When I honor others I am the one who gains the benefit.

One of the criticisms that I have read of 21st Century life in the West is that we tend to give undue preference to those who happen to be alive right now. We think we are smarter than those who have gone before us. When there is a way that things used to be done, and a way that we do things now, our default position is that the current procedure is better. "We finally got it figured out." When have you heard an advertisement bragging that a business or organization is on "the back side of the knife"? Everybody wants to be "cutting edge." The Edsel was new, so were 8-track tapes, and Beta video recorders. How'd that work out? Clearly, the cell phone most STTA readers use to access these thoughts I offer represents an incredible technical advance over the front porch where people used to share something about which to think. We ought to ask, however, "In the biggest sense of the word, is the pocket device that connects me to the world better?"  Does it connect or separate?

I'm in Chuuk as I write this. Technically Chuuk is one of the four states that make up the Federated States of Micronesia, a collection of Islands in the Western Pacific. In the way the Bible uses the word, Chuuk is a "nation." It has its own language and culture. People here aren't FSM-ers, they are Chuukese. I'm here to honor a church leader who recently died. The body of the deceased arrived by jet airplane and was transported to his home island on a boat powered by Yamaha, but the ways of honoring his memory, and seeking to comfort his family are rooted in ways that don't require gasoline or a battery. Physical presence is maximized. A willingness to put other things aside is evident. There is a deliberate focus on reconciliation and learning lessons from the dead that will help us move forward with life.
When we think of honoring someone our initial thought is that the benefit is given to the one honored. I'm being reminded that honoring another--even, perhaps especially, when the one being honored is no longer here to receive the honor--means those of us who slow down and take time to show-our-respects receive much more than we give. 
I wish we could sit down on the porch and talk about it. It's not cutting edge, but it would be better.
It's Something To Think About.

Even a Tycoon of News Cannot Prevent News of His Death

The real FAIR & BALANCED:

Roger Ailes has been one of the most powerful forces in media for the past several decades. The motto of the news empire that he oversaw is "Fair and Balanced." Ailes died this morning. Clearly there is room for argument, especially with revelations that surfaced at the end of Ailes's life, as to whether his career modeled that motto. I'll leave that discussion to others more "pundit-y" than I. I am confident, though, that Ailes entered a realm where fairness is beyond dispute, and balance is Divine. Hebrews 9:27 declares, "[I]t is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment." The early chapters of Romans give us a great deal of information about the standard of the judgment God administers:  God's judgment is rightly directed. It is against "all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." We should not take false comfort in that, however, since Romans goes on to say that all have "sinned and fall short" (3:23). Impartiality is often held up as the standard of human justice. With Godit is clearly achieved. In Romans 3:9-20, words like "all," "none," and "no one;" and pronouns like "they" predominate. Chapter 2 and the first part of chapter 3 make clear that no group gets a pass. Jew and Gentile, religious and secular, educated and unlearned, all stand on level ground before God's tribunal. Ignorance of the law is not an acceptable defense in a human court. God, though, bases His judgment on what we know (Romans 2:12-16). It is as if the Lord will play the surveillance recording in our heart. As verse 19 says, "every mouth will be stopped." We'll know that there is nothing we can say. Most important to us, while God's judgment is sure, His grace and mercy are without limit. After establishing that all are guilty, the Apostle Paul goes on to show that just as all are guilty before the Lord, salvation is made available to all through faith in Christ (here).  I have conducted many funerals over a lifetime of ministry. I always did so knowing that I was not privy to the eternal destiny of the one being memorialized. When commenting on the afterlife of someone I have never met, like Ailes, that is even more-so. I do know that the God of the Universe will do what is right. Roger Ailes sought to inform, teach, and persuade us for decades. His death, like the end of every life, is a lesson we should heed. It's . . . STTA (Something To Think About).  Here is a different presentation of the Good News in Christ. You can find several ways to explore the Message of Grace here.

It is appointed unto men once to die.

This evening I'll do something I've done scores of times. I'll share God's word at a service remembering and honoring someone who has died. What makes this funeral notable for me, is this is the first time I've done this on this side of the world. It reminds me of the universality of death.   “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—”  (Romans 5:12, ESV) “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,” (Hebrews 9:27, ESV)   Geography is just one of the factors that don't matter. People in some places may live longer than people in less developed lands, women outlast men, and the wealthy can afford better healthcare and forestall the inevitable, but sooner or later, all people, everywhere, will pass through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. I don't think anyone really denies that fact, we just live as if it weren't true. That is foolish. The fact is, though death is inevitable, defeat by death is not necessary. Jesus is the Lord of life. In Him, not only can we overcome death in the final moment, we can live live a quality of life right here in this death-dealing world that is beyond what we can live on our own.   “. . . when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. So . . . be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.” (1 Corinthians 15:54–58, NLT) Go out and live, really live, wherever you dwell on this globe. (You can find out how here. It's STTA (Something To Think About).  Find out about how the Son of God redeems our past, gives purpose in the present, and hope for the future, here.

