Growing Older

I read C. S. Lewis' book, The Screwtape Letters, when I was in my early twenties.  I had never read, before or since, anything like it.  In it Lewis imaginatively writes a series of letters from a senior demon to his junior demon nephew on how to tempt, try and torment the human that has been assigned to him.  It is really an interesting way to think of the truth of God as if we are reading how the demons might view it.

One passage has stayed with me since my twenties and now in my mid-fifties, I see the truth of it much more clearly now.  So on this week where I turn another year older, let me invite you to read this excerpt that I now, by experience, can testify is true.  Remember this is a senior demon to a junior demon on the work of  temptation.  The Enemy he speaks of is God.

The Enemy has guarded him from you through the first great wave of temptations. But, if only he can be kept alive, you have time itself for your ally. The long, dull, monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather. You see, it is so hard for these creatures to persevere. The routine of adversity, the gradual decay of youthful loves and youthful hopes, the quiet despair (hardly felt as pain) of ever overcoming the chronic temptations with which we have again and again defeated them, the drabness which we create in their lives and the inarticulate resentment with which we teach them to respond to it—all this provides admirable opportunities of wearing out a soul by attrition. If, on the other hand, the middle years prove prosperous, our position is even stronger. Prosperity knits a man to the World. He feels that he is ‘finding his place in it’, while really it is finding its place in him. His increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work, build up in him a sense of being really at home in earth, which is just what we want. You will notice that the young are generally less unwilling to die than the middle- aged and the old.

May God grant us wisdom to face the temptations that come upon us -whatever our age or our stage of life.

for the journey...

Tim

Thankful for What You Had

"Who will be my role model, now that my role model is gone, gone..."

I heard those words from a song by Paul Simon while I was sitting in a sandwich shop waiting on my order.  To be honest, I had not been really listening to the music but the moment I heard those words playing I had a connection with them and a connection with a sense of grief.

Not long ago the man who had been my mentor for the past few years, Charles Price, past away.  When those words played I immediately thought of him.  The question did come to my mind, "Who will be my role model?"  Charles challenged me, encouraged me, taught me, mentored me but mainly Charles loved me in his own unique way.  I will miss him.  I am not sure what I will do now, but I am really grateful for the time I had.  I look back and see how precious it was now.

Recently, a mom I know, lost her second grown child; both were daughters and both died at age 42.  She shared how blessed she had been to have had them both for 42 years.  There are a lot of other ways to look at those losses.  Her ways is obviously the best and probably the most blessed.

We will grieve, there is no way around that.  The choice we have is how will we choose to think about what we have lost - grateful for what we had or grieving for what we no longer have.  I want to be in the first group.

To be able to do that, I need to be grateful now, even in the losses, thankful for what I had.

for the journey...

Tim

The Philippines

The largest crowds I have ever spoken to were in the Philippines.  The largest church I have ever preached in was in the Philippines.  Both of those places were in the path of Typhoon Haiyan. 

In 2001, I was part of a team that did a campus wide revival event at Central Philippines University, a Baptist college in Iloilo City.  My father-in-law and I then crossed over to another island and preached in a large Baptist church in the city of Bacolod.  As I watch the news and see the devastation, I wonder what has become of those people and of those places?

The teenagers and "twenty somethings" that I encountered and that I spoke to would be in their thirties now with families and children of their own.  What has happened to them?  What about their children?  It is troubling to see what has been shown in the news. I wonder what has happened to these places I know but that are not in the forefront of our media's coverage?

In a recent press release, I saw that the Texas Baptist Men will be sending a team to Iloilo City soon.  That brings me some sense of comfort but still there is a deep sense of curiosity of what happened to the people I knew and the places I saw.  The plaque from Central Philippines University still hangs on the wall in my office.  The people there were incredibly nice and amazingly hospitable.  I saw hundreds come to Christ while I was there - some pretty amazing things, a great harvest in fact.

The thought hit me that while I was there, God knew what would be coming to them in the future and part of what I saw were His preparations of souls for a future storm.  What I was unknowingly a part of was His plan to help people be ready to stand a test like this and even to be ready to face eternity.  I am humbled and awed when I realize the magnitude of His plans.  Even though He does not keep the storms from coming, He was preparing people spiritually for this storm and all the other storms that will come our way in this world. 

