Happy Father's Day

Yesterday was a special Father’s Day for me. I celebrated the day in Jacksonville FL with my dad and my entire family. June 15th 2008 was a unique day for me. First it was Father’s Day, as I mentioned, it was my youngest daughter’s 24th Birthday (Sorry honey, I probably shouldn’t of mentioned that part), and yesterday I was officially hooded at my doctoral commencement. And that’s why the whole gang was in Florida at the beach this weekend.

I am thankful for a Godly dad. One who loves the lord and wants to see his son excel in the ministry to which I’ve been called. I’m thankful for my family, a wife who has put up with a lot of years of schooling and proof-reading thousands of pages of my writing, and two daughters who (admittedly drive me crazy sometimes but also make me proud of where they are going in life.

And I’m thankful for God granting me the grace and strength to finish my schooling. What a great way to celebrate with a graduation, fellowship and participating in a Eucharistic meal with my family, knowing that all of them have made professions of faith in our Lord.

I know how difficult it is for many people today to feel comfortable celebrating Father’s Day because they have never had a human father who they could look up to or love them, someone who could help them catch a glimpse of what our heavenly Father is like and how much he loves and cares for us and is there for us regardless of how often we blow it, chafe under His correction or reject His loving embrace.

This is one of the difficult challenges that our Christian community faces when we attempt to speak to this generation about a father who loves them. Many of them have had absentee fathers all of their lives. Many have never experienced a father who loves them or cares for them.

We need to express a love for those who have never had a human father love them. We need to love them into the Kingdom. This means that even when they are unlovely we still need to love them. (I know it’s harder to do than say)

God grant us the grace to love the lovely and the unlovely, to be Father’s representative to a lost world who need to experience God the Father’s love.

Blessings

Dr. Val

Honoring Our Fallen

This weekend as a country, the United States of America, has set aside a time where we remember those who have fallen in the defense of our country. Unfortunately instead as a country have made it a holiday where we are more interested in celebrating the unofficial beginning of summer. Where we concentrate on grilling, opening our pools, taking our motor homes out to the lake, and getting our boats in the water.

I want to take a minute to thank those families both past and present who gave us their sons and daughters to serve in our armed forces and especially those who gave the ultimate sacrifice of their lives in defending our country.

Thank you for the ultimate gift!

One of my best friends is a chaplain in a VA home in Illinois. He is charged with the spiritual welfare of those men and women who faithfully served our country and who are now in need of physical care. We are a country who takes care of our wounded, sometimes not as well as we could, but usually better then the church does.

I read with interest this week the response that a church gave to the arrest of one of their ministers. This church is considered a mega church with over 40 ministers on staff and one of them attempted to arrange a “date” with a n underage girl on line. When he showed up for his assignation he discovered that the girl was in fact a police officer.

He was arrested and the church promptly fired him (as they should have) All of the interviews that the church gave out would have been considered politically correct. Concern for the flock, concern for the community reaction and condemnation of the fallen minister.

What I did not hear was concern for the fallen minister and any concern for his restoration.

Galatians 6:1
Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.

Now in all fairness neither you nor I know what is going on behind closed doors. So the church should be given the benefit of the doubt. But it would not surprise me if this man were simply cut loose and condemned to Protestant purgatory for his failings. I don’t know if he could or ever should be placed back into the ministry, but I’m sure that God has not abandoned him and neither should his congregation.

Christians have often been guilty of being the only army that shoots their wounded. This weekend as we “celebrate” Memorial Day, lets remember that we are to bind up the wounded and help to heal the broken hearted.

Pass me another hamburger,

Dr. Val

Spring Cleanup

As many of you know I have spent the last month preparing my house to put it on the market. I have accepted a senior pastor position in Trenton IL about 30 miles east of St Louis. And I am getting ready to move in a couple of months.

The spring is a traditional time for us to catch up on neglected projects from the winter (and for some of us ignored projects from years and years of neglect).

For the last four weeks, I’ve built a new fence and gate on the north side of the house, helped my wife spread 6 cubic yards of mulch and re-stain the deck (she really did most of the work). I laid a new floor in the front foyer, kitchen, breakfast nook, back hallway, half bath, and laundry room. I’ve also had to install a new toilet and replace a number of valves and calk the main bathroom. I though I had fixed everything there was to fix in this home and had called to have a real estate agent out to view the house and put it on the market. Unfortunately, the agent was unable to make our appointment due to a family loss and we rescheduled.