Don't try to bargain with death.

Something to Think About DEATH:

I can't say that I'm a Bluegrass fan.  I enjoy some of it.  I have some friends who play and I particularly appreciate hearing them.  Especially in the Appalachian region where I live there is no disputing the impact of Mountain Music.  Ralph Stanley was one of the pioneers of the genre.  He died today, June 23, 2016 If you look up the word "haunting," you are apt to find a reference to Ralph Stanley's song "Oh Death."   Oh death, oh death    Won't you spare me over til another year Well what is this that I can't see With ice cold hands taking hold of me Well I am death none can excel I'll open the door to heaven or hell Whoa death someone would pray Could you wait to call me til another day The children pray the preacher preached Time and mercy is out of your reach I'll fix your feet til you can't walk I'll lock your jaw til you can't talk I'll close your eyes so you can't see This very hour come and go with me In death I come to take the soul Leave the body and leave it cold To drop the flesh off of the frame The earth and worms both have a claim    Oh death, oh death    Won't you spare me over til another year My mother came to my bed Place a cold towel upon my head My head is warm my feet are cold Death is a movin upon my soul Oh death how you're treatin me You close my eyes so I can't see Well you're hurtin my body you make me cold You run my life right out of my soul Oh death please consider my age Please don't take me at this stage My wealth is all at your command If you'll remove your icy hands Oh the young the rich or poor All alike to me you know No wealth no land no silver or gold Nothin satisfies me but your soul    Oh death, oh death    Won't you spare me over til another year    Won't you spare me over til another year    Won't you spare me over til another year Death can't be reasoned with.  It's not authorized to make bargains. We simply know that "each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment" (Hebrews 9:27, NLT). Pleading with death makes for powerful, plaintive music, but it is useless.  If you look at Stanley's words he knew this.  Rather than plead with death, trust the Lord of life. It’s STTA.   Read here to find out how to prepare for life and death.

Dying, Wherever I am:

Something To Think About Dying:

I was discussing death with some folk from another culture.  I jokingly said that I don’t know how to die in their culture.  As we discussed our traditional death practices, we found that there are some practices that are very different, others are quite similar.  For instance in the USA it is common for friends and relatives to prepare meals and bring food to the bereaved.  The practice among my friends’ people is for the grieving family to prepare a feast for those who come to pay their respects.  Both cultures seek to honor the one who has died. After we discussed differences and similarities we identified the one element that is incontrovertibly the same; no matter where we are from or what our traditions are—everyone of is going to die.  “It is appointed for men to die once and after thiscomes judgment.”  (Hebrews 9:27) It turns out I do know how to die, anywhere.  Just keep on living.  It'll happen.  It is an obvious, undeniable reality, yet all over the world people seek to ignore it.  We do so at our peril, deadly peril It’s STTA. Read here to find out how to prepare for death, and be ready to live..

Being Prepared Joaquin, the Byrds, & a Philosopher King:

Something To Think About, Being Prepared Joaquin, the Byrds, & a Philosopher King:

