Teach me, Dad

Be careful – watch out for attacks from Satan, your great enemy. He prowls around like a hungry, roaring lion, looking for some victim to tear apart. Stand firm when he attacks. Trust the Lord, and remember that other Christians all around the world are going through these sufferings too. 1 Peter 5:8,9 (LB)

My dad has a favorite story he likes to tell. When he was younger, he drove a Harley Davidson and he and his friends would get out on the open road and ride cross country. In the evening, they’d roll out their sleeping bags, build a fire, cook a little hobo stew and then hit the sack.

One night, somewhere in Montana, they were just drifting off to sleep when they heard the most terrifying sound. It was the shriek of a mountain lion and it was right outside the circle of light from their campfire. Now, a mountain lion doesn’t have a deep roar like the big jungle cats. It sounds more like a woman  screaming, but much louder.

Looking back, Dad has a good laugh. He and his friends, without saying a word, jumped out of their sacks, threw them on the back of their bikes, and burned rubber for about a half a mile. The hair was still standing up on the back of Dad’s neck! 

I’ve been told that a lion’s roar will often freeze its prey in its tracks. An animal that might normally be able to outrun the lion will be paralyzed by the roar and become an easy victim.

What kind of fear tactics is Satan roaring at you? Is he roaring that you will be a failure? That your marriage or family will fall apart? Your health will break down? You’ll get laid off the job? 

Peter tells us what to do when Satan starts roaring. Stand firm! Stand firm and trust the Lord. If it is a real lion you can jump on your Harley and peel out, otherwise, stand firm and trust the Lord! Let Him defend you. He will protect you. He will fight your battles for you. He will make you more than a conqueror!

Don’t let Satan paralyze you with fear. Stand firm, my friend, and trust the Lord! 

Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love makes up for many of your faults. 1 Peter 4:8 (LB) 

Sometimes as men, we can be pretty clumsy. We’re supposed to be the leader of the family, the one they look up to, follow after, yet we are full of mistakes. We have two left feet. And one of them is usually in our mouth. I happen to be ambidextrous. I can stick either foot in my mouth, left or right. It doesn’t matter.

So raising kids can be a challenge. Part of us wants them to grow up to be just like dad. Another part prays they won’t!

I remember when our first child was born. “It’s a boy!” What a feeling! He arrived at 2:58 AM and we happened to live three or four blocks from the hospital so I walked home at about four in the morning. I was so excited, yet scared to death. How do you raise these things? They don’t come with an instruction manual. Of course, which of us guys reads manuals anyway?

If you feel like a klutz when it comes to raising kids, Peter is telling us we can make up for a lot of mistakes if we will shower them with love. So you can’t throw a perfect spiral, and you strike out playing T-ball. It’s okay. Your kids will overlook it if they know Dad loves them.

Take it from Peter. Love makes up for many of your faults.

Action points:

1. Tell your kids you love them. If you’re uncomfortable saying it out loud, say it out loud anyway. They need to hear you. They’re not mind readers.
2. Then show them your love with your actions. Find a way today to demonstrate your love. They need to see it in action. 

My heart is broken. Depression haunts my days. My weary nights are filled with pain…. all night long I toss and turn, and my garments bind about me. Job 30:16-18 (LB)

In my troubles, I pled with God to help me, and he did. Psalm 120:1 (LB)

Ever find yourself in trouble? No where to go? No way out? And you can’t understand why God is allowing this to happen?

Today’s verses show two guys, Job and the Psalmist, both going through a world of hurt, both suffering bitter depression. They’ve lost it all. Suffered physical pain, financial ruin, bereavement, betrayal. Their fondest dreams have become their worst nightmares.

Well, Job was only in chapter 30 of his story. He didn’t know how it would play out. But the Psalmist was speaking from a position of retrospect. He was looking back on the way it was. “I pled with God to help me, and he did!”

I love that little testimony, “And he did.” It says it all. No need for a lengthy explanation. No two hour theological discourse on the Doctrine of Divine Intervention. In three words the Psalmist says everything that needs to be said.

The passage gives me hope. You see, I have issues I’m dealing with. You probably do too. But you see, we’re only in chapter thirty of our story. We don’t know how the novel will end.

Job speaks of sleepless nights. Let me say, “Job, Brother, I been there, done that!” I know what it’s like when you can’t find a comfortable spot in the bed. The pillow is either too fat or too skinny. You hear the bathroom faucet dripping, the fridge going off and on.

But the Psalmist pled with God for help.

And he did!

Nuf sed.

Twenty eight years ago today! August 26, 1978 – the day Maude dragged me down the aisle, kicking and screaming. It was a tough assignment marrying her, but someone had to do it! I gave up my bachelors degree and she received her masters.

