Where Are Your Eyes This Morning?

 anuary 2016

“In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (I Thessalonians 5:18).

Hey Gang:  Bottom line!  We are to be in a constant attitude of giving thanks for everything.  Why?    Because, according to Paul, “This is the will of God for you”.  Paul also emphasized this point when he wrote, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful” (Col. 3:15).

He also encouraged his listeners to “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, rejoice!  Let your gentle spirit be known to all men, The Lord is near.  Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:4-7).

I believe most folks would agree that Paul was a chosen vessel of the Father.  He looked down one day and saw Saul, the persecutor of His people, heading for Damascus to do his worst - but God looked down and said, “I’ll take that one”.  Yes, I believe Paul was a chosen vessel, but did that place a hedge of protection shielding him that he would not following the footsteps of Job? – In no way.

In Corinthians 4:17 Paul wrote, “For momentary, light afflictions is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison”.    In 2 Corinthians 11:23-28 he puts some meat on that statement; “…in prison; beaten times without number, often in danger of death, five times I received 39 lashes. stoned, shipwrecked three times, to name a few.”

When Paul was being taken to Rome as a prisoner, he endured a frightening voyage.  The boat was caught in a hurricane and shipwrecked.  Paul had to swim ashore where he was bitten by a poisonous snake, but lived and declared a god.  Once the ship was repaired, Paul and the crew spent months tossed at sea. 

When Paul arrived at his destination notice that his first response was to thank God for the blessings and was encouraged.   (Acts 28:15).  No speeches of the woes he endured, the horrible nights of terror, the days when it did not seem they would survive, or seeming endless trials.  He lived his testimony by declaring “In all things, I give thanks”.

In my 82 year sojourn I have heard many speakers tell of the woes of their lives and then, in the last five minutes give honor and glory to God for seeing them through the valleys and shadows of their sojourn.  We all have gone through peaks and valleys in our lives and wondered if we heard the voice of God correctly.

When we answered God’s call to come to Michigan and build a home for trouble kids, the trip across country certainly planted some doubt in our minds, as to whether or not we heard God correctly.  Flat tires, frozen heater lines, into the ditch, ice storm in Wyoming…. to name a few of the woes.   

I believe God was teaching us a lesson that would carry us through the tough times that would be ever- present in our lives thereafter.  We learned three very important lessons on that trip cross country: first, there would be adversities but God always provided an answer to those adversities. 

Second, we learned what Deuteronomy 31:6 really meant: “Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you, He will not fail you or forsake you.”  We also learned “The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked”  (Psa. 11:5).

Third, there is no immunity against hard times, folks.  As I look back over the peaks and valleys, the one thing that sticks out the most profoundly is “He was always there to bail us out”.  Perhaps not the way we thought it should be or the way we would have liked, perhaps not even in or timing,  but His ways always turned out to be the prefect way.

I close this epistle with a deep concern I have for many of our young people that have been protected by parents who do not allow their children to experience clinkers in their lives.  James Chapter 1 tells us that alligators are good teachers and train us to handle future adversities.   I believe one of the greatest failures in many homes is the failure to learn the joys of anticipation.  We want to give- when they want to receive – not a long lasting lessons of God’s best.  Seeds planted today are not harvested tomorrow.

Blessings, Gramps

I Just Do Not Understand

 Wednesday, January 13, 2016

“In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of the His temple, and my cry did enter into His ears” (2 Samuel 22:7).

Hey Gang:  I have been walking this earth for more than eight decades and never before has my heart hurt as does this day- not for myself or the bride-of-my youth, for I believe we are in that life’s period that Paul referred to as “the last lap of the race.” My concern is for the world I leavr for my children, my grand-children and my great-grand-children.

In the past several years I have been spending more time asking the Lord “Why Lord?” “Why would a nation- that has been abundantly blessed by You- suddenly choose to say, “We have listened to You these many years and have been so very blessed, but now we want to try it your adversary’s way”.  

Why would a person who was blessed by You with the intellectual power to evaluate, with common sense and the ability to see the results of the choices they are making, decide that their ways are better than Your ways?

As I was seeking the Lord’s guidance on what I would write to you this morning, the Paris catastrophe is still heavy on my heart.  When I first heard that a major terrorist attack was under way, I wondered if there were those who were praying.  There were sixty-thousand people in the stadium watching a soccer game when the explosions were first heard.  Prayer has nearly become obsolete in France, most of the churches, except the Muslim Mosques, have closed and sold for more up-to-date things.

