke 9:57-62

This conversation starts out somewhat honestly with “I will follow you…” I am sure Jesus replies with something like this, “Oh, really!” Jesus states to him, “You understand that the foxes have a place to live, birds have a nest to live in, but I, the Son of Man, does not even own a pillow to lay my head on at night?” We find no further conversation between Jesus and this eager man wanting to be a follower. What was the man eager to follow? Could it have been to be part of a revolution to over throw the government? Could it be that he had a vision of being in the top cabinet of this new government? Whatever the heart issue was, Jesus put it to the test immediately. Jesus knew whether this man could make it on the journey and this particular person may have been weak in the area of traveling rough. He knew the fellow would not last on the journey not knowing where he would sleep or what he would eat, so Jesus addresses the issue upfront.

Then we have the next person, who interestingly, Jesus calls out to him to follow Him. Imagine for a moment you are walking along a road beside a person you suspect is the Messiah, the Christ, but you are not sure yet. You are simply walking along silently listening as your heart is developing a love for this man. You can’t explain it to yourself much less anyone else, but you long deep within your heart to give your life to Him and follow Him wherever He goes. I can only envision this man being that way. So, Jesus looks over to him and says, “Follow Me.” This was not a question. This was a direct statement from the Lord to him, “Follow Me.” I can just see this man take a huge gulp in his throat before answering back. I am sure the palms of his hands were starting to sweat some. However, not exactly ready to commit just yet, he comes back to Jesus with “Let me first go back and bury my father.” I can only imagine some of the disciple’s mouths flung open wide. You can almost hear them muttering between them, “You have got to be kidding. Jesus just told you to follow Him and you want to go back and wait for your daddy to die so you can bury him? What a loser.” Well, that is my rendition of what the disciple could have said in today’s language. Anyway, the man’s father was most likely not dead yet or really that close to being dead. Jesus’ call to him to follow was not an open ended call for whenever he got ready to come. Jesus was asking him to drop what he was doing that day, commit in his mind and soul to follow Jesus and proclaim the gospel to the world.

Amazingly, in this case Jesus did not quickly move on to the next subject. He comes back with a further statement. “Let the dead bury the dead. You go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” I believe it is possible this man became a true follower of Christ that day. You see, Jesus called out to this man not this man calling out to Jesus. Furthermore, Jesus did not let the man off the hook easily either by telling him “Ok, you go back to your family and once your dad dies and is buried then catch up with us and you can be a part of our club.” No, Jesus tells him immediately to let the people who are spiritually dead bury the physically dead. Jesus further says, “You go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Jesus never asked him one question. He only gave this man direct commands.

The final “would be” follower blurts out loudly I am sure after watching everyone else, “I will follow You, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-bye to my family.” I call this guy “Mr. I will, but…” I am sure we can all fill in the blanks after the “but…” God has often called us out to do something for Him and all we can say is “Yeah, but…” It is human nature to want to do anything eagerly on our terms. However, God does not call us on our terms. He calls us out to follow after Him on His terms. This man here wanted to go back or look back to his family. He was not ready to follow after Jesus that day. This is not to say he didn’t follow after Christ, but the example would indicate he didn’t.

Jesus simply replied once peering into the mind and soul of this man knowing he could not follow Him with a heart so attached to his family. Jesus touches the very issue of this man’s heart and most likely many others in the crowd probably by this time gathering around. At this point in time everywhere Jesus went and started speaking people would soon gather. So, I imagine a crowd has gathered to hear Jesus. They might have even thought a miraculous healing could take place too, who knows. In this case, Jesus directly addresses the heart issue with this reply, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” I want to say to you right here, that was an “ouch” moment. This statement Jesus comes back to this man with must have hurt deeply. This was not a little light laughing moment. I imagine complete silence in the crowd. So quiet you could hear a small worm chewing on a leaf fifty yards away. This is dead silence. We don’t find a response from the man at all recorded. I am sure the man recognized he was not really ready to commit to follow after Jesus, but being swept up in the emotion of the moment thought he needed to blurt out his desire to follow Jesus, but not thinking about what “following” really meant. Jesus was not looking for those wanting to do a two week mission trip each year in order to get there good deed in for the year. He was looking for those willing to fight the spiritual battles ahead of them. Jesus was looking for obedient men He could train and pour His life into. Jesus was looking for those chosen by His Father to come and follow Him into full time ministry.

We find ourselves at this moment dealing with three responses. Only one man was truly called by Jesus to follow after Him in this lesson. We don’t conclusively know if any of the three really followed Him at all. We do know this, Jesus calls each of us if we are hearing His Word’s this day, to follow after him. Jesus calls us to stop the consuming infatuation with this world, with all the stuff and activities society tells us we must do in order to be good citizens, but has nothing to do with furthering the kingdom of God.

When you really commit to follow Christ, you could find yourself homeless, friendless, without a family, without a job, or even your neck stretched out before an executioner. To follow after Christ requires us to not be so involved in the activities of this life we stop proclaiming the gospel of Christ and stop living a holy life. We are called to be “aliens” to this world, a very strange people. The one Jesus called to follow Him was struggling with his earthly duty above the calling to follow Christ proclaiming the gospel. Jesus does not expect us to stop being a human and taking care of our duties here, but He expects us to do it secondarily to serving Him by spreading the gospel every chance we get. We must be heavenly minded to the point some people might think we are of no earthly good. The calling on our life is to the bottom of the soul not just the surface of it.

Finally, once fully committed to the cause of spreading the gospel daily, never look back on your former life with any regrets of leaving it behind. Lot’s wife is a perfect example here of someone commanded not to look back as the city was destroyed, but her attachment to this world, the world she loved was far greater than her love and commitment to God. It is doubtful she had any attachment to God, but He did give her an option to which she failed and was consumed immediately into a pillar of salt as Scripture tells us.

The call from Christ is open to all. Repent of your sins, turn from the wickedness and wrongful life you have lead up to this point away from Christ and place your complete and total trust in Jesus Christ and follow hard after Him. Don’t look back, don’t worry so much about your future, God has everything already planned out and He is in full sovereign control. Once you have placed your lives in the hands of Christ put your hand to the plow without any regret and go forward without allowing your heart to look back.

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Be My God in the Wilderness!

In 1823, Glass signed on with a crew of trappers heading up the Missouri River to Ft Henry, in southwestern Montana. Halfway to their destination, Glass, who was about 40 years old, was tracking game when he stumbled upon a mother grizzly and her two cubs. The bear reared up and dug her teeth deep into his flesh, ripping off large chunks of raw flesh. His companions came down the path and shot the large six-foot creature through the head and the bear collapsed dead on top of Glass. The hunters, thinking there was no way the man could live through the night, made him a bed out of buffalo hide and watched for him to die. However, the next morning, Glass was still alive. The leader of the mission, Major Andrew Henry, decided that the trappers needed to move out of the hostile Arikara Indian territory and paid two men to stay with Glass in what they thought was his final hours of life. Glass, however, held on to life. After three more days, the men paid to stay with Glass abandoned the trapper, taking his knife and his gun.

