Year: 2020

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “Lost Passion-Lost Persuasion”.

     One of the great agnostics of all time was Bertrand Russell.  He was a very outspoken enemy of Christ and the Church.  He wrote many books refuting the arguments for Christianity.  Yet, in one of his books he spoke very pointedly to the key to our ministry and mission.  His wife, Patricia Spence Russell was dying of a terminal illness.  In his book, Why I Am Not A Christian, he wrote about his experience.  Concerning watching his wife die, he wrote: “She seemed cut off from everything with walls of agony, and the sense of solitude of each human soul overwhelmed me!  Every since my marriage my emotional life had been calm and superficial.  I had forgotten all the deeper issues and had been content with flippant cleverness. Suddenly the ground seemed to give in beneath me, and I found myself in quite another region.  Within five minutes I went through some reflections as the following:  the loneliness of the human soul is undurable-nothing can penetrate it except the highest intensity of that sort of love religious teachers have preached! Whatever does not spring from this motive is harmless or at best useless; It is love that penetrates this loneliness in each person-we must speak to that!”   

     We live in a world that has no answers.  They are looking for answers anywhere and everywhere and I finding none!  The Church has the answer in Christ.  But just trying to convince them of answers intellectually, without love and passion, the kind that Jesus shared with all He encountered, we will never get close enough to hear what we have to say.  T.S. Eliot, in his Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, spoke about all men’s fear of eternity, and desire for answers.  He wrote:  “I have seen my moment of greatness flicker!  And I have seen the eternal footman hold my coat and snicker!  And I was afraid!”  Mankind facing mortality and facing an uncertain future, behind the facade and false courage, is desperately open to loving passionate answers!  This is a great opportunity for the Church to speak up and not stutter.  What is the state of the Church?  A.W. Tozer tried to warn the Church to stay ready.  He wrote, in his book Rot, Rut, or Revival, in the chapter entitled “Causes of a Dozing Church?”- ‘What is the present condition of the Church?  The bulk of Christians are asleep! Not unconverted!  But asleep.  God’s alarm is going off…yet we are sleeping through the alarm!”  Another prophet to the Church, Southern Baptist Preacher, Vance Havner said, “If ever God’s people needed to be aroused and shocked, alarmed and awakened to their privilege and solemn duty-it is today!  The Holy Spirit was given not to be a sedative, but a stimulant!  We live in a time where people get excited about the trivial and shrug their shoulders at things affecting eternity!”  C.H. Spurgeon says, “I am sure I do not have to unroll a page of history and ask you to glance down it except for a second; you will see the Church has fallen asleep, and has become…destitute of zeal having no ardent Passion!  Every Christian is either a witness or an imposter.  If you have never had sleepless hours; If you have never had weeping eyes. If you have never swelled as if your heart would burst-You need not anticipate that you will ever be called zealous.  You do not know that the beginning of true zeal, for the foundation of zeal lies in the heart.  The heart must be heavy with grief, and ever beat with holy heavy ardor!  The heart must be vehement with desire-panting continually for God’s glory in saving the lost!”  Tozer again speaks to our contentment with no passion.  He writes “Too many Christians want to enjoy the thrill of feeling right, but without being willing to endure the inconvenience of being right!”  This contentment with our current status, without a passionate burden for winning the lost, we can convince ourselves that we are pleasing to our Lord.  But George MacDonald reminds us-“In whatever we do without God we must fail miserably, or succeed more miserably!”

     We have lost our burden for the lost.  We no longer pray for their salvation.  No longer look for opportunity to share Christ with them.  We no longer spend restless nights without sleep burdened over the fact that they are facing eternity without salvation and Christ! They are not outwardly bothered about it-and the tragic thing is neither are we!  Look at the people that changed history for Christ!  Men like John Knox who prayed “give me souls or give me death!”  “Scotland or I die!”  By Charles Wesley who said, “The world is my parish”-and walked and rode horseback well into his eighties sharing the gospel the length and breadth of England, over 250,000 miles!  Millions of converts! A visitor was taken into the Church pastored by Robert Murray McCheyene.  He was shown the Pastor’s study-his Bible on the desk; the pages stained with tears for those he would preach to.  C.H. Spurgeon who said, “If the lost go to hell do not let them go without being warned and prayed for.  Let them climb over our bodies with our arms around their knees begging them to turn to Christ!” 

Mary Booth, wrote a poem that expressed her heart. 

“Oh for a heart that is burdened!

Infused with a passion to pray;

Oh for a stirring within me

Oh for this power every day

Or for a heart like my Savior;

Who being in agony prayed

Such caring for others, Lord give me,

On my heart let burdens be laid!

My Father I long for this passion

To pour myself out for the lost;

To lay down my life to save others,

To pray whatever the cost.

Lord teach me your secret

I’m hungry this lesson to learn!

Thy passionate passion for others,

For this blessed Jesus I yearn!”

Herbert Lockyer tells us that passion which brings tears of burden for the lost will touch lives, like Bertrand Russell told us!  He wrote: “Tears win victories.  A cold unfeeling dry-eyed Church has no influence on the souls of men!”  William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army was asked after his retirement, why they were not winning the lost any longer!  He wrote back two words! “Try tears!”  Leon Kilbreath, Mr. Sunday School for Southern Baptists used to chastise us for not being involved and passionate about winning the lost.  He used to say, “If we shared our Lord’s passion, why are our eyes so dry, our feet so frozen, our lips so silent!”  In 1904 William Booth was invited to Buckingham Palace to be honored by King Edward VII.  The King said, “You have done a great work General Booth.  England recognizes you!”  He was asked to sign the Kings book.  William Booth wrote, “Your Majesty some men’s ambition is art; some men’s ambition is fame; some men’s ambition is gold; some men’s ambition is power.  My ambition is the souls of men!”  That used to be the passion and ambition of the Church.  Passion for the Lost? Or Lost Passion?  You know the tragic answer.  That might explain our impotency!

