This was my ‘Farewell’ message to the congregation in Lynnville (IL) on August 28, 2005. The Scripture was from Romans 12: 9-21…

       January 13, 2002. That was the Sunday, almost four years ago, that I first stood at this pulpit! I told you how the church I grew-up in immersed people, about attending a baptism in a little church in the Ozarks where we all went down to the nearest creek to perform the ceremony, and how I, and I quote, “…always regarded this as a true act of faith. First of all, this was usually pretty cold water! Second, these were the same waters that I would swim in at my grandpa’s and come out with leaches hanging onto me! And let’s not forget that water-moccasins and copperheads abounded! So it seemed to me that someone really had to have a trust in God to take that walk into those waters.”

       I’ve told you stories about learning to cultivate beans, about driving an earthmover through downtown Springfield, and about how much of a Star Trek fan I am. I’m sure that almost everybody here remembers my telling about the cheerleaders (and if you weren’t here for that one, I’m sure somebody will be happy to tell you about it!), and most of you probably remember the longest one that I did on Job where I read letters from an old girlfriend! (What you don’t know is how much that particular sermon has affected my life in so many ways!) But do you remember that the sermon with the cheerleaders was about how Christians need to fellowship and work together? And do you also remember that reading the letters from Ruth led to the message of how God never gives us more to deal with than we can handle?

       The fact is, almost all of my sermons have started with a personal story of some kind! And I have always hoped that by doing so each of you could relate more personally to the message itself, and better remember and connect it to your own lives!

        And… even though there are some that I feel are better than others, I think each one has made a good point… indeed, there have been a number of times that, after giving one that I didn’t think was my ‘best’ by any means, one of you would come up to me afterwards and say how much one point or another meant to you! So it would seem that God had something or someone in mind for each sermon that I wrote… and frankly, sometimes that ‘someone’ was me!

Now, I have often told you how I read the verses for each Sunday early in the week, search my memory for a suitable story to tell, and then sit down at my computer and trust God to help me put it all together! And if my story-telling and style of ministry has helped you in any way to want to be here and to listen to God’s Word, then God’s using of me has been successful! The problem with this approach, however, has always been that I had to be constantly on the alert for maybe making things too much about ‘me’ and not enough about God! After all, you are all here this morning to hear God’s message and how it relates to your lives… not the ramblings of an old farm-boy!

This morning, though, I think is special… and so, on this one morning, I ask your forgiveness and forbearance as I do talk a little bit about myself and what I have done here over the last 44 months… and maybe in the process, you might come to realize how much each of you… and through you, this congregation… have changed over that same period of time as well!

When I first stood up here on that Sunday in January all those years ago I addressed somewhere between five and ten people… we seemed to average between 4-6, but some Sundays might find only 2 or 3 of us here. Indeed, I had been warned that the consensus was that the doors would soon be closed and locked for good! And since for the first16 months I shared this pulpit every-other-Sunday with two other speakers, there was little I felt I could do to remedy that situation! And we did, indeed, talk about and hold meetings to discuss that very closing… so when I was asked to start being here every Sunday, it was with an ‘instruction’ that I had probably better help those who were here to prepare for that finality! I, however, responded that I was more than happy to take over each Sunday, but that if I did, I was not going to take the closing of this building lying down!

       And so the work began! I don’t know how many of you realized that I started working one day less a week at my regular job so as to have the time I felt I needed to dedicate to this work! And partly because of that work… and partly because of God’s working in His way… things began to change! First off, I wrote and presented my ‘Western Bible Study’, and what a success that was! Not only did we average just over twenty people attending each week, but I think I can count several of our new members whose coming here started because of that class!

       I also wrote a shorter study that was musically based, and presented the prepared version of ‘An Ordinary Day with Jesus!”, both of which were well attended and, I think, appreciated! I began putting together and presenting special services at Easter and Christmas… I think this last Christmas Eve service of lights with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra was particularly enjoyable! At about the same time as the Western Bible Study was going on, circumstances caused the Riggston UMC to ‘close with dignity’, and several of those fine people found their way here, as well! So between God and I working as a team… with Him, of course, as the team leader… we now have an average attendance of around twenty/week!

       Another thing that I hope has changed since I started here is the impression that seemed to exist that this congregation was a ‘stand-alone-entity’ and that the Conference was the enemy. I hope that I have been able to show you, in some small ways, just what all the Conference does for people all over the world, including right here in Illinois, Morgan County, and Lynnville! Indeed the projector that I used for the Western Bible Study and for the graphic displays that we used for a time was a free loaner from the Conference office, and fully one-half the advertising that we did in the Jacksonville paper for some months last year was paid for by a grant through that same office! I have tried to show each of you how important the work that they do is and how important it is that we do our part in getting it done!

       And we have increased our part! We may still struggle with our apportionments… and I hope that that becomes less of a struggle in the future… but we have donated a number of flood buckets and health kits to the Distribution Center to be sent wherever they are needed all over the world!

       In addition to that, we have become a regular contributor to the local food center, giving many hundreds of dollars in goods and cash over the last two years… a feat made all-the-more remarkable when the size of our congregation is taken into account! And one must wonder just how many lives we have made a difference in!

So, YES, I have seen changes in the size and in the involvement of this Lynnville United Methodist Church… but even more than that, I have seen changes in each of you! I have seen some of you cry after a particular message has moved you… I have seen you laugh as I tell a story on myself… and I have seen the faces of many of you change from a look of uncertainty to a look of understanding and acceptance as I delivered a message that seemed to have a particular personal interest to you.

At the same time, I’m sure that each of you have seen changes in me… and I hope that most of them have been good ones! When I first stood up here with just a hand written paper that the other speaker at that time had given me with the order of the service on it and tried to remember to say and do all of the things I had been taught and/or had seen other pastors do, I don’t mind saying that I was about as nervous as anybody could be. Today we use a printed bulletin for all to follow, yet I feel confident enough at times to make changes in our ‘regular’ order of things if I see a particular need to do so… indeed doing the sermon today after Communion is probably not ‘orthodox’, but I felt that on this one occasion, at least, I wanted to have the ‘last word’.

And, yes, I DO still get nervous on occasion! I seem to recall assisting with a certain wedding that found me making a Huge ‘faux pas’… And even though there are still times, like that, when things just don’t seem to work out like I had planned, I know that you all accept me and understand that things sometimes happen! One thing you may not know is that during our few moments of silent prayer each week, I am praying for God to give me the words to say and message to deliver to you, His people… I pray that He use me as His tool to be best able to reach out and touch each of you in some way!

I have also grown, I hope, in my knowledge and understanding of God’s Word… it has been said, and truthfully so, that there is no better way to learn something than to teach it! And in my teaching you, I have learned so very, very much myself… and as I said earlier, I have felt like some of the sermons that I wrote were intended for me as much as anyone!

I am human! And being human, I make mistakes! Being Christian, I try to learn from those mistakes and move on. But sometimes there comes an issue that only time and prayer can give any answers to, and there have been occasions when I stood behind this pulpit and felt totally unworthy of serving in such a position! I hope you have noted that I have never said that ‘you’ have sinned but that ‘we’ have sinned… for I certainly am a sinner! But through the grace of God, I… and each one of you… are truly forgiven!

So, yes, I think we have all grown over these last few years! You have grown as a congregation and have begun to take your place in the connection-ism of the world around us… as individuals, you have grown in your faith and understanding of what it means to be a Christian… and as a pastor, I have grown in my knowledge and acceptance of God and all that He means to each of us!

And so, it is for this moment that I chose, from the lectionary, these verses from Romans to read this morning. The Life Application Commentary tells us that, “As it has done elsewhere, Paul’s thinking progresses from the use of gifts to the motivation behind those gifts – love. Whereas the previous section, which we studied last week, pointed to individual contributions that each believer can make to the body, this section includes practical commands that require application by all believers. These commands cover two distinct concerns: among believers, there must be evidence that love is being practiced and that evil is being defeated.”

These, I think, are the two main points that I have tried to make over the course of my tenure here… that loving God must show ‘evidence’ of being practiced… such as giving to the food center and distribution center, as examples… and that evil is being defeated… and we can best do that by reading our Bibles, knowing what the Word of God says, understanding what He means by it, and standing up and fighting for what is right in God’s name!

So I would like to leave you by reading these words of Paul’s as if they were my words of farewell to each of you…

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;

if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”  

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

There is a quote that I first saw on a billboard in Missouri… and I did know whose it was but have forgotten… that says, “All evil needs to succeed is for good men to do nothing.” Please! Don’t let evil succeed! Not in this church… not in Lynnville… not on this earth! Do Something! Do Something Good! For God’s sake… Do Something Good… Today!!!

Starting with verses from Exodus 1: 6 thru 2: 8, then also reading from Romans 12: 1 -8, this was given at the church in Lynnville (IL) on August 21, 2005.