She thought marrying me would produce the perfect children. Just think. If they got her good looks and my brains – what an incredible combination! Unfortunately, they got my looks and her brains. Not good! Not good at all!

Actually, she was, and still is, the most incredible woman on the face of the earth. Beautiful. Talented. Charming. Talk about poise. Oh, and did I mention? She’s a good cook too. As much as I hate to admit it, she’s a lot smarter than I’ll ever be. What she saw in me, I really don’t know.

So twenty eight years, three kids, and an empty nest later, I thank God for my wife. She is truly amazing and I love her dearly!

If anyone says, “I love God,” but keeps on hating his brother, he is a liar; for if he doesn’t love his brother, who is right there in front of him, how can he love God, whom he has never seen? 1 John 4:20 (LB)

There is one person I am thinking of that I really do not like. He calls himself a Christian but he has caused me a world of pain. And it has gone on for years.

If these were the olden days, I would meet him in the street at high noon. We’d turn back to back, take ten paces, turn and fire. And it would be settled once and for all! But knowing him, he’d turn and fire on nine and shoot me in the back. He has stabbed me in the back often enough!

I’ve tried to forgive him. I’ve prayed for him. I’ve attempted to reconcile with him. No luck. So I decided I’ll just go through life not liking him. Hmmm?

Today, God is challenging me to love the guy. He is saying if I can’t love my brother who I can see, how can I love God, whom I cannot see?

I wonder if God puts people like this in our lives as a test? A test to see how much we truly love Him. When guys like this come around, the litmus paper turns red - too much acid in the mix! And God is exposing it. Showing us in vivid color a glaring shortcoming in our personal walk.

Blows my mind how God can put His finger on a problem!

Action points:

1. Search your heart to see if there is a brother you really do not like. 

2. Ask God to forgive any ill feelings you have for this person.

3. Now ask God to help you show love for your brother.

4. Always remember, this is a litmus test of your love for God.

It’s a gray day here in Hawaii. My baby, Rebecca, just left for college. It’s a hard day, brother, real hard. I love that little girl so much - gonna miss her big time.

She cried so hard when she left. We watched her go into the terminal and suddenly, she came running back to the car. We thought she forgot something. My wife rolled down the window and Becca reached in and gave her the longest hug – tears streaming down her face. Then she ran to my side and did the same for me. It was a rare moment when airport security wasn’t pushing us to move along. The guard could see what was going on.

I’m going to pray everyday for Becca. She is so young. So fragile. Now, she’s up in Los Angeles by herself. I pray for her safety. O God, please watch over her. I pray she will make the right friends. That she will make good choices. That she will learn to depend everyday on Jesus. Oh, and since she’s at USC, I pray she can score me some tickets to the Rose Bowl!

Meanwhile, back home – back at the ranch – the house seems empty. Quiet. I closed her bedroom door. A knot would form in my gut every time I walked down the hall and saw her empty room.

In a way, I wonder what’s left in life. Now that my youngest child is gone, I kind of feel like my main mission in life is over.

But nonsense! Good things are yet to come. Who knows? Maybe the best! No time to feel sorry for myself. Gotta press on. The rocking chair can wait. No way can I curl up and die. After all, who’d be there to answer the phone when she needs more money!

Press on, Dude!

Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. What temple can you build for me as good as that? My hand has made both earth and skies, and they are mine. Yet I look with pity on the man who has a humble and a contrite heart, who trembles at my word. Isaiah 66:1,2

Have you ever wondered what kind of birthday gift you could give someone like Bill Gates? What do you give the world’s wealthiest man? Perhaps a rare classic automobile? A real collectors item! But he’s got a garage full of them. What about a rare painting from one of the masters? Worth millions! But he could buy a museum full of them! What can you give him?

Then, I envision his child making something from clay. A turtle or a dinosaur. Or maybe you can’t tell if it is a turtle or dinosaur. But I see Mr. Gates proudly displaying it on his desk in the corporate headquarters of Microsoft. It is a treasure. A keepsake. It was a gift from his child and it is priceless!

There is nothing we can give God that is of value. He owns it all. He made it all. What He wants is our heart – and especially a humble and contrite heart. A heart, like Isaiah said, that trembles at his word. Not a heart of arrogance or rebellion but one that longs to follow after Him.

It may not be perfect – is it a turtle or a dinosaur? But it is a heart that is seeking to become perfect – each day being transformed little by little into a heart like His own.

That is the only gift we can offer that is of value to Him. And I can see Him displaying it proudly on the desk in the corporate headquarters of Heaven.