I suspect there were people praying.  I suspect the seeds that were planted in their hearts, at some time in their lives, suddenly came to life.   In our lifetime of ministry we have often received calls from people who have rejected God all their lives asking that we pray for them.  I have often wondered if that does any good, but have honored those requests. 

There is an old saying that there are no atheist in fox-holes.  I certainly believe that is true.  I served in Korea, not during the killing phase, but worked side by side with warriors who had seen buddies fall and it was always very special to listen to their stories.  In the dozens who were free to share their story with me, I found some very tough hombres, but I found no atheist.      

 

I have been spending time in Isaiah once again.  I love the last 26 chapters of Isaiah and especially Chapter 53. The Suffering Servant Chapter is one with many colored markings, in my Bible.  This morning, as has happened many times before, one of the verses was in very bold print.  Did you ever have that happen to you?  I believe it was bold this morning so I would be sure to include it in Gramps Morning Thought for today.

As I read Isaiah’s words, once again, the message that seemed to stick out was “He could have called ten thousand angels down and snuffed the bad dudes who were planning on ending His life but He choose to die for me and you. (Hillbilly rendition).   We see a panoramic view of what He went through and I wondered, if I had a gun in my hand and someone threatened to do what they did to him, would I turn the other cheek?

I thought of the young lads and lassies that faced the misguided young man who ask the question “Are you a Christian.”    After the first one answered, “Yes,” and was shot dead, do you think Satan was saying “Hey, you surely will not die” “Just say no, it really doesn’t matter.  No one will blame you.”   The ones who answered, “No, I am not, he shot in the leg”.  I wonder if every time they shower and feel the scar from that decision.  Will prick their conscience?  

Do you think there were times when Peter agonized over his denial of the Lord?    I wish I could say that never happened to me, but such is not the case. How thankful I am that our Lord is a loving, compassion, merciful Lord who paid a price, He did not owe for me, who could not pay what I owed. 

It is snowing and the ground looks so clean and beautiful.  I wonder if the climate control folks enjoy God’s changes in the weather.  I pray you will have a blessed day, one that is filled with the joy of the Lord.

Blessings,  Gramps

A Spiritual Roadway

 

Monday, January 11, 2016

 “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

 Hey Gang:  Another New Year and we can rest assured there will be many new challenges that await us.  It will be a time when I choose -to look at what was in the past or to “look toward the goal for the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”.   But this we know, when we travel God’s highway, we can rest assured that there will be various sized pot-holes that will shake our back teeth, but we can also rest assured that, as Children of God, there will be many work crews along the way repairing those potholes. 

 The past year was very harsh for the Hainley family.  Early fall my last brother went to be with the Lord.   We learned what a hideous disease Alzheimer’s truly was.  For more than six months we agonizingly watched the deterioration of healthy, vibrant human waste away to a less than one-hundred pound mindless body.  We learned first- hand that it is not death that is so painful but the dying process. 

 I also learned another lesson in the midst of this wilderness walk; a lesson that would once again rear its ugly head when my eldest son contracted incurable cancer which ended his life a week before Christmas.   A week before the passing of my brother, his son lost his wife to cancer, and this past week my son‘s widow lost her mother to cancer. 

 The lesson, what a blessing God gave to His creation when, after man opened the door to sin and made mankind vulnerable to disease, God “Drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:24).  As I stood by the beds of my brother and my son and watched the deterioration of their bodies, I thanked God for His love in blocking the way to the Tree of Eternal Life.

 Many times in the past five years I have again asked the Lord, “Why Lord?”  And I confess I had reached a point in my walk with the Lord where I just did not understand.  Years ago, when we lost our first son to an auto accident, I had asked the same question, “Why Lord?” his life was dedicated to you and he was doing good things for you.  Three years ago when we lost a grandson, who was in full time Christian service, to cancer I asked the same question.

 That question hung around in the recesses of my heart and brain every time I thought of David, Ryan and now Michael.  “Why Lord?”  Several months ago we were visiting our Rehoboth, a place where we escape when we need a reprieve from all the stresses and problems of the world.  While there we went to see the stage play Josiah For President.  It was a wonderful, somewhat light-hearted play that contained a line that penetrated to the depth of my soul.

