From a member of the Class of '68:

I graduated from Bremen Community Township High School 45 years ago.  I have learned a few things since, and I haven't forgotten everything I have learned.  So before I do, I'm jotting a few things down for the class of 2013:

• Take care of friends. 
  We live in a disposable culture.  It is way too easy to treat people like paper-plates and Styrofoam cups.  We do so to our own loss.  Sooner or later you will have to pay a high price to maintain a friendship.  Pay it.
• A bigger house does not make for a better home.
  Similar statements can be made about hotter cars, nicer wardrobes, and costlier toys.
• I hope one of you will invent a computer software program that will show you what that tattoo will look like in forty years.  Apply that logic to other decisions.  Don't sacrifice the long-term good on the altar of short-term gratification.
• The smartest person isn't always right. Sometimes she is just able to present a more persuasive argument for the wrong position.
• In my forty-five years since I was where you are I have never regretted obeying God, even when I paid a price to do so. I can't remember any act of disobedience, even those I enjoyed at the time, that I have not come to regret.
• Most of you are smart enough, and skilled enough to make a living.  The question is will you make a life worth living.
• Abraham Lincoln said, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."  I add, "You can't ever fool God."  Don't try.
• "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge."  (Proverbs 1:7)

Stay tuned.

It's STTA

 

Let's Let God be God!

"To put the second commandment in the place of the first is wrong and sinful."

 Theologian Millard Erickson made that comment while interacting with the question, "Is God selfish?"  After all, as Erickson goes on to point out, ". . . the highest goal of God is apparently his own glory."

The first and second commandment to which the theologian refers are not those from the Decalogue, but from Luke 10:27,"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."

Our culture is very prone to do just that, though.  

 God says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways. . . . For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9)  Yet we demand that God reason by our system of thought, and that He make decisions based on our value system.  

The Apostle Paul used a different picture to make the same point.  "[W]ho are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it?" (Romans 9:20)

 

Let's let God be God.  He can handle it, and we'll be better for it.

It's STTA

 

Keeping the monument clean

Not quite a month ago I had the privilege of visiting the American Cemetery in

Normandy.  I had, of course, seen pictures of the 170 acre memorial.  I figured that the symmetry and the the stark contrast of the white crosses and stars of David against the blue sky and green grass was enhanced by photographic skill.  I was wrong.  Even on an overcast day the quiet beauty of the place is striking.

One reason, even after almost seven decades, the awe of the grounds endures is because of a man who has worked there most of his life.  All he does is clean the tombstones, over 9,000 of them.  He begins at one end of the grounds and cleans every headstone.  When he finishes he starts over again.

The American Battle Monuments

The grave of Jimmy Montieth, from LowMoor, Congressional Medal of Honor

Commission, who maintain this and other military cemeteries, uses a quotation from General John Pershing as their motto.  "Time will not dim the glory of their deeds."  Unless we purposefully take steps to preserve the memory, the glory will fade, just as the white Italian marble of those crosses would soon become green with moss and brown with mud, were it not for the ceaseless efforts of the one who keeps them clean.

We dare not live in the past, but if we are to move into the future with purpose we need to learn from it.

It's STTA

 

Graduates Out There, Commencing:

I've been getting announcements about, and pictures of, young people who are

graduating--high school, college, and post-graduate.  It's pretty common for old geezers like me to complain of the quality, or lack thereof, of the newly educated, but I won't.  I'm impressed.  Of course these new graduates who are commencing life outside the classroom are lacking some critical life skills, but that will come, as it did for most of us, in the school of hard-knocks where they are now enrolled.

The young people in my sphere have grown up in a world that is particularly hostile to faith and righteousness, yet many of them continue to walk with the Lord.  Some are not only going out into the world, they are going out to change the world.

My wife and I will be getting and giving some graduation gifts.  Let me encourage you to give the gifts of encouragement and prayer to those who are finishing an important phase of their lives.  Since we left them all this debt and pollution it is the least we can do.