Glass woke up and found himself alone and unable to stand up and walk. he began to crawl on his belly the estimated 100 plus miles back to Ft Kiowa. This crawl was through the middle of the feared Arikara Indian territory. So, inch by grueling inch, Glass, crawled along and had learned as a young man from the Pawnee Indians how to survive off the land. He dragged himself through the rough rugged land, getting his strength by eating wild berries and rotting meat from carcusses of buffalo calves killed by wolves. After nearly six months, Glass crawled into the town of Ft Kiowa. After a lengthy time of healing, Glass, resumed his life as a trapper again. It would be a nice ending if he lived happily ever after right, but ten years later while on a trip along the Yellowstone Rive, the feared untamed Arikara Indians killed Glass dead.

A story like this keeps us glued to each sentence does it not? The trauma, the pain, the desolation, the coldness, then the heat, the spilled blood, loss of flesh, the fear, the loneliness and more are all a part of the wilderness. People who have survived such traumatic situations in the wilderness have experienced some or all of the traits I mentioned before. Nearly anyone who found themselves in the wilderness would tell us they really did not think they would come out of it alive.

All of us probably could tell of a story of wondering in the wilderness while setting in the middle of our living rooms, setting in a pew at church, at our desk at the office, or any other day to day place we go. The wilderness does not have to be hundreds of miles from us, it can be right where we are at this very moment. The lonely feeling in the middle of twenty friends, the coldness on a ninety five degree day, or the depression before the sun comes up over what most would seem is a great life, all of these expressions and more can infect our very souls when captured in a desolate wilderness that no one can drag us out of or possibly even find us there.

This takes us to another true story from the Old Testament of the Bible. We find Moses as a young man in his late thirties living life large. He has everything he could ever want or need. He has the finest education in the land, can go wherever he so desires. I would say that Moses was not found “wanting” for anything by today’s worldly standards. However, Moses found himself growing deeply troubled by the treatment of his blood kinsmen in the land. He could sense God’s calling on his life to get his people out of Egypt, but how or where. After the death of an Egyptian soldiers at the hands of Moses, he ran…he ran so far the Egyptians could not find him.

Moses found himself in the desert wilderness, desolate and starving at a sheep ranch. The smelly, dirty, rank life of a sheep herder was before him. So, for forty years Moses went from the top of the business world to tending the backsides of nasty sheep. The arrogance, self-determination, and self-reliance faded away over the forty years in the desert wilderness. Moses learned a great deal while in this desolate dry land, but most of all he was pressed down to total obedience to God and ready to take commands and do things God’s way in the release of the Israelites from Egyptian captivity.

God places us in humiliating situations in strange ways, but it is necessary in order for us to understand the importance of total denial of our self and total obedience to His commands. Self-denial is described in many ways, but most vivid is we are to murder everything about our selves that gets in the way of obedience to God. Whatever we do, say or think that draws our desires from doing what God wants us to do should be spiritually mortified. The wilderness experiences of professional trapper, Hugh Glass and God’s commander on the ground in Egypt, Moses, came at what they would tell you a “strange time”. As Believers, however, we must embrace the wilderness experiences as a purposeful part of God’s sovereign plan. God’s plan is to use us in the advancement of His kingdom and His greater glory. We must yield ourselves to this season of life when we feel lonely, traumatized, in horrific pain, bleeding from exposed flesh, so hungry our ribs are showing or thirsty. The strength, direction, and ability to learn are planted deep within us by God Himself and when needed, He will draw out of that well.

The wilderness in my own life has been a time that God has revealed, through His Word, just how big He really is. He has pulled me beyond my comforts, pummeled my arrogance to the ground, humiliated me into a corner, and jerked all of my securities not founded in Him from underneath my feet putting me on my back looking straight up to Him. He uprooted my family, taking our home and placed us in another land. At times it does get lonely, desolate, jobless, food-less, painful, and emotionally draining. I have been jerked awake many mornings in a sweat in fear of the unknown followed by days of deep debilitating depression. I hope to show in future writings just what God taught me in my travels through the spiritual & financial wilderness. The training ground found in the wilderness yielded such rich spiritual food directly from the hand of God that no silver spoon found in this lush plentiful land of the world are not worthy to deliver it to my mouth.

I have a favorite saying that I have internalized that has been adapted from John Piper, “God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him in the deepest parts of the wilderness.” I must be found totally satisfied in His glory, His presence, His Being even in the middle of the most traumatic depressing wilderness I could ever imagine.

The wilderness is not easy, it is not a time of pampered rest. The wilderness is a working season of life that we are required to trust God more, listen to God more, lay our souls bare, mortify our sinfulness daily, and speak only when God prompts us to do so. It is a working ranch that smells foul at times, causes us to be sick to our stomachs, can leave your wondering, and may cause blisters on your heart, but at the end of the wilderness is where we meet the foot of the mountains and start our ascent to better lands…our climb to the higher ground of God’s greatest pleasure, His own glory.

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What Are You Hiding in the Corners of Your Closet?

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.” -Psalm 19:14

Some of the darkest areas of any house are in the closets, especially, a corner of the closet underneath the stairs. The kids love to play in the closet underneath the stairs. It is a secret place, dark, even cozy for some, a place to hide or get away from it all and a place to hide our most precious valuables.

In our spiritual life, think about the darkest corners of your life. What closet is it that holds the ugly smelly skeletons of our life we want no one to know about? I mean, most of us walk through life and especially, our prayer life with a closet or two that we do not want God to go into. We allow him in every other area of our life to clean up and make holy, but these dark, dusty, smelly corners of a particular closet we say…”God don’t go in that area, it belongs to me and I will take care of the corners of that closet.” Of course we do not verbally say that, but if we are really honest, that is exactly what our hearts and minds are saying to God each time we pray, “O Father, holy is Your name.”

We are talking with our heavenly Father, calling Him “Holy or Hallowed” yet we hold back certain areas of our life from Him when we pray. Think for a moment about certain areas that you really have not handed over to God for Him to make holy in your life. It could be a career move, your sex life (hey it is so good now, please don’t try to make my sex life holy that might be weird), money, serving in church, your “things”, your children, your friends and so on. You can name a hundred other areas that could be withheld from the holiness of God making us all hypocrites when we pray “O Father, holy is Your name.”

To pray, “O Father, holy is Your name” is really saying in all honesty, “May the whole of my life be a source of delight to You and may it be an honor to the name which I bear, which is Your name.” The quote above from Psalm 19:14 from David sums this up nicely. It is saying “may we be pleasing to God when we pray, because we have opened up every closet, pulled out every stinking skeleton from those closet’s to be laid out before a holy God, every oozing sin carcass left to rot in the far dark corners of that closet underneath our stairs”. As we go before such a holy Father, we must come to Him leaving nothing behind, holding nothing back, and not hiding anything in any closet. Coming to God and calling Him “holy” is allowing Him to examine every single aspect of your being. Let Him into the tiniest corners of your heart and mind in order to clean it all up. You are allowing Him to create within you a clean and holy life. Is this a perfect life? Absolutely not! However, we are to strive to be a holy vessel before a loving and holy God.

Until we really mean “O Father, holy is Your name” from a stand point of total commitment, total honesty, complete openness…we cannot and will not have any real contact with God, any real touch of the power of His Majesty, any genuine sincere experience of His glorious fragrance and wonder of Him at work in our life. We must place it all out before Him and desire the holiness of God in complete devotion to Him by allowing Him access to all of our lives not just parts of it. This is a cry of helpless trust in God. The focus is off ourselves and placed on a holy God as it should be.

