What If?

 Wednesday, September 12, 2012

 "Even though I walk through the valley and shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.  Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me...."  (Psa. 23:4)

 Hey Gang: I read of a very frightening statistic in a magazine article... more than twenty- three million American's have declared they no long believe, or have never believed in God, and refer to themselves as Agnostics.  If you add to these the folks who "have a form of godliness but deny the power", and those who are "lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God" or those who are "ever learning but never come to the knowledge of the truth" you might conclude that our nation is in deep waters.  (2 Tim. 3). (2012)

 As I read that statistic, I wondered what these folks do when the rubber-hit's-the-road or the alligators are stacked up to your armpits.  What do they do when they find a loved one has terminal cancer or when you go to work only to find a pink slip on your desk?  What does one do when your child is in rebellion, or you have deep marital problems?  Where do you turn for help, support, and encouragement when the check-book registers zip and the bills keep coming in?

 The bride-of-my-youth brought to my attention an article from the Daily Guideposts about a young lady who had aced her way through high school and earned a scholarship to a prestigious college.  After completing her first year of higher learning she returned home and announced to a friend: I've chucked it". I do not believe in this God-stuff anymore.  (Not an uncommon malady in today's colleges and universities) 

 As she expounded on the finer things of godlessness, the friend prayed that God would fill his mouth with the right words; words that would rekindle the fire that he had seen in this beautiful lass as she grew from childhood to the enlightened years of teenage.

 He thought of all the wonderful and powerful verses he could fling at her, but he knew that would only flame the embers that were burning within her chest cavity.  Somehow he sensed she was on a fishing expedition, seeking how an old confidant might react to her announcement that she had chosen "to go her own way".

 Instead, he calmly responded, "What would I do, if a friend was going through a deep valley?  Where would I go when a grandson suddenly contracted a cancer that was zipping the very life out of him?  To whom would I pray, if my child had chosen to "go his own way" and closed his heart to the King of kings and Lord of lords?  To whom would I turn when I knew that blood of my blood and bones of my bones had chosen paths that I knew would only lead to pain and agony?

 The girl responded with tears in her eyes, "I hadn't thought of that".  David wrote: "Though I walk through the valley and shadow of death, I will fear no evil,"  How could he have such assurance?  "Because he had tested God's love and he knew His Lord and Savior and Shepherd was with him and his rod and staff would bring comfort even in the deepest waters.

 Sooooo,  Rejoice my young warriors, God so love you He gave his only Son and He continues to give".   He stand at the door of your heart and waits for you to ask, "Lord keep Your might arms of protection around me and my family, as I walk through the valleys and shadows of this day."         

 Blessings,  Gramps

PS Our pastor  just completed a series called “Love or Law.  He challenged us to live so others see the love of Jesus in us and desire the fruit of the Spirit they see in our lives.  We should choose to 'Win Souls, not Arguments about how those with out God should live their lives!    Gma J

Are You Awar

 

Monday, September 24, 2012

Many of you know that Kermit was a student of the Bible and wrote commentary on the Books of the New Testament and three of the Old Testament.  He did a lot of teaching on Daniel and Revelation. The next 3 weeks I will send a series of blogs-written in 2012- that go together.

"I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, And Make Your Name Great,; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse.  And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed" (Gen 12:2-3).

Hey Gang: Are you up to speed in what is happening in our world at this moment. Are you concerned?  I mean really getting to the nail- biting stage of the daily news of our world.  I am.  Not so much for myself or my bride, for we have been blessed with God's promise of three score and seven, and I am not as concerned with my kids and their spouses, for they have passed the half century mark, but I am really concerned for my grand's and my great grand's.

Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, was given the profound covenant that would be the ‘center stone’ of all happens in our world.  In it God says you can judge all things by how they impact of "the apple of My eye."  Very simply stated, "If you bless 'My Land' and 'My people', I will bless you and, if you choose to curse 'My Land' and 'My People', I will return the curse on you. "

I have included the prophecy given to us by Haggai and repeated by the writer of the Hebrews, but I want to repeat it again, and pray that it is driven deep into the depths of your heart.  These very powerful and ominous words were written during the reign of Darius the King as a warning of what is to come in the latter days or even the last days.

"Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but the heaven."  This expression, "Yet once more," denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain".  That is the black dog portion of Haggai's prophecy, but notice he does not leave us without hope; "Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire" (Hag. 2:6, Heb. 12:26b - 29).

Yesterday, I once again completed my favorite chore.  You might think me weird but I love to cut the grass.  Why?  Not because I like to hear the racket of the engine and mower for two hours or because I enjoy the sun baking down on my frail body, but because the engine is loud enough I can sing at the top of my voice and no one can hear me.  The song that rang my bell yesterday was one penned by Albert E. Brumley, who I suspect also had a mower. 

He wrote the following words that every believer can take to the bank "This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through.  My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue; The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door, And I can't feel at home in this world anymore." 

