March 28, 2025

Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do.  There can be no courage unless you’re afraid.  -Eddie Rickenbacker, World War I Flying Ace-

I am not afraid of death, for it is actually a departing to be with the Lord. But it is the dying process that proceeds the departure that troubles me. It is again a season of watching and hearing of friends passing on.  It reminds me to ask, “what’s next…who’s next.”   Last week, the former Olympic boxer, George Foreman, died at 76. I remember watching him win the 1968 Olympic heavyweight championship fight in Mexico as if it was yesterday. With my birthday not too far away and my age not that distant from his, it causes me to wonder. Having officiated the burial of a dear friend of mine two weeks ago also plays into my considerations of life and death. I have begun to filter through many names and faces of former friends in high school and seminary and realized that many of them have departed. The dash on the gravestone between our arrival date & our departure date is a great equalizer for all of us. But I am comforted by former chaplain to the US Senate Peter Marshall who said, “When the clock strikes for me, I shall go, not one minute early, and not one minute late. Until then, there is nothing to fear.”  The Lord’s timing is perfect. He is never behind, but perfectly on time.                              Serving Him with you Until He comes for us. Fred

March 21, 2025

Perfect storms are predictable events that are more severe than expected. Black swans are a significant event that was never expected.

Politically, you might think we are, or might soon, experience both. From a theological perspective, the Bible tells us, as did Richard Weaver, that ideas have consequences. The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward mischief. That is because the ideas of morally fallen mankind involve ideologies that are inculcated in a “heart that is deceitful and desperately wicked.” (Jeremiah 17:9)  The barbaric acts of Hamas inflicted upon innocent Israeli civilians, both adults and children, the vicious assault of piracy perpetrated by the Houthis upon non-Muslim ships and their crew, and the blatant acts of moral perversion which go against God and nature as seen by the LBGTQ+ community, provide ample expression of the morally reprehensible guilt of modern man.  To Hell with them! That is what I would have said If I were hanging on the cross. But Jesus did not say that did He? He said, "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing." As the Easter season is approaching, let’s be glad for the greatest Black Swan event in history.                              Serving Him with you Until He comes for us. Fred

March 14, 2025

Three Dog Night or A Two Dog Fight

I bet some of you are old enough to remember the music group, 3 Dog Night, especially their hit song, One is the Loneliest Number. But I want to focus on the two-dog fight. That's the fight between the flesh and the spirit: The body of sin versus the power of the Spirit. The fact is, I'm a new man. I'm a new person. In a sense, I live in a new house. This is my new identity in Christ. (Romans 6, Ephesians 1-3) But although I am a new man and a new house, I live inside a death house, the body of sin, the flesh, which will be with me until I receive a glorified resurrected body. Until that time the reality is that I am in a battle, a spiritual war with myself. The Apostle Paul in Romans 7 gives us a beautiful example of what this war looks like. He describes the fact that the very thing I wish to do, I don't do. In addition, the thing I don't want to do, I do. His conclusion is quite profound. He says, “Therefore it is no longer I who is doing it, but sin that dwells in me.” This is the daily difficulty for all of us who are Christians. Some people like to think that there is something you can do on this earth to achieve perfection. But I'm here to tell you that is not the case. In fact Paul describes his condition as,"Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24) However, although we live in a death house, there is the provision of a powerhouse that can overcome the death house. In Romans 8 Paul describes for me everything or every One that I need to overcome this body of sin. Notice Paul's focus on the word "Spirit" 21 times. As we develop the dwelling of the Spirit in our lives, we can actually walk in the power of the Spirit and manifest the fruit of the Spirit and overcome the flesh - the body of sin in our mortal bodies. (Galatians 5) We must keep in mind what Paul said in Galatians 2:20. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Although that is true, we must also do what Paul exhorted us to do in Romans 13:14. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” How goes your fight with the flesh?                              Serving Him with you Until He comes for us. Fred

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March 7, 2025

Who Do You Look Like?

Christianity is just a bunch of morality codes, probity signals, and obligations to a set of old outdated virtues. Sound familiar? This is the cry of most heathens, pagans, and atheistic postmodern people in our world. It also is sometimes felt by some Christians. Why all this morality talk in both the Old Testament and New Testament? It is because God is moral and virtuous and we are made in His Image, image bearers, and we are in His likeness. We are to represent Him on earth, and imitating his moral virtue is what He desires for us. The Old Testament states in Leviticus11:44, “Be holy for I am Holy.” The apostle Peter quotes this moral command in 1 Peter 1:15-16; “but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You Shall be Holy for I am holy.” The apostle Paul demands that we imitate him as he imitates Christ (I Corinthians 11:1). Jesus demands that we “be perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) We are not able to do this fully, completely, or perfectly. But we are to make it our ambition to be pleasing to Christ. This is what He desires from us. The obvious question is why is this His way? The obvious answer is so that we represent Him to a lost and dying world. We are to be imitators of Christ that the world might see Christ in us. We are to be moral agents of God, so that the world might notice God. In a sense, we are God's greatest evangelistic tool. Unfortunately, Christians often fail to be who they are. We fail to live out our high calling. Unfortunately, many times Christians do not practice their position in the condition that they live. This is why the New Testament is filled with so many commands and demands for moral purity because this is God's way of speaking to a lost and dying world. The German poet and critic of Christianity, Heinrich Heine, said, “You show me a redeemed life and I might believe in your redeemer.”                                 Serving Him with you Until He comes for us. Fred