Blog Block

It's been over a month since my last post. Wow time flies when you're busy. At first I really didn't have anything to blog about. Then I did but didn't have any time to sit and blog. Then I just kind of blew it off and the topic, which was relevant to the time period, became irrelevant. I had to ask myself if blogging was something I really should be doing. I feel that if I'm going to be writing something, that is out there for God only knows who to read, it better be, at the very least, worth reading. I came to the conclusion this morning that I was taking "blogging" way to seriously.

I originally started blogging last fall during my "Truth Project" class and used it as a tool to aid in facilitating the class. I set the blog up as private, open only to class participants. The problem was that only a couple of the participants were able to use it. After about three posts, with no one following, I just gave up on it. When my father died in December I was truly inspired to write about some things that had been on my mind. Did I mention that my spiritual gift is teaching? I began to teach…I mean blog. That is exactly what caused my "BLOG BLOCK"!

Don't get me wrong, I do think that I still need to be informative and interesting but let's face it; blogging is just saying what's on your mind. Sometimes it is good and sometimes it's just ok. Hopefully it is never terrible. The point is that you just do it and over time your point of view is established and hopefully your followers keep coming back to see what's on your mind. So from here on out, it's just whatever comes up!

Memorial Stones

Yesterday was a day of reflection. It began early in the morning while watching the CBS morning show. They reviewed the last five decades of last century. I lived through four of them. It's really amazing to see all that has happened since then. Then I listened to a three part "Focus on the Family" featuring Ravi Zacharias recorded earlier this year which became the most requested and number one airing broadcast of the year. Ravi spoke of remembering our past. He read the complete chapter Joshua 4. God spoke to Joshua and told him to have twelve men, one from each tribe of Israel, to go into the middle of the river and pick a stone. They were to carry it on their back to the place where they made camp that night. They came up out of the river and made camp at Gilgal and Joshua took the stones and placed them there.

Joshua 4:21-24; He said to the Israelites, "In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, 'What do these stones mean?' tell them, 'Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.' For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God."

We must remember that where we are today is because we stand on the deeds and merits of those who came before us. This great nation was founded on Judeo-Christian worldview, God in the center. Ravi pointed out that when Abraham Lincoln gave his second inaugural address which was less than 800 words, he invoked the name of God fourteen times. Today if a president were to invoke God's name once, he would run the risk of hostility from the media. We have forgotten. Talk about God or Jesus in public and see where it gets you. An atheist group has filed a lawsuit attempting to ban prayer from the Obama inaugural ceremony and also ban using the sentence "So help me God," in the presidential oath. God is the designer of law and government. He gives the power of governing to the magistrate and it is through that oath that the magistrate is sanctified. We have forgotten. We have dismantled our memorial stone monuments and with the stones built self honoring, self serving institutions and in so doing we have wiped away the memory of who we are and how we got here. We have become a "stiffed neck people."

My prayer is that in this New Year we will find ourselves again. This nation is still the greatest nation on God's earth but our light is dimming. The election of this past year gives us a new leader who promises change. We must pray for our new president. Whatever your political view, you must pray for our president elect. Pray for wisdom and strength and pray that he would follow the word of God. There has never been a more urgent time than now. I believe this is probably the most defining moment in American History. We need God and we need to see God do immeasurably more. And then we need to go down into the river and bring up stones to place as memorial stones. In the future when our descendants ask us, "What do these stones mean?" We can say, they remind us that what God did was so we might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and that we might always fear the LORD our God.

Road Signs

I have been struggling all week with this post. I'm pretty limited with my time and opportunities to write. I will probably be lucky to get one post done per week. I feel that with so few posts that I should make them, at the very least, interesting. I really want to give people something to think about. I had been praying for God to bless me with something to write.

