Month: May 2020

I have written about the many benefits of gratitude. A thankful heart makes it possible for us to get through some very rough times. I didn’t begin to recover from the death of my wife until I stopped mourning the fact that she was no longer with me and began to be so very thankful that she was in my life for 54 years; nearly 51 of those years as my wife, soul mate, partner and constant companion.

Preachers love to exhort their flock to have an “attitude of gratitude”. There are countless passages of scripture to support such a message. I just quoted Philippians 4:6 in my last blog post about trading worry for prayer. It is no coincidence that verse concludes, “…and thank God for all he has done for you.” It is natural for Christians to turn to prayer in troubled times, but to stop worrying requires us to concentrate on what God has already done for us and then trust that He won’t let us down this time.

When I was a boy we used to sing, “Count your blessings see what God has done. Count your blessings name them one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.” That surprise comes because many of God’s blessings to us are embedded in our everyday life. We take them for granted without stopping to think about them or who placed them in our life. Close your eyes and try to think of three ways God has blessed you for which you have never thanked Him. If you are having trouble finding those hidden blessings, this story a friend shared with me recently might help.

A 93 year old man in an Italian hospital recovered from COVID-19. Upon discharge he was presented with a bill, which included the cost of using a ventilator for one day. The old man began to cry and his doctor told him not to cry over the bill. What the old man said next brought tears to his doctor’s eyes. “I am not crying over the money I owe. I have money to pay it all. It is just that I have been breathing God’s air for 93 years and it never cost me a thing. Now I see how much just one day breathing on a ventilator in your hospital costs. I realize now how much I owe God and I have never even thanked Him.”

This past Monday was Memorial Day; the finale of a three day weekend for many of those still working. My day started out as usual. My Monday afternoon caregiver showed up at her usual time even on the holiday and was helping me with several chores. At 3:00 pm, my power suddenly went out. My home phone and internet connection went dead with the power. My caregiver helped me call Comed to report the outage from my flip phone, which was down to its last two bars. She left at 4 with hope they would have my power back on soon.

I called my next door neighbor to see if they had power, but got their voicemail, which made me believe their power was still on. I knew my neighbor on the other side was in California visiting her daughter so I started to worry if I was the only one without power. It wasn’t until then I started to pray. At 5, God answered my prayer when my neighbor stopped by to see if he could help. He placed a follow-up call to Comed for me and they said they show power to my meter so I should check my breakers. I asked him to go down in my basement and check for me. He said they all looked like they were on, but when he touched the main breaker the power came back on so he reset that one.

Late Monday night, I woke up and decided to listen to some gospel music and read some scripture to help me get back to sleep. At 3:00 am, my internet connection went out and my phone had no dial tone even though the power was still on. Again, I began to worry. Then I finally prayed again for help. My Tuesday caregiver came at 8 am and before she was finished cooking breakfast for me the power went out again. She went down and reset the breaker again and then rebooted my internet, which is also in the basement.

God sent three angels in answer to my prayers. They looked and sounded very much like Kamlesh (my neighbor from India), Cathy (my Monday caregiver) and Shardae (my Tuesday caregiver). Angels come in all shapes, sizes and appearance. I’ll bet you have been an angel in answer to someone’s prayer; I know I have.

They say, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Through all of this, God was reminding this old dog of an old trick that I shouldn’t have ever forgotten. “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done.” (Philippians 4:6) I’m still thanking God for all he has done for me. How about you?

A friend on Face Book, who attends my church, recently shared a post from a political website that was a very harsh and critical description of “Evangelical Christians”. My friend’s post seemed to describe the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’ time rather than any born again Christian I have ever known; hypocritical, judgmental and even hateful. I commented that I thought he was an Evangelical Christian and to my dismay he responded with a laughing emoji. I have been one since I knelt at that church altar in 1954 and accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. It is obvious to me that my friend’s definition does not match my lifelong experience. I defined an Evangelical Christian on Face Book from my long experience as one, but it was immediately taken down by the Face Book “fact checkers” who evidently prefer my friend’s definition to my truthful experience. I want to share my definition with you.

