Thoughts on Turning 60

I turned 60 this year. When my mom was 60 she went with my Dad to find out why he was coughing. They told them he had stage 3 Adenocarcinoma and had 18 months to live and they couldn’t help him. That was in 1998. What a shock. I try to imagine how I would handle similar news if it was Julie. Mom went into full “save Dad” mode. Doctors, medicines, prayers, and non-conventional therapies… staining Dad’s feet with some purple concoction. I don’t know who had it worse… mother or dad… probably mom.

I try to imagine if I was Dad and maybe I only have two years to live. What would I do with that knowledge? Julie tells me that I’m healthier than Dad and will live a long time. Maybe.

I was 44 years old when Dad died and it seems like yesterday. I thought mom was too old to remarry at 60 but I was 44… how silly. Dad’s younger grandchildren don’t remember him. I have two grand-daughters who are my life. I want them to remember me. I want them to cry their eyes out at my funeral. I want to go to Heaven but I really want to live and grow old with my wife and see my daughter marry and have children and be surrounded by kids and grandkids on holidays.

I pray every day on my knees and I pray that Pa’s girls will be protected and I thank God for my wife and my parents, my uncle and my aunts and my brothers and my cousins and for all of our children and I also pray for those who have passed on… family and friends.

God’s in control and I’m OK with that… I don’t have to understand it but I want to live circumspectly on this earth. I want to prepare myself. I want to feel and understand the pain of my parents so I’ll be better prepared when it’s my turn.

God Hates Divorce (Malachi 2:10-12)

Malachi 2:10-12 reveals to us that God hates divorce. That’s not like me hating Beets. I do hate beets and refuse to eat them but when God hates something he goes a step further… he punishes the Beets (so to speak).

Malachi reveals that the people were weeping and wailing because God didn’t pay attention to their prayers or favor them with blessings. They were perplexed because God was not being a “God” to them. The reason for this was because God was a witness when marriage vows were exchanged and they were breaking their vows and divorcing each other. God is faithful as a witness.

Something that is lost in wedding ceremonies today is the fact that the guests are there to witness vows and hold the married couple accountable to their vows so that when the day comes when a young couple are considering divorcing and breaking their vows the human witnesses can remind them of what was done and said on their wedding day.

God is faithful and accountable as a witness… he punishes people when they divorce. Their lives are not full of blessings.

I hate Beets and won’t eat them but I don’t go out and find a field of Beets and hoe them down. If God hated Beets that’s what he would do. Honor your vows. Don’t divorce so you won’t end up like a field of hoed up Beets.

Two Requests of God

In Luke 22:31-34 two requests are made to God and he answers both requests in the affirmative. Satan asks God for permission to test Peter’s faith and Jesus, knowing that Peter would fail, asks God that Peter’s faith might endure the failure and become stronger.

Keep in mind that Jesus could have requested that Satan not be permitted to test Peter. That would be consistent with Jesus’ actions when Satan tested Jesus after fasting for 40 days in the wilderness… he rejected every request that Satan made. But Jesus didn’t do that… he needed for Peter to be tested and to fail so that he could become stronger.

Jesus informed Peter what would happen and by doing so gave Peter tools to resist Satan. The tool of knowing the test was coming and the tool of knowing the result of the test.

After the failure Peter could reflect back on Jesus’ care for him and understand that the failure was completely his… Peter ”owned” the failure… it was all on him.

Jesus also prepared Peter by telling him not to be too overwhelmed by the failure but to use the lesson he had learned to strengthen the faith of others. He had a job to do.

Lessons for us.

- God may allow Satan to tempt us.

- Temptation and failure can make us stronger.

- Jesus is in our corner praying that our faith will survive whatever temptation Satan throws at us.

- If Jesus can pray for Peter to have stronger faith then we can follow his example and pray for the faith of our fellow Christians.

- Faith doesn’t rest. It works for the benefit of others.

- Satan won the initial contest with Peter but lost every single one after that.

Opened Eyes

I was sitting in the pew this morning with my eyes closed and listening to the prayer being given for the cup and my attention was stimulated because the prayer being offered was not your usual prayer. I started wondering, who was leading the prayer? At first I thought it was Walker who I consider to have a gift for prayer but the voice was not right. As the prayer went on I thought… this is truly a wonderful prayer and I opened my eyes. Thank you Cody Cargile for opening my eyes.

Parable of the Bad Farmer

There was a farmer who inherited his Dad's farm after his Dad passed away. His Dad loved farming and hard work and made a good crop every year. The son however didn’t share his dad’s love or passion for farming.

Oh… he liked being called a farmer but instead of spending his time out in the fields he liked to dress up in his boots and hat and go down to the coffee shop and talk with some of the other farmers. He also liked big shiny tractors so he traded in his Dad’s old tractor for a newer model with air conditioning and GPS.

He didn’t really care too much if his crops failed because he had crop insurance. In fact since crop insurance would return about 75% of the estimated value of the crop… instead of praying for rain he would pray that it didn’t rain. He could live on the 75%. He wasn’t the farmer his dad was.

The Lord’s church needs leaders who love the church like Christ loved the church. The church needs leaders who are innovative and actively engaged and have a passion for servant leadership. You can grow a good crop with the right kind of leadership.

Prejudice in the Early Church

During the early days of the church the Apostles had set up a “daily ministration” that included “serving tables” for widows. This probably would have been a central location where widows could come and be fed by members of the church. During the course of this problems arose between two classes of widows; “Hebrew” widows and “Grecian Jew” widows. These were Christian widows of course but the “Hebrew Widows” would have been converts from Jews who had been raised in Judea and the “Grecian Jew Widows” were those who had lived outside of Judea. In general, those Jews from Judea thought they were better than the Jews who were from other countries. They were prejudiced.

The problem was that some thought the Grecian Jew Widows were being discriminated against at meal time. How might that happen? Well it might have been true. Maybe the Hebrew Widows were getting the best tables or getting a bigger serving portion. Maybe they were getting seconds and the Grecian Jew Widows weren’t. Maybe those serving were more amiable toward the Hebrew Widows than the Grecian Jew Widows. Or maybe it wasn’t true at all. Maybe the Grecian Jew Widows were just very sensitive.

Wherever the problem lay… it was a problem and needed to be addressed and the Apostles offered a solution that everyone agreed with. Sometimes in the church today we have similar problems. Let’s do our best to not even give the appearance of discrimination but if there’s a problem that we can’t reconcile lets discuss it with the leaders of the congregation and hopefully we can find a solution that everyone can agree with.

The Three Sisters

I found out recently that my ancestry includes Native Americans. My people were accomplished farmers and believed in planting three inseparable plants together; Corn, Green Beans and Squash… called The Three Sisters.

They planted beans with corn because beans are nitrogen fixers. Beans take Nitrogen from the atmosphere and add it to the soil thus fertilizing the corn plant. The squash have big broad leaves which serve to shade the soil and inhibit the growth of life sapping weeds. At the time of harvest my people would have good crops of corn, beans and squash.

This is similar to the needs of a new Christian. He needs the association with plants that can help him grow and make him better.

Some Christians can help new Christians by helping them learn about God and give advice and encouragement.

Other Christians can serve new Christians by providing them with new beneficial associations that replace the old sinful friends who have a tendency to pull new Christians back into their old destructive life styles.

In addition, something wonderful and mysterious happens… the older, more mature Christian becomes energized and stronger… synergism.

Christians are mutually responsible to each other so God’s crop of people can grow and be plentiful and be fruitful. What a wonderful plan God has… don’t neglect it.