Early Monday morning I was awakened with some pretty profound thoughts and as I lay in bed, a few hours from the alarm clock waking me for work, I thought I should get right up and start writing while it was fresh and I was so inspired. I toyed with the thought and then determined that rest was more important, so I went back to sleep. I woke up around 4am and for the life of me couldn't remember much of what was so profound to me except that it had something to do with road signs, the yield sign in particular.

All week long as time slipped by I kept thinking to myself that I should have gotten up. What was this nagging notion that I had let something good get away? Then I thought of Tim's sermon on Sunday about God working in his own time, about having faith and releasing God. I had been praying for God to bless me with something of worth and had expected his grace to happen when I sat down to start writing. I had forgotten about God's timeline. I was working in my timeline and expected my prayer to be answered in that timeline. God may have answered my prayer as I slept. Instead of getting up when the gift was given, I went back to sleep. Did I miss God? I think that we all have those moments when we let our flesh interfere with God's work. Maybe that's why the yield sign stuck out in my mind. Maybe if I had yielded to God and gotten out of his way I would have released him to do the work I had requested.

The Wealth Vault

Talking with a cherished member of my church family, Bill Konneker, after dad's funeral Wednesday, it was very comforting to know that someone else had realized, or had given a known reality more thought. Why does it seem that we only come to realize the importance of people or should I be more specific in saying, our relationship with people, when we are gathered at the funeral or wake of someone that we all have loved? What worldly things can we take with us when we go? Do we really understand that things of this world are just that? How do all of the worldly things we have acquired compare to those relationships? How can it be that we can place more importance on material things than on the one true thing that God has given us for eternity? Relationship defines the true essence of our creator. It's all about relationship. We go about our daily routines in this hustle bustle world, dedicating our lives to building wealth but can we take the kind of wealth that we treasure the most, with us when we go? How do you measure your wealth? Is it the nice bank account or 401k you have spent your life building or the beautiful home with new cars in the garage? May I suggest, that maybe in God's kingdom, these things are worthless?

Looking around the many faces of family and friends at my dad's service and burial, it was evident that he was dearly loved. My dad was the kind of person who always put everyone else's needs before his. He spent his life helping family and friends right up until the very end. He inspired people to go above and beyond the normal, as evident in the gracious letter and gift, which he treasured, sent to him by a friend who in his own words said that he and dad had the kind of relationship that couldn't be explained. They seemed to be at the opposite ends of the relationship spectrum.

There is a reason for that. There is a reason for everything. God created us to be in relationship. We are meant to be in relationship with him and relationship with each other. Gen 2:18, The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone." Aloneness is contrary to God's nature; in all eternity, there had never been aloneness before. When confronted by the Pharisees in Matthew 22:36-40, "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind'. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
It can't be any clearer. God's greatest desire is for us to be wealthy in relationships. Whatever we must do to exist in this world we must do. Beyond that we must learn to invest every second left in building relationships, because in the end they ARE all we can take with us!

Two things I would like to leave you with. The words of my dad's friend…. the one at the opposite end of the spectrum…

Dear Roy,
It was great to see you up close the other day instead of when we pass each other in our vehicles. You always have something to say about my running. Little did you know that I see you as a "runner of Life" and you are running a great race. Us runners have medals and trophies and it is about time you had your own, so here it is - about time!.
Wishing you quiet joys.
Your friend,
Mark Hopping

…and a poem found with some other personal effects belonging to my dad. The poem was written in his handwriting, probably copied from the newspaper which he read faithfully for many years.

There must be something after death.
behind the toil of a man.
There must exist a God Divine,
who is working out a plan.
And this brief journey that we know,
as life must really be,
The gateway to a finer world,
that someday we shall see.
-author unknown

It meant so much to him that he copied it and left it to be found for those who may have had questions about his relationship with God. I am not one of those because I was fortunate to have this question answered by him personally, and also by God's revelation to me. These two things are simple evidence that my dad believed that building wealth in relationships was more important than building wealth in any other thing. What will you fill your vault with?

I'm gonna miss ya dad……we all are……but we will see you again.