No More Suffering and Tears

In Colorado, my home state, weather is ideal most of the time, but unpredictable all of the time. Blue, sunny skies can turn ominous in late afternoon. Temperatures can plummet from warm to frigid faster than you can sing “Rocky Mountain High.” Suddenly, strong winds sweep down from the mountains bringing cold rain or hail or even snow. A March day may drag an upslope condition to our Front-Range cities, wrapping them in drizzle and fog. But Colorodans don’t despair. They can handle a dreary day or two, because they know they will wake up tomorrow to dazzling sunshine and deep- blue skies.

What keeps us Christians optimistic when clouds of trouble and pain burst upon us? when days seem dreary and long? The answer is, we know trouble and pain will end someday. Our pilgrimage will be over; faith will give way to sight; we will enter our heavenly home; and we will see Jesus face to face.

Not long ago I talked with a Christian who was dying of liver cancer. She knew she had only a few days to live. “It’s rough,” she said. “There are a lot of thorns, but the roses are waiting up ahead.”
In just a few words she summarized what every Christian knows to be true: trouble and tears befall us down here, but peace and joy await us in heaven.

Jesus’ disciples were hurting. They had seen Judas slip out into the night to betray Jesus to His enemies, and Jesus had told His disciples He would not be with them much longer (John 13:21-30, 33). But Jesus did not want them to grieve. He urged them not to grieve but to trust in the Father and in Him. He explained that His Father’s house includes many dwellings and He was going there to prepare a place for them. Furthermore, He promised to return for them and take them to the Father’s house. There, they would be together forever (see John 14:1-3).

In the summer of 1999 my wife and I made five weekend trips to Eagle, Colorado, a town that enjoys a valley-view of mountains, redstone cliffs, and a clear, winding river. From Vail to Avon to Copper Mountain to Edwards to Eagle, we passed multi-million-dollar homes built high on the mountains. Impressive! Elaborate! Fantastic! Grand! Luxurious! Awesome! Magnificent! Words fail to adequately describe such structures. But I must add one more adjective to the list—temporary!

Temporary, because many of the owners live in them only a few weeks each year. They are second homes, retreats for celebrities and wealthy business tycoons, getaways for those who want to kick back, drink in the climate and scenery, golf, fish, hike, and four-wheel.

Temporary because even the best constructed house will crumble and tumble someday.

At Eagle I preached each weekend to people who do not live in any of the multi-million dollar houses perched on the mountaintops. As far as I could tell, the people I preached to are like most Christians. They are challenged just to pay the mortgage on a modest house, clothe and educate the kids, put food on the table, and keep the car in running condition. But each of those Christians along with every other Christian holds a title deed to a far better house than those owned by millionaires. Because Jesus, the Carpenter of Nazareth is building it, it, too, is impressive, elaborate, fantastic, grand, luxurious, awesome, and magnificent! But it is even better than all that; it is eternal! Unlike the mountain mansions, Christians’ mansions will never crumble and tumble.

One glimpse of the Builder of our heavenly home and one quick tour of the premises will chase away forever every remembrance of the trouble and tears we experienced on earth.

—From How to Handle Life's Hurts by James Dyet. © 2004, Regular Baptist Press, Schaumburg, Illinois

Christian Cheerleading

My wife and I attended a statewide cheerleaders’ competition yesterday afternoon in Parker, Colorado. A high school gym resounded with the pre-rally organized frenzy of hundreds of cheerleaders stomping and shouting in response to a drill instructor’s commands. Soon, each team of well-practiced high school cheerleaders performed its routine in front of a packed house. I think the cheerleaders displayed more energy and enthusiasm than you would find in any stadium hosting an NFL game.
What drew us to the cheerleading competition? Our granddaughter Jessica’s cheerleading team was performing and representing Front Range Christian School. Much to our delight, Jessica’s team won. Congratulations, Jessica and friends!
As much as I wish I could quote a verse of Scripture in direct support of cheerleading, I can’t. The closest I might come to doing so are the words, “Be of good cheer,” but that would be a strangulation of Scripture.
The New Testament does instruct us to serve as cheerleaders of one another as we endeavor to lead an effective Christian life. We are admonished to “spur one another on toward love and good deeds” and to “encourage one another” (Hebrews 10:24, 25).
When I open God’s Word Sunday by Sunday to encourage believers to serve the Lord faithfully, I hope I come across as an enthusiastic cheerleader. Also, it would be gratifying to know the congregation is cheering me on. I don’t expect the congregation to form pyramids or shout, “Give me a P. Give me an R. Give me an E. Give me an A. Give me a C. Give me an H. Yea, PREACH!” An occasional “Amen” or an approving head nod would be just fine.