As I write, Hurricane Joaquin is churning away out in the Atlantic, southeast of here.  The predictions of what is going to happen are less than exact.  Here is a map of possible tracks the Hurricane could take, from  earlier this week.  I just heard a news report on the storm that  included the word "likely" many times.  Apparently the latest projection indicates that the storm will stay out in the ocean. In spite of the uncertainty, massive preparations have been made for Joaquin's consequences.  Huge machines have been piling up sand berms in New York and New Jersey, some friends of ours moved disaster relief equipment to a strategic location, football games were rescheduled and played early, and, of course, parking lots were jammed as folk stocked up on bread and milk.  I even charged my cellphone in anticipation of a possible power outage.  I'm resting now from my preparations. Keeping in mind what could happen, and the fact that by the time we know for sure what will happen it's too late to do anything about it, prudent foresight is wise. The Bible, almost universal religious instinct, and the restlessness in our own hearts warns that there is something on the other side of death.  We should be prepared.  I've done a lot in the past couple of years to stave off the effects of aging, and delay the appointment that I most certainly have with death.  Just an hour ago I took my cholesterol med.  To live as if I am going to live forever in the state in which I now exist, is foolish, perhaps arrogant. In more than four decades of pastoring, I've done quite a few funerals.  I make it a practice to ask the family if there is any particular scripture they want me to include in the funeral service.  The two most often given answers are "The twenty-third Psalm," and "That passage about their being a time for everything."  I've always figured that folk were thinking more of the Byrds than Solomon.  The Sixties rock band was making a plea for peace.  Solomon was observing that nothing in this life really satisfies.  Even the Byrd's version includes the first, all-encompassing couplet, "A time to be born, and a time to die."  The wise king goes on to point out,  He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11) Far from being something we can be all mellow about, the Bible's philosopher's view of the times leads to a troubling conclusion.  It is part of the reason that he finds life to be "vanity and vexation of spirit" (Ecc. 1:14).  It supports the final conclusion of the book.  "Fear God, and keep His commandments"  (12:13).   Death is coming.  That is sure.  There is something beyond.  The evidence is strong.  It is wise to be prepared. It's STTA. You'll find some guidelines for preparation here.

It Tolls for Me.

Something To Think About, The Tolling of the Bell:

(Please forgive the lateness of this email.  I wrote it yesterday when these events were even fresher than today.  The reality is ongoing.) They weren't really neighbors, but Alison Parker and Adam Ward used to appear on the local news, the same news that sometimes included stories about my little town nestled in the lovely Alleghany Highlands.  A friend of mine--almost a relative--had recently been shopping at the mall where the reporter and the cameraman were gunned down by a former colleague seeking some warped vengeance. A friend from another part of the world but familiar with the area where the crime took place commented, "If you aren't safe there, where are you safe?"  His question was rhetorical, but the answer is, "No where." John Donne observed, No man is an island, Entire of itself, Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less. As well as if a promontory were. As well as if a manor of thy friend's Or of thine own were: Any man's death diminishes me, Because I am involved in mankind, And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;  It tolls for thee.  (Emphasis added) I pray for Alison and Adam's families. I pray for the family of shooter.  Their sorrow must be profound. I am aware, though, that what happened this morning in a lovely resort area does not only impact those directly involved.  It has to do with us all. I am reminded that life is short, this world is full of wickedness, and people need the Lord.  Lord, as I hear the bell tolling, announcing that two more children of Adam have been ushered into eternity, help me to hear it not only as a bell ringing the grief of loss, but as an alarm calling me to service.  Lord, You have made your children ambassadors for You.  We get to proclaim that there is reconciliation in Jesus Christ.  There is peace, there is hope, no where else. Oh, faithful and true one, make me faithful to your call. Amen It's STTA.   You can find out about hope in Christ on this page.

What does a crash in Ukraine have to do with me?

Something To Think About 777s, 7/18

A few weeks ago I spent half a day strapped right smack in the middle of a Boeing 777.  The news of the Malaysia Air jetliner, a 777, that was shot down got my attention.  On movies someone always sees the missile approaching.  I wonder if anyone did.  For many, maybe most, of the passengers the moment they were aware something was wrong was the same moment they died from what had to be a horrendous explosion.  The plane, or literally the pieces of the plane, including seats with passengers still wearing their seat-belts, "low and tight," fell about six miles to the Ukrainian countryside below.  Was anyone alive for part of that plunge? I've been on airliners. Some passengers were sleeping. Likely, someone was feeding or caring for one of the infants on board. Others--often this is me--would have been trying to get comfortable, longing for sleep, but unable to get themselves arranged in the narrow seat. Business people were getting ready for a big presentation. Many were passing the time staring at a movie, or reading. In a blinding second First Class, Business Class, Economy Plus, and the airline equivalent of steerage became absolutely equal.  The extra leg-room was irrelevant.  No one cared whether they had just eaten steak or mystery mush.  Young and old, male and female, rich and poor were ushered, in the blink of an eye, into eternity. I can hear some of you say, You won't get me in one of those things.  Consider, though, that if yesterday was average: Over 90 people died in motor vehicle crashes, just in the United States. 12 died walking. There was a 1 in 30 chance that someone in the US died from a lightning strike. It could be that someone died from electric shock; about 5 Americans die that way every month. About 150,000 people, all around the world, died in the last 24 hours. As one comic/philosopher observed, "This world is a mess; no one is going to get out alive." Generally when people get on an airplane they know where they are going.  Where am I going?  That is a question we all ought to ask, even if we aren't leaving the house. It's Something to Think About. To find out more about CBC at our website. God's Story in His Own Words. a message composed of nothing but Scripture that presents the flow of Divine Revelation from "In the beginning," to the final "Amen." You can find directions for getting where you really want to go here.