Stand still at this moment in your daily prayer life. Be quiet for a moment after saying “O Father, holy is Your name”. Allow God this moment without rushing to get the prayer over and done with as someone would do a chore. Your prayer time should not be a chore…it should be an honor to even speak to such a holy God and further, to call Him “Father”. This is a moment that we are placing God first in our lives…we are not presenting our problems, our desires first…we are honoring Him first by bowing before Him in holiness.

When we pray with an attitude of total submission to our heavenly Father, we will come to understand that God will enter the darkest corners of our life, the places the stink from our sin is so bad we do not even want to go there and clean it up and our Lord, our heavenly holy Father will clean those areas out and make us a holy vessel He can now use. We could pray something like this:

“Father, there is no area of my life that I hide from You. Search me; illuminate the darkest corners of my life. Reveal to me the flaws and sin in my relationships, my social life, my sex life, my thought life, my business life, my school life, my recreation and vacation time, my ________ (you name the others).

This is getting brutally honest about our sin and our desire before God that we want to be holy, too. In 1 John 1:7, John tell us, “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.” Well, to walk in the light means that we are willing to walk honestly and openly before God, so that the light of His truth can illuminate or light us up and clean the darkest of the dark corners of our lives.

So, when you pray next time, think about this small beginning in your prayer time. Open up to God by being honest. Let Him into those darkest parts of your heart and mind. Let Him clean those up for you. I think we will all see tremendous changes in our prayer lives and our daily lives we live for Him.

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Don’t stand next to the edge and you won’t fall in!

Another portion of the model prayer that Jesus used to teach His disciples, is “Lead us not into temptation”. Luke 11:2-4 Jesus used a shorter version of the model prayer to teach them with. The first part of any prayer should deal with God, who He is, His character, His holiness and our relationship with Him. However, in the second part of the prayer we are to deal with our shortcomings, our sin, our forgiveness of sin as well as us forgiving others for their ills against us or even things owed to us, our attitude, our indebtedness, and our selfishness.

What is temptation anyway? I have found from the Greek original text can be an enticement, trial, trouble, an affliction, an adversity, to make stumble into a situation to sin, an examination. The “temptation” is not what the sin is, however, it is what we do with the temptation that can become the sin, the shortcoming, the unlawful act. As it is revealed to us, all Christians, will be tempted…there is no escape from it on a daily basis. It is a necessary part of the Believer’s life in order to become the instruments or vessels God will use. These most difficult and trying situations come in our lives to see how we will react and to build upon. These discouraging events in our lives are there to build us up in Christ, strengthen us in Him, and ultimately deliver us into victory.

Why should we ask God not to lead us into temptation if it is a necessary part of life? That is a very good question. So, let’s jump into that end of the pool for a moment. Remember, Matthew 4:1 it tells that “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil”. So, why should we ask not to be lead into temptation? Well, as one mentor would say he thinks Jesus meant, “we should pray to be kept from unrecognized temptations”. If we know a temptation is coming, then we can prepare for it in prayer and be resistant to it…as we resist it becomes a source of strengthening and growth. However, many places we go and find ourselves at we may not be able to discern a temptation in that moment without asking the Lord to keep us from that temptation in the first place. Many times we fall into temptation and end up sinning, because it has caught us off guard and we had not prayed.

Look at Peter the day Jesus was taken prisoner and crucified. Jesus asked him to pray with Him in the garden. What did Peter do, slept. Peter could not stay awake. Jesus was not asking Peter to pray for Him, but to pray for himself and to use the teachings on prayer that Jesus had taught Peter just days before. Peter was not “prayed up”, as some call it, for the events about to take place in his life and the life of Christ.

What happened that night in the garden…Peter ended up chopping off a soldier’s servant’s ear to which Jesus had to miraculously put back on the servants head. Then near the courts, when Peter was confronted, he failed again and cursed Jesus and denied any involvement with Jesus or that he knew Him at all. Peter should have prayed before all this, but he learned a valuable lesson on why he needed to pray daily and pray that he would not be lead into unforeseen temptations. In Peter’s case, Ray Stedman said “Satan wrung out his courage and hung him up to dry”. We certainly do not want to be caught in this same situation. Jesus has told us how to pray to our God, now, we must simply put that into action.

So, when we pray as we should, we need to think while we pray about what we are praying. Use this prayer a guide to keep us on track and in proper order to be in God’s will. I understand times when we are mumbling to God out of despair, when we cry out in a humble situation, and that takes on a different type of prayer. This is dealing with our daily communication with our heavenly Father. When we come to this part of our prayer time, we are simply recognizing that we are foolishly weak and that we constantly battle to stay out of trouble. We need to admit this and ask God for His assistance in keeping us from the edge of the “well of sin”…show us where the edge is, so that we can stay far away from the edge. If we are not playing at the edge, then it is good to say we will not fall in.

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It Isn’t Fair!

An old missionary couple was returning to the states from the mission field in Africa. After years of service, they both contemplated their situation. With absolutely no retirement put away since they did not belong to any mission boards, no job prospects, no friends in New York, etc. they just did not know how they would make it. Also, their health was not so good either, so they were beginning to worry.

As they began to pass by the Statue of Liberty a band started to play and a crowd of well wishers begin to cheer as another passenger on this ship was President Teddy Roosevelt. The old missionary told his wife, “Here we have served the Lord faithfully for years and for what? No one even knows we are here, yet the President returns from a hunting exhibition in Africa and everyone greets his return home. It just is not fair.”

The old missionaries wife just comforted him until they arrived at the port. Once at the port the crowd grew larger and louder for the returning President. The old missionary and his wife slipped through the crowd into the city unnoticed. They rented a little flat on the east side of town and began looking for someway to make a living. One night the old missionary snapped. He jumped to his feet and said that he had had enough.

“God is not fair. We have served Him for years, risking our lives without anything to show for it.”

The old missionaries wife told her husband that he should go and tell God about it. So, that is exactly what he did. After an hour or so on his knees struggling in prayer, the old missionary returned and seemed to be different…he was changed to the notice of his wife. He was calm and collected with a smile on his face. His wife ask him if he had told God of His unfairness to them.

“The Lord settled it with me”, he said.

The old missionary said further, “Yes, I did exactly that. I unloaded my entire years of trials, service, and thanklessness to Him. I told Him that no one welcomed us home, no crowds or cheers for serving Him. Once I was finished, it was just like God placed His big hand on my shoulder and said in a soft simple voice ‘But your not home yet!”

God does reward His people, but it is not always rewarded here on this earth. We may not have a fan fare here on this earth, but angels in heaven will rejoice when we finally return home to be with the Lord someday from this earthly mission field. All of our service for Christ has not gone unnoticed to the heavenlies.

Moral of the story here is that we have no claim on God by reason of service. We are not to try and hold God hostage because of some great things we think we have done for Him. Serving Christ is our duty and we have no right to demand anything of God in our prayer time because of some service we have done. Prayer is not about listing our accomplishment before Him, but of pouring out our hearts before Him and listening to His answer, His call. Receving His promises, His comfort, and desiring to praise Him and glorify Him even more. Prayer is a time of growing closer to our God and be instructed by His smooth voice.

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What holds the substance of your kids heart?