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “The unedited Christmas and the Perfect Tree”

     It’s the king of all classic TV Christmas specials: “A Charlie Brown Christmas“.  It first aired in 1965.  We know the familiar scenes of Charlie Brown looking for the real meaning of Christmas; receiving no cards from anyone; Snoopy decorates his doghouse; Lucy has her Christmas pageant; Charlie picks out a tree that is pitiful and is laughed at for such a choice!  Of course, Charlie cries out in frustration-“doesn’t anyone know what the true meaning of Christmas is?”  At that moment Linus Van Pelt takes center stage telling Charlie-“I can tell you what Christmas is all about”.  He then proceeds to quote the Christmas story from the gospel of Luke.  He not only describes the angelic visit, but then quotes how the angels said, “Be not afraid…for unto you is born this day, in Bethlehem, a Savior which is Christ the Lord.  This shall be a sign you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘glory to God in the highest and on earth peace good will toward men’”.  “That is what Christmas is all about!” Linus affirms.  Recently I heard an interview of one of the creators of that show.  When Charles Shultz, the creator of Peanuts, Charlie Brown, and that particular Christmas special suggested that particular drama he was met with strong opposition, and objection to airing that because of the inclusion of the message centering around Jesus…the Savior.  The network wanted to edit out the part about Jesus being the central meaning of Christmas.  The network wanted to tube the show.  They feared there would be strong opposition to it, and it would result in loss of advertising.  You know what Charles Schultz did?  He stood his ground.  He said, “If we don’t do it who will?  We’re going to do it”…and the rest is history!  With his groundbreaking project on the line, Charles Schultz refused to “edit out Jesus!”  during that Christmas season in 1965.  It took courage!  God blessed him and us for that stand.  How about us this Christmas.  Are we willing to stand our ground and refuse to edit Jesus out of our Christmas pageants?  That is exactly what the devil wants us to do.  It is ok to celebrate the holidays!  Enjoy the festivities.  Just don’t get carried away with too much focus on Jesus.  His virgin birth.  His reason for coming.  Stay away from themes like Incarnation-God with us-Salvation as an unspeakable gift due to Calvary! 

     Charles Schultz was a master to have Charlie Brown find all the commercialization of Christmas leave him empty and confused.  He was a genius to make the center part of the pageant center around a little unattractive tree that everyone laughs at.  Then of course to answer Charlie’s question about the meaning of Christmas with God’s answer from Luke’s gospel, through the person of Linus!  Then Linus saying-“I never thought it was such a bad little tree at all really…maybe all it just needs is a little love!”  And Charlie Brown saying, “This little tree needs a home.  I think it needs me!”  The unattractive tree becomes a beautiful part of the Christmas story.  There are some subtle but significant messages in this pageant.  When Linus hears the angel say, “Be not afraid”…he lays his security blanket down!  Then that ugly tree seems to draw everyone to it to see it in a different light.  When they do…they give it a home and love…and find a home and love of their own! -Through that tree!  Subtle but significant message.  Makes me think of a song by Ray Boltz-called the Perfect Christmas Tree.  Listen to the words:

The ornaments are ready

The place has been prepared

Strings of lights and holly

Are draped across the chair

The family’s all together

I know where they must be

Everyone is searching

For the perfect tree

Mother wants a straight one

The children want it tall

Dad just hopes that somehow

He can get it down the hall

Soon they’ll gather round it

As proud as they can be

But when they look at it

I wonder if they see

The Perfect tree

Grew very long ago

And it was not decked with silver

Or ornaments of gold

But hanging from it’s branches

Was a gift for you and me

Jesus laid His life down

On that Perfect Tree

With all the celebrations

Sometimes the truth is lost

That every step this baby took

Brought Him closer to the cross!

That Perfect Tree needs some love and home.  If you embrace the one who died upon it, it will bring the real meaning of love and Christmas to your home this Christmas.  Don’t let anyone cause you to edit that message and that Savior out of your Christmas pageant.  Embrace Him and you too can turn loose of any and all of those security blankets that are fulfilling your deepest needs anyway.  That is the what Christmas means!

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “THANKSGIVING-The inner health made audible…praise in it’s complete enjoyment…it’s appointed consummation”.

     Ian McPherson, Scottish novelist (1905-1944), tells about traveling across England by train one hot summer day.  As the train rolled to a stop in a little village, through the open windows of his train car, McPherson could hear someone outside shouting, “Praise! Praise! Praise!”.  MacPherson said he stuck his head out the window expecting to see a bearded Hebrew chanter singing one of the Old Testament canticles- like Psalm 150.  He was surprised to learn it was the conductor calling out the name of the local station which was P-R-A-Z-E, England!  He later told the conductor, as he disembarked the train, “It must be a wonderful thing to live in PRAISE (PRAZE)”.  In Psalm 150 the very Hebrew Psalmist who wrote that Psalm encourages us to make sure that “our new address is living in praise”-Our Heavenly Father deserves it, and we definitely need it!  Can you think of anything we need to cultivate more than a grateful heart?  To live in an attitude of praise would make life sweeter and better for all of us.  Thanksgiving reminds us of three things-We have a PERSON to thank; We have PARTICULARS to be thankful for; and we should have PASSION in our Thanksgiving!

     First of all, Thanksgiving reminds us we have a PERSON to Thank!  October 2, 1940, the Scottish Trawler, the Theresa Boyle, was bombed by Nazi Bombers, and sank into the North Sea during WWII.  The ship went down quickly. The small crew escaped with their lives.  But the exhausted crew was so cold and weak they could not row anymore, after fifty hours!  All seemed lost.  They heard a droning plane coming, which did a low pass over their lifeboat.  It then headed back fifteen miles to lead to minesweepers back to rescue the crew.  After they were safe on the minesweeper, and the plane flew away, one of the crew asked to use the radio to contact the plane.  The pilot asked if anything was wrong?  He responded, “no we survivors just want to tell him-THANK YOU!”    Katherine Mansfield, a New Zealand writer and poet, wrote to a friend, “I have just finished my new book.  I finished it last night at 10:30. I said, ‘Thank God!’  Oh, how I wish there were a God.  I am so longing to praise Him!’ ”  As Christians longing to praise someone, have that SOMEONE WHO DOES EXIST…TO PRAISE!

