A Great Evening

Years ago, when we Pastored in Lucan, Ont, we had a couple attending our church, who we became good friends with over the years. They were in the Insurance business and were very successful at that time. Some time after they moved to the West Coast of Canada they suffered a great business loss, due to illness.

From that experience of loss, God has blessed them immensley. Since a young man he has had a keen desire of Bible Prophecy and has spent years researching and studying Prophecy. As they were building back after their loss, he wrote a propecy book which to date has sold over 3 million copies. He has become very well known through his books and television program. He told me Friday night that he has just finished his 25th book.

Over the years we have stayed in touch but four or five years could go by between visits together. They happened to be in Orlando last week taping for the television program and we hooked up Friday night for dinner.

It was a great evening. We caught up on old times, and shared what was going on in all of our lives. As the evening drew to a close I thought about the value of friendships and experiences. We were able to minister to them when they were going through a difficult time when they were in the church. And a few months ago when we needed some wisdom and counsel, we emailed and called them and they were able to speak into our lives. And again Friday night as I was sharing something I felt the Lord speaking to us about concerning ministry, she stopped me and said that just the other day while talking about us, she mentioned that to her husband. The very thing God was dealing with us about.

I will cherish their friendship forever.

I guess the lesson for me is that although time and distance passes by, God knows exactly when to put us in contact with the right people. As we live on the HIGH ROAD lets strive to be the right people God puts someone in contact with.

The Death of a Beloved Old Friend….

I received the following in an email the other day and felt like it should be shared.

‘Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who
has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was,
since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He
will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
Knowing when to come in out of the rain; why the early bird gets the
worm; Life isn’t always fair; and maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more
than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in
charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but
overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy
charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended
from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for
reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the
job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly
children.

It declined even further when schools were required to get parental
consent to administer sun lotion or a Band Aid to a student; but
could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to
have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became
contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better
treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you
couldn’t defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar
could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to
realise that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in
her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his
wife, Discretion; along with his daughter and son, Responsibility and
Reason. He
is survived by his 4 stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, I Want It Now,
Someone Else Is To Blame, and I’m A Victim.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realised he was gone

A Day of Contrasts

Saturday started with Becky and I going to a memorial service for the 23 year old son of a lady from Becky’s work. He was killed last week in a motorcycle accident. It was obvious that he lived his life fast and hard, and that he was well liked by his friends and of course loved by his family. What was also obvious was the fact that it appeared he lived his life without God, and of course when a life ends young (or at any age) without a relationship with Jesus it is sad. The hopelessness of his friends was evident to me as they talked about him.

Saturday afternoon had us putting over 30 of the folks from our West of 50 group on the bus and heading to Orlando to the Bill Gaither and Friends Give It Away Tour. It was a great concert with tons of talent. But the beginning of the day flashed back through my mind when at the end of the concert the entire arena was singing “Because He Lives I Can Face Tomorrow”.

And as I sang that song, I thought of the young man we memorialized that morning and I realized all over again that our world is full of hurting lost people who need to hear the story that “Because He Lives They Can Face Tomorrow”. We just need to tell them… as many of them as we meet.

As we all walk THE HIGH ROAD let’s share the message with those who need the message.

Influence

John Maxwell states that Leadership is Influence. We all have influence on someone. The question sometimes is, is it positive or negative influence.

The other day I attended the memorial service for the mother of a friend from church. I did not know his mother but when I heard she had passed away, and that there would be a memorial service I felt that to support my friend, I wanted to attend.

When I turned into the Church parking lot I was amazed to see several large towing trucks lined up with one hanging a huge American Flag over the drive way. My friend and his brother each own their own Towing and Recovery Business, and the trucks were all from companies that were their competitors, but when my friend’s family was hurting and suffered a loss, their competitors came to show respect and support. As I thought about it while parking my car, I thought that is influence.

All of the staff from those companies that sat through the memorial service heard the gospel that day. I realized that my friends may or may not know the level of influence they had in that industry. But they do have influence.

We may or may not know the influence we have with the people we deal with every day but we DO have influence. We need to make a daily decision to make it a positive influence.

I have been sitting on this post for a few days and today I dealt with a situation where I could have easily developed a difficult attitude.  As I was walking away,  the person I was dealing with said “thanks for being nice and having a good attitude”.  It might have been easier to have a bad attitude… but a good attitude made a positive influence.  I just wish I always did that.

Let’s all influence well on THE HIGH ROAD.

God answered … and was I surprised!!

This morning as I began to read my Bible I asked the Holy Spirit to direct where I read. I ended up reading several passages on Wisdom and finding the Lord’s direction. When I finished and began to pray I prayed what I had read… I asked Him for Wisdom and claimed Wisdom concerning a situation I am facing.

Mid morning came and I received a call from a friend, …. a non believer friend, and in the discussion I asked kind of a rhetorical question, and he answered, you have just answered yourself. He went on to share thoughts he had about the situation and when he finished I thought, THERE’S THE WISDOM I need.

I am not surprised that God would grant wisdom when we ask, but should He be using a non believer to do so? As I think about it all I am thankful that when we need something from Him, He will use who or what He chooses to provide the answer we need. I for one am thankful He does!!

Sometimes I think I may have missed His answer to things because I missed the vehicle He chose.

Let’s all live on the HIGH ROAD.