The next day I was looking at my breakfast nook ceiling and noticed a wet spot on the ceiling. I can tell you that wet spots on the ceilings bode no good. I went upstairs to check the main bathroom and found that the valve on the toilet had gone bad. So this weekend instead relaxing and enjoying the fruits of my labors I was replacing the valve, calking some more places and repainting the nook’s ceiling.

I was not real happy about my “extra” labor but I realized that I had a tendency to treat my Christian life like my house. I worked really hard to get it in shape and then wanted to sit back and relax for the next 5, 10 or even 20 years and do nothing. In the mean time the house was quickly falling into disrepair. Instead I need to set aside some time to do maintenance on a regular basis. I also need to schedule regular maintenance in my Christian life as well. Checking the foundation, the outside and the inside and then repairing the problems that develops from daily wear-and-tear.

How about you? Have you done a walk around to see how your Christian life is doing? Are there things that you need to repair and refresh? How has your time with God been going? Are you spending time communing with Him? Do you need to reprioritize your schedule?

I think I’m about caught up on the neglected repairs, but now I need to concentrate on some daily maintenance. Maybe you need to rework your schedule, too.

Handyman Val

Missing An Important Holiday

Have you ever forgotten an important event? I did one time. A number of years ago I remembered that my parents were celebrating they anniversary. I had planned to call them that day but forgot until the next day, it was cool conversation, to say the least.

As a follower of Christ, many Christians also forget every year to commemorate a very important date as well. In fact most evangelical Christians neglect one of the most important days of the year.

The birthday of the Church! Pentecost Sunday.

Perhaps in America we don’t celebrate it because it often interferes with a civil religious holiday – Mother’s Day. (This year specifically Mother’s Day and Pentecost are actually on the same day, May 11th, 2008.) Now I’m not saying that we should not honor our mothers, but isn’t interesting that as followers of Christ we choose to honor one and neglect the other. But it seems possible to do both if we tried really hard.

Perhaps we disregard our birthday because one or two specific tribes have chosen to rally their tribes around a name and the rest of the tribes are fearful to be associated with these tribes.

Perhaps we are just ignorant of our past and don’t remember the story of our birth. If you would like to check it out you can find the story recounted in the New Testament of the Bible in the book The Acts of the Apostles in chapter two.

The birth was a big event. There was wind, lots of noise and fire and people talking in all sorts of languages and people shouting and praying and becoming followers of Christ. What started with 120 people in a room on an upper floor of a house (although there were over 500 believers according to the author Paul in his book 1 Corinthians) soon became a movement with over 3000 pushing 4000 people. All of these people were born into the Church Family on a single day in a single place and time.

Perhaps the leadership of our churches just don’t care. I’ve talked with a few that don’t think it’s that big of a deal. I suggest to those of you in this camp try neglecting important family days in your house and see what happens. Try neglecting your spouse’s birthday or your anniversary or one of your kids’ birthdays and gage their reaction and then tell me that celebrating important dates and events aren’t important.

So this weekend while you are out with Mom at dinner -

- don’t forget to wish the Church a Happy Birthday!

(She’s not looking to bad for being almost 2000 years old!)

Cheers

Dr. Val

It’s All The Same

I have been reading through the second book of the Bible, the book of Exodus. This is the story of the struggle for freedom and the journey of faith towards the land promised by God to the nation of Israel.

While there are many things this ancient book teaches us the one thing that has make an impact on in my thinking is the variety of topics that God covers with Moses when giving Moses the Law.

God states The Commandments (By the way if you haven’t read them in a while I suggest that you re-read them I was surprised by the depth of some of the commandments. We tend to shorten them up a bit and lose some of the details when we list them that way) and then God does the strangest thing. He goes from discussing Ten Commandments to discussing employer-employee relationships, personal property issues, relationships with neighbors and then back to our relationship with God Himself.

If I had been composing this list of laws I would have cataloged them and listed them by topic. (You know God, people, things, etc.) But it dawned on me that God had a reason why He listed the laws the way He did. He was pointing out that all of the issues addressed in the Law are all interrelated and connected to Him. It’s all about Him and not about us. There is no difference between the secular and the sacred. For God it’s all the same thing – Sacred!

So today just remember that everything that we do, think and feel are all related to how we are responding to God and His creation!