     Thanksgiving reminds us we have PARTICULARS TO BE THANKFUL FOR!  November 6, 1620 The Mayflower left Plymouth, England with 100 passengers aboard.  As the boat lay in anchor in Cape Cod Harbor, Nov. 11, 1620 The Mayflower Compact was signed by 41 passengers under Governor William Bradford. for a permanent settlement at Plymouth, Massachusetts.  Three years later the Governor decreed a three-day feast beginning on Thursday Nov. 29, 1623.  In spite of severe losses, great grief, and innumerable hardships…they found much to thank their Heavenly Father for, and set a pattern for all the world to follow their tradition!  We need to be reminded of that today.  I love Andre Crouch’s song “My Tribute”- “How can I say thanks, for the things you have done for me, things so underserved!”  Amen?  The best Thanksgiving sermon I ever heard was by a Seventh Day Adventists named George Vandemann called…”I Wonder How to Thank Him?”.  Thanksgiving, counting our blessings, is a healthy thing to do!  Dr. A.J. Cronin, a British doctor who gave up his practice to become a writer.  He told of a fellow Physician who was known as the “Thank-you Dr.”  He made it a practice to prescribe to his emotionally disturbed patients six weeks of thanking anyone and everyone for any good deeds done to them or for them!  He found that to have nearly a 100% cure rate!  C.S. Lewis called praise “inner health made audible!”

     Thanksgiving reminds us to have a PASSION about our Thanksgiving.  C.S. Lewis, in his book Reflections on the Psalms, writes “The world rings with praise-lovers praising their misses…readers their favorite authors or poets, walkers praising the countryside, players their favorite games, praise of weather, actors, cars, colleges, countries, children, rare stamps, even politicians and teachers! Praise almost seems inner health made audible.  Men praise what they value, and urge us to do so also.  ‘Isn’t she lovely?’ ‘wasn’t that glorious?’ ‘don’t you think that is magnificent?’  We delight in praise because it not only expresses our delight…it completes it!  We are told in a confession of faith, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy Him forever!”  Thanksgiving does just that!  Change your address so that you are “Living in Praise!”

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE:  THE PRAYER OF CAUSALITY CAN CHANGE OUR VEXING BURDEN INTO BLESSED VICTORY!

     Several years ago the New York Herald Tribune told the story of a tragedy involving a Long Island man who began digging his own well, of all days on his birthday!  He had rigged up quite an operation with his shovel, rope, and bucket routine.  He had gotten down some thirty-five feet when his wife called him to come in and get cleaned up for his birthday dinner.  As he began to climb out, the walls caved in and he was buried under tons of dirt.  Was he perhaps cowering underground in an air pocket beside the ladder?  Ambulance and rescue crews, fire departments and derrick operators worked feverishly through the long night digging a nearby well; people roosted in trees and watched through the night.  News crews carried the story.  Periodic cave-ins hampered the rescue effort.  Everyone was wondering what it was like inside that tomb-whether it was an endlessly approaching death or had it already come to that man.  When the breakthrough came, sad to say, he had died.  What a tragedy!  His birthday turned into a burial. 

     When it came to Jesus Christ, the opposite was true-His burial turned into a Birthday on the day Jesus “became the first-begotten from the dead”.  On the very day of his burial his disciples were huddling together, behind locked doors, for fear of the Jews, and the Romans, fearing if they continued on following in Jesus footsteps, soon 11 more crosses would be raised between heaven and earth, on the hill of the skull, and most of their bodies would not end up in a rich man’s tomb, but likely in the fires of the  Valley of Hinnom.  Their fears were not ill-founded, for after all the Romans were known for crucifying so many revolutionary Jews that trees in the Jerusalem area were almost extinct!  But Jesus’ burial, and subsequent rising from the dead, turned his burial into a birthday for the Church.  The book of Acts tells us that it was the risen Christ, and the Church’s faith in the infallible evidence of His resurrection, that turned their world upside down, and caused the gospel message to triumphantly conquer the Roman world from Jerusalem to Rome, and beyond!

     The truth of the matter is that these days the Church spends her time again locked up, behind the four walls of the Church, if not fearing the world, certainly ignoring it, and their ministry to it.  One denominational worker, in the Methodist faith said, “There are 15 churches in my district; 12 could close down, and the communities would not even miss them!”  Believe me the same could be said about Baptists!  Southern Baptists too!  We huddle behind the four walls of our Church “talking about how the Great Commission just cannot be done today!”  willing to make our mandate more relevant to another day, an earlier time.  Our days are the days of the Great Apostasy after all!  Our predicament reminds me of another tragic incident that occurred just off New York City on Long Island.  A crew aboard a heavily loaded scow suddenly sensed that it was taking water and was sinking.  They tried desperately to save it, but it was a losing battle; suddenly the crew noticed some piling thrusting out of the freezing icy waters, they decided to jump overboard, abandoning the sinking merchant vessel.  All through the night they clung for life to the piling and cried out for help toward the blinking lights along the shore for help.  In the morning some early fishermen saw them clinging to the piling, fingers, hands, bodies nearly frozen to death, despairing for life.  In the ensuing rescue the terrible irony of their experience became clear:  all through the freezing night the men had clung to the piling in water that was only four feet deep!  At any moment they could have walked safely to shore!  What an image of our modern Church!  Hemmed in by our past failures; our irrelevancy; our inhibitions and anxieties…we are clinging for dear life in the cold and freezing waters of a modern culture, when right around us is the steps we can take to victory.  Carl F.H. Henry, one of the most brilliant men I have ever had the privilege to meet, and to sit in one of his classes, before he passed away, put it very succinctly.  He said, “So it was with the early disciples who huddled behind locked doors for fear of the outside world.  The risen Lord appeared to them, and He knew what power need to be applied and where in their situation.  He not only gave them the Great Commission-He breathed the Holy Spirit of power upon them, and He transformed his burial into their birthday!  We live with slammed doors, shut doors, sealed doors, and we need nothing so much but to hear the voice of Him who calls…’I am He that liveth, and was dead…I…have the keys of hell and death’ (Rev. 1:18)” (New Strides of Faith p. 106). 