Some Jews arrived and turned the crowds into a murderous mob that stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, apparently dead. But as the believers stood around him, he got up and went back into the city. Acts 14: 19, 20

I was raised in Christianity. I’ve attended some of the finest churches in America. I was blessed to have worked 25 years with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. He and I are personal friends. Interestingly, Billy Graham is the same age as my father and they are both from North Carolina. I tell people he and Dad went to different schools together!

But in all my years, I have never known or met anyone like the Apostle Paul. Think about it. He gets stoned and dragged outside the city and left for dead. So what does he do when he comes to? He gets up and goes back into the city.

Dude, take a hint. They don’t like you in that town!

He thought they wanted him on stage. Actually, they wanted him on the next stage leaving Dodge!

So, why does Paul go back into town? Get this. Verse 22, to “encourage the new believers.” Now I don’t know about you but I’m picturing myself in the rubber slippers of one of those new believer’s. I’ve just converted to Christianity. Now the guy who shared with me the “good news” comes into town looking like he was  in a train wreck. And why does he come back? He wants to “encourage” me!

When I signed on for this Christianity stuff, I thought it was about peace and love and other warm fuzzies. Paul’s message is keep the faith despite the persecution. It is through tribulation you will enter the kingdom.

We’re soft today. We really don’t have a clue what persecution is all about. At the first hint of a storm we run for shelter. Our concept of persecution is someone taking our parking stall on Sunday morning.

It’s not that I want persecution nor am I inviting it, but I wonder how much stronger we would be as Christians if God allowed hard times to come our way?

Action points:

1. Don’t run from persecution. Don’t dodge it. Don’t question God or blame it on Satan. Accept it, as a good soldier, and let it toughen you up for the battle.
2. Pray that in the hour of persecution you will be able to stand, and take it positively and  victoriously.

Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “Sir, from now on, I will give half my wealth to the poor, and if I find I have overcharged anyone on his taxes, I will penalize myself by giving him back four times as much.” Luke 19:8 (LB)

I was pretty good at basketball back in my day. In fact, people who watched me play will tell you when I was in my prime, I could have taught Michael Jordan a few moves. Of course, when I was in my prime, Michael Jordan was only three!

If your kid is not the starting quarterback or the go-to guy on the basketball team, let him know that Jesus takes note of the little guy.

Zacchaeus, a notorious tax collector, had to climb a tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus. He couldn’t see over the crowds. Jesus stopped, looked up in the tree and said, “Zacchaeus, I’m going to dine at your house today.” Zacchaeus was in such awe that he had a radical conversion, a total change of heart from the inside out.

Why would the mere act of Jesus coming to his house make such an impact? I can only speculate, but could it be that Zacchaeus had no friends? He was a despised tax collector, and a crooked one at that. He may have amassed tremendous wealth but what good was it if he had no one to enjoy it with? Now, Jesus wanted to be his friend!

It’s interesting that Zacchaeus was small of stature. Could it be that he felt overlooked all his life? No one paid attention to him? No one took him seriously? He was the runt of the litter. The last to be chosen when kids were picking sides for dodge ball. He couldn’t get a date for the junior prom. He was the brunt of the locker room jokes. Yet, Jesus noticed him. “Zacchaeus, I want you on my team. You’re my starting quarterback!”

Jesus still takes note of the little guy. He has a special place in his heart for those who seem of little worth in the eyes of the world. He’s not impressed with the high and mighty, but to the widow, the orphan, the one with the broken heart, he stretches out his arms and says, “Come to me…. and you shall find rest for your soul.”

Jehovah, himself, is caring for you! He protects you day and night. He keeps his eye upon you as you come and go and always guards you. Psalm 121:5-8 (LB)

There are times, as a Dad, you feel alone. On an island. No one understands. No one cares. “It’s all on me,” you’re feeling. “I just wish one other person understood what I am going through.”

Today’s passage is incredible! Jehovah, himself is caring for you! There are some assignments He delegates to angels. “Go keep an eye on that bus load of kids down there.”

But today, He is speaking directly to you with the message that he, himself, is caring for you. He, himself, will protect you day and night. There are some jobs that are just too important to delegate to underlings. The angel Gabriel has been deployed to watch the President. Michael the Archangel is on temporary assignment to the Pope. There is no one else that can be fully trusted to look out for your needs. So Jehovah is going to do it personally.

Now, nothing against Gabe. He’s up there with the best of them. And Mike? No doubt he would give it a hundred and ten. But they don’t know you like He does. They don’t know your unique circumstances. Your situation is one-of-a-kind. So for now, “Jehovah himself” is caring for you, watching over you, protecting you day and night.

Action points:

1. Remember this. You may feel alone, but you’re not. Jehovah, himself, is with you.

2. If you’re feeling discouraged, recite today’s verse until it sinks in. Jehovah, himself, is caring for me!