The foundation of my faith is the fact that the Bible is the inspired and infallible word of God. After all, it was God’s word that introduced me to Jesus and into a personal relationship with His Father. I became a Christian by simply accepting the gift of eternal life and spiritual rebirth described by Jesus in the third chapter of the gospel of John. As a result, God’s Holy Spirit took up residence in my heart to instruct, guide and comfort me throughout my life. The “Evangelical” part is simply my desire to share that wonderful gift with others. It is natural to want to share such a beautiful experience and it is also in obedience to the “Great Commission” Jesus commands of us as His followers. That is what being an Evangelical Christian has meant to me.

I think it is the concept of sin that confuses nonbelievers’ view of Christians. Every man and woman who has lived, is living or will ever live is created in the image of God with a free will and therefore deserves our love and respect. But since creation, there has only been one man who remains without sin and that man is Jesus, who took on the sins of the world for all who believe in and follow Him. It is not only possible to love a person without accepting their sinful actions or lifestyle; it is required of those of us who have become followers of Jesus Christ.

If I was in a burning building and knew the only safe way to escape, I would try to take as many people with me away from the fire to safety as I could. Our world is ablaze with destructive sin and I have found Jesus is the only way out, so I try to convince others to escape to safety through Him. I certainly don’t condemn or hate them for wanting to remain in sin until the flames eventually destroy them. It breaks my heart to even think about it. But it thrills me so to know that angels in heaven join me in celebrating each and every person who makes it out of that fire alive.

When Paul wrote the letters to the New Testament churches, it was never his first choice of communication. “One of the things I always pray for is the opportunity, God willing, to come at last to see you. For I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord. When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours.” (Romans 1:10-12) I understand Paul’s frustration. Even in this digital age of instant communication options like text, tweet, email, social media, Skype or Zoom; there is nothing that compares with being with someone and talking with them in personal fellowship.

I have mentioned before that with all of those forms of communication at their fingertips, sociologists have found that Millennials are by far the loneliest generation. Personal interaction and relationships are an important part of a healthy, happy life. That is especially true in the life of a Christian and it isn’t always easy with the restrictions that are in place. 

I pray for those in the isolation of a hospital or nursing home room with no relatives or friends allowed to visit. Even with my long-time relationship with God, I don’t know how I would hold up under those conditions. I need personal contact and God has provided it for me. I have three wonderful caregivers who alternate days Monday through Friday to minister to my needs three or four hours each weekday. They are paid by Catholic Charities or the VA. Two of them are sisters in Christ with whom I also fellowship. I have a physical therapist coming in twice a week also thanks to the VA. Early Saturday mornings, two brothers in Christ bring breakfast to my home and we fellowship for about two hours. In addition, my neighbor and other friends sometimes drop by with homemade food or treats. There is no longer the physical contact of a handshake or Christian hug, but the presence of those people mean so much to me.

I still find time to keep in touch with distant friends through those alternate methods and I post my blog twice each week. I pray that I have been able to encourage everyone during this stressful time as much as they encourage me.  I know I am blessed, but I still can’t wait until the time when I can leave home to worship with my brothers and sisters and fellowship with them again. That will be a time of great joy just as Paul’s personal visits with the believers of those New Testament churches must have been. Until then, reach out to as many people as you possibly can in every way available to you and draw closer to family members with whom you are staying in place. God bless each and every one of you reading this.

It seems like everyone I know is going through a personal trial or storm these days and some are experiencing an absolute avalanche of troubles. Every conversation I have includes a prayer request, praise report or both (including my own of course). The words of a song came to my mind out of the blue today. I had not thought about it for years. I listening to Karen Peck and New River sing it again and I want to share that brief message with you.

“There’s a woman living next to me just trying to make ends meet. She’s one check away from losing it all. And there’s a broken man I know. He’s barely holding on to hope; trying to get back up from his last fall. And me I’m dealing with my own trials no one else can see. Without Jesus, tell me, where would I be? Everybody’s going through something. Everybody faces a storm now and then. So if everybody’s going through something, I’d rather go through something with Him.”