  

It's STTA

 

 

 

BTW, we honor graduates--folk who have done a lot of preparation--and will even celebrate as two home-school grads receive their diplomas, June 2, at CBC.

SOAR!!

While on a walk this morning, I found a hawk lying in the road.  The light was almost gone from its eyes.  Chest barely moving.  

I figure it had been hit by a car that it didn't see, or make proper allowance for.  One moment it was swooping for a mouse or a rabbit,
thud,
and then a strange creature reached down and set it out of the road.  

As I walked on I thought, if that hawk had just made its home in some nearby farmyard, learning to scratch and eat corn, this wouldn't have happened.  As I walked further I concluded, I don't think he regretted soaring.

  

" . . . those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. 
They will soar high on wings like eagles. 
They will run and not grow weary. 
They will walk and not faint."  (Isaiah 40:31)

 

There is no guarantee that you won't get hit by a car, but soar anyhow. 

  

It's STTA

 

"Expect from your shepherds not that they would rally you behind political . . ."

As is happening around our country, from time to time these days, the citizens of Minnesota are being called on to make a decision about the definition of marriage. Two leaders in the church are being called on the political-activism carpet, for what is being seen as their non-participation in the campaign.  Leith Anderson is former president of the National Association of Evangelicals.  John Piper is the long-time pastor of Bethlehem Church.  Of the two, I have much more familiarity with Piper, so I'll limit my comments to him.
The controversy concerning the well-known preacher centers around these words delivered from the Bethlehem pulpit.

Your Pastor Is Not Your Political Activist

  "Expect from your shepherds not that they would rally you behind political candidates or legislative initiatives, but they would point you over and over again to God and to his word, and to the cross."

At the risk of exposing myself to the same kind of criticism as my Minnesota colleague, I basically agree.  Having said that, I feel a bit like a member of one of the old women's lib. groups standing at the entrance to a restaurant, wondering why no gentleman will open the door.  "Because you told us not to.  That's why."
Unfortunately, Evangelicals have become known for the politics associated with their movement, more than the Evangel--the Gospel--the Good news--from which the group's name comes.  I'm not saying Piper did this.  I don't think he did.  But he and Iare associated with a movement.  I didn't sign up to join, but it is the Theological pigeon-hole where I best fit.  Ask the average person-on-the-street about Evangelicals and they will likely begin their description with the political rather than the Biblical.  Sad!
Some critics of Piper are making comparisons to the ineffective church in Nazi Germany during the rise of Adolf Hitler.  No.  I think the case can be made that the problem with the church in Germany was not that they were not sufficiently involved in politics, but that they were involved up to their clerical collars.  Many leaders in that church made the mistake of thinking that a political leader, and regime, could "fix it."  Wrong. Piper has spoken unequivocally about the Bible truth on marriage.  I think he is right when he says to his congregation.  "It's up to you."
As a less well-known pastor, me, recently said: "The battle will not be won in the political realm, but in the heart."

John, if you would like to come, Sunday, and say "Amen!" you are welcome.  I speak on what our response to the Debate on the definition of marriage should be.

  

It's STTA

A friend commented on yesterday's STTA, about smooth inclines and tripping places.  His comment indicated that tripping is not always bad.  The key point in my friend's comment has to do with awareness.  If I am walking over a piece of ground that isuneven, or slick, or if there are "jagged rocks below" involved, I am on the alert.  I watch where I place my feet.  I hold onto the safety rail, or even a convenient branch as a precaution.  I "employ tactics" in keeping with "survival mode."
When I perceive that things are smooth I am apt to forget those important precautions.
The problem is, I often don't see danger until it is on top of me.  There are numerous places in scripture that counsel constant vigilance.  ". . . be on the alert.  Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8).  Paul counsels Timothy to be ready all the time, and to engage in self-discipline.    The time to check the fire extinguisher and learn how to operate it is not when the fire breaks out, by then it is too late.
So, when I come to a tripping place it ought to serve as a reminder.  For sure, unless I die before I type a period, there will be other rough spots.  (Made it.)  What disciplines do I need to plug into my life, while the way is smooth?  
  

