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Today I saw a quote from C.S. Lewis that I haven’t read before. “Don’t shine so that others can see you. Shine, so that through you, others can see Him.” I see now how important it is that we know why we are to be the light of the world.

As an old pest control trainer, I can visualize God’s bright light causing demons and evil-doers to scramble like cockroaches to get away from the light and back into hiding. But is that the primary reason we are to shine? I have also used florescent light traps for moths and other flying insects that are attracted to light. Luring them to be zapped and killed by electricity or die on glue traps. I know that is definitely not the negative reason our light is to shine.

No, we are to let God’s light shine through us like a bright beacon from a lighthouse to guide those who are lost in a sea of sin to the safe shore of God’s mercy and grace. Jesus said “I am the light of the world.” (John 8:12) His mission was to seek and to save those who are lost. Then He passed that torch to us and told us, “You are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:14) We are to lure people to life, not death. Will some people reject the light? Of course, just as they rejected Jesus. We must never let that keep us from getting as many to safety as possible.

Is the light you are shining in this world bright? Does it introduce them to Him instead of illuminating you? Is it attractive to those seeking God? 

Each of us encounters things, situations and people each day. Some of them are very challenging. I have had more than my share of those challenges this past week. I won’t bore you with any details, but dealing with them reminded me of a wise quote. Former college football coach Lou Holtz once said, “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” I don’t know about you, but I need to get better at reacting.

You might be wondering what this has to do with living the Christian life. When we accept Christ as our Savior, we do not move into a monastery sequestered with other believers. While it is true that we are no longer OF the world, we are still called to be IN the world to let our light shine for others. We still face the same challenges as everyone else, but the difference should be in our reactions.

Christians also do not cease to be human. We still have human reactions to physical, mental, emotional and spiritual stimulus and each of us may react a little differently. We are unique, as I have pointed out many times before. How do we know what our Christian reaction should be to any challenge we face?

The answer, as always, is found in our relationship with God through His Holy Spirit within us. I have Christian friends who avoid social media because of how they react to some of the posts. I approach social media, as I approach my blog, with the Holy Spirit’s guidance and help. I receive blessings and encouragement from the posts by my Christian friends. Then, when I encounter lies or negative posts, the Holy Spirit will prompt me to either scroll past and ignore it, or post a respectful comment simply stating the truth. So far, I have only been unfriended once and I have been able with God’s help to plant those seeds of truth in the minds and hearts of others. With God’s help, I am also getting better at resisting my tendency to over react to anything that happens to me, but there is still room for improvement in that area.

This week the United States Supreme Court ruled that the 1973 decision in the case of Roe v Wade was in error and has been overturned. I was a 30-year-old student of the Constitution at the time that original ruling was handed down. I could not for the life of me find where the justices found a woman’s right to kill her unborn baby anywhere in the Constitution, so I am glad that overreach by the court has finally been recognized and corrected. I will not use this blog for political debate, but this decision throws a bright light on the value of human life at every stage of development, which is a valid topic for this blog.

In 1973, biologists could not agree on when human life began. There was no ultrasound to monitor the development within the womb. The human genome had not been indexed. A recent poll of biologists worldwide showed 97% agreeing that human life begins at conception because the first living cell in the fertilized egg contains the full DNA profile of that life and at that point growth begins. Biologists now know that there is a separate heartbeat at ten weeks and a complete nervous system at 20 weeks so any abortion after that point would cause excruciating pain to the boy or girl and not the mother.

God is the creator of all life, including humans. The Psalmist recognized that when he wrote, “You made all of the delicate, inner parts of my body, and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I know it. You watched me while I was being formed in utter seclusion.” (Psalms 139:13-16)

In the last forty-nine years I have witnessed a devaluing of human life at every stage of life, not just the beginning. Life has been devalued at the end, when the person is no longer a “productive member of society”. At my advanced age (79), I have discovered my life becomes even more valuable by the minute, hour or day. I thank God for every second. People of all ages are being gunned down in the city streets, schools and even in stores. The problem isn’t the weapons being used. I graduated from a relatively small high school in Missouri. There were always more than a few vehicles in the parking lot every day with guns on gun racks, but no one was ever harmed. We had respect for human life and a moral foundation. The problem today is that those killers have no concept of the value of human life, even their own.