Dr Val

In God’s Waiting Room

As a pilgrim who is on his way home, I sometimes feel like an immigrant sitting in the waiting room. For a number of years I have known that God had a new direction for my life. Often I’ve been impatient for Him to reveal this new path to me. I’ve often told others that it’s like being in the waiting room in the doctor’s office. Waiting to be called into the examining room.

At first the waiting is OK and you flip through a few old magazines. But as time goes on you get tired of the old magazines and you’ve read through the kids’ books. The other patients seem to be coming and going but there you wait. Eventually your frustration gets the better of you and you go up to the window and check to make sure that your name is still on the list and that they haven’t bypassed you. You start hanging out at the admittance window asking about the delay. There are other sick and broken people who seem to be getting help but there you sit broken and feeling alone.

Ever been there?

I have been there with medical doctors and for the last couple of years with the Great Physician, too. It seems that I’ve hung around the waiting room hoping to get a chance to hear the prognosis for my heavenly doctor and not seeing the opportunity I’ve been given to observe the human condition all around me. I wonder how many times I’ve missed the opportunity to do triage in the waiting room while I waited my turn.

Perhaps I’ve missed some real blessings to be the horizontal incarnation of the Great Physician and Good Shepherd while I “waited” on His time and for His plan. Maybe I missed some great opportunities to serve. Recently I was in having some cloths altered at a men’s clothing shop and I had the opportunity to triage a store manager who asked about what I did and after she found out asked me to help her learn what truth is and where she could find it. I would have missed that opportunity if I had left God’s waiting room. A couple of week later I ran into her and found out she had purchased one of the books I had recommended and was reading it. She also asked me to suggest other books for her to read.

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. James 1:2-5 (NIV)

3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; Romans 5:3 (NIV)

7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Psalms 37:7 (NIV)

These are all great verses; the problem is that we often have a hard time living what we know.
I’m still in God’s waiting room but I’ve moved up the list a bit. I know not only what God wants me to do, I also know where He wants me to serve. Now I’m just waiting for the God’s time.
So I’m now the official pastor-in-waiting for the Grace Community Baptist Church in Trenton IL. I’ll be starting my “official duties” August 1, 2008.

If I’ve learned anything from this past waiting period, it’s that I’m moving from the front of one queue to the back of the next one. God’s not done with me yet but I’m becoming closer to what he wants me to be.

How about you?

How’s your waiting game??

Dr. Val

The Most Popular Book In America

I am always amazed when the list of the most popular books is announced.

When it comes to literary pursuits in the United States most people agree on
at least one thing -- the most popular book is the Bible, according to a new
survey.
It came in first in a Harris Poll of nearly 2,513 adults but the
second choice in the survey was not as clear cut.
"While the Bible is number
one among each of the different demographic groups, there is a large difference
in the number two favorite book," Harris said in a statement announcing the
results.

You can check out the entire article on line just go to
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSN0835916320080408

I guess Americans buy more Bibles then any other book and for that I’m thrilled as I’m sure that many of you are, too. I guess what disappoints me most is that while the Bible is the most popular book in America it seems to be the most ignored book in America.

Think of the 10 Commandments – now think of how many we break everyday.

Think of the two Greatest Commandments (Love God and Love Others) – now think of the last time you chose to demonstrate your love for God by loving others, after all loving others includes your neighbors (read enemies).

Think of the Great Commission – now think of the last time you helped to develop a disciple (read apprentice)

I could go on and on but I realize that each time I add to the list I realize that I’m as guilty as anyone else of failing to be the Christian I want to be. Paul talks about this in Romans when he tells us that he know s what is right and he knows what he wants to do, he just can’t seem to do it.

So while we continue to claim to love the Bible we just have a hard time applying what we know is right. And why not? After all none of us can do anything without God helping us. Why is it that so often we are willing to “allow God to save us” but we are unwilling to let him change us. We mistakenly think after we are “saved” the living of the Christian life is up to us!

Right!

It’s just like a sinner to assume that after the foundation is laid, it’s up to us to finish constructing the house ourselves.

Well I guess, we should be glad that Americans still know where to get the answers to life, even if we fail to read the Bible to learn the answers to life’s questions.

Why not take the 10-minute challenge with me? For the rest of this month let’s each read the Bible for 10 minutes each day. I suggest that we start with the Gospel of John in the New Testament. Let’s see what happens when we spend time reading God’s message to each of us!

Good reading!!!

Dr. Val