During the last few months many lectionaries have included Old Testament verses that tell us some of the highlights of the early history of the people of Israel. We hear how Abraham received God’s promise to make of him a ‘Huge nation’, yet kept his wife Sarah barren until well past her child-bearing years, when she bore Isaac… how Isaac fathered two sons, Esau and Jacob, and how Jacob had a total of twelve sons, which became the twelve tribes of Israel. And the last couple of weeks have told us a bit of the story of Joseph, one of those twelve sons. Last week, we talked about how it seemed that Joseph had been treated unfairly by his brothers, and yet when all was said and done, it was all part of God’s plan to save His chosen people from starvation and extinction! Today’s sermon might be considered ‘part B’ of that same idea!

One might well wonder where God had been during the four-hundred odd years between Joseph bringing the Israelites to Egypt and Moses leading them out again. After all, they had moved from being the family of Pharaoh’s favored governor, and enjoying all of the favors and honors that that entailed, to being slaves and laborers under a people who hated and resented them! Why?

Consider with me, a moment, the style of life Abraham, Isaac and Jacob lived… they were nomads, living in tents, wandering from place to place, never settling in any one for too long a time. But God had promised them a land of their own! And if they were to settle it, they would need to learn new skills and a new way of living. So He arranged it for them to live in the most advanced civilization in the world at that time! For over four-hundred years, the descendants of Jacob learned to build and maintain houses and cities… they learned about government and culture… they learned what it meant to be and to live as civilized people! Now it was time for them to move on… and our Old Testament verses tell of the birth of Moses and the beginning of God’s rescue of them.

By now, some of you are wondering what all of this has to do with our verses from Romans today… I mean, what possible connection can there be between the stories of Joseph and Moses and Paul’s talking of gifts and living sacrifices? Simply this…

Last week, we talked about how we may not always understand how or why God sometimes lets things go the way they do, but that He always has a plan in mind… this week, I want to point out that God’s timing is also different from ours! In the case of Joseph and Moses, as I’ve said, four-hundred years transpired before He felt things were ready to progress. And while our normal life-spans of a hundred-years-or-so make it difficult for any of us to comprehend that four-hundred year period, God is never-the-less working in our lives everyday!

Have you ever had an opportunity to just sit and watch the moon? And have you ever taken notice, during those times, of how fast it is moving? Indeed, has it ever appeared to move at all while you’re watching it? I recall spending the night at my grandparents, many, many moons-ago, and chanced to be lying where I could see the full moon right outside the window. And as I gazed at it, I noted that its path was crossing the four clotheslines on that side of the house. With them as a gauge, the movement of the moon became very obvious… slowly but steadily it creeped up the sky across those clotheslines… it was just very, very slow! And that’s how it sometimes is when watching for how God is working in our own lives!

Paul talks of each of us having a gift from God… some that he lists here are prophesying, serving, and teaching. There are many, many others… some may preach, some may sing… some may visit those in need, others may call and encourage a friend or neighbor when they’re down or hurting… some may serve on various committees and donate their time to help where needed, while others bring in cans and goods to give to those less fortunate than themselves. Everyone has a gift and/or talent given them from God to use in His service! My point is that, owing to God’s work sometimes being on God’s time, we might not always see the results of using those gifts until much later… indeed, as Ray Boltz’s song ‘Thank You’ says, some results we might not see until we, ourselves, are walking the streets of gold that await us in Heaven! But that’s alright… as long as we know that we are using our gifts to the glory of God, we don’t always have to see ‘right now’!

But what if God has given us a gift and we’ve never used it? What if we have gone through all these years of our life and never really tried to find out just what it was God wanted us to do? Friends… it is never too late! And as I said, all things are on God’s time… maybe He has been saving you up to use now! But you will never know until you try! You will never know until you cry out to Him, “God! Here I am! Guide me! Teach me! Use me! Here I am, Lord!”

Paul says that we are to offer our bodies to God as ‘living sacrifices’… that we are ‘not to conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds.’ Let God transform you! Let Him guide you and teach you! Open yourselves up to use the gifts He has given you to do the work He wants you do to! If you’ve been doing it all along, fine… continue… grow! If you haven’t, begin! And grow!

And remember… all things happen… or not, as the case may be… in God’s time!

Given at the Lynnville (IL) church on August 14, 2005. The Scripture Reading is from Genesis 45: 1-15…

       There was a time that I subscribed to a number of magazines regarding the various hobbies that I liked to at least ponder many years ago. And when they would arrive each month, or every-other month depending on the magazine, I could hardly contain myself until I’d devoured the entire issue… ads and all… from cover-to-cover. ‘Antique Power’… that was the one all about old tractors and equipment… was one such magazine! One issue contained a series of pictures showing a number of steam engines and threshers that had fallen through the various bridges they were attempting to cross. Let me read some excerpts from the article that accompanied them…

   “Crossing waterways in the early days was a dangerous challenge.  Bridges were narrow and treacherous.  Some people opted to drive through the streams, safer in one respect, but still there was the threat of danger.  Either way, many operators were hurt or even killed.

“Road commissions originally built bridges—mostly by the trial-and-error method—for the horse and buggy.  They were good enough to hold the automobile but most failed to handle a steam engine or a big tractor.

“Tax money had to be raised to improve the situation.  Wood was eventually replaced by steel but, sadly, some of these steel bridges collapsed under heavy loads.  Early on, little true engineering went into building a bridge.

“By 1921, Nebraska had passed laws to raise the load capacity on bridges to 20 tons.  Michigan required 15 tons capacity.  This paved the way for stronger, safer bridges across the nation.

“Ironically, bridges became stronger as threshing rigs became lighter.  Still, for decades the load rating of rural bridges was determined by the weight of a steam engine.”

How much weight do you think the very first bridges had to hold…probably the weight of a person and whatever he or she was carrying. From there there were horses, then horses and wagons, and so on and so on…until the bridges of today that have to support scads of 80,000# semi’s and cars hitting them at seventy miles per hour. And let’s face it…the bridge builders of the Middle Ages, say, could not have comprehended the concept of an 80,000# vehicle, let alone design a bridge to support it. Each generation has learned from the one before. The Romans could build huge aqueducts over vast distances to transport water, and built roads and bridges capable of moving their armies around the known world. But as populations increased, the need for more and larger transportation increased as well. And, as those needs rose, so did the problems of getting across obstacles.

Many, many bridges have been built throughout the centuries…and as the article said, most used the trial-and-error method of engineering…if one design failed someone would come up with a different one. The problem was, sometimes people died when one of these poor designs didn’t work out! So each generation of bridge-builder has not only had to learn from the failures and success of those who came before him, but also, by building on those successes and failures, to anticipate the growths and needs of the future.

Mankind has learned an awful lot over the last four-or-five thousand years. But, even the technology that we now take for granted, such as computers and cell-phones, would not be possible without each one of the curious people over the centuries learning what others have learned and building and adding to that knowledge.

Over the years I have tried to get across the idea that the building blocks of our future are the lessons learned in the past. Without any one of those building blocks, the world that we know today would not exist…it would be somehow different. So, when it comes our turn to add to this never-ending construction of life, we would all do well to know why some things are the way they are and how to best make use of that knowledge.

And except for one exception, the same holds true for our faith. It is just as important to be aware of how the religion of today has become what it is, and of how your personal faith has reached the point that it has. But be very cautious!! Because the basic truths that Jesus taught two thousand some years ago have not, nor ever will, change! And it is important to know what those truths are. That has always been my intent…to try to pass on some of those basic truths.

Having said that, however, I’m afraid that there is one truth that mankind has struggled with since the very beginning of mankind. And to the best of my knowledge, no one has ever found a real, true answer… and that is, ‘why do good people have to suffer’?

       Some years ago I bid on and bought a book titled ‘Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People’. I’ve never read it! The fact is, I already know! Or, perhaps I should say, I know what the answer is supposed to be! And it is right here in this morning’s verses from Genesis!

       Consider with me, if you will, all that had happened in Joseph’s life… because he was his father’s favorite, his brothers grew to despise him and plotted to kill him outright. Dissuaded from that, they sold him to a band of traders headed to Egypt. There, he worked to earn a position of trust in Potiphar’s household, only to lose it and be thrown in prison through the mechanizations of a scorned woman! None of these things were of Joseph’s doing… none of them were ‘deserved’ by him… and one could certainly say with some confidence that none of it was very pleasant for him to deal with… in fact, most of it was outright cruel by our standards… and yet, through it all, he kept his faith in God!

       Now, I’m sure that any who knew Joseph’s story up to this point might well have wondered, “Why bother?” Indeed, many of us today may have occasion to question our beliefs… I mean, what is the point of believing in and following a God who seems either to have no control or, at the least, refuses to exercise any control over such things? And if all of this “GOD” stuff is in doubt, do any of the ‘truths’ and ‘beliefs’ that we have held mean anything? Indeed, does life mean anything?

Why does God ‘let things happen’? Most Pastors would probably tell you that He doesn’t, or that we just can’t always understand His ways. And that is true. But what DIFFERENCE does it make RIGHT NOW? Why does life have to be like this RIGHT NOW!? Do you want the truth? I don’t know! And I doubt that anyone alive today really knows.