     That key is Prayer.  Albert Einstein was fascinated by the power and paradox of prayer.  So was C.S. Lewis. On one occasion Lewis responded to an objection about prayer by Kurt Vonnegut.  The objection went something like this:  “I don’t think it all likely that God requires the ill-informed (and contradictory), advice of us humans to run the world.  If He is all-wise, as it is said He is, doesn’t He know already what is best?  And if He is all-good won’t He do it whether we pray or not?”  In reply, Lewis said that you could use the same argument against any human activity, not just prayer.  “Why wash your hands? If God intends them to be clean, they’ll come clean without your washing them…Why ask for salt?  Why put on your boots?  Why do anything?”  God could have arranged things so that our bodies nourished themselves miraculously without food, knowledge entered our brains without studying, and umbrellas magically appeared to protect us from rainstorms.  But God chose a different way of governing the world.  He chose a partnership which also relies on human agency and choice.  Our involvement and prayers help change what happens.  He says so in His word.  Lewis borrowed a term from Blaise Paschal to describe what happens when we pray, and God answers by His power.  He called that the “dignity of causality”.  We partner with God in causing things to come to pass!  Carl F.H. Henry says, that kind of activity of prayer, and enduement of the Holy Spirit, can “change our vexing burden into a blessed victory!”  Oh how we need to join Jesus in the Ministry of Prayer.  Remember “without Him we can’t!  Without us-He won’t!”   Pray-Pray-Pray!

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “SLOWLY GROWING WISE ABOUT THE FUTURE”

     Tri Valley Baptist Church has completed its first twenty five years of ministry.  Over the years we have had many men of God lead us in the ministry of winning our community to Christ.  I believe it has been the measure of every Pastor to lead this congregation in MAKING DISCIPLES (Winning the Lost); MARKING DISCIPLES (Getting them to join the Church and giving public testimony to being a new creation, dying to the old man, rising to walk in newness of life, and by the baptism of the Spirit being placed in the body of Christ the Church);MATURING DISCIPLES (the goal of all the preaching and teaching ministries of the Church) and probably the number one sign of maturity in Christ is following in the next step of MULTIPLYING DISCIPLES (every mature believer should be involved in sharing his faith and winning others to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and teaching their converts to do the same).  It all seems so simple when summarized that way…but somewhere-somehow-the process has broken down.  We are losing ground-FAST!  There must be some changes made in our methods.  They tell us that to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of INSANITY!  Somehow we need to grow wiser about ministry to our ever-changing world.

     Having said that I feel like Parsifal, a young lad in Richard Wagner’s play of the same name.  It seems that Parsifal’s father had been an honorable knight who joined other knights in the mission of finding the Holy Grail.  He had been killed in the pursuit.  His mother kept the fate of Parsifal’s father from him, and forbid him to even own or use a sword.  The drama is the story about how Parsifal discovers who he is; who his father was; what his father’s mission was; and he finally, and successfully follows in his father’s dream.  Wagner’s characterization of Parsifal is “a good man growing slowly wise”.  That was his key to success.  Perhaps it is our key too.  We need wisdom from on high to understand and love our community.  Our world has changed.  Old techniques.  Old cliches.  Old methods that used to work are quickly rejected by today’s post-Christian culture.  What are we to do?  One of my favorite authors, even still today, is Francis Schaeffer.  His book True Spirituality is one of the most important books ever written on the Christian life.  Another of his books, The Church At the End of the Twentieth Century, is extremely pertinent today as well.  Two conclusions of his book that we need to understand are: (1) We live in a post-Christian world that neither understands nor wants what we have to offer in the Gospel of Christ.  (2)  Most of the world is desperately seeking love, as Johnny Lee said, “in all the wrong places”.  Schaeffer stated that even though the world will change, (and he hit the nail on the head speaking very prophetically) the key to reaching them will not change.  It is still the “love of Christ” fleshed out in his disciples that will be the magnet that will continue to draw the lost to the Christ and His Cross. Jesus words, “If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto myself” (John 121:32) is still true today.  How long will it take us to learn that truth?

     Leaving the winning of the world in the hands of an imperfect Church was a risk.  C.S. Lewis wrote, “God seems to do nothing of Himself which He can possibly delegate to His creatures.  He commands us to do slowly and blunderingly (is that a word?) what He could do perfectly and in the twinkling of an eye”.  There is no greater illustration of that principle than fact that Jesus has delegated to His Church the task of winning the world before He comes back.  How do we do it?  Jesus is our PATTERN.  We are to emulate Him.  Helmut Thielicke describes the ministry of Jesus in these words, “What tremendous pressures there must have been within Him to drive Him to hectic, nervous, explosive activity!  He sees…as no one else sees, with an infinite and awful nearness, the agony of dying man, the anguish of the wounded conscience, injustice, dread, terror and beastliness.  He sees and hears all of this with the heart of a Savior…must not this fill his every waking hour and rob Him of sleep at night?  Must He not begin to set the fire burning, to win people, to work out strategic plans to evangelize the world, to work, work, furiously work, unceasingly, unrestingly, before the night comes when no man can work?  That’s what we would imagine the earthly life of the Son of God to be like, if we were to think of Him in human terms.  But how utterly different was the actual life of Jesus!  Though the burden of the whole world lay heavy on His shoulders-though Corinth, Ephesus, Athens, and whole continents, with all their desperate need, were desperately near to His heart, though suffering and sinning were going on in chamber, street corner, castle, and slums, seen only by the Son of God-though this immeasurable misery and wretchedness cried out aloud for a physician, he has time to stop and talk to the individual…By being obedient in His little corner of the highly provincial precincts of Nazareth and Bethlehem he allows Himself to be fitted into the great mosaic whose master is God.  And that is why He has time for persons; (to love them individually) for all time is in the hands of the Father.  That is why peace and not unrest go out from Him.  For God’s faithfulness already spans the world like a rainbow: He does not need to build it; He only needs to walk beneath it” (The Waiting Father).  So, do we.  Jesus encountered people individually.  He loved them.  Sometimes they responded to that love and choose to invite Him into their life, and ended up following Him.   Other times they walked away-though the Bible says grieved, for rejecting Him who the depths of our souls desire, creates a greater vacuum inside than before we encounter Him.  We must follow His pattern. 

