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Sermon Series on Prayer

Playoff Baseball and Beautiful Days

The writer of Ecclesiastes acknowledges that “to everything there is a season” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).  Although baseball had not been invented at that writing, this week begins Major League Baseball playoff season. Here is what some have said about this wonderful season:

  • The more important thing is to win enough games to get into the playoffs, then once you get into the playoffs, win.
  • Life is like a game, Charlie Brown… Sometimes you win… Sometimes you lose. I’ll be happy if I just make the playoffs.
  • This is why you play – to get an opportunity to play in the playoffs.
  • In the playoffs, it is do or die. You win or you go home. As a competitor, you love it.
  • It’s not how you start the season, it’s how you finish.
  • October baseball is what it’s all about.
  • I might add that when your team is not in the playoffs, you don’t rush home so fast to see the first pitch. If you are a real baseball FANatic, it matters less who’s playing, than it does that there is a game to watch.  Play ball! At least a few more times, before we have to watch football and basketball till next March. And whatever season your life is in, remember that the same writer of Ecclesiastes, before that chapter 3 is over, wrote, “He (God) has made everything beautiful in its time. (Eccl. 3:11).  Have a beautiful day.

The Best and the Worst of Times

The Best and the Worst of Times

A Tale of Two Cities, published in 1859, is a historical novel by Charles Dickens, with a plot centered on the years leading up to the French Revelution.   But it’s opening sentence of Chapter One could describe this season of the year – “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” For instance, it is the best of baseball season, the playoffs and World Series games are near, but the worst is that it will soon be over until Spring Training begins in February.  Also, it is the best of times for football fans, since the season has finally begun, but it is the worst if your team has already lost its chance for a perfect season. For those in school – students and teachers – it is the best of times because summer is over and classes have begun, but it is the worst of times, because summer was far too short. At church it is the best of times since summer vacations are over and members have returned to places of service, but it is the worst of times, since there are never enough people willing to serve.  What about you personally?  Is it your “best of times” or is it your “worst of times”?  The writer of Ecclesiastes says, there is “a time for every purpose under heaven.” (Eccl. 3:1).  For what purpose is your life in this season of the year?

 

 

 

Pastor-less Again

I’ve been privileged to serve twenty-nine churches as Interim Pastor-from the ending of one pastor until the beginning of the next pastor.  I’ve served people who were sad (at the loss of a beloved pastor).  I’ve served people who were mad (at the pastor for leaving or retiring).  I’ve even served a few people who were glad (upset at the pastor and happy he is gone).  Whether sad, mad, or glad, every church was full of people in need, and I’ve felt honored to serve them. Now it’s my turn.  For the fourth time in my life, my pastor has either resigned or retired.  I have a problem that a few others share.  My pastors become my friends.  I take them to lunch. I share personal things with them.  I listen to their challenges and struggles.  I pray with and for them.  Having been a Pastor’s son, as well as a pastor myself, I  find it easy to be a Pastor’s friend.  So once again, I am both pastor-less, and I’m losing the closeness of a friend.  Ever been there?  I know some of you have, because many of my readers are members of churches where I served as Interim Pastor, and I prayed you through your interim time.  Now it’s time for you to pray me through mine and join me in praying that my next pastor will also, “Walk worthy of the calling with which he is called” (Ephesians 4:1).

 

Physical Therapy

First it was for a broken and dislocated right shoulder.  The second time it was for my hip.  The third time it was for the lower back.  This time it was for the left shoulder.  In case you are still wondering – for what?  It was for physical therapy. I should finish the final session soon. In spite of some people calling them “physical terrorists” I really do appreciate all of the therapist who have worked with me.  I can even appreciate the following quotes from others about physical therapy:

  • “Physical therapy: unlocking your body’s potential.”
  • “Don’t let your injury define you, let your recovery inspire you.”
  • “Physical therapy: rewriting your body’s story.”
  • “Physical therapy is not just about fixing the body, but also the mind and spirit.”
  • “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who isin you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own”(1 Corinthians 6:19.)

I really hope you never need a physical therapy session (or another one), but if you do, I’ve been there, done that, got the t-shirt, the hat, and the koozie, and it’s OK. Enjoy and heal.

Physical Therapy

First it was for a broken and dislocated right shoulder.  The second time it was for my hip.  The third time it was for the lower back.  This time it was for the left shoulder.  In case you are still wondering – for what?  It was for physical therapy. I should finish the final session soon. In spite of some people calling them “physical terrorists” I really do appreciate all of the therapist who have worked with me.  I can even appreciate the following quotes from others about physical therapy:

  • “Physical therapy: unlocking your body’s potential.”
  • “Don’t let your injury define you, let your recovery inspire you.”
  • “Physical therapy: rewriting your body’s story.”
  • “Physical therapy is not just about fixing the body, but also the mind and spirit.”
  • “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who isin you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own”(1 Corinthians 6:19.)

I really hope you never need a physical therapy session (or another one), but if you do, I’ve been there, done that, got the t-shirt, the hat, and the koozie, and it’s OK. Enjoy and heal.

Backing the Blue

A Fort Worth Police Officer was working a traffic accident last week in the early morning hours, when a driver whose alcohol content was extremely high, came up a freeway ramp in the wrong direction and hit the officer, who was pronounced deceased at the hospital a few hours later.  There are at least four reasons why this bothers me: (1) I come from a long line of police officers: Several Great Uncles, one Uncle, numerous distant cousins, one first cousin, and my son, now retired as a federal police officer.  I myself am a thirty year veteran of the Code Blue Citizens on Patrol, having served three years as Captain of one neighborhood association, and a graduate of the Fort Worth Citizens Police Academy.  (2) I’ve never seen much good that comes out of alcohol. Beginning as a teen-anger when a guy who had simply stopped off for a few drinks after work, hit the car I was in at 100 miles per hour, costing me a year of high school and several months in a hospital bed. (3) I was named after the Temple, Texas, Chief of Police, a close friend of my parents.  His name was Danforth, but everyone called him Mr. Dan.  I feel pride every time someone calls me Dr. Dan. (4) In addition to these human reasons, my spiritual reason comes from Proverbs 20:1, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.”  I back the blue.  End of vent, or is it a rant? Whichever!