I can only tell you this. There have been a lot of times in my life when I was alone. I don’t mean physically, but mentally, spiritually, and psychologically alone. In other words, I could be at a high school dance or football game and surrounded by hundreds of people and feel totally alone. I could be at a church service or youth event with countless others and feel totally alone. I could be with family or friends, or even that ‘special someone’ and feel totally alone. But through it all, when I look back on my life from this end I can see that I have NEVER been totally alone! Even during the years of my life that I tried to deny even the existence of a ‘god figure’, I can see now that God never denied my existence, and has always been there.

And that is what Joseph sees when he looks back at his life. He calls his brothers to him and says, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 

“So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.”

All that Joseph had been through was a part of God’s plan to save the Israelites from starvation, and as Joseph stood at the successful end of that task and looked back, he realized it! Just as we often look back at parts of our lives and suddenly realize, “THAT’S why that had to happen! Now I understand!”

I’m sure most of you have either read the story or heard the song titled ‘Footprints in the Sand’. I’d like to take a moment and read it aloud…

One night a man had a dream.
He dreamed he was walking along
the beach with the Lord.

Across the dark sky flashed scenes from his life.
For each scene, he noticed
two sets of footprints in the sand,
one belonging to him and the other to the Lord.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him,
he looked back at the footprints in the sand.
He noticed that many times along the path of his life
there was only one set of footprints.
He also noticed that it happened at the
very lowest and saddest times in his life.
This bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it.

“Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,
you’d walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life there is
only one set of footprints.
I don’t understand why when I needed you most
you would leave me.”

The Lord replied “My precious, precious child,
I love you and would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints in the sand,
it was then that I carried you.”

       God is always there! He is always working in our lives! And even at those lowest points… when we sometimes feel forgotten and abandoned… when we begin to wonder where God is in all of our trials and sufferings… when we look up into the heavens and search for Him and wonder why we can’t see Him… we’re just looking for Him in the wrong place! All we have to do is look down! Not up, into heaven… but down… for that’s where God will be… under us, holding and lifting us up, supporting us and encouraging us!

       That’s what all of our life experiences teach us! That’s what the life experiences of all of our forefathers teach us! And yet it seems as if each of us have to learn it and accept it over and over again… God does know what He’s doing… He is God! All we have to do is trust Him… trust Him to guide us… to help us… and to carry us when we need it most… and to continue doing the work He has laid out for each of us to do!

This is a slightly updated version of the talk I gave on July 31, 2005. The Scripture is from Romans 9: 1-5… The original manuscript appears earlier on this site…

“How bright and goodly shines the moon!”

“The moon! The sun: it is not moonlight now.”

“I say it is the moon that shines so bright.”

“I know it is the sun that shines so bright.”

“Now, by my mother’s son, and that’s myself, It shall be moon, or star, or what I list, or ere I journey to your father’s house. Go on and fetch our horses back again.”

“Say as he says, or we shall never go.”

“Forward, I pray, since we have come so far, And it be moon or sun, or what you please: And if you please to call it a rush-candle, henceforth I vow it shall be so for me.”

“I say it is the moon.”

“I know it is the moon”

“Nay, then you lie: it is the blessed sun.”

“Then, God be bless’d, it is the blessed sun: But sun it is not, when you say it is not; And the moon changes even as your mind. What you have named, even that it is; And so it shall be for Katherine.”

       Many of you will recognize these words as being from Shakespeare’s ‘Taming of the Shrew’… this is where Katherine finally begins to bow to the will of her husband Petruchio. And before all of you women start coming at me with your equality pitchforks, let me just add that this was written in 1592… things have changed a bit since then! Or have they?

       It was 1949 when George Orwell wrote the book ‘1984’. I have read it more than once through the years, and would like to read a bit of it for you now… though I caution you, some of it is rather graphic…

       The part I’m reading is towards the end of the book… our hero, Winston, has been captured by the ‘Thought-police’ and is being ‘reprogrammed’ in the depths of the ‘Ministry of Love’. He is, at the moment, strapped to a table in such a way so as to allow no movement whatsoever and is attached to some kind of electrical monitoring equipment. His interrogator, O’Brian, asks him…

       “Do you remember writing in your diary ‘Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four.’?”

       “Yes,” said Winston.

O’Brian held up his left hand, its back toward Winston with the thumb hidden and the four fingers extended.

“How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?”

“Four.”

“And, if the Party says that it is not four, but five, then how many?”

“Four.”  The word ended in a gasp of pain.  The needle of the dial had shot up to 55.  The sweat had sprung out all over Winston’s body.  The air tore into his lungs and issued again in deep groans which, even by clenching his teeth, he could not stop.

O’Brian watched him, the four fingers still extended.  He drew back the lever.  This time the pain was only slightly eased.  “How many fingers, Winston?”

“Four.”  The needle went up to 60.

“How many fingers, Winston?”

“Four, four.  What else can I say?  Four.”

The needle must have risen again, but he did not look at it.  The heavy, stern face and the four fingers filled his vision.  The fingers stood up before his eyes like pillars, enormous, leering, and seeming to vibrate, but unmistakably four.

“How many fingers, Winston?”

“Four.  Stop it, stop it.  How can you go on?  Four, four.”

“How many fingers, Winston?”

“Five, five, five.”

“No, Winston.  That is no use.  You are lying.  You still think there are four.  How many fingers, please?”

“Four—five—four—anything you like.  Only stop it—stop the pain.”

In both of these stories, we find one person being told what they are to believe and that person accepting it… in the case of Katherine it was voluntary, with full knowledge of what was actually truth but learning to accept what her husband told her as truth because it was her 16^th century duty as a wife to do so. In the second story, however, Winston knew the truth and wasn’t afraid of it, even though the truth went against ‘Party’ policies, and was being forced and brainwashed through torture and deprivation to believe whatever it was the ruling element wanted him to believe, no matter how wrong it might be.

I’ve quoted, before, from the rock-opera Jesus Christ, Superstar, the words between Pilot and Jesus as Pilot interrogates Him… Pilot starts by asking… “Then you’re a king?” “It’s you that say I am… I search for truth and find that I get damned!” “But what is truth? Is truth unchanging law? We all have truths. Are mine the same as yours?”

Truth! In our verses from Romans this morning, Paul starts off by stating, “I speak the truth in Christ — I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit-“ But what is that truth?

Some years ago the Jacksonville, IL, newspaper printed a ‘Letter to the Editor’ that began, “The purpose of education in the United States is to produce “good”, unquestioning Anglo-Saxons who are fed party-line, sanitized, (blank) rather than the truth. …let me open your eyes and show you just how much of a ‘government by law’ the United States is and just how much it is a ‘Nation under God’.

Now, I usually paid no attention to the ravings of this particular fanatic… he seems to have been a regular contributor to the ‘letters’ page back then… but in this instance, much of his story was true. In the words of his letter…

“In 1851, the Santee Sioux Indians in Minnesota sold 24 million acres of land to the U.S. Government for $1.4 million.  By August 1862, thousands of white settlers continued to pour into the Indian lands, even though none of the money had ever been paid to the Santee Sioux.

There was a crop failure that year, and the Indians were starving.  (Washington) refused to pay them the money they were owed, breaking another Indian treaty.  Yet (Washington) provided white Minnesotans with $2 million.  The starving Sioux revolted.

At a meeting arranged with the Indians, the government and local traders, the Dakotans asked lead trader Andrew Myrick to support this cause.  His response was blunt:  “So far as I am concerned, if they are hungry, let them eat grass or their own dung.” . . .

In the ensuing conflict, Gen. John Pope was put in charge of federal forces in Minnesota.  Pope announced, “It is my purpose to utterly exterminate the Sioux. . . .  They are to be treated as maniacs or wild beasts, and by no means as a people with whom treaties or compromise can be made.”

Minnesota Gov. Alexander Ramsey had declared on September 9, 1862, that “The Sioux Indians of Minnesota must be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of the state.”  His plan was further implemented, when bounties, which eventually reached $200, were placed on the scalps of Dakota Indians.

And the sad fact of the matter is that, as far as I can make out, all of this is true… in fact, the United States government instituted and implemented an entire systematic plan to eliminate and/or relocate all Native Americans from lands that ‘white people’ wanted! And the only justification that can be made today is that for hundreds of years, ‘white people’ did not consider Indians… or Blacks or Chinese or Mexicans or anybody that didn’t look and act like ‘us’, for that matter… as being real people! Indeed, in spite of those great words of Thomas Jefferson’s which declared how “All men are created equal!”, many European scientists did great studies and wrote and published lengthy papers declaring and describing how inferior all other races were to the Anglo-Saxons! That was one of the ‘scientific truths’ of that day!

Today, we know better… our ‘truth’ regarding other races and peoples now accepts all men… and women… as our equals. And yet, even in my saying that I show how un-equal we are… for the inference is that we are the standard by which others are to be judged!

In the Book of Romans, Paul has been building the case for all non-Jews to accept, and be accepted of, Christ… and I, for one, think that is a good thing… after all, I am not a Jew! But Paul takes a moment here to lament how many of his fellow Jews have not accepted Christ. He points out how, “Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all…”

Let me pose you a question… which seems most natural to you… to drive by a Living Nativity scene in December filled with blonde and red-headed angels, shepherds and kings… or one filled with olive-skinned Middle-Easterners? And yet, the Jews were the chosen people of God! The baby Jesus was born to Jewish parents and attended Jewish synagogues! Why it is so much easier for us to picture Him as one of us! Somewhere along the line, one of our basic truths has been changed!

