In the meantime

Daddy Cut My Hair

Today's earlier post (and yesterday's Streaming Faith Daily Devotional) was about forgiveness. As I was writing it, I couldn't help but think of the Michael Kelly Blanchard song "Daddy Cut My Hair."  Several artists have recorded this song including Gary Chapman and Noel Paul Stookey.  Chapman says this is the greatest song about forgiveness that he has ever heard.  I agree.

I had a wonderfully close relationship with my father, but I still cried the first time I heard this song.  In fact, I fight back tears every time I hear it. 

Daddy Cut My Hair
Michael Kelly Blanchard

Daddy cut my hair. He didn't care for style
He'd just snip and snip, then sweep it in a pile
I could not keep still, but he would understand
Some things are just known between a boy and a man
Right there in the middle of our kitchen's cluttered floor
In the middle of the fifties, in between a couple wars
He'd get out some old scorched sheet and wrap it round my neck
And he would be so close to me I'd smell the coffee on his breath
He would be so close to me...

We had a fallin' out. Hanged if I know why
But every time I think on it there's water in my eyes
We said some awful words, he ordered me to leave
For years my sister wrote about how hard my mother grieved
Second tour of duty, when the thrill had long been gone
I started giving haircuts to my buddies there in 'Nam
The wire came on Friday. I was cutting Jo Jo's hair
"We buried Mom on Wednesday. Dad was happy I was there."
We buried Mom on Wednesday...

He never did remarry. Traveled quite a bit
As a father still some distance, but as a Grandpa, quite a hit!

The stroke was unexpected, there is so much to relearn
He gets around with just a cane, but his speech has not returned...

Now I cut Daddy's hair, he still don't care for style
I snip and snip the memories and then sweep them in a pile
I don't say a word, He smiles when I'm done,
Some things are just known between a father and a son.
Right there in the middle of our kitchen's cluttered floor,
In my middle fifties, I feel the ache once more
For all the years our anger kept us far apart
Thank God that there's forgiveness to mend a broken heart
Thank God that there's forgiveness...

©  1993 Gotz Music/Diadem Sky Music

There is a video on YouTube of Blanchard performing this song for a Bill Gaither video.  It's marginal quality, but the song's powerful story still comes across well and it's worth watching.  See it here.

Is there someone in your life that you are separated from because of a lack of forgiveness?  You need to make it right with them today.  Don't let another day pass with the relationship broken. 

"Thank God that there's forgiveness to mend a broken heart..."

Forgiven

Forgiveness.  It is one of the most beautiful words in the English language.  It brings to mind images of freedom and release from bondage.  When you owe a debt, you are in a form of bondage.  When a debt is forgiven, you are no longer held responsible for that debt.  You are free.

Most of us can relate to the concept because we have debts that we owe.  All of us, though, owe a sin debt that we are unable to pay.  A songwriter once put it this way: I owed a debt I could not pay.  Jesus paid a debt He did not owe.

Think for a moment about the largest debt you have.  For most of us that would be the mortgage on your home.  If you are the average homeowner, the debt on your home is somewhere between three and four times what you make in a year.  Imagine what you would feel like if you checked the mail today and found a notice from your mortgage company saying they had decided to forgive the debt you owe on your home.  I don't know about you, but this Baptist would do a little dancing and shouting over that!

Someone was telling me the other day about a recent edition of the Oprah Winfrey show that originated from Macon, Georgia.  On this show, Oprah was featuring items that she felt were the perfect Christmas gifts.  My favorite was the refrigerator with a built in HDTV.  All totaled the gifts amounted to about $7,000.  At some point during the show, she announced to the studio audience that each one of them would get all of the gifts delivered to their door.  Needless to say, the audience went nuts!

Why is it we can get so excited about material and physical things but not so about spiritual things? If Christ is your Lord and Savior, you have had a debt forgiven that dwarfs your home mortgage!  If you belong to Him, you have been given a gift that makes Oprah's refrigerator with a built in HDTV look like pure junk!