WisdomIn keeping with my series on Training up the Children or “Which way did they go?” it is imperative that we as parents know who has the heart of our child. This is an individual glimpse not corporate. Each child will give their heart to someone, something, or a multitude of someone’s and/or things whatever that is, their heart does not remain dormant once alive on this planet. Our job as caring parents is to know just who owns our child’s heart in order to help them grow into that fact or away from that fact. Parents must use the Scriptures such as this in order to deal with the deepest core of the child. Sinful prostitutes are positioning themselves to lure the heart of our children away. These prositutes are not limited to just female or male, but the television, movies, cars, trucks, money, houses, vacations, video games, sports, clothes, the “in” crowd, the latest fads, and so on….these can all be prositutes to the heart of our children.

Proverbs 23:26 “My son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways.”

Wisdom is speaking in this instance. Wisdom is another name for God or the Lord Jesus who is the incarnate wisdom. Wisdom calls out, demands that we give Him our heart. To train our children to be wise is a very important lesson. As our kids get older all kinds of activities, events, people, and obsessions will make every attempt at luring them away from God.

Why does God call us out and demand our heart? As Spurgeon so eloquently put it “Only love will thus seek love.” He is not calling for our heart in order to spoil our lives. God knows that the heart of man is an evil destructive machine and without us giving Him our heart this destructive vessel will destroy not only our own lives, but the lives of others. Wisdom is greatly increased by one giving their heart to God in totality.

The saying goes “He who has the heart has the man.” Whatever object, person, or place that enjoys being the king or queen of our child’s heart will lead them down a destructive path. As parents we need to be sure that we are training our sons and daughters to refuse by the power of God to allow their hearts to be given away or even taken away by anything that would pull us from the feet of Christ.

They must see in us a heart that belongs to Christ. Our actions speak of what is in the heart…from our mouths gives a picture in words of the scene going on in our hearts. We must be careful to exhibit from our actions and our speech a reflection of God living vibrantly in our lives. Our children will know the owner of our hearts by who they hear and see us to be. A quick study was done recently about this very thing. The study was done on children to see if their parent’s actions spoke louder than their words or visa versa. The results are astounding. The test was done concerning charitable giving. The parents that would say to their kids, “Don’t give too much, keep your money” yet would always end up giving much more themselves resulted in children that would give very much of their time and money. However, the results from the parents who taught their children in word “Give much of your time and money to these great causes” yet they themselves never gave much money or time, those children became the worse givers of all.

As parents our actions really do speak loudly. If we are going to train our children it must be done from the position of action not just words. Whenever we mess up, a training opportunity was created and they can learn from our mistakes as well. We must let the kids know that our hearts belong to God and then be transparent on that. Make sure our actions even in a mistake prove to our children that we belong to God. God called David “A man after His own heart”. We all know that David was not perfect and sinned violently…yet, when confronted about his sin, immediate repentance and crying out before God. This is the transparency we want to pass to the kids. This is the training that will build wise respectable young adults someday.

Hugh Stowell said this:

“For two reasons we should give God our heart: 1) unless the heart be given, nothing is given. Read further in Hosea 7:14, Matthew 15:8-9 and 2) if the heart be given, all is given. Read further in 2 Chronicles 30:13-20

So, in the daily event called “life” we are training our children in a direction to go. An important part of this training is that they give their hearts over to God completely without holding back anything. Many o the greatest missionaries of the past 200 years would tell you that without the giving of themselves over to God 100% their mission work would have been in vain.

Spurgeon went even further to say “At once-give God your heart. Delay is wicked and injurious.”

God desires not half a heart or trust nor does He want a divided loyalty or trust. He commands total obedience which requires a complete heart. Great training is done when they understand they should give their heart or trust to God.

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Holiness…new concept to many, but older than the Scriptures!

In todays selfish climate even in the evangelical movement of the day “holiness” is a new thought to many. Holiness seems not to enter into the thought process of masses of those calling themselves “evangelical”.

I started reading back through a book I read through a few years ago to touch base with someone who was passionate about the subject as I am. JC Ryle, born in 1816, died in 1900. He had a life long ministry to the young and old of the day in and around England. However, Ryle could see a movement, mostly coming from America, that greatly disturbed him. This movement was taking away the holiness found in our sanctification. The mantra was just believe and you are justified, which is the requirement to trust in Christ, however, they were taking this further to even say that sanctification was merely to believe and the sanctification was given to us. This is the rub between the two and holiness was then as it is today being pushed out of Believers lives and thus people could see no real change between those calling themselves Believers and those than admittedly denied Christ.

Quickly and briefly:

1) Justification is only to trust in Christ, believe

2) sanctification must be to guard, pray and fight against sin in our lives on a daily basis.

From Ryle:

“There is an amazing ignorance of Scripture among many and a consequent want of established, solid religion.”

Willowcreek church in Chicago experienced this recently as they admittedly have been wrong for twenty years in their “seeker” focus without establishing among the congregants solid biblical growth…in other words, those true Believers were starving to death for real biblical meat from the pulpit of the church.

Ryle says further after quoting Eph 4:14:

“There is an Athenian love of novelty abroad, and a morbid distaste for anything old and regular and in the beaten path of our forefathers.”

Again, I can show you contempt after contempt from so many young, Scripturally ignorant pastors today that viciously preach against the old, established religion of the day. This is not completely unfounded of course, but overall it causes their listeners to distaste all, when really the focus should be on the few unholy older established religions that are NOT true to the Word of God, but are pretenders to the faith.

Ryle continues:

“Thousands will crowd to hear a new voice and new doctrine, without considering for a moment whether what they hear is true. There is an incessant craving after any teaching with sensational, exciting, and rousing to the feelings. These are an unhealthy appetite for a sort of spasmodic and hysterical Christianity. The religious life of many is little better than spiritual dram-drinking, and the “meek and quiet spirit” which Peter commends is clean forgotten (1 Peter 3:4). Crowds and crying and hot rooms and high-flown singing and an incessant rousing of the emotions, are the only things which many care for. Inability to distinguish differences in doctrine is spreading far and wide, and so long as the preacher is “clever” and “earnest”, hundreds seem to think it must be all right, and call you dreadfully “narrow and uncharitable” if you hint that he is unsound!”

Sounds like much of what we see today going on the “Seeker-sensitive” & “Emergent” movements.

Ryle starts out the book:

“Sin is the transgression of the law.” -1 John 3:4

Ryle “…to attain right views about Christian holiness must begin by examining the vast and solemn subject of sin. He must dig down very low if he would build high.”

I compare this depth as we must build a faithfully true theology as we build a faithfully holy life. Unless we get our mind right on sin, we will do little good in building a Christian life. Think of a 100 story building. Do they just set it on top of the ground? Absolutely not if they intend the building to last and not sink into the ground. The first activity is to go down deep into the earth to set up the foundation and then they start building above the ground. The same is true of the Christian life…dig into the Word of God deeply, developing the truths of God’s Word in doctrine and theology. Then a holy life can be built. Remember, the holy life is not built over night or with a little prayer. The holy life is built over our lifetime by being on guard against the adversaries lies and distortions that cause sin, by spending great moments of time in prayer with our heavenly Father, and fighting against sin at every turn which is the mortification of sin…the murder of sin in our lives daily is required.

One final note from Ryle on what thoughts and actions about sin can cause:

“Dim or indistinct views of sin are the origin of most of the errors, heresies, and false doctrines of the present day. If a man does not realize the dangerous nature of his soul’s disease, you cannot wonder if he is content with false or imperfect remedies.”