Fortunately, most of the people I know are going through their own storms with Jesus and I get just as many praise reports from them as prayer requests. God does answer prayer and He stays right beside us through the storms of life. Does every storm have a bright and happy ending for Christians? The simple answer is yes! But it doesn’t always happen in this life. All of us have lost someone close to us through disease, tragic accident or just the ravages of old age. They had gone through their life and all of their storms with Jesus. He conquered death for us and because of Him we can look forward to the happiest of endings in His presence for eternity. Death is not the end for followers of Christ. It is only the end of the beginning. There is more – much more!

My Christian friend, whatever you are going through right now, know that you are not alone. God’s Spirit is in you and with you and your brothers and sisters in Christ will gladly pray for and support you as well. Often their support is the answer to your prayer. By faith you were saved and by faith there will be a beautiful rainbow at the end of your current storm.   

This blog post is a departure from my usual topics. I’m about to reveal to you just how “old school” I really am. Some of you may still be reeling from the humorous story in my Mothers’ Day post. Was I glorifying war or violence? Was I endorsing strong drink? Was I encouraging a child to fear a parent? Was I condoning a student misrepresenting their homework? No on all counts! It simply made me laugh when I read it and I thought it might make you laugh too; nothing more complicated than that. We need to loosen up and laugh more without picking everything apart for a hidden meaning or agenda. I know in the society in which we live today, if that really happened, Johnny would be yanked out of school by the police for psychological evaluation and his parents investigated by DFS for possible loss of custody of their son, even though his story was pure fiction. Those actions would have been taken to punish, instead of praise, Johnny’s very active imagination. We are stifling our children’s creativity by demanding they always color within our lines.

I grew up watching violent cartoons like Tom and Jerry, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Roadrunner. Even Popeye got violent after consuming his spinach. I knew they weren’t real, so I never once thought about dropping an anvil on someone’s head. I knew my cap pistol wasn’t a real gun and when I graduated to a bee-bee gun I knew I had to be careful with it. By the time my father gave me his antique lever action 22 caliber rifle, I was mature enough to handle it with safety and care. What’s more important, I learned to recognize sarcasm and never once took it literally.

Today, those funny cartoons have been replaced with realistic video games where people are gunned down or blown up; blurring the line between fantasy and reality. Sarcasm has been banned, so everything must be meant and taken literally. No wonder teachers and authorities are paranoid about violent thoughts as well as actions. Even pointing a finger at someone like a gun is considered an act of violence today.

I’ll step down from my soapbox now and get to my point. Personal experience has taught me that nothing relieves stress better than laughter. In this stressful time we need as much of it as we can get. I’ve mentioned before that my wife and I laughed together at least once every day. Now that she isn’t here, I laugh with my friends and even laugh with my Lord; usually about something stupid I did. I recently saw a quote from that wise and prolific writer named Anonymous, “If you are able to find something humorous in a bad situation – you win!” When you let smiles and laughter into your communication, you will find that God’s love flows more freely. Try it – you’ll like it.

It’s Mother’s Day again. It is a time of fond memories for those whose mom is in heaven and I am no exception. But I want to begin with a little humor.

A teacher gave her students an assignment to have one of their parents tell them a story with a moral at the end. Johnny’s parents were busy so he decided to come up with his own story. The next day each student was called on to share their story. Finally, she said, “Johnny, do you have a story?” “Yes Ma’am. My dad told me a story about my mom. He said that she was a fighter pilot in Desert Storm. Her plane was hit and she had to bail out over enemy territory. All she had was a bottle of liquor, her service pistol and a survival knife. She drank the liquor on the way down for fear the bottle would break. She landed near twenty Iraqi soldiers. She shot fifteen until she ran out of bullets; then stabbed four of them until the blade broke on her knife; then she killed the last one with her bare hands.” “My goodness” exclaimed the teacher, “What did your father say was the moral of that horrible story?” “Don’t mess with mom when she’s been drinking.”

My mom was the prime example of “tender loving care”. She nursed me through mumps, measles, chicken pox, whooping cough, pneumonia and histoplasmosis; before dying of leukemia when I was only 13. For a long time I thought she sacrificed her own health to save me. I think she would be proud of the Christian man I have become and that I have survived all of these years because of her love and care at the beginning.

My step-mother took on the thankless task of caring for a husband and his teenage son after raising two grown children of her own and losing her husband. Then, my wife cared for me with love for over 50 years. I can imagine those three wonderful Christian women in heaven comparing notes about me.