Time for Some Knee Bends?

Do you enjoy browsing through antique stores? If so, you are not alone. On any given Saturday, thousands of antique shoppers stroll antique stores’ narrow aisles and peer into stall after stall stocked with items from a bygone era.
“Mother used a potato masher like that,” one shopper recalls.
“Grandpa kept a scythe like that one in his barn,” another shopper comments.
Another shopper asks, “Remember the penny scale in front of Murray’s Drug Store? When we were kids, we would step on the scale, insert a penny, and read our weight. And then a little fortune card would slide out of the scale. Those were the days!”
Not long ago, an e-Bay ad offered a truly unusual antique for the home that has everything! It was a hand-carved oak confessional c. 1880, measuring approx. 6 feet x 5 feet x 10 feet. It had been removed from the Church of St. Charles in Algiers, Algeria. Asking price: $2,000/OBO.
Perhaps a buyer would use the confessional as a backyard playhouse or a tool shed. Surely he wouldn’t place it in his living room for the convenience of family wrongdoers.
Like that antique confessional, genuine, contrite Biblically directed-confession itself seems to be almost archaic. Perhaps we have bought so thoroughly into the positive self-image, feel-good-about-yourself philosophy that we fail to acknowledge our sins and the need to confess them to the Lord.
King David understood firsthand the value of confessing our sins humbly and honestly. He wrote: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51:17). I’m sure David didn’t use a confessional booth, but he found just enough room to kneel humbly before a righteous God. In the twenty-first century, too, knee bends are a good spiritual exercise.

Patient Waiting

I should be used to waiting. I’ve done so much of it in my lifetime. Waiting at red lights. Waiting at checkouts. Waiting in doctors’ offices. Waiting for payment of articles. Waiting for lunch guests. Waiting for service in restaurants. Waiting for results of medical tests. Waiting for preachers to conclude their sermons. Waiting for slow golfers. The list is almost endless, but I don’t want to make you wait for more examples so I will end it now.
If you think I’m not very patient, you are right, but I’m working on the patience trait. Just yesterday I learned to be more patient when I read in the newspaper that wives and children were reunited with their soldier husbands and fathers at Fort Carson here in Colorado Springs. The soldiers had finally returned from Iraq after a 15-month tour of duty. The long separation must have taxed everyone’s patience beyond measure. The waiting those families endured makes any waiting seem paltry.
So I am going to try to be more patient and find something constructive to do while I wait. I might read a book or harvest some ideas for writing a book. Or I might fill the waiting times with prayer.
After Jesus had risen from the dead, the disciples showed impatience. He commanded them to wait in Jerusalem for the coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4, 5). However, they asked whether He would restore the kingdom to Israel at that time (verse 6). He responded by telling them they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (verse 8). Then, He ascended to heaven.
Jesus will return from heaven someday, and our responsibility is to wait for Him, not idly but actively. We should exercise productive patience and ask what the Lord wants us to do today?
And by the way, Jesus will restore the kingdom to Israel someday.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, I am another year older today. I was born November 11. I will give you the century—the 20th—but you will have to guess the year. According to legend, my father left a pot of tea for my mother and left for work the morning of November 11. When he returned from work, he found mother, tea, and me in oor wee hoos on Welgate Street in Larkhall, Scotland.
I was the second son of three, but the only one born in Scotland. My older brother and my younger brother were born in Canada. My parents had emigrated from Scotland to Canada and welcomed my brother Bill into their lives in Hamilton, Ontario. Later, they returned to Scotland, where I was born. When I was three, they emigrated again to Canada, where my brother Bruce was born in Ottawa. A year later we moved to St. Catharines, Ontario, about 12 miles from Niagara Falls. That’s where I grew up.
In 1965 I became a U.S. citizen in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where I served as the pastor of Bell Avenue Baptist Church.
Frankly, I have always cherished my Scottish birth and heritage, but I cherish my birth into God’s family much more highly. January 18, 1952, I received Christ as my personal Savior and immediately became a member of God’s family (John 1:12). I also became a citizen of heaven (Philippians 3:20).
I don’t know how many more birthdays I will celebrate, but I want to honor God each day and serve as a channel of blessing to others. After all, what we put into our years counts far more than the years we put in.