     But Jesus is also our PRESENCE AND POWER.  Trying to do our mandate and mission in our own power will only end in frustration and failure.  Frederick Buechner describes how he learned this lesson in Telling Secrets:  “Love you neighbor as yourself is part of the great commandment.  The other way to say it is, Love yourself as your neighbor.  Love yourself not in some ego-centric, self-serving sense but love yourself the way you would love your neighbor, nourishing yourself, trying to understand yourself, comfort and strengthen yourself.  Ministers in particular, people in the caring professions in general, are famous for neglecting themselves with the result that they are apt to become in their own way as helpless and crippled as the people they are trying to care for and thus are no longer selves who can be of much use to anybody.  If your daughter is struggling for life in a raging torrent, you do not save her by jumping into the torrent with her, which only leads to the both of you drowning together.  Instead you keep your feet on the dry bank-you maintain as best you can your own inner peace, the best and strongest of who you are-and from that solid ground reach out your rescuing hand…Take care of yourself so you can take care of them.  A bleeding heart is of no help to anybody if it bleeds to death!”  Beuchner was speaking autobiographically here.  His own daughter was drowning in the torrent of anorexia.  He tried to help her but was losing the battle because her battle consumed him.  She finally got help in a clinic three thousand miles away from him.  He was not present at all to protect her by manipulating events on her behalf.  The people who were there-the Doctors, nurses, social workers, and even a judge who hospitalized her against her will.  They all loved her with a love that held her accountable for choosing her own healing-something her father could not do.  Buechner concluded, “Those men and women were not haggard, dithering, lovesick as I was.  They were realistic, tough, conscientious, and in those ways, though they would never have put it in such terms themselves, loved her in a sense that I believe was closer to what Jesus meant by love than what I had been doing”. 

     Philip Yancey says, “Jesus healed everyone who asked Him too, but not everyone He met.  He had the amazing rare capacity to let people choose their own pain.  He exposed Judas to love, but did not try to prevent his evil deed; He denounced the Pharisees without trying to coerce them to His point of view.  He answered a wealthy man’s question with uncompromising words and let him walk away.  Mark adds the words about that incident “Jesus looked on him and loved Him” (Mk. 10:21).  But he still walked away!  And Jesus let him!  In short, Jesus showed incredible respect for human freedom.  He had no compulsion to convert the entire world in His lifetime or cure people unready to be cured.  He encountered them and called them to Himself in love.  If they did not have the desire to respond love to love, He let them turn away”.  That will still work today.  Jesus is still the epitome of relevance.  So is His cross.  Charles Swindoll, in Come Before Winter, quotes George Mcloud with words still very relevant to us-“It is we who have hauled the cross out of sight.  It is we who have left the impression it belongs in the cloistered halls of a seminary, or beneath the soft shadows of stained glass between marble statues.  I am simply arguing that the cross be raised again in the center of the marketplace, as well as on top of the Church steeple.  Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on a town garbage heap; at a cross road so cosmopolitan that they had to write His title in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek…and at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble, BECAUSE THAT IS WHERE HE DIED, AND THAT IS WHAT HE DIED ABOUT.  THAT IS WHERE THE CHURCH OUGHT TO BE, AND WHAT THE CHURCH PEOPLE OUGHT TO BE ABOUT!”   His way still works…even twenty years later.  But it has to be fleshed-out by real-life Christians.  Any takers?

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “Encountering a Living Presence”

     Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States, told a very fascinating story about an encounter he had while getting his hair cut at a Barbershop.  Listen to his words:  “I was sitting in a barber chair when I was aware that a powerful personality had entered the room.  A man had come quietly in upon the same errand as myself to have his hair cut and sat in the chair next to me.  Every word that the man uttered, though it was not in the least bit didactic, showed a personal interest in the man who was serving him.  And before I got through with what was being done to me I was aware I had attended an evangelistic service, because D.L Moody was in that chair.  I purposely lingered in the room after he had left and noted the singular affect that his visit had brought upon the barber shop.  They talked in undertones.  They did not know his name, but they knew something had elevated their thoughts, and I felt that I left that place as I should have left a place of worship”… (John MacArthur, Matthew, p.236).  That is Christian Influence!  Do you and I carry a Living Presence of our Loving Lord’s Personality with us?  The great Methodist preacher E. Stanley Jones says that “the number one problem of the modern Church today is irrelevancy!”  We are not impacting lives as we should!  The dynamic presence of our living Lord is notably absent from our lives!  People see our lives…but there is nothing out of the ordinary to turn their heads.  As Christians we must not settle for that.  We need to walk in such a communion with our Lord that our lives turn heads and hearts for Him.  Someone has written:

YOU ARE WRITING A GOSPEL

A CHAPTER EACH DAY

BY THE THINGS THAT YOU DO

BY THE WORDS THAT YOU SAY

MEN READ WHAT YOU WRITE

WHETHER FAITHLESS OR TRUE

SAY WHAT IS THE GOSPEL

ACCORDING TO YOU?

Edgar Guest has another poem entitled “The Living Sermon”

He writes:

I’d rather see a sermon

than hear one any day

I’d rather you would walk with me

than merely tell the way

The eye’s a better pupil

and more willing than the ear.

Fine counsel is confusing

but example is always clear

The best of all the preachers

are men who live their creeds

For to see good put into action

is what everybody needs

The lecture you deliver

may be very wise and true

but I’d rather get my lesson

by observing what you do!

Eileen Guder chides Christians for not living passionate spiritual lives.  She writes:  “Live a bland life.  Eat bland food.  Avoid an ulcer.  Drink no coffee, tea, or stimulants in the name of health!  Go to bed early.  Avoid all night life!  Avoid controversy.  Never offend anyone!  Mind your own business.  Never get involved in anybody’s problems.  Save all your money for the future, never splurge on anything….and you can still break your neck getting out of the bathtub…and it serves you right!  Living a humdrum life never impacts anyone!  Fear not your life will come to an end!  Fear it never had a beginning!” 

Henry Clay Morrison, founder of Asbury Seminary in Kentucky, tells how he was out plowing in the field when a Methodist Circuit Riding preacher came by.  The preacher had such a powerful presence about him that he was overwhelmed with conviction for his sin.  He dropped to his knees and surrendered to Christ as his Savior.  We may not have that kind of presence emanating from us, but we MUST HAVE A PRESENCE THAT IMPACTS LIVES OR WE ARE FAILING OUR LORD! 

In his book Filled With the Spirit, Richard Ellsworth Day makes this perceptive observation:  “It would be no surprise, if a study of secret causes were undertaken, to find that every golden era in human history proceeds from the devotion and righteous passion of some single individual.  This does not set aside the sovereignty of God; it simply indicates the instrument through which He uniformly works.  There are no bona fide mass movements; it just looks that way!  At the center of the column there is always one man who knows His God, and knows where he is going!”  Ask God to make you and I those individuals!  Those who are living with an encountering Presence!  