A day full of sin, death, grace, and angels:

When I awoke this morning, the hard drive in my headbegan to whir.  About the first thing I remember thinking was, "It can't be onlyTuesday."

It's been a full week already.

I know all the Theological reasons for starting the week with the Lord's Day, but in my little preacher world,Sunday is the end of the week.  Monday - Saturday is, in large part, spent getting ready for Sunday.  Sundaynight, Kathy and I exhale and crash.  So, when I woke this morning I was only thinking of one day.  

Yesterday was a microcosm of life on this sin-cursed planet.  Kathy and I were with a family, at a crisis point in the their lives.  Sin has done its work and these dear friends of ours were left to sort through the pieces and put things back together.  Don't get the idea its hopeless, far from it.  We can see God's grace shining through.  I'm expecting great things!

Part of that grace--much of it, in fact--is packaged in
human flesh.  A couple of other friends are reaching out to this family with love-in-shoe-leather.  It's the kind of thing angels do.  When you are at the end of your rope, they show up to 

 help.  

In the midst of that, I got word that my mom had died.  It was no surprise.  In fact the surprise was that she was still with us yesterday morning.  There was no "I better sit down." kind of shock, like there was when my dad died with a sudden heart attack, just a dull lump that settled somewhere in my lower abdomen, and wouldn't go away.  Again grace appeared.  God is good.

Miles were traveled, emails sent, phone calls made,conferences had, and plans put in place.  Surely it must be Thursday or Friday.

Life is not a smooth line.  It's like looking at the wave pattern of a speech, full of peaks and valleys.  Across those jagged lines that make up the whispers and the ear piercing screams of life, I find one constant.  I don't know how others live without.  Call it a homing beacon, a steady light, a constant tone, maybe, as a song says, it is the "rhythm of his 

Be Still and Know - Steven Curtis Chapman - Worship Video w/lyrics

unfailing heart of love."

 

Yesterday was full.  I'm glad I can say it was not only full of stuff that happened, I can also look back and see an abundance of God's grace.

 

It's STTA.

 

 

(The little angel at the top?  My mom made I don't know how many of them.  They are around the world.  This morning it is a pretty good reminder of God's grace.)

The Death-Masher:

Right now, three women must be rejoicing. The house where Ariel Castro held Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight as prisoners for ten years, inflicting great suffering on them, is being torn down.  As I type various members of the families are taking turns at the controls of a backhoe smashing the house of horrors to the ground.  

I nominate the judge in this case, Michael Russo, for the "Solomon Award, 2013" for making the destruction of this plain looking house part of Castro's sentence.  Not only did the judge decree the destruction of the structure, but he ordered Castro to pay for it. 

Of course not all prisons can be torn down with machines.  People all around us live in jails constructed of  walls and bars in their minds.  Look around, and you'll see the blank, hopeless look of those who are trapped and have ceased trying to escape.  

 

"Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,  and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives."  

(Hebrews 2:14-15)

 

 We still live in the house ruled by death, but, BUT, BUT the death sentence has been decreed for death itself.  Though death is the last enemy that will be destroyed the great destroyer will be put down.  In faith, looking forward to this day the Apostle Paul exults,

 

"Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 

(1 Corinthians 15:55-57)

 

That's better than a turn at the controls of the house-masher.  This freedom will last forever.

 

 It's STTA

The Ease of Falling and Dying:

"What did she/he die from?"

It's a common question.  We expect an answer like, "Cancer," "He had a car wreck."  or, "She suffered a stroke."  An appropriate answer though is, "The cause of death was being born."  As one somewhat cynical wag observed, "This life is a mess.  None of us are going to get out of it alive."

Some people accuse me of having fallen off of ladders.  Actually, that's not true.  On one occasion a ladder fell out from under me.  On another, I stayed on the ladder until it hit the ground.  The point is on neither occasion did I have to do anything to fall.  More pointedly, in both cases it wasn't what I did.  It was what I didn't do.  Falling or dying will happenwithout effort.  In the case of falling, proper effort will keep it from happening.  When it comes to death, none of us, no matter how hard we try, can stop it.  We might make it come later, or make its arrival less painful, but death will come calling.  While we cannot stop it, we can be prepare.  There is a link below that can help.

  

It's STTA

 

There is lots of information about the one died so that we could have life at our webpage, covingtonbiblechurch.com.  Click on "Life's most important question."