 Josiah had lost a twelve-year old daughter when a motor-vehicle driver lost control of his car and hit his horse drawn buggy.  It so happened that a person who had been running for president went off the road into a ditch just in front of Josiah’s farm and when to seek help from Josiah.  After many hours of conversation, the Politician asked Josiah how he could remain so positive after losing a child.

 Josiah’s response is one that is etched in my mind: “Well.” he said, “I had a choice; I could look back at all the things that the Lord has done for me and my family or I could let this one crisis in my life destroy my relationship with Him.  I choose the former”.

As I read through the Bible, I find many who ran into very deep ‘potholes’; ‘pot holes’ that might destroy some.  Lot’s wife ran into pothole that she did not handle very well and it cost her life.  Nehemiah spent many days with the alligators nipping at his coat tails, but he did not fail to complete the task God gave him.  We were in the development stage of the Village when David was killed but we completed the task and many lives have been saved.

 I asked, “Why Lord?” And when I walk by the barn that David loved so much, or walk across the campus at the Village where Michael spent over thirty years of his life giving of all he had, and when I visit Grace Adventures and feel Ryan’s presence at the horse barn and throughout the campus, my question remains “Why Lord?”

 I close this mini memorial to three very special people who God blessed me to be able to know and walk side by side with them with a tiny piece of wisdom I learned along the way from a good friend named Paul.  I said to him one day, “When I get to heaven I am in to ask, “Why Lord?’  He responded, “No, you will be is such awe it will never enter your mind!”  I am counting on that, Paul”.

Blessings,  Gramps

Did You ever Miss God's Best?

 

Friday, January 8, 2016

“When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter” (Exodus 15:23).

Hey gang, One of my favorite lessons that I shared with the boys, as chaplain at the Village, was based on this passage of Scripture.    I would give them a piece of paper with ten boxes side by side.  The first one, large and beautiful, represented all the money they could possibly spend.  The second represented all the places you ever dreamed that you would like to visit.  And the third, all of the things in this world that you have always wanted that could now be yours. 

Each one contained one of those things that makes our mouth water with lust of the eyes, when we think about them.  But there was one last box.  It was ugly to the eyes and seemed totally out of place.  It had no title attached to it.  And there was always one of the troops that asked the question, “Mr. H. what is in that little ugly box on the end.

I would then tell them contained within that box was a book titled The Lamb’s Book of Life and an invitation to The Marriage Feast of the Lamb.  I used an illustration of the first car that I was able to buy.  I loved that car.  When a speck of dust landed on it I immediately washed it off.  Weekly it received a cleaning inside and out and barely a month went by when I did not put yet another coat of wax on it. 

I loved that car.  But one day I noticed a small area of rust, just under the driver’s side door.  An area that soon began to expand and other areas began to surface as well.  And then one day when driving down the road I lost power.  The fuel pump had breathed its last. This was followed with tire and other mechanical problems.  And then one day my beautiful car breathed its last and was dragged to the nearest graveyard.

When I read the story of the Exodus I wondered why God directed Moses to take the southern route through the Sinai.  The Northern route was much, much shorter and there were freshwater wells along that route.   The southern route had no such wells.

Scripture tells us they were three days into the desert and were coming to the end of their water supply.  Why did God send them down that path? Was there a little green box attached to that decision?

We have since learned that the crystal clear waters of Marah contain calcium, and magnesium which forms into dolomite, a muscle relaxing drug used by long distance runners to prevent cramping in hot weather. It is also taken by heart patients to keep the heart from going into fibrillation.

The Bedouins have a saying, “One drop on the tongue, and you go for three days.”  If you drink the water for a day or two, the purgative actions stops and your body adjust and you can drink the water.

 So ,was Marah God’s best for the traveling troopers from Egypt?  Keep mind they were mud stompers; they made mud into bricks.  The water came from the Nile which was infested with parasites and amoeba that penetrate the blood stream, zapping the carriers of energy and stamina and the root of many diseases.  If they would have drunk the water of Marah and kept drinking it, the purgative action would have cleaned their bodies of all unwanted guest.

We read that many died of their diseases.  Does that make God’s promise not valid?  Not so!  It does point out the conditional nature of God’s promises.  Paul, in Galatians 3:13 wrote, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law having become a curse for us - for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”.    

 Blessings, Gramps