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE:  “The little difference that makes a big difference”. 

     Howard W. Ferrin, President of Providence Bible College, used to exhort his students often with the following words:  “There is little difference between men, but that little difference makes a big difference!”  He told them that to encourage them to pay the price; to put forth the effort; to sacrifice whatever is necessary to stand out; to make an unusual impact; to go the extra mile.  He knew that most want to be viewed that way, but most are willing, in the end to settle for mediocrity rather than magnificence!  William Law spoke to this issue as well in his classic A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life.  He told the story about a businessman, who was a Christian, but gave far more of his dedication to worldly ambition and his business, than to living the Devoted life to His Lord.  When he was diagnosed with a terminal disease and told that he only had a few months to live the businessman spoke with regret and candor about his wrong choice.  Law relates the story about how the businessman was faced with the hard fact that life was drawing to a close in this thirty-fifth year.  Shortly before his death, when the doctors had given him over, some of his neighbors came to visit him and expressed their sorrow that one so young was being cut off in the prime of life.  The businessman acknowledged their concern over his condition but spoke of his approaching demise with candor.  He observed that the new experience before him made everything else in life completely trivial.  It was just here that he made a startling confession.  He said, “What a strange thing it is that a little health, or the poor business of the shop, should keep us so unaware of the great things that are coming upon us so fast!  If I now had a thousand worlds, I would give them all for one year of such devotion and good works as I never so much intended…The thing that surprises me the most is this:  That I never intended to live up to the Gospel.  This never so much as entered my head or heart.  I never once considered whether I was living as the laws of religion direct or whether my way of life was such as would procure me the mercy of God at this hour.  What is the reason that I-who have so often talked of the necessity of rules, methods, diligence, and dedication in worldly business-have all this while never thought of any rules, methods, or managements to carry me on in a life of devotion?  Had I only my frailties and imperfections to lament at this time I should lie here humbly trusting in the mercies of God.  But alas!  How can I call a general disregard and thorough neglect of all religious improvement a frailty or imperfection when it was in my power to have been as exact and careful and diligent in a course of devotion as in the business or my trade?  I could have called in as many helps, have practiced the same kind of devotion, and been taught as many methods of holy living as of thriving in my shop, HAD I BUT SO INTENDED AND DESIRED IT.  BUT ALAS I DID NOT.  ACTUALLY, I NEVER INTENDED TO DO THAT!”

     Jesus did not want any of his disciples to experience that failure and face such regret.  He exhorted His disciples to be willing to do the difference that would make a big difference-make all the difference!  In Matthew 5:44-47 we hear Him say, “:Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you;  THAT YOU MAY BE CHILDREN OF YOUR FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN: for He maketh the sun to rise on the good and the evil.  For if you love them that love you back, what reward have ye?  do not even the publicans do the same?  And if you salute your brethren only, WHAT DO YE MORE THAN OTHERS?  Do not even the publicans do the same?”   What do you more than others?  Where do you excel?  What evidence do you give of any supernatural presence and power in your life that comes from your Heavenly Father?  Where have you gone the extra mile?

     Several years ago, I came across a poem that spoke quite expressively to this very truth.  It is called “THE SECOND MILE” by Joseph E. Harvey

THE SECOND MILE

“Come here you dog, and bear my pack a mile”

So spoke a Roman to a Jew;

“The day is hot and I would rest awhile-

Such a heavy load was made for the likes of you”

The Jew obeyed, and, stopping in the path,

He took the burden, though his back was tired:

For who would dare arouse a Roman’s wrath,

Or scorn to do what the Roman law required?

They walked a mile in silence; at its end

They paused but there was not a soul in sight;

“I’ll walk another mile with you, my friend”,

Spoke up the Jew, “This burden now seems light”.

“Have you gone mad?” The angry Roman cried,

“To mock me, when you know that but one mile

Can I compel such service?  By his side

The Jew stood silent, but with kindly smile

“I used to hate to bear a Roman’s load,

Before I met the lowly Nazarene,

And walked with Him along the dusty road,

And saw Him make the leper clean.

I heard Him preach a sermon on the mount;

He taught that we should love our enemies;

He glorified the little things that count

So much in lessening life’s miseries.

The soldier tried to speak; as he began

His head was bowed, his eyes with tears were dim;

“For many years I’ve sought for such a man,

Pray tell me more, I, too, would follow Him”. 

When you and I, being transformed by our Lord’s presence and power in our lives, we go beyond what the natural man can do.  We go beyond what we can do in the flesh.  We give evidence of doing more than most.  That little difference becomes a big difference that invites others to join us in being transformed.  The Apostle John, known originally as a Son of Thunder, was transformed into the Apostle of Love.  He exhorts us to live in this world as Jesus lived.  Loving our enemies like Jesus did.  Loving one another as He loved us. 

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: ” That Incredible Christian or That Incredible Shrinking Christian”.

     Back in 1964 A.W. Tozer wrote a book called That Incredible Christian.  In his book he enumerated the characteristics of a true Christian that often made him an enigma to the rest of the world, and yet that enigma was an unexplainable difference that often had a magnetic draw of curiosity that caused non-Christians to investigate the genuineness of our faith, and often would lead them to choose that fascinating relationship with God, through Christ for themselves.  Listen to a brief description that Tozer shares-“The Christian believes that in Christ he has died, (to his old self), yet he is more alive than ever…and he fully expects to live forever!  He walks on earth, but is seated in heaven!  He is like the Nighthawk, which is so graceful in flight in the air, but is so awkward and ugly on the ground…to be a victorious son of heaven he must not follow the pattern of earth.  To be safe-he must put himself in jeopardy! He loses his life-to save it.  When he tries to preserve it, he is in danger of losing it! He goes down-to go up! If he refuses to go down, he is already down!  He is strong when he is weakest…and weakest when he sees himself strong.  He has the most when he has given the most away!  He is most sinless when he is most conscious of his sin!  Most sinful when he feels he has little or no sin! He is wisest when he knows that he knows little!  Knows least when he thinks he knows much! Sometimes he does the most, by doing nothing! -Goes furthest when he is standing still!  He fears God-yet is not afraid of Him.  When he is in God’s presence, he feels overwhelmed and undone! Yet there is no other place he desires to be more! He loves supremely One he has never seen! He fully expects to go and see Him one day soon, but is in no hurry to get there!  In this world he is a confirmed pessimist, but expecting Christ soon, he is a restful optimist! THAT INCREDIBLE CHRISTIAN!”  That kind of incredible Christian lived with a conviction that God had brought something into their lives through Christ that was an enigma to the world, but something they desperately needed to share.  That led them to pray for their non-Christian friends; be there for them in the difficult days of their lives; and always ready to share the Gospel with them and encourage them to give their lives to Christ.  Always it seemed that the Incredible Christian had a burden to see their friends and loved ones share in this Incredible Christian life!