The danger the church faces today and the problems the identity of the church has today from centuries of not viewing sin as serious is our witness has diminished to the point people do not take Christians serious anymore. The dim view of sin in the Believer’s life has been tampered with to the point that many cannot even recognize their sin as being sin anymore. I can assure you that sin is still prevalent today as it was 200 years ago….even more so. The internet has brought far more filth and sinful opportunity into peoples homes and lives than one would have ever thought. So, the need to be on guard, pray and fight sin is all the more necessary.

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My Light in the Wilderness

John 8:12 “Again Jesus spoke to them saying, ‘I am the light of the world, Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’”


One of the books that has had a remarkable impact on my life is William Manchester’s
magnificent biography of Winston Churchill entitled The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill:
Alone (1932-1940). In this book Manchester describes those years when Churchill was the single
voice in the House of Commons who tried to warn his country against the impending threat of
Nazi Germany. He begged his fellow citizens to arm their country and to prepare for what he
knew would be a German takeover of Europe.
Churchill later referred to these years as the “Wilderness Years.” He was alone. He was
jeered, made fun of, and ridiculed in every imaginable fashion. For eight long years he was a
lone voice in the wilderness, urging his people to wake up to the evil that surrounded them on
every side.
But in that terrible spring of 1940, when the Low Countries fell to the German
Wehrmacht and France finally collapsed in defeat as well, the King of England, George VI,
turned to Winston Churchill as the one person in England who had the power to unite his people.
He was the one person who had warned England of what would happen with Hitler in power. On May 10th Churchill was summoned to Buckingham Palace and invited by the king to form a coalition government. On his way from the palace back to his home Churchill commented to his driver that he believed that every event in his life had prepared him for this moment: every
disappointment, every heartache, every ridicule, every set back had prepared him for the task that was now before him.

History tells us Winston Churchill was prepared in the wilderness for such a time as WWII. Each event had prepared him for this special mission in history. God had exhibited light on Churchill to catch a vision for what the future would hold if two or three wild dictators were let loose on the world. Churchill was called on to come out of the wilderness into the foothills of a great mountain to climb in defeating the Nazi army and fascism. In similar fashion, we should remain in God’s light while taking this pilgrimage through the dark wilderness. It is from His great light we need for the next step, not necessarily a lighted pathway revealing our entire future.

“You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turn my darkness into light.” -Psalm 18:28 (NIV)

Have you ever been out after midnight or later without a glimmer from the moonlight, or even street lights? It is a deep dark and scary place. It is so dark you cannot even see your hand in front of your face at first. At some point in our life we all find ourselves in such a dark place spiritually. Cold and lifeless, quiet and without motion in a darkness difficult to explain can be one of the most fearful times in any Believer’s life. Matthew Henry states:

“Let those who walk in darkness, and labor under discouragements, take courage; God Himself will be a Light to them.”

In those darkest hours of our life, when all hope seems to be lost, our Lord will pierce through the darkness with the purest Light of the Son of God. Jesus presents us with hope for those long waiting periods for the dawn of day and He conquers our darkened fears with the Light of His Word.

Go to the Word of God

I hear and see so many people find themselves deeply troubled in finances, marriage, health problems, unemployment, with friends, neighbors, family, and enemies. Troubles will find us no matter who we are and each day has many issues, rest assured. When those times clearly present themselves our reaction shows who we are and the character our foundation is built upon. Today, I would say most run to another person, mentor, counselor, psychiatrist, psychologist, or minister. This is not all bad, but most people want some kind of quick fix to deep rooted issues. If these professionals or willing volunteers will point people to God’s Word for direction, encouragement, answers, and healing our psych-wards would be empty today. Fact is these people take a “worldly” approach to advising people which only serves to compound the problems even more. Go to the Word of God and immerse yourselves in it. I cannot stress this enough. All of the answers, guidance, encouragement, revelation, healings, and courage can be found there. Make God your counselor, your healer, your mentor, and the light for the pathway through the darkest hours of each day.

An unknown author once quipped, “Faith is the light that guides you through the darkness.” We must understand something here, many people around us face dark times. Some commit suicide to escape this unbearable darkness in the wilderness. Others get on drugs or alcohol to escape the dark world. Some use sexual encounters, whether real or fantasy, in an attempt to forget those dark sorrows for a moment. Whatever the release you can think of people use it, but the sad part is they have no faith in Jesus Christ and are never healed from their darkest season of life.

Those of us claiming to be trusted Believers, should face our darkest moments with a faith that sheds a bright light which pushes the darkness away. The awesome power of the Word of God cannot be encroached by any darkness. If this is what we believe then why do we make every excuse and effort to stay away from God’s Word? Do we find it too hard to obey? Is it that we cannot commit ourselves into the waiting arms of Jesus and admit we cannot fix our problems and neither can anyone else? One of the biggest struggles I see in the world today is people refuse to trust in the Light only Jesus Christ offers. They would rather set in the dark, cultivating self-pity, feeding their sinful desires, pumping up their own egos, rather than living victoriously in the Light of Christ. This shows just how sinfully depraved people are by refusing the Light in order to stay in their own darkness.

David sings a song in 2 Samuel 22:29:

“You are my lamp, O Lord; the Lord turns my darkness into light.”

This great verse in Psalm goes much further to describe what David would do because of God’s tremendous enablement. This would be the Old testament version of Philippians 4:13. David understood his abilities were possible because of God’s blessing and favor on his life. The same song is found in 2 Samuel repeated in Psalm 18:28. David knew the light was in his life. He knew who his sustainer was. David did not mind singing about it either.

Do not fear

Many times darkness will come over me and the tendency is to fear it. At times I can identify the darkness and at other times it comes from out of nowhere like a thick fog dense fog around a swampy pond. I have to remind myself God will turn this dark moment into His precious light. I look at it like this; I am on a journey in this life, on a narrow road or pathway, with dark places covering the road. My reliance is found with the Lord. He becomes the lamp for my feet and the light on my path. So, this darkness pushes me to watch the light my Lord provides me in order to go another step on this pilgrimage through it. Notice I said “through it”? We will go through dark valleys, dark wildernesses, or even dark deserts. These dark dry times are not going to be easy. Remember, anyone’s pilgrimage through the wilderness is through a dark, lonely, dry place, where the snakes are venomous and nights are cold, but God tells us in His Word:

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”(Isaiah 41:10)

God tells us over and over throughout Scripture, “Do not fear” or “Do not be afraid”. If God is the One who is telling us this, we can rest on the promises He has made concerning our situations in life. He says, “I am with you”. He also tells us, “I am your God.” So, why do we serve other gods at times? Why do put fame, fortune, and our own selfish desires ahead of God? He tells us here in these verses, “I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you…all with His righteous right hand.” Believer’s have nothing to fear in this world. When the time comes to do what God has asked us to do, the strength will be there. When we find ourselves in a hole and not able to get out, the help will be there. When our body feels week and it seems we cannot take another step, God will uphold us. Folks God’s righteous right hand is mightier than the mightiest armies on earth-past, present or future. Learn to live on the promises of God; this is why God gave us promises, they are like food for the mind and body.