I wonder what He will be preparing us for this Sunday?

for the journey...

Tim

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11

Planting Seeds

This week was all about the good news.  I got to share a gospel presentation at each Upward Flag Football practice and several of us from Northside got to share the gospel by inviting groups or individuals to join us in watching "The Cross," a video with Billy Graham.

Of all that sharing the gospel, one little third grader stands out in my mind.  We had several kids respond and say they prayed with me to accept Christ and follow Him, but one who did not respond is the one I keep thinking about.

I used the Evangecube to talk with the kids.  It is a cube of connected boxes that each have an image on them that presents the basics of the gospel as you fold and unfold them.  After I was done, this little boy came up to me and said he would like to see one of those pictures again.  I folded and refolded the boxes until we came to the one he wanted to see - it was Jesus hanging on the cross.

He prefaced his questions by saying, "We don't go to church much."  Then he said, "That is Jesus pinned up there like that?"  It was sort of a question and sort of a statement as if he just wanted to make sure.  I said, "Yes, that is Jesus nailed to the cross for our sins."  He looked for a moment then asked, "What are those?" and he pointed to red marks painted on Jesus' picture on the cube to show he had been beaten.  I explained that Jesus had been beaten with a whip before they nailed him to the cross.  Again, he looked at the picture for awhile.  I could tell there were wheels turning in his little mind and the thought occurred to me that he might be hearing this for the very first time.

After a brief pause, he said "Ok" and turned and ran back to practice with his teammates.  It struck me that often we do not get to see a seed of the gospel planted but here, with this boy, I feel I did.  The struggle with planting seeds is that after they are planted, you don't see anything for a while - both in physical seeds and in spiritual seeds.  But because we don't see things, it does not mean they are not worth planting.  There will never be a harvest if we don't plant seeds.  We will never plant seeds without it being an act of faith that somehow, some way, that seed will grow.

This week it seems we did more planting than harvesting, but that is how it should be and that is what we should always be doing.  Thank you to all of you who planted seeds.  Know that whether you see it or not, those seeds are growing.

for the journey...

Tim

Zombies

Zombies are a part of our media culture these days.  They will be around long after Halloween.  One of the most popular TV shows is "The Walking Dead."  One of the most popular movies recently is Brad Pitt's "World War Z."  Both are about heroes fighting the zombie apocalypse.  I have begun to question "Why?'  Why are zombies such a popular topic of entertainment - and I use that word loosely.  I am by no means endorsing it just wondering about it.

Two thoughts come to mind, the first about their popularity.  Could it be that the un-dead represent how we view death?  Always present, always consuming but if we are smart and quick and at times ruthless, we can beat death.  That seems to be the message I see, though again, I am not a fan of this genre.  Perhaps we are trying to tell ourselves that we can move faster than death, outsmart death (I have never seen a smart zombie portrayed) and in the end, overcome death on our own.  That may be a popular thought, but the Bible tells us we cannot escape death, no matter how many heroes do it in the movies or on TV.

My other thought about zombies is really more of an observation.  They way zombies appear in our media really could be an visual representation of what we are in our lost, "dead" spiritual state apart from Christ.  Before God's work of salvation, we are spiritually dead yet we are still walking around this world until we become fully physically dead.  In our lost state, we think about ourselves and our needs and our desires - like a zombie.  Zombies are hopeless; in our sinful, lost state we are hopeless.  If we could see our lost spiritual state in a visual way, I think we would probably look and act like a zombie.

But unlike zombies, we can have hope.  The only thing that can be done with a zombie in the movies is that they be destroyed.  But God looked upon our zombie like, dead state and found a way to bring us back to life again.  Jesus came to bring the un-dead, the sin dead to life - through a resurrection.  He died the death all of us deserve to bring a hope we could never achieve or earn.  In God's plan, spiritually dead zombies can come back to life.  That is cause for hope. 

Thanks for reading to the end of this post, even if you don't like zombies.  This Sunday we will not talk about zombies but we will talk about hope.  See you then.

for the journey...

Tim