The Passing of a Faithful Servant:

I received news yesterday that a fellow pastor died from a heart attack.  Rev. Wallace Smith and I graduated together from Appalachian Bible College.  I rememberWallace reading one of Elihu's speeches, from the Book of Job, in speech class.  There was a period of a few weeks when it seemed like every discussion in one of our Bible classes included a reference to Josephus from Wallace the young scholar.  He had just gotten a new set of the ancient historians books.

In the middle of our senior year Wallace started pastoring a little church in Covington VA.  The congregation had just come through a time of turmoil.  Their former pastor had turned out to be somewhat wolf-like.  During our last semester Wallace finished his college studies while commuting to Covington to sheperd the flock.  After graduation Wallace and his family moved into the church's parsonage.  For about two years he preached God's word here and loved and guided that group.  He supplemented the family income by working at his old trade of iron worker.  He was part of the crew that built part of our local paper-mill that remains a local landmark.

 

When I finished another couple of years of education and received a call to be the next Pastor of Covington Bible Church, Rev. Smith drove a truck to Pennsylvania to help Kathy and me move down.  Our few possessions fit in a pickup-truck.  They helped us move into the parsonage, here.  In fact while they finished the arrangements that led to Wallace becoming the pastor of Maranatha Baptist Church in Princeton WV, we lived on their furniture.  We helped them pack up.  They said it was because they didn't need it, but I think it had more to do with the fact that we definitely could use it, at any rate we appreciated the few pieces of furniture that they gave us.  

Wallace faithfully led the congregation at Maranatha until failing health compelled him to retire a short time ago.  He and Beulah were planning to visit us here at CBC this past summer.  Sickness and schedule conflicts prevented the visit.  We will get together.

 

I'm looking forward to sharing a cup of Celestial Blend coffee with Wallace.  I figure Johhny Price, Mason Fisher, and Rag Meyers will join us.  I'd like to think that Lester Pipkin, Bill Hanmer, John Van Pufflen and others who poured their lives into us will stop by and say they didn't waste their time.  I fully expect to hear my Lord,

Our Lord, say to my colleague, Wallace, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Until then, I say, "Thanks, friend, for modeling faithfulness.

It's STTA.

Hey, Buddy, Don't Miss the Time:

SOMETHING  TO THINK ABOUT

"Strike while the iron is hot."   "Window of opportunity."   "What might have been."   "I coulda' been a contendah."   "Counting your chickens before they hatch."  All of these sayings have to do with the opportune time.  In my career I have frequently observed one example of timely or, tragically, untimely action.  In poetic language the problem of missing the right time in family relationships is expressed in Song of Solomon.       "I was asleep but my heart was awake.  A voice! My beloved was knocking:  'Open to me, my sister, my darling, My dove, my perfect one! For my head is drenched with dew, My locks with the damp of the night.'  "I have taken off my dress, How can I put it on again? I have washed my feet, How can I dirty them again?  "My beloved extended his hand through the opening, And my feelings were aroused for him.  "I arose to open to my beloved; And my hands dripped with myrrh, And my fingers with liquid myrrh, On the handles of the bolt. "I opened to my beloved, But my beloved had turned away and had gone!  My heart went out to him as he spoke. I searched for him but I did not find him; I called him but he did not answer me."  (Song of Solomon 5:2-6, NASB95)   It's all about timing.   Back in the day when families spent almost all their timeclose to family I figure this must have been less of a problem.  Now many couples wave to one another as they pass on the road.  He works one shift, she another, and you have to work in Little League and piano lessons for the kids.   This Sunday we are talking about "redeeming the time" in our morning worship service.  I encourage you to focus on family as a prime realm in which to strike while the iron is hot.  Don't allow the opportune time to become woulda, coulda, shoulda. It's STTA (right now)

Hey Buddy, It is time:

SOMETHING  TO THINK ABOUT

Having recently flown on several airlines, I have a number of fresh illustrations about showing up on time.  The first leg of my recent air-travel was from Roanoke VA to Washington DC.  The flight takes less than an hour.  It isn't sufficient to set aside forty-five minutes for the trip.  It has to be the RIGHT forty-five minutes.  Anyone who travels is familiar with the announcements made in airport waiting areas.  ". . . your flight is now boarding, you need to report to the gate immediately."  Show up five minutes late, and it really doesn't matter that you reserved sufficient time, you have to reserve the right time.   Opportunity, grab it as it comes. That is the way Ephesians 5:16 speaks about time.  Some translations translate the word in the verse as "opportunity." The ESV puts it this way: "Making the most of the timebecause the days are evil."  (Eph. 5:16, ESV)  Not just time in general, but "the time," the opportune time."  That point when if you don't report to the gate the plane will leave you. Sometimes there is another flight, sometimes not--at least no in time. This week our church family is involved in a consideration of  the stewardship of time.  Find out more here.   Could this be an opportune time? It's STTA. PS:  In keeping with this week's theme, I've taken steps to cut way back on Facebook.  You may not find me there, or I might not find you.  Write me at covbchm@gmail.com.

Hey, Buddy, Can You Spare Some Time?