To borrow a story that Dale Carnegie used in his famous book How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, which was published in the 1940’s, Dale described a young medical student anxious about his formidable future. His thoughts were on graduating high school, then graduating from med school, and then on to making a living. In actuality he was working himself into a nervous breakdown. Then one spring day in 1871 this young man read twenty-one words from the writings of Thomas Carlyle that changed his entire way of thinking. This young doctor became the most famous physician of his era. He organized the John Hopkins School of Medicine and became Regis Professor of Medicine at Oxford. His name was Sir William Osler and the words he read: “Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.”

We will experience times filled with darkness, temptations to fear and give up, attacks by our enemies, heavy burdensome tasks and more. The seasons of refinement are not easy to endure, but each Believer must experience a time like this in their life. Not all seasons of life are the same, but the lessons to be learned are for God’s greater honor and glory. Do what you can see is clearly before you and stop worrying about what you can only see vaguely out in the future. We do not need to be anxious about what tomorrow has for us, what lies in that dusky darkness, but let God take care of the tomorrows while we take one small step at a time as God lights each step of the way for us. An old saying goes like this, “Step into the light.” As Believers in Jesus Christ, we are to step into His wonderful light.

Humiliated into usefulness

The darkness exists to bring humility into our lives. God uses this time to teach us humility and then raising us back up to glorify Him. Being humbled takes time and usually dark harsh circumstances. Moses spent forty years enduring humiliation while in the desert to the point when God called him out to deliver His people, Israel, Moses thought he was unable for the task. Moses has been proud and fearless, but God transformed over a 40 year time period this arrogantly educated man into a bumbling, stumbling, speechless, sheep-herder. God would not use the Moses at forty years old, but He would use the Moses of 80 years old.

Why does God choose people with little to no influence on the world, the nobodies to carry His message forward? I believe for the most part it is because of what God teaches us in the Bible that we have nothing we can boast in of ourselves (Ephesians 2:8-9). We have not created anything apart from His work in our lives, we did not save ourselves, and we cannot save others. However, we can give glory where glory is due…to God the Father! It is Him who sustains us, gives us strength, and guides us through those dark wilderness valleys. Nothing comes from us; everything is from God and Him alone. Without God’s Light in the darkness we will never succeed or go forward. Churchill was humbled tremendously in the years between WWI and WWII. They refined him, humbled him and prepared to finish the race strong. He led the British Empire to an over whelming victory against the greatest odds England had ever known. We too are up against those same odds, however, we serve a God who is willing to submerse us into the desert wilderness and humiliate us to the point of submitting to His commands in order to raise us up another day to victory.

In a story told by Isobel Kuhn, missionary to China some 60 plus years ago, as she ran from Communist who were over taking China with her son Danny in tow. She ended up in upper Burma stranded at what she called “the worlds end”. She had no money and could not speak the language and was half a globe away from home, she later wrote, “I cannot tell you the dismay and alarm that filled me.” In her perplexity, in her wilderness, feeling very helpless at that moment, she made two decisions. “The first thing is to cast out fear, because the only fear a Christian should entertain is the fear of sin.” Isobel’s second determination was to “seek light for the next step.”

Isobel did make it home safely with her son, but she had to travel trusting God for His guidance each small step she took under the guiding light of her Lord. We, too, have to take each step of our pilgrimage in the wilderness in small increments as God shines His light on the steps…if no light shines then stop and wait. He will give us the ability to withstand the waiting as He prepares to shed glorious light on our next step.

from the new book “A Pilgrimage through the Wilderness” by Scott Bailey

author Scott Bailey (c) 2009

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Early One Thanksgiving Morning!

The adventure of two young boys on their greatest hunt!

The sun was rising early one winter morning over the eastern horizon just barely peaking above the tall pine trees like the glitter of a shiny new diamond ring. The temperature was below 30 degrees, and it felt as though icicles could form on the end of our nose. Although, you could see the smoke from our breath it seemed once in the air it just stopped in midair for a moment before finally floating away. The morning was deadly still, no wind at all. With every heartbeat you could feel the pains of freezing cold run through your veins.

My brother, Jake and I was up early at the edge of the woods watching down a small natural clearing between the pines for the largest Tom Turkey we had ever seen on the last hunt we took. Jake, my younger brother, had caught a quick glimpse of him once before and the last hunt in September, both of us saw him up closer. This turkey would feed a large family for days we thought. So, this morning, the day before Thanksgiving, we were determined to bag this old Tom and bring him home to feast on for Thanksgiving. Both of us had twelve gauge shotguns and three loaded shells total between us. So, we must be accurate and selective with our shots.

As we waited next to a couple of huge pine trees almost frozen to the tree from the cold, we heard a noise coming from behind us. It was a noise we had not ever heard before. It was the sound of a large giant grunting through the woods, bouncing off the trees, tumbling in the leaves, and splashing in the creek bed. At times it sounded as though there was more than one, but then at other times only one of whatever this was. Jake and I would watch intently behind as we tried to keep a corner of one eye down the lane for the old Tom Turkey.

In a brief moment of silence, we could hear in the distance the gobble call of a wild turkey. We rubbed the frozen fog out of our eyes to make sure our sight was as clear as possible in order to see the turkey. The sound seemed to get closer to the lane, but nothing was in sight yet. Behind us the noise was also getting closer. Jake and I were perplexed at what we should do…it seemed as though what was behind us would collide with us head-on about the time the turkey would come into the clearing just 50 yards down the lane.

I told Jake to move to his right just behind the tree next to the one near the clearing in order to get a better look behind us to see whatever was tumbling, grunting, and somewhat squeeling down the hillside. We could not imagine what it could be. One thought crossed my mind maybe it was another big turkey. Jake said it may be a stray cow wondering through the woods trying to get back to its herd. Neither of us were satisfied with those ideas, because the noises did not sound like a turkey or a cow. We had to focus on the turkey. Our main goal was to get the biggest Tom Turkey from those woods for our Thanksgiving feast.

All of the sudden the racket behind us finally stopped. We finally took a deep breath which almost froze our lungs as our focus went back to clearing and the call from a turkey. “Still no sign of a turkey”, Jake whispered. We looked all around as far as we could see through the clearing in order to spot the first sign of a turkey. The gobbling noise was getting closer, but still we could not even see the hint of a turkey. By this time, the smoke from our heavy breath seemed to freeze midair as it clouded our vision of the clear lane in anticipation of the wild turkey entering the lane with what we supposed would be splendor. As it seemed like a decade of time waiting for that turkey to come out into the clearing, Jake tapped me on the shoulder with a shaky kind of tap.

I shrugged off his attempts to get my attention for a moment as to indicate to him “stop and watch the clearing”. A few seconds went by when the tap on my should was more forceful and now quivering. So, in disgust I turned to give Jake a stern look of disgust, when I caught a whiff of a smell that was undescribable. The smell was similar to a packing plant, but the stinch was even worse than that. As I peaked over Jake’s shoulder I caught a glimpse of the largest nostriles I had ever been eye to nostrile with attached to one of the biggest, stinkiest, angriest wild hogs we had ever put our eyes on. There it was peering down at us on the ground, with a half cocked grin on its face, teeth gleeming just a bit, its breath fogging out the sides of its mouth like a steam engine train about to leave the station and with a glare in its red glowing eyes as though it had found fresh meat for its own winter feast. It was not moving, but my thoughts were “this beast is definately trying to decide which one of us to eat first”.