Integrity

This will not be another sermon on integrity but it will be my own personal rant on something that I have been pondering on for a few weeks.  We probably all have heard enough sermons about this important characteristic we so desperately need to have present in our lives. I don’t want to hear about integrity…. I would like to see it. See it in my own life and in the lives of the people I interact with.

I am getting very tired of preachers who preach about it but then act without it. I heard the other day of a preacher I know fairly well in another city who recently treated a staff pastor very unkindly (and un-Christian) when the staff pastor resigned to follow God’s leading and will for his life.  When I heard it I asked myself why do people do that?  Why do we treat people so differently than we say we treat people, and so very differently than we would ever wanted to be treated ourselves.

I am currently watching and have recently watched some people I know and love make changes in their ministries and watched in amazement and almost horror at how they were treated when they simply said yes to the leading of the Lord in their lives.  And I wondered why were they celebrated so much when they said yes when it made us happy but when their decision did not make us happy, we did not celebrate them so much.

Integrity means we should do right.  Live right and act right.  And I think it means we should treat people right at all times. It means if we really love people we will celebrate them and all that God does in their lives.

My prayer lately has been Lord help me to treat people like a Christian should. 

I think living on the HIGH ROAD really implies we live with integrity, and treat other people with integrity.

The message of the song

I have heard a lot of great sermons in my life and some very good ones recently.  Our Pastor has preached some very good messages lately.  But last Sunday at our church Jason Crabb preached a powerhorse of a sermon when he sang the song “Through the Fire”.  The chorus says “He never promised the cross would not get heavy or the hill hard to climb. He never offered a victory without fighting but He said He would always be on time.  When you are standing in the valley of decision and the adversary says give in, just remember our Lord will show up and He will take you through the fire again.”

It was the moment we were walking through, the intensity of the battle, but there may not have been a better word for us at that second than the song that was sung. It always amazes me that the Holy Spirit always knows the message we need and the best method to deliver it.

As we walk on the HIGH ROAD remember we never do it alone.

Attitude

Attitude really does make a difference. I determined over the New Years holiday that if I was going to really close the door on 2007 and have a better 2008 it was going to take a lot more than just turning the page in the calendar. I was thinking on this and I listened to T.D. Jakes preach his New Years Eve service and he talked about that fact that you need to change your mind, the way you think, your mindset and your attitude if you are going to have a better 08 than 07.

Well, I am determined to have a better 08 so I have been guarding my mind daily. Every time I start to think the negative thoughts about my situation I find myself thinking “if you keep doing the same thing you have been doing you will get what you have been getting”. That is the same with your thoughts. If you keep thinking the same thoughts you have been thinking you will have the same attitude you have had.

So my mind has been changed, my self talk has been better, my praise has been stronger and although the pressures are there, the difficulties and challenges still need to be dealt with, the joy is stronger and the peace is present.

Oh yea, a good attitude seems to make a difference in how I treat the people I deal with throughout the day too.

So what is your attitude about life? What do you dwell on? The book says that as a man thinketh so he is.

Lets all live on THE HIGH ROAD.

P.S.  Check out my new blog at theinformationstop.wordpress.com

The Dreaded Day Came

Christmas was great and we enjoyed the family and family times we had together. It was a little bitter sweet because we knew January 3rd was coming. And it came. And it was hard… and tearful… I mean really tearful for quite awhile afterward.

I’m talking about the day when our kids moved to Mobile. We knew it was coming, and we know it is good for them, but it was hard for us. We miss them terribly but we are also thrilled for them because of the opportunity for them to be used of God and make a mammoth difference in the World.

You see, sometimes we have to experience some hurt to let God’s will be done both in our lives in the lives of those we love. We thank God for the time we had with them close to us but we support them fully in their new challenge.

And we now have the opportunity to travel to Mobile, spoil Ashlyn and Isaiah for days at a time, and then leave the correcting  of our spoiling,  to their parents. Life as Nana and Papa is great.

More on Lessons learned

I am sure someone who may read this may say, “this guy must be pretty thick to not have learned these lessons before now” and they will probably be right. I think I may have learned some of them, but from time to time I (I’m sure I must be the only one) seem to forget some of the important lessons I learn.

Just a follow up on “when you’ve done all just stand”. I was thinking of this the other day when I was having to stand in Praise and Faith against a mountain before me, that when you stand up tall and strong against an enemy or bully, it is a sign and statement that you are done running. You are going to take your position and fight this fight and you are not going to go down in defeat. There were some days recently when the temptation to give in was present but the Spirit said Stand…. so I stood… and am still standing because we have come to far in this fight to give up in defeat now.

Another lesson that has really become real to me is that sometimes we ARE dealt more than we can bear. I read this in Pastor Stephen Furtik’s blog but it resonated with me and I have embraced the truth of it. Many of us have probably quoted “He will not allow more than I am able to bear to come to me” or something close to that. Well, the scripture really says that He will not allow more temptation than we can bear to come to us”. But for a lot of us, more trouble than we can bear has come to us.

More than we can bear in ourselves. I faced several days when I could not go on… could not bear the load… could not handle the stress in myself. I had to have HIS help. But the scripture says that in our weakness His strength is made perfect. If I had no weakness I would not know His strength.

In life there are lots of things more than we can bear that life, the devil, people and sometimes church people, brings our way but thank God we can cast our care on Him and He brings us through it all. I can testify today that I have experienced this in real life and am better for it.

So we learn the lessons so we become better people and witnesses of HIS grace, power, strength and love.

Lets live on the HIGH ROAD.