And that is the point of my sermon today… what do you believe is the truth about Christ? What do you believe is the point of His teachings?  I mean, exactly what truths are contained in this collection of writings we call the Holy Bible?

Throughout the book 1984, Winston considered himself a free-thinking revolutionary, remembering all of the mistakes and lies committed by ‘the Party’ during his lifetime. However, in the end, everything he had ever thought, said or did was being observed and recorded… Big Brother really was watching! And when the thought-police were finished with him, this is how he wound up…

“He set to work to exercise himself in crimestop.  He presented himself with propositions—‘the Party says the earth is flat’, ‘the Party says that ice is heavier than water’… and trained himself in not seeing or not understanding the argument that contradicted them. 

It was not easy.  It needed great powers of reasoning and improvisation.  The arithmetical problems raised, for instance, by such a statement as “two and two make five” were beyond his intellectual grasp.  It needed also a sort of athleticism of mind—an ability at one moment to make the most delicate use of logic and, at the next, to be unconscious of the crudest logical errors.  Stupidity was as necessary as intelligence and as difficult to attain.”

He was broken… he would forevermore be incapable of independent thought… he would believe whatever the party told him to believe… their reality would become the only reality he would ever know.

Why do I bring all of this up today? Because it is very clear to me, in the study of history, that there have been many attempts over the last two-thousand-odd years to re-interpret the truths of Christianity! I won’t take the time to list any but the most obvious… such as the concept of eliminating all joy or happiness from leading a religious life… Jesus enjoyed going to weddings and dinners and such… and the wars and conquests that have been carried out “In the name of God”… Jesus was a man of peace!

Most of us, today, can look back and see how many times people have tried to bend and shape the concepts of religion to fit what they wanted or believed… and how, in the long run, the truth of Christ has always won out in the end! But think of all the suffering that has been caused during those times when these incorrect truths held sway!

You know what? There are still people today who would have you change what you believe to be true! There are those who seem to quote and twist Jesus’ words to try to make them support such things as homosexuality and, really, it seems, all sins in general! After all, they want us to be loving and accepting of all sinners… which in and of itself is correct… but these people would then have us accept, by default, the sin as well! They are attempting to change the truths of God!

That is why I have always preached and taught what I consider to be ‘basic’ Christianity. For if a person is well grounded in the facts of what Jesus said and did… if they know the words of Peter and of Paul… if they are aware of, acknowledge and accept all of the axioms and ideals contained in these pages… then they know the truth! And no one… no way, no how… will ever be able to take it from them!

Using the verses from the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 13, verses 31-35 and 44-52, this was given at the congregation in Lynnville (IL) on July 24, 2005. As I note in the ‘live’ version, I had spoken and/or pastored here for over 3 years… THIS ‘talk’ contains the announcement of my moving on… 😦

       As most of you know, the way I start work on each of these sermons every week is to read all of the verses listed in the lectionary, determine which one I think I would most like to preach on, and then search my memory for a story to lead into it. Now, the story doesn’t always have to tie into what I think the main point of the sermon might be, but oft times it does. And as much as possible, I try to use stories from my own past and experiences… I feel like it is that that helps me connect so well with each of you… I mean, how often have one or the other of you come up to me afterwards and shared a similar story from your past… and I feel like it is that connection that helps everyone maybe listen a little closer and hear more of what God is trying to tell us!

So it was that, as I read these verses from Matthew this week, I saw a short story that I could tell about each of the separate parables that Jesus was telling. For example, the mustard seed reminded me of the time I was in Pine Bluff, AR some years ago picking up cottonseed oil. The cotton was brought in pressed into bales then fed through a row of twenty-or-so cotton gins, which separated the seed from the cotton itself. The cotton was then loaded into trucks and hauled to another plant where it was carded and made into cloth. The seeds were then processed into cottonseed meal… a by-product of which is cottonseed oil! Now, there were trucks and trucks and more trucks all lining up and hauling out the cotton after it had been separated, and there where quite a few trucks each day hauling out the meal… but we tankers only went down there every few months or so… and each time I sat there being loaded I thought, “How many cotton seeds does it take to make 7000 gal. of oil?” And yet, the mustard seed that Jesus is referring to is smaller still!

And when I read about the kingdom of heaven being like yeast, I can’t help but remember ‘Herman’. How many of you remember Herman? Some twenty-or-thirty years ago, Herman could be found, it seemed, in every kitchen across America. Somebody started a batch of it somewhere and then shared with a friend, who shared with the family, who shared… well, you get the idea! This stuff just kept growing and growing… it reminded me of Steve McQueen’s first movie, ‘The Blob’, where the alien creature kept eating everybody and getting larger and larger and larger!

The parable of the pearl reminds me of the ‘Star Trek’ episode where Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are all taken to a planet and tortured to test the abilities of an empathic girl to save them. At the end, after telling their stories and filing their reports, Scotty says about the girl that she must have been a pearl of great value. When Kirk asked him to explain, he said, “Have ye not heard the story of the merchant who, having found a pearl of great value, went and sold all he had so that he might purchase it?” Kirk replied, “Yes, she was all of that!” And as to the parable of the good and bad fish, I wouldn’t know where to begin telling fish stories and/or talking about nets and so-on.

So the question begs itself, “Why did Jesus use so many different parables just to describe the Kingdom of Heaven?” Well, as the Life Application Commentary points out, “No one parable can completely describe God’s kingdom in all its aspects, so Jesus gave several. Through these parables, Jesus explained that his kingdom would have a small beginning, but would grow to encompass the earth.”

Just as the tiny mustard seed grew into the largest herb bush in the garden (reaching 10 or 12 feet tall in just a few weeks!) and as the yeast penetrates the entire mixture of dough and forces it to expand, so began Christianity… one man… Jesus… then the twelve… then hundreds… then thousands… then hundreds of thousands… and so on!

Meanwhile, the Life Application Commentary tells us that… “The treasure and pearl parables tell of the joy of finding peace with God. There’s no other word to express it. Both stories involve people who very happily find the answer to their life’s hopes and dreams.

That’s what becoming a Christian is about: deepest needs met, deepest longings satisfied, deepest hurts bandaged, and a future and a hope unlike any other. It all adds up to joy!”

Jesus could be quite the story teller. And all of His stories were drawn from real-life situations that the people of that time would relate to… scattering seed, a lost sheep, even the prodigal son were all things that many of that day had first hand knowledge of, and all would have understood them. I’d like to think that many of my stories do the same, today. My hope has always been that by connecting a real-life story from my life to the message I felt the verses contained on any given Sunday, each of you might make a connection in your own lives to that same message! And I think it has worked… but only because God uses and guides me in making it work!

It seems as if most weeks I sit down at my computer with only my ‘story’, and perhaps a simple idea of a point I want to make or a direction I want to go, in my head. But some hours later, here exists, in black-and-white, a full-fledged sermon… and I cannot always take credit for it… I honestly feel that God has used my fingers to put out what He wants people to hear! And frankly, sometimes it seems He wants ME to hear it as much as he does all of you!

You see, I am not anybody ‘special’ in any way… I am as human and as fallible as anybody in this room… and perhaps more so than most! The only thing that separates me from any one of you is my ability to remember and relate all of these ‘life experiences’ that I have had and my openness to let God guide me in using them.

I saw a plaque in a gift shop, recently, that I very much wanted except for the fact that it had ‘Missouri’ plastered all over the bottom of it. The message read, “Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment!” Believe me, I have lots of experience! And I feel very honored and blessed that God has let me learn from all of that experience and use it to, maybe, help others avoid or at least deal with making the same mistakes as me.

However… for some time now, it has seemed as if God has been calling me to start trying to correct some of those earlier mistakes that have led me to committing so many others over the years. And it is to that end that I have a very important announcement to make to all of you this morning.

After countless hours of praying, soul-searching, discussions with God, discussions with my friends and advisers, more prayer, and thousands of highway miles to think and plan and decide… the time has come for me to begin rebuilding my life into something that I believe God intended for me to do before… and very much wants me to do now!

I have signed up for courses starting this August at Lewis & Clark Community College in Edwardsville and Godfrey. A week-ago-Saturday I gave my employer my two-week notice… this will be my last week of driving over the road… at least for the foreseeable future. To facilitate all of this I will be moving in to my mother’s house in Edwardsville the first week of August. I have given much thought about what to do about being your pastor… my first thought was to try to fit it in amongst everything else and drive up-and-back each Sunday… I even OK’d that possibility with our District Superintendent! But in the end, we have all decided that it will be much easier to make a clean break of everything and see what work I can get involved with down there. And so, it is with great sorrow, on the one hand, yet great excitement and anticipation, on the other, that I announce to you that August 28, 2005 will be my last scheduled Sunday to preach here!