Jake was frozen in fear on the ground. He had a huge hunting knife on his belt, but could not move towards it for fear this wild beast would attack. To my surprise the wild hog was not attacking. It was glaring at us, mouth half cocked open, and breathing hard with a labored breath. I was not sure the smelly pig could even see us, but I was not willing to just set there and find out either. Knowing we could not get up and out run the horrible pig, very carefully and slowly I raised my twelve gauge shotgun just above Jake’s shoulder. Working carefully to move it forward so the end of the barrel of the gun was clear of the side of Jake’s face while pointing it directly in the face of this wild beast. What seemed to be huge chunks of time slowly passing by was only a few seconds. As I was trying hard to steadily pull the trigger, all of the sudden without warning something startled the hog and the hog jumped backwards and my shot fired directly through the left ear of the stinking beast. The hog ran off tumbling on the ground and bouncing off the trees grunting and squeeling as it ran the opposite direction up the clearing. Our guess at the time was the hog weighed in around 155 pounds. This was a big hog. “We could have eaten that big hog”, Jake confidently exclaimed. I told Jake the hog was much closer to eating us than we were of eating him. Let us just be thankful the hog is gone. We came to get a turkey anyway.

Now, Jake and I figured the shot of the gun would have destroyed our chances with the old turkey down the lane. Jake looked down the clearing and saw the head of a turkey picking something up off the ground through the tall tickle weeds lining the clearing. He rubbed his eyes again to make sure he was seeing what he was seeing and sure enough, it was that huge Tom Turkey. About the same time as our shot a big gust of wind came up from the direction of the turkey. Apparently the shot of our gun had been muzzled by a number of factors including the strange wind and the turkey had not heard the shot.

About the time I got a good glance at the turkey, he started moving up towards us just outside the tickle weeds and johnson grass pecking pebbles and seeds off the ground on his way towards us. My thoughts going through my mind was, “Lord, on this day will You deliver this turkey into our hands?” “You, Lord, always know our needs and You know this Thanksgiving my family has nothing to eat. You always make a way for Your people don’t You?” I knew in the back of my mind the wild hog that got away would have supplied meat for our family too, but Jake and I were especially wanting that turkey.

We are now down to two loaded shells for this turkey. My thoughts went towards mom back home with our three younger sisters and my grandfather who is in bed ill from cancer. My dad had died in an accident at the local mill several years before and the old farm house was cold, drafty and musty. It seems when the wind picks up from the north it comes right into our old house without any trouble, swirling around everyone’s head and does not stop going through our house until it exits the other side. The living room is where most of the family stays all day and the cold wind always seems to swirl vigorously around the room as we cover in blankets and huddle closely to the fire built in the little pot bellied stove. The vinyl on the kitchen flooring would raise up from wood as the wind tried to get into the house from underneath. What wallpaper was left on the walls flapped to the breeze of the strong north winds. The lighting in the old house was minimal at best. The owner of the home was an elderly man at the next farm and he could not afford to replace anything in the home and really we were grateful he was allowing us to rent the place in return for taking care of some of his cows and a few pigs on the old farm.

Today, however, if this old turkey continues in the direction he is moving, we will feast tomorrow with enough food to warm our bellies and help us to celebrate in true thankfulness for what God has given to us this day. Sure, we have lots to be thankful for already, but would it not be nice to say grace over a big turkey God provided for Jake and I to hunt down?

My thoughts cleared up and I could refocus on the turkey still moving up the lane was within twenty feet of us. Jake told me to take the first shot and he would back me up if I missed. I zeroed in on the old Tom Turkey, placed my steady trigger finger firmly on the trigger. What seemed to take me hours I knew was only split seconds in pulling the trigger, calmly and methodically I aimed at the head of the Tom Turkey, when all of the sudden out of the brush with a fluttering motion and noise from within itself a fine looking ringneck shot up right next to the turkey causing the old Tom to run off into the weeds while at the same split second I fired off my shot. I could not believe Jake and I had been out in that clearing since before the dawn of the day, in the bitter cold, nearly eaten by a wold hog, and now this old turkey was getting away again. Jake and I never recall seeing many pheasant in that area of the woods before. For that matter we do not recall ever seeing any wild hogs roaming those woods either. What a disappointment this morning has been. Such anticipation on getting that big old turkey and now it is gone. I quietly exclaim, “Could that old turkey just be a ghost turkey or something? No one seems to be able to kill it.”

Jake and I packed up our stuff and headed back towards the house empty-handed with one final loaded shell in Jake’s gun. We were extremely disappointed. With our heads dropped low and our walk kind of dragging we made our way back towards the house. Our family would not eat very well this Thanksgiving. My mind began to wonder as I began to remember the promises I had heard from the stories momma told us about God. Promises like He would never leave me alone by myself or forget about me. Other promises like our Lord would feed us when we were hungry, give us clothing when we need clothing, and shelter from the elements when we needed it. Momma always said no matter what, God would take care of His own and we needed to be found faithful and obedient to Him above eerything else. The further we walked towards home I took great comfort and peace in those promises. I could tell Jake was not as convinced as I was, but he would learn. I reminded Jake about those promises momma had read to us from the big Bible in the living room about how God would provide food for us and put food on the table this Thanksgiving and probably even better food than what we were hunting for that morning. Discussing this for a moment it seemed to lift our spirits and we raised our heads as we picked up the pace heading home.

As we climbed up a small hill on the path back to our house, we heard something strange coming towards us on the path just behind a patch of dried up sunflowers. All of the sudden out of nowhere a much larger Tom Turkey was pecking around on the lane right in front of us. The turkey had not seen us or heard us yet, but as soon as the turkey rounded the corner I had my eyes on him. Jake was not bashful either. He knew exactly what he needed to do and he confidently put his finger on that trigger without much of a thought and he fired of his gun. The last loaded shell we had was now spent towards this big old turkey. For me, it seemed like I could see each and every little ball of BB’s from that shell move through the air towards the turkey. All of our hopes was in that last shot. Jake had nailed the Tom Turkey dead. Feathers fluttered up into the air like dust from a storm. Both of us looked towards each other with a confident smile as though we had never doubted this moment would come. As Jake was picking the old turkey up, he looked at me with a strange, but satisfied look. “Well, we can eat well tomorrow”, Jake said loudly.

Jake further said, “God knows exactly what He is doing. This turkey is far bigger, younger, and better than the other one was”. Looking back I started to see God’s providential hand in the entire hunting experience. We only had three loaded shells on us. I started to conclude that God caused that old hog to come right on top of us, but did not allow the hog to attack us, yet He had us waste a shell trying to kill the beast. Then He directed the big Tom Turkey up the path right beside a pheasant and allowed that turkey to get away. God knew we were down to one bullet shell and was disappointed in our failure on the hunt. All the time God knew He had a bigger and better turkey up that path for us. He wanted me down to my last bullet so I had to rely on Him for the provisions for our Thanksgiving dinner. God is His infinite wisdom was building a faithful character in Jake and I that morning unlike any other time in our lives. As Jake and I took off half way running towards home, I simply looked up to the sky and quietly spoke, “Thank You my God for providing for us this Thanksgiving. Thank You, Lord, for proving my momma right as she told us about the promises you make to us when we are faithful to You”.

Our family was humbly thankful to God for providing us with such a treat as that big delicious turkey. It had so much meat on it we ate turkey for three weeks savoring each bite. I can tell you Jake and I have never doubted God’s hand on our lives from that day forward. We trust He always is working His perfect plan to the end and we need to step in and take part in whatever He is doing.

