Truth for Life

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Please Stay Awhile

In Luke 24:13-49, Luke tells the story about the disciples on the Road to Emmaus. After they had talked about the prophecies fulfilled by his death, "they urged him strongly, saying, 'Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.' So he went in to stay with them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight."

For all my family and friends today I pray that our first and strongest desire would be to urge Jesus to stay with us for awhile, to sit down and talk to us, to open our eyes and help us to recognize the treasure we have in him. We have to desire his presence more than mother, father, spouse, child, grandchild or friend.

Stay with us awhile, today, Lord and open our eyes.

What kind of Christian are You

This post asks the question, “What kind of a Christian are you?” It’s a very broad question, but the context is political. I’d consider it a privilege if someone called me bible-thumping in any sense, but very few people in my life know how often I read the Bible because I’m usually alone when I read it. However, bible-thumping has a negative connotation. I want any confrontation I have to be marked by love and kindness. I want to be the kind of Christian who according to John Newton, “believes and feels his own weakness and unworthiness, and lives upon the grace and pardoning love of his Lord. This gives him an habitual tenderness and gentleness of spirit.”

In his book entitled “The Roots of Endurance,” John Piper states that Christians should be “strong and durable as redwood trees, and tender and fragrant as a field of clover- unshakably rugged in the ‘defense and confirmation’ of the truth (Philippians 1:7) and relentlessly humble and patient and merciful in dealing with people.”

I want to be the kind of Christian who brings honest dialogue into my public life about the political issues in our world. I try to listen to those who disagree with me to see if there is any common ground from which we can attempt to make a consensus. I like to ask questions so that I can understand their point of view. I don’t intend to browbeat someone with the truth, but rather point them to the way of learning it for themselves so that it becomes a part of their thinking and habits.

My nonreligious friends have some idea that I’m a Christian although I rarely talk about it. They ask me to pray for them and they seek me out for advice. When I give my word to be confidential they trust me in that. I’m not very bold about coming out and talking about God, but I think I should be more free to talk about the most important relationship. It is easier to talk about politics and leave God ought of the conversation, but that’s not how I want it to be.

With my Christian friends I easily talk about my sins and faith. In fact, I choose friends who are serious about God and want to know Him. We don’t talk about the latest fashions or TV or movies. Rarely do we talk about politics.

I feel strongly about education, welfare, abortion, marriage and the role of government in my life. I am a Republican, but I don’t agree with all that they do. I pray more than I talk about these things. But I want to speak up more than I do. My concerns for our country are that we have actually taken diversity away by making our speech sanitized and inoffensive to all. Inclusive language has dulled our writing and made it awkward. It was so much easier to consider us all men.

But I am not defined by a political party and I do not want to be remembered as a good republican. I want to be known as someone who loves people no matter what they think or believe. I want to be able to speak the truth to those I meet and have them know at the same time the love I have for them in my heart. Because I know that the son of God died on the cross for me as well as them. I’m one sinner helping another sinner find the way home.

“A nominal Christian is content with proving the way of salvation by a crucified Redeemer. But the true Christian loves it, delights in it, glories in it and shudders at the very thought of glorying in anything else…Let all your joys flow from the contemplation of his cross. “ Charles Simeon

In John 17, Jesus' last time with the disciples he talked about love. I want to be known for the way I love so that his name is known:

"I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

Think about it: this love caused a sinless Jesus to go to the cross for sinless me and you. We have easy lives with very little sacrifice. The least we can do in Jesus name is love our political opposites.

Simeon, Newton and John Piper quotes from John Piper's The Roots of Endurance @ 2002 by Desiring God Foundation.

Embrace the Mystery

"Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are his judgements and how inscrutable his ways!

For who has known the mind of the Lord,
Or who has been his counselor?"

Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid.

For from him and through him and to him are all things,
To him be the glory forever. Amen. " ESV Romans 11:33-36

It's not about why God is doing something, but what he is teaching us through the circumstances of our lives. "We will never understand God's ways... We can wander and wonder or we can worship...Embrace the mystery of who God is" James MacDonald

"Be still and know that I am God." Ps 46:10

Listen to James MacDonald on God's mysterious ways.

My Dad

I remember the first time we met: you were painting the house we rented from your dad. At lunch time you sat down beside me on the porch and started telling me stories. You were tall and strong with those muscles that looked like baseballs in your arms, a bachelor looking for trouble. You were the one who brought songs to my life with your Harlem Goat and the silly way that you would drawl the words out at the end. But I didn’t like it when you dated my mom: I still prayed for my “real” dad to be with us.

I had lots of fun when you came over as long as you didn’t marry my mother. But I guess you proposed and I started to hate you because you wanted to take the place of my “real” father. The five kids you chose to love were undisciplined and used to being independent, but you took us on the tractor and to feed the cows. You were a good babysitter, but not our dad. You took us to your mom’s for candy and Superman on the TV, because we didn’t have one.

I yelled at you a lot and told you I hated you. I couldn’t let go of the prayers for my dad to come back. But you taught me how to drive your truck with patience and laughter. You let me drive your brand new John Deere tractor on the highway and to the elevator. You taught me how to plow the old-fashioned way on a tractor without a cab. You planted the flowers and trees and taught me to love the farm and open air. You gave us a pony, rabbits and dogs. You took us to Florida for a family honeymoon. We fought about politics: you liked Carter; I liked Reagan. We both loved Kennedy (but maybe not now).

We burned down your shed and then your barn and lived to tell about it. The drought came and you sent us to college. Four out of five of us graduated. Your pockets emptied out. You walked me down the aisle in my fifty dollar dress, but you looked handsome and happy in the ruffled shirt (no complaints).

Mom wanted dad back, too and you waited for her. You said, “She’s really a good woman.” And you loved her when she wandered. I moved away and had kids and didn’t come home much. It was too painful to see the distance between you and my mom. I wrote dear dad in the fathers day cards I started sending to you. I’m glad I apologized for my childish hate, but you acted like you didn’t know what I was talking about.

You withered away and lost your ability to see or walk. Your baseball muscles were gone. But you sent me hand-made cards and a penny every birthday. You and Mom made up and got along the last year of 37. I wanted to take care of you, the dad of my heart, but you wanted to stay in your home where you were born 94 years before. I tried to get you the biggest bouquet to put on your casket. The ribbon on the flowers said “DAD.”

I got a lot of interests from you: love for flowers, writing, politics and rural living. But most of all you taught me to be faithful. I miss you, dad. Thanks for loving me.


The Harlem Goat
Oh there was an old man And he lived in a shack
And he had an old goat Tied in the back
One day that goat Wasn’t feeling fine
Ate three red shirts Right off the line
Old Dick got mad Gave him a whack
And he tied him to The railroad track
The whistle blew The train grew nigh
And that old Harlem Goat Was due to die
He gave three groans Three groans of pain
Coughed up those shirts And flagged the train
But a button got stuck In the middle of his throat
And that was the end Of the Harlem Goat!