There are many more things I want to say… words of thanks and words of encouragement… but today is not the time for that. This is not my ‘farewell address’… I will save that for that final Sunday! Today, I am merely telling you what is happening and asking for your prayers… and your love, understanding, and encouragement… as I begin this totally new chapter in my life!

As always, I am… and will eternally be… In His service!

The Scripture is from the Book of Genesis, Chapter 28, verses 10-19a… This was given at the Lynnville (IL) church on July 17, 2005…

       A book I have on the history of Silver Dollar City, outside of Branson, MO, tells how it actually built-up as a playground of sorts to entertain the families who were waiting for the cave tour through Marble Cave. The cave was called that because of some of its earlier visitors mistaking certain geological features for marble and trying to mine it. However, the only thing of value that was actually taken out of it was bat guano, which is used in ladies make-up and such. Once it was gone, it was only a matter of time before the cave was opened for tours, and as I said, Silver Dollar City grew up around and because of it. Today, the name has been changed to Marvel Cave, and tours leave out every 45 minutes or so, depending on the crowds.

       I have to admit that I have not been through it in some years, now… as best I recall, the tour is over an hour long and involves quite-a-bit of stair-walking, steep grades, and narrow passages… all of which seem to be more difficult to deal with these days! However, when I was younger a trip through the cave seemed to be in order on many of our visits there… and so it is that I have heard many different tales told by different guides over the years. One such story centered around one of the first actual expeditions to attempt an exploration of its depths sometime in the early 1800’s.

       The only known entrance at the time was through a sink-hole in a pasture and required being lowered by rope into utter darkness some hundreds of feet… for those who have never been there, the main chamber is so huge that hot-air balloons used to be launched from the floor and flown around inside! From there, though, this intrepid group of explorers had to craw through a narrow passage of rock, mud and guano for quite some distance before dumping out into another large chamber, and a short way into this, they came upon a ledge in the darkness. The feeble light from their lanterns could not reach the other walls nor into the depth in front of them, and the stones that they threw into the darkness never made any sound of landing. It turns out that they landed in mud, but to these brave souls it seemed as if the abyss in front of them was bottomless! In addition to that, there was another entrance down the line that was unknown to them, so the air that was blowing up on them from the darkness was warmer than that in the rest of the cave. So we have a bottomless pit with warm air coming up from it… our brave spelunkers naturally assumed they had found the entrance to Hell and beat a hasty retreat out and away!

       In contrast, our verses from Genesis tell how Jacob thought that he had found the entrance to Heaven! Let me read what Barnes’ Notes has to say about these verses…

“Setting out on the way to Haran, Jacob was overtaken by night, and slept in the field. He was either far from any dwelling, or did not wish to enter the house of a stranger. He dreams. A ladder or stair is seen reaching from earth to heaven, on which angels ascend and descend.

This is a medium of communication between heaven and earth, by which messengers pass to and fro on errands of mercy. Heaven and earth have been separated by sin. But this ladder has re-established the contact. It is therefore a beautiful emblem of what mediates and reconciles. It here serves to bring Jacob into communication with God, and teaches him the emphatic lesson that he is accepted through a mediator. “The Lord stood above it,” and Jacob, the object of his mercy, beneath.

First, He reveals himself to the sleeper as “the Lord”, “the God of Abraham thy father, and of Isaac.” It is remarkable that Abraham is styled his father, that is, his actual grandfather, and covenant father. Second. He renews the promise of the land, of the seed, and of the blessing in that seed for the whole race of man. Third, He then promises Jacob to personally to be with him, protect him, and bring him back in safety.

Jacob awakes, and exclaims, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not.” He knew his omnipresence; but he did not expect a special manifestation of the Lord in this place, far from the sanctuaries of his father. He is filled with solemn awe, when he finds himself in the house of God and at the gate of heaven. The pillar is the monument of the event. The pouring of oil upon it is an act of consecration to God who has there appeared to him. He calls the name of the place Bethel, “the house of God.”

Now, this is one of those passages which I don’t have much memory of ever hearing as a child… indeed, the first recollection I have of ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ was a toy in the gift shop at New Salem when I was there with my son and someone telling me that the name was from “the story in the Bible!” I didn’t have a clue! And the truth is, it would seem as if even those who are supposed to be ‘well versed’ in such things aren’t real sure about it either… one commentary that I read said that this ‘ladder’ was probably more like a huge stack of stones like the one he was using as a pillow… another said that the ladder was Jesus, Himself, making the connection between Heaven and earth… and the fact is, none of that really makes much difference to what I want to talk about this morning… I’ll leave the business about the ladder to another day and/or someone more knowledgeable than me. Instead, I have two points that I’d like to draw this morning.

The first comes from verse 14 where God tells Jacob… “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.” Think about what God is telling him, here… even though Jacob could not possibly have had any inkling of what God was referring to, we today know that He meant that the Messiah… Jesus… would come to the world through Jacob’s descendants! God had it all planned out even then… indeed, Jesus tells us that God has known from the beginning of time all that was to transpire in regards to this timetable of his. And all things happen in His time, not ours!

My second point is from verse 16 where Jacob wakes up and says, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” As the commentary I read said, Jacob knew of God’s omnipresence… he knew that God was everywhere at every second of every day. Even our Psalm this morning says… “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me… your right hand will hold me fast.”

Sometimes it seems as if the lyrics from a song really help say what I’m meaning… These are from a song titled ‘Praise You’, and again, I would recommend looking it up on YouTube… (Search for ‘Praise You’ and add ‘Gaither’s’…)  

There’s no place where You’re not there.

I’ll never drift from Your love and care.

There’s not a thing about me that You don’t know.

The wings of the morning will take me to You.

The blackness of night, Your light will shine through.

You’re already there no matter where I may go.

Even before I came to be,

Your loving eyes were looking at me.

You’re even closer than the very breath that I take.

Mother and father, more than a friend to me,

beginning and ending and living of life to me;

The song I find myself singing when I awake.

I overheard a young girl one time explaining why she didn’t believe in a god… “Look at all of this around us! How can you tell me that any one person is responsible for creating and maintaining all of it!” I didn’t get to, but I wanted to turn to her and say, “You’re right, one person couldn’t! But one God did… and does!”

Our God is truly an awesome God! He has created each of us out of so much dirt and water… He knows how many hairs are on each of our heads… he knows when we get them cut and exactly how long each one is before and after! Our God can turn water into wine… He can heal the sick and crippled… and He can bring the dead back to life!

But you want to know what I sometimes find to be the most unbelievable thing He can do? He can forgive me of my sins over and over and over… because He loves me! Just as he loves and forgives each of you! Now… isn’t that a truly amazing and awesome thing to do?

An earlier version of this was posted on this site some years ago… THIS one was given at the Lynnville (IL) church on July 10, 2005.

The Scripture is from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 13, verses 1-23…

       During most of the years that I was growing up, in addition to their regular jobs Grandpa and his three sons all worked together to farm a number of acres scattered all around the little village of Hartford, IL. Along with all of that, each had a garden to take care of, so I guess you could say I grew up pretty close to the land!

Due to the size of our yard in Hartford, our garden was limited to the basics, such as sweet corn, onions, radishes, and tomatoes. But dad always wanted more. So, when we finally bought our own little farm outside of Edwardsville, he could hardly wait to lay out a huge spread!

       We started with a space behind the chicken house that was at least twice the size of what we had in Hartford. Right off, Dad laid out and planted a row of grapes. We had to put up a fence to support them, and he studied and learned about how to prune them back each year until you started to get a good, steady crop from them. I’m sure that the people who bought the place from us some years later finally got to enjoy some of them!

       About the third year we were there, we tore down the old dairy barn, which opened up a huge, new area close to the house, and dad couldn’t wait for spring! Potatoes had always been a part of every garden we had, but now we were planting enough to feed two or three families for the entire year! Sweet corn was planted with a corn planter, and it seemed as if the tomatoes and green beans would have kept an entire city block red and green if we could have stayed on top of picking them everyday!

Then, there were the experiments. Edwardsville was the horseradish capital of the country, so one year we had to plant a row of that to see how it worked. Horseradish is a very labor-intensive crop. After the shoots are up about 10 inches or so, you have to carefully dig up and break off all but the main taproot. This is what grows and is harvested later in the year. After we did harvest it, we took it all into the kitchen to run through the meat grinder, but it wasn’t long before we moved everything out onto the porch. The hardest part was putting it into all of the little baby food jars that mom had gotten to keep it in. You had to use a spoon to pack it in, and even at arm’s length it was almost unbearable! But we did have some delicious horseradish for a number of years.

Then there was the time that we planted a row of watermelon seeds and a row of pumpkin seeds along the outside edge, next to the field. We had vines everywhere… in the tomatoes, up the sweet corn…everywhere! Not only that, but you couldn’t be sure which vine it was, and if you wanted it to produce anything, you weren’t supposed to even touch it! Well, needless to say, not all of the vines survived. Some were twenty and even thirty feet into the hay field, but we mowed around them all summer, and were rewarded with a few volleyball-sized watermelons around July, and by October there were some smallish pumpkins drying on the vine, so it would seem that our soil was good for growing… we just needed to learn how to plant and take care of them!