Something To Think About

SOMETHING  TO THINK ABOUT Those of you who know me, know that over the years I have been somewhat of a Trekker.  No, I don't have an official communicator badge, or one of the older hand-held models.  I did, however, a while back have a tie withWorf's picture on it.  One of the things I have enjoyed, over the years, about the several series, is that often the writers use their fantasy world to explore some interesting questions about reality in the real world. While on vacation, I watched an episode of Deep Space 9 (One of the Star Trek series).  Captain Sisko comes into contact with some beings who have no idea of time.  Instantly a scenario involving two stretches of imagination kicks in.   DS9 - Emissary; human existence There is the underlying unknown:  Is life without the linear sequence of one moment after another, each one influencing what the next one will be, even possible?  Then, how would I explain my time bound existence to someone who lives outside of it?  It is interesting that Captain Sisko's explanation of time, using baseball as an illustration, has some similarity to the reasoning of some theologians I have read.   OK, I'm leaving the world of fantasy. I'm confident that a time is coming when I'll gain a much better idea of what it means to live without time.  Rather than waste too much time speculating about what lifewithout, or beyond, or in control of time would be like, I need to right now be sure that I am using my time in ways that will count for eternity.   That is what we are emphasizing this week in the NYRC--the Stewardship of our time.  Right now, I live in a realm in which one moment follows another.  I can use the opportunities each of those moments provides to make the next moments better, or I can live them so that the future will be worse.  God's word says that I ought to be "making the most of [my] time."  That passage in Ephesians 5:16, offers further encouragement by pointing out that "the days are evil."  It is an aspect of the entropy that dominates our world.  Unless there is purposeful activity things run downhill, slow down, rust out, and become less useful.  All I have to do to assure a bad result is nothing.  Doing nothing will result in something bad because not only is this world marked by time, it is a realm where evil is the default condition, Ephesians 2:1-3. I'd like to think that the past few minutes, used writing this STTA, have been used in a profitable way.  This is an evaluation I ought to be engaged in on a regular basis.  What am I doing now that will contribute to the future--even the eternal future? It's STTA.

1/21, Thoughts on Inaugural Day:

Two words of warning:

1. This STTA is long.
2. It is much more political than STTA generally is.

If you walk out now, you won't offend.

I am watching the Second Inaugural Ceremony of President Barrack Obama. Like Senator Lamar Alexander all Americans ought to be very thankful for the peaceful transition of power that once again takes place in our nation. Those who worked hard for the President's reelection can properly take satisfaction in the fact that their candidate won a hard fought election. All of us who acknowledge the Supreme Lordship of Jesus Christ ought to renew our commitment to "render honor" to our President as well as other governmental leaders. We should pray "for [our President] and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity."

The reach back a century-and-half to the second inaugural of Abraham Lincoln is obvious. For the first Chief-executive of the United States self-identified as African-American to reference that historic occasion is entirely appropriate. I am proud that we, as a nation have come to this place in our long, and yet unfinished attempt to deal, in a just and honorable way, with the racial divisions and conflicts that have come as a result of history. To read my personal thoughts about how close the past is to the present read here.

There is much about what is going on today for which I can be proud and thankful, and I am.  Having said that, however, I am concerned that while our President proclaims an allegiance to liberty, and appropriate personal freedoms there are words that he speaks and actions that he is taking that cause me concern.

I am prepared to extend a bit of rhetorical license to any public speaker, but when a well-educated and articulate man--and our President is both--gives a speech that has been vetted as thoroughly as this inaugural address has been, one must assume that what the President says, he means. The President clearly stated that same-sex attraction is a matter of birth. I do not doubt the President's sincerity, and I join him in a commitment to treat all people with fairness and kindness. The point he makes, though, is one that is properly open to debate. The President falls into the pattern of many in the early Twenty-first Century--if enough people, especially people with cultural capital, say something often enough it is true. Just as past presidents have been wrong, sometimes tragically so, this one can be as well. His path from his view of the origin of sexual attraction, to his endorsement of the redefinition of marriage, that his speech contained, is not nearly as smooth or clear as his rhetoric. To imply that it is, does us all a great disservice.

While our President eloquently spoke of personal liberty, the wheels of his administration are busily grinding others into the dust of liberty lost. The President is promoting policies, and pushing forward a program that requires people to pay for healthcare procedures, so called, that clearly violate their conscience, and require them to deny the doctrine of their church, and, I would maintain, clear Christian, Biblical teaching. The provisions of what is popularly called "Obamacare" requires employers, like Hobby Lobby, and even some detentions of churches (here) to provide coverage for what I would regard as the wrongful taking of human life. This is wrong. (See here to read how one state, my own, is seeking to address this.) The rationale behind this requirement of Obamacare is even more scientifically suspect than his statement about homosexuality. The idea that human life begins at the time of implantation is as arbitrary as the old primitive notion that life begins at birth, or quickening. The scientific foundation of the prolife movement is that life begins at conception.  At the least, that is a credible conclusion.  It ought not be arbitrarily, and bureaucratically put aside.  Objections to the requirements of Obamacare requiring employers to make provision for post-conception, termination of pregnancy, a part of the "health-care" provided to employees ought to be respected. While I do not share the the view of many (the Roman Catholic Church being a notable example) that all artificial contraception is wrong, I do uphold their right to hold those views. People who hold such views should not be forced to violate their consciences in this regard.

On this historic national day, I renew my commitment to pray for my President. Part of my prayer will be for greater clarity of thinking on his part, and for the defeat of some policies that he is pushing forward. I commit myself to do so with as much grace and kindness as I can muster.

There is much more, but for now it's

STTA.