We have just been through the Thanksgiving season, a time where we all took stock of our blessings and thanked God for all He has given us.  There is no doubt that we all have so much to be thankful for.  But at the top of our gratitude list should be God's gift of grace - the forgiveness of sins and the free gift of eternal life.

Because of Jesus, we are forgiven!  Our sin debt was paid in full.  "Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!" 2 Corinthians 9:15 (NIV)

Just A Click Away

Years ago, my wife and I bought our first microwave.  I remember wondering if we would actually use it or if it would become a useless waste of cabinet space.  Within a month we wondered how we ever got along without it.  The same is true of the Internet.  It is hard to imagine life now without being able to access information, products and services almost instantaneously. 

It has changed the way we shop, too.  Before I ever walk into a store, I know what that retailer charges for the item I want and what his competitors charge, too.  Sometimes, we don't even have to walk into a store at all - the items can be ordered with a few clicks of my mouse and delivered right to my door.

The Internet has changed the way we shop for insurance, too.  No offense if you are an insurance agent and are reading this, but I don't miss the days when I had to put up with a hard sell across my kitchen table.  We had no idea if the prices we were being quoted were a good deal or not.  Now we can go to any one of several insurance quote sites and within minutes have a wide range of companies and products to choose from.

You no doubt are aware of the companies whose spokespersons are ducks or geckos, but I would recommend one that as of now doesn't have a cute mascot, just great performance: Advantage Term Life.  This afternoon I went to Advantage on the recommendation of a friend and within five minutes had over 60 rate quotes from over 25 major companies like TransAmerica, Chase, Prudential, Travelers and Mass Mutual.  I received a follow up call within a hour from an agent asking if I had any questions. 

And by the way, if you are thinking about using life insurance as a part of your investment portfolio, forget it.  So-called "Whole Life" products are terrible investments.  Check out what money guru Dave Ramsey says about buying life insurance here.

If you are looking for life insurance, check out the Advantage Term Life site.  Maybe eventually they will have their own mascot.  The duck and the gecko are taken.  Any ideas? 

What Would You Save From a Fire?

This past week we once again saw the tragedy of wildfires taking out entire neighborhoods in Southern California.  This time the fires were confined to Malibu.  As with the series of fires in and around Los Angeles and San Diego a month or so ago, in many cases families had only minutes to evacuate their homes as the fires bore down on their area.

Reading the accounts of the the Malibu fire, I couldn't help but think about what I would do if faced with this situation.  If I got a knock on my front door and was told we had to be out of the house in ten minutes, what would I choose to save?

I don't consider myself to be overly materialistic, but over the years we've accumulated some nice stuff.  Most of it is purely sentimental in value.  Lots and lots of photographs and all of the memories that go along with them, especially our wedding photos.  My collection of guitars. Paintings, etchings, charcoal and watercolors done by my father over the course of twenty years.  My 1960s vintage Lionel train set. Toys, papers, coloring book pages and other memorabilia of our children's childhoods.  Letters, cards and notes from friends and church members sent to us over the years.  Hundreds of books.

At the end of the day, it's all junk on the way to the junk yard.  But it is our junk and, to be honest, I'm kind of attached to it.

But if I only had ten minutes to get out, I would spend all of that time making sure my wife, my children and our pets were out safely.  Stuff we can replace, or we can live without it.  You can't replace or live without your family.

Noted psychologist and motivational speaker Denis Waitley tells the story of losing his house to a fast moving fire.  In his case, they were awakened in the middle of the night and had only minutes to get out of their house.  They stood in the yard and watched their house go up in flames in a matter of minutes.  They had only the clothes on their backs.  They lost everything else, including the cars in the garage.

Waitley says he first was grieving over the stuff that he lost.  Then he realized he was standing there with his wife and children.  He realized that everything that he truly valued in his life were the people standing there safe with him. 

"Best fire I ever had," Waitley said.