Soooo, friends and fellow believers, this truth is echoed throughout the word of God. The words "sojourner" and "pilgrim" are found many times in both the Old and New Covenant.  When the alligators begin to assemble and the rubber-hits-the-road and your back is against the wall, take a moment or two remember that this is just a short preparing time and place- for eternity!

Blessings, 

Gramps

Do You Invest Wisely with What God Blesses You?

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this, says the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows."  (Malachi 3:10)

Hey Gang:  Wow! What a fabulous promise to God's children.  But, to quit there is to miss a profound second part to His promise, "Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruit of the ground; nor will your vine in the field prove fruitless," says the Lord of hosts." (vs.11). 

Do you think God is tying our giving to His protection of us from the devourer?  I will confess that in my early years of walking with the Lord I came across this verse and it scared the begeebies out of me because I was not a tither.  I was at best a very sporadic giver and sometimes gave what was left over.

There is also a very key principle here that we need to get tucked away in our mind and heart: God challenges us to test Him.  As I read the Word, I find that many of the pillars of the Christian faith were also tested.    I also believe that testing is an essential ingredient of the faith.  When God laid it on my heart that I should quit my job, sell my house, pack my family, travel across the country into never-never land, I would suggest to you that God was testing to see if I would obey and do what He had in mind for me to do.

But let me take that a step further.  In those two years, when I was the ‘unemployed director of a non-existent boys home’ I learned a whole barn-full about testing!  Perhaps most important was, if I did not test Him and put one foot in front of the other, I was going to learn all those lessons that Solomon laid out for our edification about idleness and not getting up off our backsides and taking the first step. 

I had occasion recently to have a discussion with a young man who is preparing to go into the mission field.  He was dealing with some deep-seated frustrations.  He believed he was ready to take on the challenge of God's calling but, in his opinion (like I was) he was stuck in a waiting mode.  I shared with him that all that he was doing, every ‘jot and tittle’, was God's way to prepare him for what he would need in the future.  In the two years I was waiting for the door to open, I did a zillion different things from moving cows to building furniture and pastoring a small church.  

When God said, “Okay, go for it!"  I found myself caring for horses, building the furniture for the house and, many other things that I had tucked away in my experience bag.  Most important was the time I spent in the Word, in those two years, tutored by a dear lady. This built the foundation that would carry us in those very formative years of ‘hanging on’ as God moved so swiftly. 

Sooooo, my young warriors, read the verse for today and zero in on God's promises! Bring it all into His storehouse and test Him.  It is when you do this that He will bless your sox off.  I know because I have been there!    

Blessings,

 Gramps

Are You A 'Johnny Appleseed

Monday, September 30, 2013

 It was hard to select a blog this week. Tomorrow would have been his 90^th birthday. This gives you a bit of understanding on his focus to be a SEED Planter, sharing the Gospel and encouraging others!

"These words I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up, You shall bind them as a sign on our hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead, You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates" (Deut. 6:6-9).

  Hey Gang:  As a child growing up in Altoona, Pennsylvania, I was blessed to be in that time-period before the so called "Age of Enlightenment" covered our earth with a darkness that seems to be rotting every area of our lives.  One of the things I vividly remember as a student in Fairview Elementary School, was the opening of the school day.

  It was the same every day for the six years I attended that school.  We began with the Pledge of Allegiance to our country and the raising of the flag (which means we moved it from one side of the teachers desk to the other each day). This was followed by the reading of the Word and then a prayer.  Every school day, five days a week, nine months of the year. 

  In the first three years of my school experience, I was truly blessed to have a grandmother-type teacher by the name of Mrs. Barnhart.   She was like a "mama hen" watchering her chicks with a loving eye to make sure they were safely tucked away in the nest.  Each morning, after the pledge, Scripture, and prayer she would get out "Peanuts the Elephant", a kind of mascot of the class, and read a story. While reading the story, she would walk up one aisle and down the other until she had made physical contact with every child.

  Mrs. Barnhart was far more than a mere teacher, she was a "seed planter" of God's love.  There was no big deal made of this planting of the Word into the hearts of all the children who were privileged to learn under her guidance. She just did it.  Why, I believe? Because it was her way of following the Lord's command to "Go into all the world and share the Good News that Jesus Christ is the "Way, Truth and Life". 

  I wonder how many of the little ones, who passed under her watchful eyes, learned eternal lesson about God's love and respect for their country and love for the flag.  She certainly was no preacher, not even a teacher of the Word, but she was, as James said we should all be, "…a Doer of the word".  I wonder how many noses she wiped or boots that she helped put on, or how many mittens she had to search for in her thirty plus years of sharing her purpose in life - sharing of God's love.

  Soooo,  The question: are we losing our young people?   I’d like to think that maybe the seeds Mrs. Barnhart planted in my heart, in those first three years of my school life, later surfaced in the founding of Eagle Village.  I pray that my life has been one of ‘seed planting’.  So, get your hoe and spade (Live and Love like Jesus taught) get about being a Johnny Appleseed with God's fabulous Word!

  Blessings,

 Gramps