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Lost in the Woods!

An adventure of two old cowboys on a search for lost stock!

It was the spring time of the year when Harold and I were working cattle for days without much sleep. Our job was to move over four hundred head of cows, calves, and bulls from one section of pasture to another which happened to be on the other side of the canyon. The distance between these two pastures was over thirty miles. Harold and I along with about fifteen other hired hands could move these “beeves” about 15 miles a day. It could be dusty, wet, and sometimes sleepless, most of the time a thankless job. This particular morning it was briskly cold. A sharp chill would cut right through my jacket which seemed to pierce my skin going directly into my bones. At times the chill seemed to get into my blood stream and would make me shiver from my head to my toes. I shouted to Harold, “I can’t get warmed up this morning. I wish that north wind would calm down.” I spotted in the camp hot tar black coffee on the fire and I thought to myself, “That will warm me up for the long day ahead”. You see, a cowboy almost has coffee running through his veins rather than blood. We live off of coffee in order to stay awake, alert, and when it is cold, it provides warmth for our soul.

The pastures we were working were in the valley down below the Sunhill Mountain range in southwestern Colorado. You could travel through hot ninety degree days in the valleys and enter thirty degree nights in the mountain area. Great area to run cattle, but the weather could change on you within minutes it seemed. Mr. Garret owned this cattle ranch called “Running Bar Ranch” and the ranch has been in his family for three generations. So, we all took great pride in tending to Mr. Garret’s cattle.

It was Harold and I’s job to see to it that every single cow, calf, and bull made it safely to the next pasture. We did not leave one calf behind if it was at all possible. Leaving a calf behind to die was like losing money and Mr. Garret frowned on that, plus he would dock our pay one days wages if he found out we had not tried to retrieve a lost calf. From time to time a calf would stray off into the woods at the foot of the mountain range. When that happened we would go into the woods after them. However, the calves would do this when no one was watching and we would find a cow not wanting to go with the herd. She would stand at the edge of the herd bawling towards the woods. That was our indicator a calf was in the thickets of the woods. Sometimes the momma cows would bed them down in the woods and other times the calves would simply wonder off in curiosity. Either way, our job was to go in after them.

I remember one balmy late spring afternoon just after the morning chill had finally given into the sunny warmth. We were driving our beeves north to far end of the pasture. We noticed about five momma cows refusing to follow in with the rest of the herd. They kept running towards the thickets to our west bawling loudly, but no calves could be seen or heard. I looked at Harold and motioned for him head towards the thicket after the calves and I would be there shortly.

I road my big fifteen hand brown horse on up towards the front to let one of the hired hands know where Harold and I would be and to keep moving the herd forward and we would catch up with them later that evening. So, I caught up with Harold and we moved slowly and methodically into the thicket. The trees and vines were so thick at times we had to get off our horses and go further on foot. Harold hollered out to me, “Where in the world could those five calves be?” I looked at him and just shrugged my shoulders in bewilderment myself. I had no clue. What some of these momma cows will do is take their babies off into the woods and bed them down together. But usually one momma cow would stay with them like a baby-sitter. However, this time it seemed all the calves were alone.
My thoughts immediately started thinking about how wolves or mountain lions possibly could have gotten some or all of the calves. No matter though, Harold and I would not stop until we had found all of the calves safe and sound or what was left of them as proof of their whereabouts.

It started getting late as the sun was just barely peeking over the mountain peak and we had been hunting for these calves for hours. It was starting to get cold again and a small thunder shower had formed just above us over the mountain range. Fortunately, we had packed our rain slicks for such an occasion. As the rain pelted our heads and soaked our boots, Harold heard a faint bawl of a young calf. We hurried in the direction of the cry over large rocks and around enormous boulders. There just on the other side of a jagged boulder he found two of the calves hung up in some of the thickest vines and trees we had encountered. Since we found them, what would we do with them? It was no easy trip up into the mountain range to start with. Harold or I could take these two calves back, but what about the other three. About that time two of our riders from the herd came clapity-clopping up next to us. “Do you guys need any help finding the calves?” one of the hands yelled. “Yes, you can take these two calves back to their mommas with the herd while Harold and I look for the other three calves.” One of the hands yelled back, “We figured with it getting so late and we had not seen you guys yet, you probably needed help.” So, they put the calves across their saddles right in front of them and off on their horses they went.

As Harold and I climbed higher and higher into the mountain area the thicket was extremely dense. The darkness seemed to fall like dark chocolate running down the sides of an ice cream cone. It was thick and heavy darkness. I pulled out an old flashlight I had stuck in my saddle bag hoping it would still work. It has been at least 6 months since I last used it. Sure enough, the flashlight worked, when all of the sudden, Harold let out an “eek” loudly. I yelled over to him to find out what was the matter. When from high above us on rock cliff was the biggest mountain lion I had seen in decades. The sound from this mountain lion would make your skin crawl. The big cat was positioned to jump on top of Harold. I grabbed the 30-30 Winchester from my saddle holster took aim and fired. I nicked the cat right on his behind. The cat took off up the trail above the rock cliff out of sight. I hurried over to Harold to make sure he was alright and of course he was.

About the time we were starting to head up and around the rock cliff, I heard something off in the distance. A faint but steady bawl from a young calf. Apparently, Harold and I had gone too far up in the mountains not realizing where the calves might be. So, back down the trail we went and found the other three calves safe and sound. Harold grabbed one calf and stretched it across his lap while I took the other two smaller calves and stretched them across my lap on the saddle. Off towards the herd we went.

As we traveled down the mountain side we came across a good trail that lead us right out of the thicket in the valley below. The herd was bedded down for the night about twenty minutes ahead, so we should be able to get back in time for supper. I looked over to Harold and said, “You know Harold, you and I out searching for these five calves tonight through the thicket, the vines, the boulders, the jagged rocks, and all reminds me of how Jesus seeks us out to save us for eternity”. I quoted Jesus from Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Jesus’ mission all summed up in a few words. We came out into the mountain range to seek and to save that which was lost. The result was we found those calves and saved them from danger. Jesus does the same for his own people. “You see Harold; these calves were not looking for us. They may have known they were not in the right place, but did not know who to be looking for”, I spoke plainly to Harold. “People are the same way you know”. People don’t seek after to God. In their lost sinful state of being, they have not a clue they need Jesus”, I confidently exclaimed.

I pondered further about the subject for the next fifteen to twenty minutes until we got back to camp. Finally, arriving at the camp we put the calves back with their momma’s. All the bawling stopped as the calves and momma cows we joined together again. Thinking back over a Sunday-School lesson I heard about a son running off on his own lost to the world. The father speaking to the son’s brother quoting from Luke 15:32 says, “It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost and is found.” About that time one of the other hired hands came wondering up to me and asked what I was thinking about. So, I simply told about how Christ had come to seek and to save the lost of this world. How Jesus talked about in Luke 15:4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?” I told the hand Jesus would come after the one lost no matter what. I then turned to him and asked him simply, “Have you put your complete trust in Jesus Christ as your only Lord and Savior?” He just wrinkled his face in an expression of “I don’t know”. We left it at that. But the day’s affairs had made me think more about Jesus seeking out His lost people and how He would go through the thicket, across the rocks and boulders engaging Mountain Lions and all in order to save His own.

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