Since so much of my growing up was ‘in the dirt’, as it were, I never had any problem understanding the parable that I read today. The broadcast seeder that we would mount on the back of our little Farmall ‘B’ to sow alfalfa and grass was totally indiscriminate about where the seed landed. If it was turned on, it cast out a 15 or 20-foot swath of seed…period! You had to regulate the ground speed of the tractor to control how dense you wanted it, and if you turned around too close to the trees it would just keep throwing seed into the woods. If you crossed the field road or drove along too close to the creek, your seed would just end up sitting on top of the road or washing away downstream. All the seeder knew to do was throw out the seed! So, yes, not all of the seed that was cast germinated and produced. Just like Jesus said, that which landed on the road was probably eaten by mice and birds…the seed that landed in the trees might germinate but would be swallowed up by the other plants…and any seed that fell close to the road might get started to grow, but would never be able to get a root system down that would support it and would either wither and die or, at best, live a very stunted, unproductive life.

Most people, it seems, read this passage and come away from it trying to determine which of the seeds are most like them! Are they sincere enough in their listening…in their faith…to produce the fruit that Jesus expects? Or will they shrivel up at the first sign of heat…the kind of heat caused by all of the dilemmas in living day to day!

But there is an entirely different point that I would like to make today! And I can make it best by telling another story!

Some years ago, when I was starting the landscaping side of my business in Jacksonville, IL and had it going full swing, a lady called me to come till up her entire yard… it seemed she had some kind of weed that had taken over most of it and just wanted to start from scratch. So I made the arrangements with her for me to work up all of the dirt and prepare it for seed. And I explained right up front that I did NOT do seeding. There was another company that I worked with that could do that, or she could do it herself if she wanted, but I did not have the equipment nor the state licenses to do seeding and chemicals. She understood that and agreed to the project.

When I was done with my part, she asked me if I would go ahead and seed it. I told her again that I was not in the seeding business and couldn’t do it! But she insisted. All she wanted, she said, was for me just to throw out a little seed and fertilizer by hand…she was too old to do it herself. So to help her out, I told her to go ahead and buy what she wanted and I would come back and throw it out for her, which I did.

A few weeks later she phoned again, wanting me to come back and look at the yard. When I got there, it was all that I could do to not laugh out loud. The grass seed I had managed to cast out fairly evenly, but the fertilizer was a different matter all-together… all across the back yard were these light and dark green stripes that started small on one side and grew towards the other!

The point of this story is this…this lady was very upset about where the seed (and fertilizer) landed. But Jesus is not! Jesus expects us to throw out the ‘seed’ of His word anywhere and everywhere we get a chance! We may not know, when we throw it, where it might land or how it might respond. We may not know if it lands on a hard heart and Satan, like the birds, snatches it away. We may not know if it lands and sprouts vigorously, only to dry up and wither away because the roots were too shallow to withstand the pressures of everyday life. We may not know if a seed takes root, giving hope of a harvest, only to be choked out by the distractions and conflicts of life not allowing time to grow and nurture. And we may not know if a seed that we throw may land in fertile soil and grow. But what if it does? Consider this from Adam Clarke’s Commentary …

The power of grain to multiply itself, even in the same year, is a subject as much of curiosity and astonishment as of importance and general utility. For the further elucidation of this text, I shall give the following example from a practice in agriculture, or rural economy, which is termed filtering.

On the 2nd of June, 1766, Mr. C. Miller, of Cambridge, sowed some grains of the common red wheat; and on the 8th of August a single plant was taken up, and separated into 18 parts, and each planted separately: about the middle of September some of them were taken up and divided; and the rest between that time and October. This second division produced 67 plants. These plants remained through the winter, and another division of them, made between the middle of March and the 12th of April, produced 500 plants. They were divided no further, but permitted to remain in the field. These plants were in general stronger than any of the wheat in the field. Some of them produced upwards of 100 heads from a single root; and many of the heads measured seven inches in length, and contained between sixty and seventy grains. The whole number of heads produced from the single plant was 21,109, which yielded three pecks and three-quarters of clear grain, weighing 47 lbs. 7 oz., and, from a calculation made by counting the grains in an ounce, the whole number of grains was about 576,840.

All of this starting from a single seed!

Christ expects us to be the ‘broadcast seeders’ of His word! It is not our place to worry about where the seed is landing. It is not our place to worry if any of it is being wasted. We cannot say, “I’m only going to sow my seed in fertile soil” because we do not know where that soil might be! Our job is to throw it out there onto every soil…every soul…that we can reach! When my family planted those watermelon and pumpkin seeds in our garden, back then, we really had no idea about the proper way to do it. Yet the seeds germinated, the vines grew, and fruit was produced. This had nothing to do with us…it was the handiwork of God. And when we broadcast this seed, the same holds true…all we have to do is get it out there. The Lord will see to the increase!

Let me close with this… The story is told of a small dog which had been struck by a car and was lying by the side of the road. A doctor, driving by, noticed that the dog was still alive, stopped his car, picked up the dog, and took him home with him. There he discovered that the dog had been stunned, had suffered a few minor cuts and abrasions, but was otherwise all right. He revived the dog, cleaned up the wounds and was carrying the animal from the house to the garage when suddenly it jumped from his arms and scampered off. “What an ungrateful little dog,” the doctor said to himself. He thought no more about the incident until the next evening when he heard a scratching at the door. When he opened it, there was the little dog he had treated with another hurt dog.

       Many years ago Ray Boltz released a song that told a story about a man going to heaven and being greeted, first, by a former Sunday school student, by a convert of a missionary he had supported, and then by so many people who’s lives he had touched during the course of his life… The title of it is ‘Thank You’, and again, I would encourage you to look-it-up on YouTube and listen to it!

(https://youtu.be/UFrdJ2V3r7Y)

 In the song we hear these words… “One by one they came, far as the eye could see. Each life somehow touched by your generosity. Little things that you had done, sacrifices made, unnoticed on the earth, in heaven, now proclaimed.”

We may never know what happens to the seeds that we broadcast out in Jesus’ name. And sometimes, the feeling of pointlessness and frustration can become overwhelming! But sometimes…if you’re very lucky…the fruit of one seed makes itself known to you. And when that happens it makes everything else worthwhile!

God rejoices in every soul…every life…that turns to Him. But unless we’re out there spreading seed…spreading the Word of God…everywhere we can, some lives may not have the opportunity to experience it. They won’t have the opportunity to grow and multiply. And they won’t be saved come judgment day!

Where can you spread a little seed today?

Declaration of Independence!

This was first given in Lynnville (IL) on July 3, 2005. I have updated just a bit to use on here today! The Scriptures are from Genesis 24: 34-38, 42-49, and 58-67 as well as Matthew 11: 16-19 and 25-30…

          Any of you remember 8mm cameras? During the late ‘50’s/early ‘60’s they were as popular in this country as video cameras are today. Mom and dad must have gotten ours for Christmas in either 1960 or ’61, and it didn’t take long for both of them to learn to use it. Soon, it seemed as if every aspect of life had to be put on film. And since part of life occurs at night, one of the first attachments added was this four-light light bar… It had four large floodlights mounted along a three-foot steel bar with an electrical cord running down to plug-in to a 110 outlet. It could be just held up in the air and pointed where you wanted it, but was designed to attach directly to the camera! Can you imagine holding all of that up for very long? In fact, over time, dad bought just about every accessory that they made for ours, including a film-editing machine which he used to make ‘full length’ films documenting our family vacations!

          All of this came to me a few years ago when I borrowed a video camera and asked to ‘borrow’ the movies and projector to make tapes of all of those old films. “Sure! Here, take this, too, and this… and here, you might as well have all of this…”  (You know, there’s still a roll of film in the camera! I’m sure it’s spoiled by now, and I doubt that anyone could even develop it anymore, but I sometimes wonder what was on it!)

          One night, while my son Ted was visiting, we sat down to watch the tape I had made from all my childhood memories, and it was quite an experience for him. And I guess it didn’t really strike me how much of an experience until we were watching the Halloween costume party that mom and dad had had at our house in Hartford and somebody filmed all of these people dancing the ‘twist’! Ted exclaimed, “What are those people doing?!” We just laughed and told him, ‘that was the popular dance right then!’

          It is amazing, isn’t it, to consider how much things like how people dance have changed over the years. Through the years I’ve seen a number of things that point-out just what-all Has changed over the years… for example, many of us watching/listening to this message were born and/or grew up before such things as penicillin, polio shots, antibiotics, and Frisbees. Before frozen food, nylon, Dacron, Xerox, radar, fluorescent lights, credit cards, and ballpoint pens. Time-sharing meant togetherness; a chip meant a piece of wood; hardware meant hard wear; and software wasn’t yet a word. A time when coeds never wore slacks… Before panty hose and drip-dry clothes, before ice makers and dishwashers, clothes dryers, freezers, and electric blankets… Before men wore long hair and earrings and women wore tuxedos.