It's STTA

Over the years I've seen a lot of stairs.  I notice them a lot more now than I used to.  Me knees tend to tell me about them. I recently built some stairs.  For an amateur wood-butcher building a way from one level to another can be a challenge.  As this video and article show a stair doesn't have to be off very much to make it a tripping point.  A well designed and built set of stairs is such that a person can go up or down without thinking about what their feet are doing.  A poorly made set requires "watching where you step."
I've only been up and down my new staircase a couple of times, but I think it is going to be OK.   There is a descent, however, that I don't want to be smooth.  Jesus told a story about a man who lived in the lap of luxury.  As happens to us all, he died.  He found himself in hell.  No one told him to "watch that last step!"  An old proverb uses a slightly different metaphor.  As is usually the case, C. S. Lewis says it well.  

"Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."  

I suppose we could say that good preaching--indeed the task of the church in general is to put some tripping points along the way. 
"Huh, what was that?"
"That, my friend, is one of the consequences of sin, or of life in this sin cursed world.  By the way, do you know where this road is headed?  

  

It's STTA

Honor #2

When last I gave you something to thinkabout (here), I was on my to a cemetery.  For reasons I won't go into, my trip had a number of points where it could have broken down and gone bad.  Apparently Murphy had a few days off, and all the pieces lined up.  There was one minor glitch that turned out to not really matter.

I am the son of a World War II vet.  My uncle, my dad's oldest brother, died in Normandy and is buried there.  Some time ago, my brother and I decided that we wanted to visit Sgt. Hugh A, Merrell's grave at the cemetery above Omaha Beach.  We were there last Thursday.  

My uncle and more than 10,000 others are remembered there.  It is appropriate that we do so.  I found myself looking at those crosses, interspersed here and there with stars of David, viewing the ruins of the defenses at Pointe Du Hoc, watching old movies of the battles, and trying to wrap my mind around the awesome arithmetic that accompanied that war--perhaps any war.  To achieve the objectives that lead to victory not only must bullets and bombs be expended, but lives must be spent.  The cost of war is evident in places like where I stood last Thursday.  Generals like Eisenhower must decide whether the cost is worth the objective.

I'm still sorting through emotions felt and lessons learned, but I know I want it to be said about me that life was given for something worthwhile.  

I believe the cause of Christ is infinitely valuable.

It's STTA 

Strength in Weakness:

My wife's Aunt Shirley just went home to be with her Lord.  We had gotten word a couple of days ago that she had pneumonia and wasn't expected to live.  She died last night.  

Over the last years of her life Aunt Shirley progressively became a prisoner in a body that no longer functioned.  Often we see seniors with healthy bodies but minds that leave those houses of flesh essentially homeless. 

Shirley O'Donnel was the opposite.  Her spirit continued to burn bright in an earthly house that if it had been a house of brick and wood would have been condemned long ago.  Scripture speaks of this condition.  It afflicts us all. 

  

   "For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body." (Romans 8:22-23, NASB95)  

   "for we walk by faith, not by sight- we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord." (2 Corinthians 5:7-8, NASB95)

 

Aunt Shirley left this world of waiting and suffering and entered that realm of fulfillment.  I don't want you to think that Aunt Shirley just sat and waited.  Not at all, she encouraged, and prayed, and helped little kids learn God's word.  

 

 

 

Thanks for pointing the way, Aunt Shirley.

It's STTA 

Honor

I am who I am, at least in part, because of those who have gone before me.  Thus I find myelf making a journey that my uncle and many others like him, made about seventy years ago.  I am flying across the Atlantic.  He went in a troop ship.  Like him, I'll travel by train and then cross the Channel on water. There will be no guns awaiting me.

Uncle Hugh Allen didn't come back.  It's late, but that's why I'm going.

It's STTA