     But those days seem like a mirage in the cold hard reality of this New Millennium!  I am not sure why but most Christians do not even seem to be familiar with all the Incredibility they have in Christ Jesus.  Losing the wonder of it all has evaporated the ever-present desire to share that incredible faith with those who have never met or known our Lord.  It seems that many Christians are not even sure how incredible the Christian life is-why would it be something you would want to convince others to embrace it!  IT SEEMS THAT INCREDIBLE CHRISTIAN HAS BECOME THAT INCREDIBLE SHRINKING CHRISTIAN!   Eight years before Tozer wrote his book, That Incredible Christian, another author, a science fiction author, Richard Matheson, wrote a novel called The Incredible Shrinking Man.  It was made into a movie in 1957.  In the book/movie Scott Carey is exposed to a cloud of radioactive spray.  This radioactivity causes him to shrink 1/7 of an inch per day.  As he shrinks, he is detrimentally affected in his success on his job; with his family; and in all of his relationships!  As he shrinks to 7 inches he engages in battles with sparrows and spiders who would normally run away from him. This fiction was fantastically entertaining for an earlier generation.  Truth be known-it speaks to our generation-to the Christians in our generation.  For the last several decades Christians have been shrinking in stature.  It used to be that we had a strong influence on our culture and in our community.  But as we have grown less and less in being Incredible Christians-we have become as Martin Lloyd Jones has said-“irrelevant”.  Instead of the world looking to the Church and the Christian for direction, they have chosen to ignore us.  The tragedy of it all is we have become comfortable with that!  We seldom take a stand on the issues of our day.  We seldom hold up the Cross and the Christ as the only answer to the problems that confront our society today.  We have embraced the philosophy “I’m Ok-Your Ok!” and from a Biblical point of view-“That is Not Ok!”  Instead of being “That Incredible Christian” we have become “That Incredible Shrinking Christian!”  That is the tragedy for the Gospel in this new millennium!

     There was another Carey.  His name was William Carey.  He and some fellow Baptist pastors in England began to pray for the lost, in their country, and in the world as a whole.  They began to discuss the destiny of those who had not received Christ.  They prayed that God would bring the good news of the gospel to them.  They became the answer to their own prayers.  Carey came to the conviction “Expect Great Things from God-Attempt Great Things for God!”  That lead to the birth of modern missions.  William Carey gave his life to taking the good news of the Gospel to Burma.  He embraced all the challenges of learning the languages and customs-of loving the unlovable…Of patiently giving all his possessions, energy and life in winning them to Christ.  He even engaged his 8-year-old son Felix in the work.  Felix excelled in learning the language and translating the Bible into the language of the Burmese people.  Felix was a co-laborer with his father William in a “Great work for God”.  When he was 21 Felix married.  He and his wife had a son.  The hardships of the missionary life took the life of his wife and son.  In his weariness he grew discouraged.  Felix not only was gifted in language translation but had medical abilities as well.  The King of Burma offered Felix a position as Ambassador to the governor-general in Calcutta.  The weary Felix accepted, resigning his mission activities in 1814, Felix lived in affluence as a Burmese Government official now.  His father William was crushed.  He wrote to fellow Christians back in England-“pray for Felix-he is shriveled from a missionary to an ambassador!”  Felix’s wealth and position in the world led him to overspending and alcoholism.  He had to resign in disgrace.  He disappeared into the province of Assam, wandering and homeless for three years!  The good news is he recovered.  He returned to being a missionary. He finished well and had an impact for the gospel.  Perhaps we need to write a letter to ourselves.  “Pray for the 21st century Christian.  He has shriveled from being a witness to a wanderer!  From that Incredible Christian to that Incredible Shrinking Christian!”  Unless we draw near unto our Lord; Unless we get our credible stature back in the eyes of the world-our Gospel will fall on deaf ears in these last days! Today’s message is about Understanding the Gospel in a Nutshell and striving together in applying the essentials needed for Impacting the World with the Gospel of Christ…and stop the shrinking!

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “If they’re breathing-they need Jesus!”

     One of the most interesting and convicting authors I have ever read is Mark Cahill.  He has only written two books.  One is the book One Heartbeat Away: Your Journey into Eternity.  It is a disturbing account of how we live with death every second of our lives, and must be prepared for eternity.  His follow up book is on witnessing, titled One Thing You Can’t Do In Heaven. In the latter book, in a chapter entitled “If They’re Breathing They Need Jesus!” He tells about a couple witnessing encounters he had with two very famous people.  Mark Cahill went to college and played basketball with Charles Barkley.  He even roomed with Barkley while the team traveled.  They became very good friends, and are still friends today.  On one occasion, after their college days, he was speaking at a Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, where Barkley lives.  Upon arriving in town, he called Charles to see if they could get together, after the conference that night.  Charles said, “absolutely, we’re hanging out tonight at”, (and he mentioned a famous club). Mark asked him who the “we” was.  He said, “Quin Buckner, Alex Rodriguez, and Michael Jordan”.  He of course accepted.  How could he miss an opportunity like that!  When Charles introduced Mark to Jordan, he told him, “Michael this is my good friend from college I was telling you about!” All night they talked about basketball, baseball, golf, and occasionally religion, due to input from Mark.  As they were leaving, they headed out to the limousine that would take they all to their various destinations.  As we walked together toward the car, I said, “Michael, I am speaking in town this week, and I would like to ask you a question”.  Michael said, “Ok, shoot!”  I asked, “Michael, when you die, what do you think is on the other side?  What do you think is out there when we leave here?”  Cahill said that a very serious look came over him, he started nodding his head, and was silent for about ten seconds.  Then he responded, “I think there are those pearly gates, when we die”.  I knew I didn’t have much time; the others were catching up with us.  So, I got right to the point, and asked, “Michael have you ever committed your life to Jesus Christ?”  Quicker than he leaves the floor for one of his famous jump shots, he shot back “yes I have” and quickly asked, “Have to talked to Barkley about this?”  Cahill assured him that he had done that several times.  Michael shook his head as he walked away to the limo.  He later found out that Jordan used to discuss Jesus a lot with Horace Grant when they played together on the Bulls, but after his father was murdered, he just clammed up about his faith, and refused to talk about it any longer!  Even NBA stars need Jesus. 