          And yet, so many of those things, and how many hundreds of others, are now a part of our daily lives! I sometimes wonder how I ever survived days and weeks on the road during the years that I drove a ‘big-truck’ without a cell-phone to be in constant, instant communication with anyone anywhere across the country or even around the world!

          Our verses from Genesis give us one small ‘slice’ of how things were in the days of Abraham and give us pause to consider just how much things have changed. Let me read some excerpts from Barnes’ notes…

          “Abraham binds the chief servant of his house to seek a wife for his son Isaac among his kindred. The first movement in this matrimonial arrangement is on the part of the father, who does not consult his son, but the chief manager of his household affairs. Abraham is now a hundred and forty years of age, and Sarah has been three years dead. Isaac seems to have been of an easy, sedate turn of mind, and was not in circumstances to choose a partner for life such as his father would approve. The promise of a numerous offspring by the son of Sarah is before the mind of the patriarch. All these considerations impel him to look out for a suitable wife for his son, and the blessing of the Lord encourages him to proceed.

The experienced steward sent by Abraham on this task would naturally expect to see the high-born damsels of the land at the public well. The matter in hand is of extraordinary importance. A wife is to be found for the heir of promise. This was a special concern of God, and so the single-hearted follower of Abraham makes it. He takes upon himself the choice of a maiden among those that come to draw, to whom he will make the request of a particular act of kindness to a stranger, and he prays God that the intended bride may be known by a ready compliance with his request. The three qualifications, then, in the mind of the venerable domestic for a bride for his master’s son, are a pleasing exterior, a kindly disposition, and the approval of God.”

And at the end of the story, after all is said and done, we learn how… “Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.”

That was a different world and a different time! Even Psalm 45, verses 10-17, has the daughter being told to… “Forget your people and your father’s house. The king is enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord.” You know, there are places in this country today where I would be drawn-and-quartered for saying such a thing! But we DO know better, today! These were… and are… social issues! And social issues will always change as society grows and matures and becomes more aware of what true injustices are! So it is NOT a social issue that Jesus is referring to when He says, in today’s verses, “To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others: “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.”

The Life Application Commentary tells us that, “The phrase “to what can I compare” was a common rabbinic introduction to a metaphor. Matthew used the word generation for Jews who rejected both John the Baptist and Jesus. Jesus condemned the attitude of his generation. No matter what he said or did, they took the opposite view. They were cynical and skeptical because he challenged their comfortable, secure, and self-centered lives. Jesus compared them to children sitting in the marketplaces, playing games in the public square where the city’s business was conducted… The thrust is that some of the children called out to others to join them, but their companions ignored their invitation and went on playing their own games. Jesus’ generation, like the children in the square, was unresponsive to the calls issued by John the Baptist and by Jesus.

The one “mourning” refers to John the Baptist, who brought the message of confession and repentance to avoid the wrath of God. He came neither eating nor drinking, yet that did not satisfy the Jews. John was an ascetic; he did not seek out social occasions. They assumed that he had a demon (or was merely deranged). In contrast, the one “playing the flute” referred to Jesus (here he called himself Son of Man), who came eating and drinking. He joined in social occasions, and his diet was like other people’s. But that did not satisfy the Jews either. They simply labeled him as a glutton and a drunkard who hung out with the lowest sort of people. Many of the Jews in Jesus’ generation, including most of the religious establishment, simply refused to listen and went about their own “games.”

How do you suppose this generation of Jesus’ time learned to think and act like that? Do you think it was an attitude they just came to adopt on their own? I doubt it! For the most part, children learn how to act as an adult by watching the adults that are around them as they grow up. Hence, the child of a smoker is far more likely to smoke than the child of a non-smoker… a person who tends to overeat will most likely raise obese children… a son who’s father drives safely will likely learn good driving habits, while the daughter of a mother with a poor sense of fashion will likely suffer the same!

So it would seem that the generation that rejected Jesus had been taught by their elders to be cynical and skeptical of everything around them. Now, let’s think what that means, for a moment! Jewish children were all raised to be believers in the religion of their forefathers… they were taught to know, not only the scripture, but all of the Jewish laws and customs as well! The problem is… they were never taught that any of those fancy words and beautiful passages actually meant something! For all of their meticulous knowledge of details, it was just a ‘mechanical’ knowledge… they knew the words… but they were empty! They didn’t mean anything to them!

And so, when the Messiah appeared among them, they never had a clue that His actions were the embodiment of the Words! They could never connect the reality of Jesus to the words themselves because, to them, the words were never ‘real’! They were never more than just a combination of letters and markings written on scroll that had been imprinted on their brain cells almost from birth!

  This is the day we in this country celebrate what we consider the birth of our nation… the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Do you know the words?

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

          How many high-school graduates do you think know these words? I’d venture not very many! And why not? Because WE don’t know them! Jefferson wrote truly when he said, “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.” We tend to accept the evils that are ‘thrust upon us’ because it is simpler to do so than to do otherwise. A man named Edmund Burke once said… “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” But when those evils are truly evil… when Satan and his minions are at the heart of them… when they are aimed at the very heart and core of all that Christ and Christianity stand for… them we MUST act upon them!

          Laws are being passed to accept gay and lesbian relationships as being ‘lawful and proper’, while the Ten Commandments are being ripped out and banned from public buildings! Frivolous lawsuits of every sort cost us billions of dollars and incalculable amounts of time every year, while many children walk to school in the snow with no coat or gloves! And Christians are demonized in the news media and the very halls of our lawmakers for being ‘old-fashioned’ and ‘unable to accept new ideas’! You know what? If those ‘new ideas’ mean my having to rethink what the Word of God tells me in black-and-white… then let them demonize me! Let them call me anything they want… because, when all is said in done, in the end… they will still have to call me a Christian!!!

          God’s Word IS our law! Yes, social issues have changed and evolved over the millennia, but the Word of God has not! And it is time that those who claim to follow it actually learn the meaning of all of these beautiful Words and passages and start to live the lives and do the things He intends for us to!

Listen to these words from today’s reading… “Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children…”

Learning and studying these things isn’t enough… their meaning can become hidden unless we accept them… with the pure, unquestioning belief of little children… as the true, living words of Jesus and God the father!

Again, Jesus says, “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

Simple, beautiful words!

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” 

Many of us were taught that the hand of God is heavy… that we must obey or suffer the consequences! And because that’s how we learned it, it’s what many of us have passed on to our children… and their children… and so-on! And the generations behind us don’t want heavy responsibilities… they want easy and light! And so they drift away from the God of their fathers. But Jesus says, right here, that His yoke IS easy… that His burden IS light!

There is a song recorded by a number of people called ‘I Have Returned’ ( https://youtu.be/FhpxcDeA0E4 ) that  tells about returning ‘to the God of my childhood… the God of my fathers’. And some might think we need to go back further still… that we need to find the God of Abraham and of Isaac. But I put it to you that we don’t have to go ‘back’ at all! The God we worship today is the very same God that promised to make Abraham into a mighty nation! What we do need to do, however, is rediscover… or re-accept… the true meaning of His Words! Just as we’ve lost much of what the founders of this country intended it to be, we have lost the message and meaning of what Christianity was meant to be!

I’ve said it before, but I say it again… read your Bibles! Pray! Let the Words of God come alive for you… let their meanings and joys fill your soul! Only then can we all join together and do battle with the evils that confront us!  

Using Scripture from Genesis 22: 1-14 and Matthew 10: 24-39, this was first given at the Lynnville (IL) church on June 26, 2005. I did some very minor updates to record it here…

       During my years of attending and teaching at Wesley Chapel, outside of Jacksonville, IL, the choir would rehearse special songs to perform during the Sunday morning service. During the summer they would take a break, and various people will get up during that time each Sunday and perform something special, and for some years I would always commit to taking care of one of those summer Sundays. Once, my son, Ted, playing his viola, and the choir pianist accompanied me in an arrangement I had written of an old song I had learned as a child in my church. Twice I directed three others and myself in singing some very tight harmony… one song was, again from my old hymnal, and one was an original piece that I had written for the occasion. Two other times I sang two other original songs, each time accompanied by my computer. But the last time I was able to be there, I read a piece that had come to me over the internet… and I must say, it moved the room to tears! If I may, I’d like to recreate that moment this morning as a prelude to and part of this morning’s message…

The day is over, you are driving home. You tune in your radio. You hear a little blurb about a little village in India where some villagers have died suddenly, strangely, of a flu that has never been seen before. It’s not influenza, but three or four fellows are dead, and it’s kind of interesting, and they’re sending some doctors over there to investigate it.

You don’t think much about it, but on Sunday, coming home from church, you hear another radio spot. Only they say it’s not three villagers, it is 30,000 villagers in the back hills of this particular area of India, and it’s on TV that night. CNN runs a little blurb; people are heading there from the disease center in Atlanta because this disease strain has never been seen before.

By Monday morning when you get up, it’s the lead story. For it’s not just India; it’s Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and before you know it, you’re hearing this story everywhere and they have coined it now as “the mystery flu.” The President has made some comment that he and everyone are praying and hoping that all will go well over there. But everyone is wondering, “How are we going to contain it?” That’s when the President of France makes an announcement that shocks Europe. He is closing their borders. No flights from India, Pakistan, or any of the countries where this thing has been seen.