Becoming a Christian isn’t just about going to heaven when we leave this life; it is about appreciating the value of human life at every stage and investing our own precious lifetime in God’s work and in the needs and wellbeing of others around us. It is about giving our younger generations a spiritual and moral foundation that values life – others’ and their own. Life can get complicated sometimes – we are even born with a string attached; but life as a child of God will always be worth the effort in this life and for eternity.

I’ve written before about the “pursuit of happiness” mentioned in our Declaration of Independence as if happiness is something out there that we need to catch up with and grab onto. That kind of pursuit will never end. if we aren’t happy with what we have, what makes us think more will make us happy?  I’m convinced that many marriages end in divorce because one or both husband and wife think it is their mate’s responsibility to make them happy. That is an awesome responsibility that has more to do with the spouse’s response than our actions. No, true happiness is found within us and not from anything or anyone in our environment. What made me revisit this topic are the three steps to happiness that a friend shared with me on social media. If you want to be happy, you must let go of what is gone; be grateful for what remains; and look forward to what is on the way. Let’s take a closer look at each of those steps.

The first step, and I think the hardest one, is to let go of what is gone. God has continually closed and opened doors for me since I have been His child, but many times I have spent so much time trying to pry open that familiar door that He has closed and I have failed to see that wide open door to renewed happiness. The hardest thing for me to let go of are loved ones who have passed away and are no longer in my life. I have to let go of them without giving up the love they have planted in my heart and embrace the next chapter God has written for me. When my wife died almost eight years ago now, I was not only on my own for the first time in over fifty years, I was without any family. God immediately began to bring brothers and sisters in Christ into my life as my new family. This new life isn’t better or worse than previous stages of my life; it is just different and there is still happiness to be found in it

The second step to happiness is to be grateful for what remains in our life. My coffee cup reminds me every morning, “In everything give thanks.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18) It doesn’t say FOR everything give thanks. There are things in life that are not pleasant. However, IN every situation there are things for which to be thankful. Counting my blessings and thanking God for each of them has always been a source of happiness for me.

The last step to happiness is to look forward to what is coming. Hope is the belief that better things are coming. Faith is the assurance that God is already working on it. Happiness would be impossible to hang onto without hope and faith.  As God’s son or daughter, we have the assurance that what lies ahead for us at the end of this life is beyond our wildest idea of happiness. 

Today is Fathers’ Day 2022. I plan to attend the 11:00am service at my church in person this morning for the first time since the lock down for Covid-19 over two years ago. I read somewhere that if you think back on your childhood and your father and smile, you were raised by a wonderful man. I certainly fall into that category. The most important thing he showed me by example is that a strong man can show emotion. He never missed an opportunity to hug me and tell me he loved me and was proud of me. I saw tears run down his cheeks when someone would tell him a sad experience. I watched him break down completely when my mother died, but he pulled himself together to help me and my brother get through the funeral and burial.

After my father died and my wife and I weren’t able to have children, this holiday lost most of its meaning for me. After my wife passed away, The Holy Spirit prompted me to stop feeling sorry for myself. He pointed out all of the younger people I have mentored and continue to mentor personally and through my blog; people young enough to be my child, grandchild or even great grandchild. One of my favorite pastors calls me grampa Jim. I hope I have been a strong and positive father figure to each of them.

As Christians, we have a perfect and loving Heavenly Father we can turn to for support and guidance every day in prayer. He is a father figure we can always depend on, even if our earthly father wasn’t dependable. If you are a father, look to God to help you give your children a reason to smile when they are grown and think of you.

If your father is still living, make his day, not just today but every day, as only a loving son or daughter has the power to do. Keep him a part of your life in spite of the daily pressures of raising your own family. Some day you will lose the opportunity to call him or see him. I miss my dad, but I look forward to being with him again some day.

