Still Growing

Psalm 92:12-15 (NIV)

¹² The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
    they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;
¹³ planted in the house of the Lord,
    they will flourish in the courts of our God.
¹⁴ They will still bear fruit in old age,
    they will stay fresh and green,
¹⁵ proclaiming, “The Lord is upright;
    he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

My husband, Lester and I have only been living in our current home about nine months. We’re renting it from a lovely man who is 85 years of age. His name is Ben and he told us when he first met us, “I’m old. But, I’m not dead. I’ve got a lot of growing yet to do.”

Ben and I had several conversations, in the first six weeks, or so, about our common Christian faith and our different faith journeys. He has some awesome stories to tell.

For instance: Ben was raised a Catholic—from the time of his birth until just seven years ago he was devoted to his parish and his priests and his Catholic doctrine. “At 78,” he said, “I thought I was too old to change.” However, a whisper in the night changed all that.

Ben heard God speak to his heart one night, long after midnight and the message was: Find a new way to serve Me.

After much prayer, many sleepless nights and much thought Ben bought for himself a new Bible and began to read it, cover-to-cover. Something he'd never done before. It only took a few weeks and in that time he made notes, wrote down questions and prayed and prayed and prayed. He went to his priest and shared his concerns, asked his questions and begged for help. He became more and more convinced that the Lord was turning him away from his Catholic faith. This was upsetting and just a little bit frightening.

Finally, Ben’s priest said, “I don’t want to lose you Ben…but, it seems to me that the Lord is moving you elsewhere.” And so He was. 

Ben went home, opened the phone book, prayed for God to lead him in the right direction and then called the number of the first church he saw in the yellow pages. Seven years later he still attends that church—a Seventh Day Adventist church—and he studies the Bible diligently every day.

More importantly, Ben is still growing. He’s a member of his church’s governing cabinet. He’s a Sunday school teacher AND he leads a Men’s prison ministry here in Nevada.

Ben may be 85 years old, but he’s still bearing fruit for the Lord (Galatians 5:22-23) and he’s still relevant and fresh in God’s kingdom.

You can be too! 

It doesn’t matter your age, your income, your status…God can and will use you to bring glory to His kingdom. All you have to do is answer the call!

Don't Look Back

Last weekend I made what some might consider a “major” purchase. I bought a new Bible. It’s the first new Bible I’ve had in nearly seventeen years. 

It was definitely time, the old one is falling apart, the front and back covers are tearing away from the binding in two different places and the inside pages are covered in ink—pen ink, highlighter ink—even some crayon and lots and lots of pencil lead. It’s heavy with the weight of countless paper clips and pieces of paper, post-it-notes and folded notebook paper…and, lots of memories. 

They say that a Bible that is falling apart has an owner who isn’t. 

I don’t know about that…but, I do know that if it weren’t for the tearing at the binding I might be carrying it still. Even so, it’s time for a change.

So, for the last few hours I’ve been flipping through pages, transferring notes and copying thoughts from the old book into the new. 

As I was skimming the pages, those in the book of Genesis—specifically in chapter 19—where the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is recorded, I realized that some of the notes in my old Bible don’t even make sense to me, anymore.

In the margins of the old book, near verse 22 which reads: “’…but hurry! For I [the angel of wrath] can do nothing until you are there.’ From that time on, the village was known as Zoar”, I found the following note to myself which reads, “Zoar—it means ‘small’ in Hebrew. Keep this in your heart.”

I read the note several times.Why? Why did I need to know the meaning of that word? Why should I keep it in my heart—like a secret or treasure? What did it mean? 

I have no idea!

As I went further down memory lane, I discovered I had also highlighted—entirely in pink—the complete fourth chapter of Leviticus. It details the procedures for priests who are to make Sin Offerings on behalf of the Israelites. What, I wondered, was the message to myself in that? Did I truly need to know the proper and most ritualistic ways to remove the kidneys and fat from a bull? And, more importantly, why pink? What was I thinking?

As I wandered through my older copy of God’s Word, finding more and more confusing notations, I lamented my note-taking skills and called myself a “nincompoop” over and over.

How much was lost? How many times has God spoken to me during sermons, through study, while in prayer—how many pearls of wisdom has he given me, tools to use in my life—that were now lost forever because I’m a terrible stenographer. If only I’d written more, been more precise. Then I’d know what all that pink highlighting was for and why it was important to know how to break down a bull… As it is, I can only assume I was expecting to be asked use my new butchering skills at the next neighborhood BBQ.

I became frustrated with myself and a little angry as I was looking back… And then, I heard a whisper in the back of mind, “don’t look back.”

This simple truth came to me: Those pearls of wisdom God has given me in the past…were for the past. At the time of the pink highlighter, whatever was going on in my life at that moment was addressed by God in that moment. I no longer need that message.

Suddenly, I grew calm again.

Yes, I’m still sad I wasn’t more vigilant about recording the whys and the wherefores of my notes…but they’ll come again if I need them. God speaks the words we need to hear when we need to hear them. And, he always will.

There’s no point in looking back into my past. There’s no point in regretting what I’ve done or not done, where I should have zigged instead of zagged. There’s no reason to worry about how I got where I am. The point is, I’m here. Each step I’ve taken and every move I’ve made has led me to this point, right now.

More importantly, God has been with me all the while and he’ll continue to be with me until the very end and beyond.

Looking back—whether it’s at the incomplete notes in a Bible or at the mistakes I’ve made in the last 50 years--is a waste of time and it tends to be fuzzy and confusing. 

From here on in, I’ll be looking forward instead.

Believe it or not

 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. ~John 17:17 ESV

Someone once said to me, “I don’t believe in

Dinosaurs. They never really existed. And, before you try to convince me using ‘fossils’ and old bones as proof, I should tell you: I don’t believe those things are real either. I can make that kind of stuff at home with concrete mix, dirt and a shovel.”

Strange, right?

Unbelievably it doesn’t end there. I’m told

there are thousands of people in the world that don’t believe man really walked on the moon. Instead, they believe it was all a make-believe stunt—filmed in a Hollywood studio—a trick of the Kennedy administration meant to make JFK look good—and perpetuated by the media still today. 

And, shockingly, there are thousands more who don’t believe the holocaust actually happened despite the pictures, the films, the survivors and eyewitness accounts… 

And of course, there are millions of unbelievers who won’t admit the truth of Jesus’ existence or the reality of God.

The joke, of course, is on all those unbelievers. Because, no matter what they choose to believe, the reality of each situation…the TRUTH…and the proof is out there. 

Man DID walk on the moon. And, God is alive and well today. His Son, Jesus, was born, lived, died on the cross for our sins, rose again and sits on a throne in heaven. CAN I GET AN AMEN? AMEN!!

Truth is not relative. It doesn’t change from one person to the next. It isn’t different from one situation to the next. Gravity doesn’t exist for some and not for others, the stars don't shine for some and not for others; whether some choose to believe or not, nothing changes the truth. It just is what it is. The same is TRUE for God the Father and Jesus the Son. Believe or not…They live.

And, because they live I can face tomorrow…..