And that’s why that night you are watching a little bit of CNN before going to bed. Your jaw hits your chest when a weeping woman is translated from a French news program into English: “There’s a man lying in a hospital in Paris dying of the mystery flu.” It has come to Europe. Panic strikes. As best they can tell, once you get it, you have it for a week and you don’t know it. Then you have four days of unbelievable symptoms. And then you die.

Britain closes its borders, but it’s too late. South Hampton, Liverpool, North Hampton, and it’s Tuesday morning when the President of the United States makes the following announcement: “Due to a national security risk, all flights to and from Europe and Asia have been canceled. If your loved ones are overseas, I’m sorry. They cannot come back until we find a cure for this thing.”

Within four days our nation has been plunged into an unbelievable fear. People are selling little masks for your face. People are talking about what if it comes to this country, and preachers on Tuesday are saying, “It’s the scourge of God.”

It’s Wednesday night and you are at a church prayer meeting when somebody runs in from the parking lot and says, “Turn on a radio, turn on a radio.” And while the church listens to a little transistor radio with a microphone stuck up to it, the announcement is made. “Two women are lying in a Long Island hospital dying from the mystery flu.” Within hours it seems, this thing just sweeps across the country. People are working around the clock trying to find an antidote. Nothing is working. California. Oregon. Arizona. Florida. Massachusetts.

It’s as though it’s just sweeping in from the borders. And then, all of a sudden the news comes out. The code has been broken. A cure can be found. A vaccine can be made. It’s going to take the blood of somebody who hasn’t been infected, and so, all through the Midwest, through all those channels of emergency broadcasting, everyone is asked to do one simple thing: “Go to your downtown hospital and have your blood type taken. That’s all we ask of you… when you hear the sirens go off in your neighborhood, please make your way quickly, quietly, and safely to the hospitals.”

When you and your family get down there late on that Friday night, there is a long line, and they’ve got nurses and doctors coming out and pricking fingers and taking blood and putting labels on it. Your wife and your kids are out there, and they take your blood type and they say, “Wait here in the parking lot and if we call your name, you can be dismissed and go home.”

You stand around with your neighbors… scared… wondering what in the world is going on… is this is the end of the world? Suddenly a young man comes running out of the hospital screaming. He’s yelling a name and waving a clipboard. What? He yells it again! And your son tugs on your jacket and says, “Daddy, that’s me.” Before you know it, they have grabbed your boy. “Wait a minute, hold it!” And they say, “It’s okay, his blood is clean. His blood is pure. We want to make sure he doesn’t have the disease. We think he has got the right type.”

Five tense minutes later, out come the doctors and nurses, crying and hugging one another … some are even laughing. It’s the first time you have seen anybody laugh in a week, and an old doctor walks up to you and says, “Thank you, sir. Your son’s blood type is perfect. It’s clean, it is pure, and we can make the vaccine.” As the word begins to spread all across that parking lot full of folks, people are screaming and praying and laughing and crying.

But then the gray-haired doctor pulls you and you wife aside and says, “May we see you for a moment? We didn’t realize that the donor would be a minor and we need … we need you to sign a consent form.”

You begin to sign and then you see that the number of pints of blood to be taken is empty. “H-h-h-how many pints?”

And that is when the old doctor’s smile fades and he says, “We had no idea it would be a little child. We weren’t prepared. We need it all!”

But—but…

“You don’t understand. We are talking about the world here. Please sign. We … we need it all … we need it all!”

“But can’t you give him a transfusion?”

“If we had clean blood we would. Can you sign?”

Would you sign?

Our story from Genesis tells how Abraham feared and obeyed God, even to the point of sacrificing his only son! We read how… “When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

Abraham knew that, regardless of what his own thoughts and desires might be, God’s wishes had to take first place! There is a song performed by the ‘Gaither Vocal Band’ called ‘Second Fiddle’. I can’t play it here due to copyright ‘stuff’, but I would encourage you to look-it-up on YouTube and listen…

( https://youtu.be/CMpHxDYi49c )

Let me read the chorus to you… “It’s not a bill that’s up to be voted on, it became a law when He wrote it in stone. Number one on the list of His big ten, He came to earth and said it again. It’s been the same way since the beginning of time, don’t be fooled into thinking that it’s not a crime. He made it plain and clear, it’s not a rhyme or a riddle.

God don’t play Second Fiddle.”

You remember, don’t you, what the song means when it says, “it became a law when He wrote it in stone’? Let me read the very first of the Ten Commandments to you…

1. “Do not worship any other gods besides me.

… and the second one expands on that…

• “Do not make idols of any kind, whether in the shape of birds or animals or fish. You must never worship or bow down to them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not share your affection with any other god!

God demands that He takes first place in our lives! He will not play second fiddle to our jobs… our bank accounts… our friends… or any of the countless other things that we sometimes see as being so important to us… a round of golf or ball game… our special TV show… that new car or dress we want…and yes, even our family!

In the verses that I read from Matthew Jesus tells us that… “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

So, how does all of this figure in to the story I started reading this morning? Well, let me finish it and maybe we’ll see. The doctors had just asked you to sign the release form, knowing that doing so means sacrificing your son’s life… do you do it?

“In numb silence you do. Then they say, “Would you like to have a moment with him before we begin?”

Can you walk back? Can you walk back to that room where he sits on a table saying, “Daddy? Mommy? What’s going on?” Can you take his hands and say, “Son, your mommy and I love you, and we would never ever let anything happen to you that didn’t just have to be. Do you understand that?” And when that old doctor comes back in and says, “I’m sorry, we’ve … we’ve got to get started, just know that people all over the world are dying.”

Can you leave? Can you walk out while he is saying, “Dad? Mom? Dad? Why are you leaving me? Why… why are you forsaking me?”

Where have we heard that before?

The next week, there is a ceremony to honor your son. Some people sleep through it. Some people don’t come because they go to the lake. And some folks come with a pretentious smile and just pretend to care. Would you want to jump up and say, “MY SON DIED FOR YOU! DON’T YOU CARE?”

Do you think maybe that’s what God wants to say sometimes? “MY SON DIED FOR YOU. DON’T YOU CARE?” Or do you think He might be saying instead… “DON’T YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I CARE?”

Another from a ‘preaching class’ I participated in back in 2015…

‘Includes Jesus’ words from Matthew 19: 17 and John 14: 15

       I would imagine that most people who visit Branson, MO. these days have at least heard of ‘The Shepherd of the Hills’, and many have probably seen the big productions that were put on each summer evening for many years. These featured a live steam engine, galloping horses, sliding wagons, gun shots, and real fires! But I have to wonder how many realize that it was Harold Bell Wright’s book by that name, published in 1907, that led to the stream of visitors coming to Branson, and it’s eventually becoming the major Tourist destination that it is today!

       And I often wonder, further, how many people realize that Wright had actually been a minister, or that ‘The Shepherd of the Hills’ was not his only, nor even his First book… The first one was actually written to be a Bible study, using one chapter each week. However, after his parishioners encouraged him, ‘That Printer of Udell’s’ was released as a book in 1902, and established Wright as a best-selling author.

A typical ‘scene’ from his books would be a down-on-his-luck fellow coming into town… He goes door-to-door asking for work so that he might feed and take care of himself, but is turned away at every one. Finally, cold, wet, and starving, he sees the stained-glass windows of a church… THERE will be people to help him! He sleeps overnight on the steps, waiting for the morning service to begin… People file in through the doors, but ignore him altogether… Finally, he decides to actually go In and explain his situation… Basically, he is asked to Leave!!! Meanwhile, all of the pastors, preachers, priests, and ministers of the town assemble each Wednesday to discuss how many they had at the service that Sunday, how well their sermons were received, and how much money they took in!

       Reading from a paragraph from Wikipedia, “In most of [Wright’s] novels, beginning with That Printer of Udell’s, he attacked the hypocrisy and impractical nature of popular churches. To Wright, hard work, integrity and concrete efforts to aid people in need were far more important than church doctrines or sermons.”

       These books were all written 100 years-ago-or-more… Yet as I read them today I am often drawn to how they Might have been written Just Last Week! Which Then leads me to ponder on ‘How did we get to this point?!?’

       Let me see if I can answer that question by asking another question… what would you say is arguably the least quoted word from the Bible today… and indeed, for well over the last 100 years? Let me give you a clue by quoting just two instances of it being spoken by Jesus during His time here on earth…

Matt 19:17

17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.”

John 14:15

15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command.

In the NIV, the word ‘Obey’ appears 165 times! Yet, when was the last time you heard it, or used it, in a Sermon or article? For Hundreds of years, pastors & preachers have tried to improve their ‘numbers’ by trying to be ‘all-things-to-all-people’… But by ignoring the Truths contained in the ‘Breathed Word of God’, all we have done is weaken and, ultimately, denied it!

There have been a number of popular sayings in our culture through the years that say things like, “The Truth is out there!” and, “The Truth will set you Free!” Both are true! However, I would like to note an even More powerful one… The Truth… and Only the Truth… Will lead you to God!