In my blog on Sunday, I wrote about the times God has protected my physical life. Today I want to share with you the infectious nature of eternal spiritual life. Since the time Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s instruction in the Garden of Eden, every man and woman has been afflicted by a deadly genetic disease called sinful nature. For a while, it was treated with animal sacrifices and obedience to God’s Laws, but it was obvious that since a man brought that deadly virus into the world, it would take the sacrifice of a man to provide a cure. Not just any man of course, but the Son of God in human form.

Why am I writing about this now? Sinful nature is still all around us and the cure God provided is needed more than ever. The good news is that the blood Jesus shed on the cross is just as powerful and infectious as it was two thousand years ago, and it is being spread across our country and across the world once again.

Sean Feucht is just one of the modern-day carriers of God’s life-giving cure for sinful nature. He has been organizing huge prayer services in some of the most unlikely places. He filled the stadium in LA, where the Super Bowl was held and after three hours no one wanted to leave. He has had large turnouts in Boulder Colorado, Washington D.C., New York City, Orlando Florida and Charlotte North Carolina to name only a few. In every meeting, there has been a hunger and thirst for the eternal life cure for sinful nature. It reminds me of the 1950s, when the Billy Graham crusade meetings were infecting countless folks with eternal life. It isn’t just the response to evangelists that is encouraging. Local churches where the Gospel of Jesus Christ is preached are experiencing a movement of the Holy Spirit that is amazing. Every Sunday there are people giving their hearts to Christ; people being water baptized; and people giving testimonies of what God is doing in their life. Churches the pandemic had all but shut down, are now thriving again.

As carriers of God’s life-giving cure for sinful nature, let us do our part to infect everyone around us with life.

Some time ago, a friend told me that he is old and wise now because God protected him when he was young and foolish. I can certainly identify with that statement. I want to share with you a few of the times God saved me from death or serious injury.

As a young child, I came down with every childhood disease you can name; mumps, measles, chicken pox and whooping cough to name a few. When I was nine, I was home recuperating from the measles when the old farmhouse we were renting caught fire. My mom and I just got out in time before it burned to the ground along with everything we owned except the clothes we were wearing. Three years later I had a respiratory illness our family doctor was treating as flu, but I continued to get worse. My grandmother was babysitting for a young doctor and his wife. She told him my symptoms and he told her to have my mom bring me to his clinic. He diagnosed it as histoplasmosis, caused by airborne spores from dried bird droppings and had me in the hospital that day. l was sent home for six months of total bed rest. You can image how that went for a twelve year old. I developed a cough again and that young doctor told my parents that if it was a recurrence of the histoplasmosis there was nothing else he could do for me. He came back with a huge smile and said that it was pneumonia and sent me back to the hospital for treatment. I recovered and was healthy when I graduated from high school and joined the Air Force.

As a nineteen-year-old airman on Okinawa, a typhoon hit the island with 80 mile per hour winds and heavy rain that was blowing horizonal. A cable was strung up between my barracks and the compound where I worked. I went hand over hand with the wind and rain taking me completely off of my feet. The only thing keeping me from blowing away was my grip on the cable and God’s grip on me.

When I was twenty-eight, I was running a sales route for a coffee company out of Burlington, Iowa. I loaded my panel truck to the roof one morning and headed to Cedar Rapids. About halfway there, I was driving 65 on a two-lane highway when I heard a poof and suddenly began to fishtail. A car coming from the opposite direction missed me somehow just as my truck rolled and wound up on the driver side partially on a barbed wire fence. The windshield popped out during the roll, so I loosened my seat belt and climbed out through the windshield. I didn’t have a scratch or bruise on me, and my load wasn’t damaged.

Several months ago, one of my caregivers exposed me to Covid-19. At first it seemed like a very weak case, but it began to affect my mind and my speech, so my friend had me rushed to the hospital. I know I was in the hospital for two weeks undergoing tests and treatment, but I have no memory of any of it. My mind had cleared by the time I was transferred to a rehab facility for another three weeks. Today I feel healthier and stronger than I did before I got sick.

Any one of those events in my life could have turned out much different without God’s protection on my life. The Psalmist describes it in Psalms 91:1. “Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty,” I am still here because God has more for me to do for His Glory.