So what would you save from a fire if you only had ten minutes to get out?

The Electorate is on to Something

If pollsters and trendspotters are correct, the American electorate is looking this year for something quite foreign to many if not most politicians: Genuineness.

According to veteran Democratic pollster Peter Hart, the attributes that are resonating with voters in the current Presidential campaign are "transparency, authenticity, and unity."

The Washington Post's David Broder identifies this trend as the fuel behind Mike Huckabee's rise to the top tier of Republican hopefuls despite the fact he had a barebones organization and very little money to work with this summer.  As people have seen the former Arkansas Governor - and ordained Baptist minister - they have seen in him the qualities they are looking for in a candidate.  I would add to that theory my belief that the reason Mitt Romney is sinking like a rock despite a huge organization on the ground and gobs of money to throw at ads is precisely the same thing.  As potential voters have gotten to know more about Romney, they see him lacking - if not devoid - of those traits.

If you unpack those traits, you will see this is something new for the American voter.  In fact, when you think about it, transparency, authenticity, and unity are about as connected to the normal political process as computers are to the Amish.  The process tends to produce candidates who, in the words of Gov. Huckabee, come out looking like "a culmination of a room full of consultants."  Think about how foreign to the political process these are: Transparency - what you see is who they are; Authenticity - what they say is what they believe (and presumably how they would govern if elected); and Unity - someone who could reach across the "Red State - Blue State" chasm and bring us together around shared values and objectives.

Is it any wonder that recent press and polling trends have moved toward Huckabee and Barack Obama, the two candidates who - for better of for worse - come across as authentic and not as political automatons spitting out trite campaign slogans and parsing words to avoid actually answering a question?

The Iowa Caucus is 38 days from now.  It will be very interesting to watch how the polls trend over the next five weeks.

Happy Thanksgiving!

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This Thanksgiving Day I hope that wherever you are and whatever you do, you will pause to reflect on God's blessings to you. The following post is a "rerun" from last year, but it is one of my favorites, and the sentiments are near to my heart.  I want to be a thankful, grateful person who doesn't take anything for granted. 

My mother, along with three of my siblings and their families will all be joining us at our house for dinner.  I will get to meet the latest addition to our family, Coen.  I can't wait to see all of them!

God bless you and yours on this special day.  Thank you for your support and encouragement. 

With much love,

   

   

   

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The Attitude of Gratitude

There were ten of them in all.  They were friends who were bound together by a shared tragedy: they all had leprosy--a horrible, disfiguring disease.  There's really no way to explain the horror of watching your body slowly rot away. But that was only half of the heartache. Because it was thought that leprosy was contagious, those who suffered from it had to not only endure the ravages of disease, but also to face scorn, disgrace and loss of all dignity.  They were made to live apart from the rest of society, apart from their family and friends with only fellow lepers to lean on for support and encouragement. 

Lepers in Jesus' day were not only forced to live in colonies, they also had to yell out "Unclean!" whenever they approached anyone.  Sometimes they were made to wear bells on their clothing to warn others of their approach.

At the leper colony, they heard stories of this man named Jesus who not only spoke of God's love for everyone, but He healed all those who came to Him.  I can imagine the stories of miraculous healings came in one after the other... Jesus opened the eyes of a man blind since birth; He told a lame man to rise up and walk; He even stopped a funeral procession and gave a woman her child back.  I can imagine them hearing the story of the centurion's servant who was healed.  They must have thought if Jesus healed a Roman centurion's servant, certainly He would heal us, after all, we are children of Abraham!

At some point the ten came up with a plan. They would travel in a group to find Jesus.  Together they would ask Him to heal them.

Finally, the moment came when they stood before Jesus. They asked Him to make them whole.  "Go and show yourselves to the priests," Jesus told them.  As they turned to go, they realized for the first time that their dream had just come true.  They stared at their hands in disbelief.  Where a moment ago there was decay and stubs, there now were fingers and hands free from leprosy.  They walked their first couple of steps, then they began leaping in the air, shouting praises to God!  They ran off quickly to establish their healing with the priests so they could return to their homes and families. 