 

Sixty Years Together

My wife and I recently celebrated our 60th wedding anniversary.  Many of the friends who celebrated the wedding with us are no longer around.  Of course, older family members are gone, two of my five groomsmen are no longer with us, and likewise two of Joanne’s five brides maids have already departed this earth. We’ve been attending a lot of funerals lately. We’ve been together for 720 months, 3130 weeks, 21,913 days. The Office of National Statistics shows that only  16% of marriages last for 60 years. With those low percentages, there are not a lot of Hallmark Anniversary cards on  the shelves for the 60th anniversary. Even fewer have good messages inside.  Consider these six that do:

  • “Sixty years of love, woven together in a tapestry of memories, each thread shimmering with its own story.”
  • “60 years together, they’ve laughed in the rain, danced in the sunshine, and loved through it all. That’s not just marriage; it’s magic.” Well maybe, not danced.
  • “Sixty years of marriage? That deserves a standing ovation! Here’s to the couple who still sets the bar sky-high!”
  • “Cheers to 60 years of proving that true love isn’t just a fairytale. You are legends in your own love story.”
  • “In a world where things come and go, your 60 years of love stand monumental. Cheers to an enduring legacy.”
  • ‘60 years in, and they still make forever look easy.”

So, is there a secret to making it sixty years?  Probably several, but the one I remember the most was what Joanne’s grandfather said to us as he came through the reception line following our ceremony.  All he said was, “Don’t ever go to bed mad at each other.”  I learned later that he was referring to Ephesians 4:26, “Do not let the sun go down on your wrath.” After sixty years together, we pass that advice on to you.

 

Food and Fellowship

One of my favorite parts of church as I was growing up, was the Wednesday evening fellowship meal.  To me, it wasn’t something separate, it was a part of church life. It was more than a meal.  It was a fellowship meal.  Unlike other parts of church life, we didn’t have to be quiet, or follow a printed agenda, or act in some formal manner.  We could just relax and enjoy each other as we ate together. During this past year, I have been preaching at a Chinese Church as they searched for a Pastor.  One of the features I enjoy is that their church-time does not end with the benediction.  Rather, at the amen, they all leave the Worship Center and go together to the Fellowship Hall for lunch. It seems that our fear of eating together, partly caused by COVID, has caused many churches to discontinue fellowship meals.  I, for one, am ready to begin them again.  I love food and I love fellowship and I love them both best when they are together.  Our Lord’s last earthly meeting with His disciples was around a dinner table (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) and one of the first events in heaven will be the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9).  In between the two, we ought to enjoy meal-time fellowship more often.

 

Faster, Higher, Stronger, and a Bit Weirder

I remember in the 1950s someone complaining about the cheerleaders at our Junior High School (Middle School) wearing “skimpy” uniforms because  “too much of their legs were showing.”  I am so glad those same people are either no longer alive or too old to have been watching the Opening Ceremonies of the 2024 Summer Olympics from Paris, France last weekend. From Drag Queens forming an image of the Lord’s Supper to a certain commentator proudly wearing the image of a pagan idol, the Opening Ceremony “entertainment” was an embarrassment to Christian athletes and viewers as well. The responses on social media were punctuated with comments like, “I will never watch another Olympics” to “I turned it off so my children wouldn’t be exposed to it.” The four-hour, made for television” entertainment, which overshadowed, but under-whelmed, the thousands of athletes, from 200 countries, floating down the River Seine, in 85 boats, may be described as, “all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world” (1 John 2:16).  I have served with the “More Than Gold” ministry in two summer Olympics and one winter Olympic, and am a huge fan of the Olympics, furthermore, being in the world but not of the world, and having now expressed my frustrations, I will do two things over the next few weeks: (1) Having been in France on several occasions, I will pray for those who serve there and the people they serve and (2) I will sit back in my recliner and watch hours of wonderful Olympic competition involving athletic women and men, fulfilling the Olympic motto – “Faster . . .  Higher . . . Stronger.”

Thoughts About Death

A series of funerals over the past few weeks, have had me thinking about death.  Here are some interesting quotes:

  • “Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.” Mark Twain
  • Someday a loving Hand will be laid upon our shoulder and this brief message will be given: ‘Come home’.Billy Graham
  • “Many people die at twenty-five and aren’t buried until they are seventy-five.” Benjamin Franklin
  • “Death is God’s delightful way of giving us life.” Oswald Chambers
  • “Death is nothing else but going home to God, the bond of love will be unbroken for all eternity.” Mother Teresa
  • Death is the waiting-room where we robe ourselves for immortality.Charles Haddon Spurgeon
  • “Don’t die on third base.” LeRoy Ashmore, my High School Baseball Coach.
  • “Someday you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody of East Northfield, is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now; I shall have gone up higher, that is all, out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal- a body that death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint; a body fashioned like unto His glorious body.” Dwight L. Moody
  • “When you were born, you cried, and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.” Cherokee Proverb.
  • “ Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” Psalm 116:15
  • “Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
    In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.” Final verse of “Abide with Me”
  • “Letnot your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be al” John 14:1-4
  • “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” Revelation 14:13
  • “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 1 Corinthians 15:55 (KJV)

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