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Friday, June 12, 2009

Zapped!

When my dermatologist greets me every six months, he uses one hand to shake my hand and uses his other hand to shake a can of liquid nitrogen. Yesterday, he zapped me about 20 times with liquid nitrogen. Today, my head looks raw, but it should heal in two weeks or so. According to the dermatologist, I have had significant exposure to the sun.

Exposure to the sun in Colorado Springs is normal, and skin cancer is fairly common. I wear a hat outdoors, but the sun seems to penetrate it. So I have an appointment in December to visit the top-gun dermatologist again.

Exposure to the sun may be hazardous to the skin, but there are no harmful effects of exposure to the Son. If we stay close to Him, our lives will show only beneficial results. Galatians 5:22 and 23 identify them as “the fruit of the Spirit: and list them. They are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Keep walking in the Sonshine!

Monday, June 8, 2009

Lingo, New and Old

Door-to-door solicitors descend on our neighborhood like ants at a picnic. The other day a young man rang our doorbell and introduced himself as a college student from Scotland. He was selling children’s books.

“I was born in Scotland,” I told him, “but I was just a wee wain when oor family moved tae Canada.”

To say the young man was surprised is an understatement. He was flabbergasted. “ I see you know the lingo,” he offered after regaining his composure.

“Aye!”

“Cool.”

My parents spoke with a Scottish brogue until they died, but I never heard either of them say “lingo” or “cool.” I guess the language and accent of Scots today are quite different from what they were when my parents and I lived in Scotland an awfie lang time ago. As a matter of fact, the solicitor’s accent seemed to resemble that of an Englishman.

Christianese has changed through the years too. Years ago we used to refer to being “born again,” “saved,” “ bought by the blood,” and we urged the “unsaved” to “repent” and accept Christ as your Savior.” Now, the popular vocabulary includes such terms as “a relationship with God,” “give Jesus a chance,” and “people of faith.”

Here’s my take on these modern terms. I think they are weak and meaningless. Everyone has a relationship with God, either a right relationship or a wrong relationship. Jesus doesn’t need a chance; He doesn’t come as a 30-day trial offer. And “people of faith” is nondescript. Having faith amounts to nothing unless Jesus is the object of that faith. Faith in a church or a religion or one’s good works or baptism or religious pedigree is groundless.

I hope we get back to Biblical terminology soon, but I hae ma doots!

Sunday, June 7, 2009

51st Anniversary

Gloria and I are celebrating our 51st Wedding Anniversary today. We tied the knot June 7, 1958 in Alexandria, Virginia, five days after I graduated from Houghton College, Houghton, New York. We met when we were students at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.

I am still a work in progress, but Gloria is patient. She has accompanied from pastorate to pastorate and publishing house to publishing house, from Ontario, to New York State, to Pennsylvania, to Indiana, to Colorado, to Illinois, and back to Colorado. Since I “retired,” she has accompanied me to churches throughout Colorado where I have ministered as an interim pastor or pulpit supply. She deserves a lot of credit for not only traveling with me but also for sitting through my sermons.

We are both grateful to the Lord for saving us and giving us a purposeful, happy life.

The testimony, “He led them forth by the right way” (Psalm 107:7), applies to Israel, but it aptly describes how the Lord has led Gloria and me for 51 years.