I want to wish a wonderful Mother’s Day to each woman reading this who made the “choice” to become a mother; whether through childbirth, adoption, fostering or as a step-mom. You deserve admiration every day of the year. God bless you!  

It is ten o’clock and all is well. No, despite what some youngsters might think, I was never a town crier. I’m old, but not that old. It just seems I do most of my writing between 10:00 pm and midnight after making my rounds to be sure the door is locked and unnecessary lights are off. The closest thing to the town crier in my life is the grandfather clock in my living room that softly chimes on the hour and assuredly counts off the time even while I sleep (when I remember to wind it).

When my father retired, he and my step-mother moved back to a small rural town in southern Indiana. For a while, he was the town’s night watchman. He would take up an observation post in the town square and contact the State Police on his two-way radio to let them know he was on duty and make sure communications were working properly in case he needed to call them in. He was on the lookout for burglars, vandals and rowdy teenagers looking for trouble. For many centuries, towns have hired guards or sentries to make sure all was well while they slept. As Christians, we can be sure God is watching over us as we sleep, but is all really well in your life? In this time of uncertainty and pressure, it may seem almost nothing is truly well. But if we concentrate, we can still find so much for which to thank God.

It was at the most unwell time in his life that Horatio Spafford penned the words to his inspiring and well-known hymn “It is well with my soul”. He had just received word that his wife and child were lost at sea during a storm. I don’t need to repeat those familiar words here, but I do return to them whenever I need comfort and reassurance. That hymn has such power because it was written in the greatest storm of his life.

Shakespeare wrote, “All’s well that ends well.” As sons and daughters of God and readers of His word, we know how well our story will end. Whether it is at the end of our life or at the rapture, the ending could not be better for us. So let us, as Horatio Spafford, believe that all is well in our life even now in spite of the storms that surround us.    

I don’t read novels or watch movies much anymore, but I used to enjoy a good mystery; one that kept me in suspense until the very end. On TV, I still watch old episodes of Columbo or Perry Mason, but I never liked the fact that you see the crime first and then watch how the criminal is finally brought to justice. It is too much like reading the last chapter first. I have friends who are into prophesy (Biblical and modern) and there is certainly nothing wrong with that. But as for me, I just look up and pray, “Surprise me, Lord!” Although, I have to admit I have taken a peek at the last chapter of the Book and I know how this story ends.

You don’t have to turn to fiction writers to find good mysteries. There are plenty of real life mysteries all around us. Mankind has uncovered many of the mysteries in God’s creation through scientific investigation, but it seems like with every new discovery there are new questions to be answered. I have found the same to be true in the development of my spiritual relationship with God.

Paul wrote about the mystery of the Good News of Jesus Christ. As a devout Jew, he found it amazing and mysterious that the Jewish Messiah that God promised through the prophets had died and rose to life again to provide salvation to Gentile as well as Jewish believers.  What was even more mysterious to him was the fact that God planned it that way from the very beginning. (1 Corinthians 2:7 and Ephesians 3:9)

David found it mysterious that the Creator of the Universe would even take time to care about mankind, much less care about him personally. (Psalms 8:4) I think every Christian finds that a mystery as well. Even when I became aware of what Jesus did to secure my salvation; I was still faced with the mystery of why He would go through all of that for me. The Vacation Bible School teacher who prayed with me at the altar that day long ago gave me the answer to that mystery, but it took quite a while living with God’s Holy Spirit inside me for it to fully sink in. She quoted John 3:16 inserting my name. “For God so loved Jim Anderson that He gave his only begotten Son, so that when Jim Anderson believes in Him, Jim Anderson will not perish but have eternal life.” She asked me if I believed that and I said, “Yes, I do”. She then told me that all I had to do was repent of my sins; ask God to come into my heart; and then allow Him to guide me on the path He wants me to walk. Thus began my personal relationship with my Lord.

Love is why He cares about and died for me and for every single person who believes in and follows Jesus Christ. After all of these years of experiencing it, I still cannot grasp the full scope and depth of God’s love. I know that when I finally enter His full presence, there will be no more questions or mysteries; living forever in the fullness of His powerful love for me, for you and for each and every one of His sons and daughters.