     On another occasion, Mark was invited to come to Charles mother’s home in Leeds, Alabama for the holidays.  While there he had the opportunity to meet Charles’ family.  He really hit it off with Charles brother Daryl.  Daryl told Mark, “I recently had a heart attack”. He went on to tell Mark that after the heart attack that he had a near death experience.  He said that while in the operating room his spirit rose up out of his body, he saw the doctors and nurses working with his body on the operating table.  He said he went on a journey where he saw burning trees, burning grounds all around the base of the trees, then a lake of fire with people in it screaming for help.  With terror in his eyes he said, “I saw hell!  Then I came back!”  Mark asked, “Daryl, if you would have remained dead where would you have gone?”  Daryl replied, “I would have gone to hell!”  Mark asked, “Do you want to go to hell?”  Immediately he answered, “No, I want to go to heaven!”  “Do you know what you need to do to go to heaven?” Mark asked.  “Yes, committing my heart and life to Jesus Christ”, Daryl affirmed.  “Have you done that now?”, Mark inquired.  “No-I love the things of the world too much to do that right now!”  Mark warned him, that with a bad heart, he was playing Russian Roulette with his soul. Daryl acknowledged the risk he was taking. A few years later, Daryl had another heart attack that took his life.  It was March 20, 2009.  He died young, at the age of 42.  What about his destiny?  If you look up Daryl Shawn Barkley…you see his grave which says, “Deacon Daryl Shawn Barkley”…Did he embrace the faith that his mother taught him, and serve his Lord in his final days?  If so, that near death wake up call changed his eternity.  That is a vision that would be good for all of us to wake up to.  We will never be the same for time and eternity.  What a difference it could make in the lives we touch for Jesus, while there is still time. 

     On a grave in a cemetery near Jackson, California are the following words:

Remember me as you pass by,

As you are now, so once was I

As I am now, you soon will be

Prepare for death, and follow me.

Someone wrote below those words in marker:

To follow you, I am not content

Until I know-which way you went!

Today’s message should encourage us to encourage everyone to know which way you are going while there is still time!

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE; “Increasing our devotion as we remember their last full measure of devotion!”

     Most historians agree that the 272 word speech given by President Abraham Lincoln, on November 19, 1863, to dedicate the Battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, is one of the greatest speeches of all time. Lincoln said, “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but they can never forge what they did here.  It is for us to be dedicated to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.  It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain…that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from  the earth”.  He called the nation never to forget the price that these brave soldiers paid to keep freedom alive.  But that was not the end of the story.  His speech challenged them to increase their devotion to the cause that they gave their last full measure of devotion!  What a worthy challenge.  As we go through the Book of Acts we too will be challenged to never forget the price some early Christians paid to further the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The first martyr was Stephen.  His sacrifice was soon followed by the sacrifice of James, the brother of our Lord.  As the Book of Acts ends we are anticipating the two primary Apostles, Peter and Paul, also “giving their full measure of devotion”.  Both of them do make that sacrifice under the ghastly reign of the maniacal Nero!  Their dedication reminds us of what missionary Jim Eliott said, not long before giving his life in the cause of our dear Lord.  He said, quoting Peter Marshall, “It is not the duration of our life that matters, but the donation!” 

      The giving of the full measure of devotion of Stephen, James, Peter and Paul, encouraged the early Church to follow in their train.  Many were so emboldened that they too would stand for the Lord, come what may, whatever the price, to extend the Gospel of their Blessed Lord.  In the Church of Antioch, where believers where first called Christians, in the year 70 A.D. They had a marvelous pastor by the name of Ignatius,  He was a dynamic, Spirit-filled and godly powerful preacher.  His preaching was turning the entire population of the city to Christ.  So Trajan, the Emperor of Rome, came to visit Antioch to see what was happening there concerning emperor worship-idolatry and heathenism.  He listened to that preacher Ignatius preach.  He saw the throngs turning to the Lord, and forsaking Roman gods and paganism.  He commanded that Ignatius be brought before him.  He sentenced him to be brought to Rome and to be exposed to the wild animals in the Coliseum.  The Coliseum was built about 5 years after the death of the Apostle Paul.  That means it was likely built in 72 A.D. Now the historians tell us that the first Christian to be martyred in the Coliseum was Ignatius, the pastor of the Church of Antioch. In the long journey to Rome he wrote beautiful and inspired letters. They are the treasures of Christendom to this day.  Finally coming to Rome, he was placed , sent out, stood on the sand in the center of that great arena, with tiers with thousands of spectators watching all around.  The cages were opened, and the lions were let loose.  When the leading lion ran omniverously, carnivorously, vicisously, fiercely toward God’s preacher, Ignatius held out his hand, and arm, to the leading lion, and above the crunching sound of bone and tendon, he was heard to declare, “Now I begin to be a Christian!”  That is how we honor those who gave their full measure of devotion.  That is how we increase our devotion.  That is how we honor them, and never forget them!  Willing to join them in bold courage to be faithful unto our Lord at all cost!  Another Christian martyr of the 20th century reminded us that such a commitment is not in vain.  Jim Eliot, who lost his life taking his Lord’s gospel to the Auca Indians of Ecaudor, said, “He is no fool, who gives what he cannot keep, (his life), to gain what he cannot lose, (eternal reward)”.  To honor them we must never forget!  In the words of Rudyard Kipling- ” Lord God of Hosts be with us yet-  Lest we forget, Lest we forget!” (The Recessional).