But one of the ten stopped in his tracks and realized he'd forgotten something very important.  While his nine friends ran down the road, he turned and ran back to Jesus, falling on his face in front of the Lord.  Sobbing and laughing at the same time, he kept saying it again and again... Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

"Were not ten cleansed?  Where are the nine?" Jesus asked.  The man didn't know what to say.  He couldn't answer for them.  He just knew the immense sense of gratitude that was swelling up inside him.  This man has just given him his life back.

Then Jesus told him, "Go your way, your faith has made you whole."

Far too often, you and I are like the nine who ran down the road leaping and praising.  We receive God's grace and mercy, we experience His healing touch on our lives.  He restores what the devil has caused to decay.  And off we run, leaping, shouting and praising, but forgetting to simply say "Thank you."

I want to be like the one who turned and ran back to Jesus, falling on his face and saying thanks.  Lord, give me the attitude of gratitude!

Rev. John Cross, 1925 - 2007

In 1962, 38 year old Rev. John Cross accepted the pastorate of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.  The historic church was at that time a center of activity and organization of the civil rights movement.  It also was a symbol for those who would stop at nothing - including murder - to stop the movement, much the same way the World Trade Center was a symbol of America to Al-Qaeda.

On Sunday morning, September 15, 1963, just a little over a year into Rev. Cross' pastorate, he was at the church helping to prepare for Sunday School and Worship Service.  At 10:22 am, the unthinkable happened. A massive explosion rocked the church building. It was a bomb intended to deliver a message to the church and its pastor. 

Minutes after the bomb blast, John Cross was found frantically digging through the rubble.  "I've got to go in. I have to make sure the children are OK," his daughter Barbara, who was 13 at the time, remembers him saying.

All the children were not OK.  Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair were all dead. Twenty-two others were injured.

The bombing was no isolated incident.  Between 1947 and 1965, there were over fifty racially motivated bombings in the city that was derisively called "Bombingham" across the country. But the blast at Sixteenth Street was different, both in terms of its severity and its cruelty.  Three members of the Ku Klux Klan planted 19 sticks of dynamite in the church's basement.  They timed it to go off when people would be there for Sunday worship. This wasn't a message, it was cold blooded murder.

The fact that the victims of the blast were four little girls who were indisputably innocent shocked the city and the nation.  The Birmingham World published the following commentary three days after the murders:

Lethal dynamite has made Sunday, September 15, 1963, a Day of Sorrow and Shame in Birmingham, Alabama, the world's chief city of unsolved racial bombings.

Four or more who were attending Sunday School at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church on the day of Sorrow and Shame were killed. Their bodies were stacked up on top of each other like bales of hay from the crumbling ruins left by the dynamiting. They were girls. They were children. They were members of the Negro group. They were victims of cruel madness, the vile bigotry and the deadly hate of unknown persons.

Is Birmingham a sick city? We cannot answer for sure. There are tensions because there is fear...there is a feeling of diminishing faith in City Hall to measure up to the responsibility of the kind of municipal leadership needed in his City of Sorrow and Shame. The killers of the innocents have challenged the conscience of decent persons everywhere.

Faced with such inhumanity, such evil against the innocent, it would have been so easy to hate.  It would have been so easy to live the rest of your life seeking revenge and retribution. But Rev. John Cross didn't take the easy way out.  The bombing left Cross with a passion for racial reconciliation.  That would be the singular focus of his life and ministry for the next four decades. 

"He realized after the bombing, there was work to be done," Barbara Cross said. "That was his calling."

The four little girls whose lives were senselessly taken from them that September Sunday in 1963 became martyrs for the cause of civil rights.  Largely because of the public shock and horror of their deaths, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed.  Rev. Cross presided at the massive funeral of three of the four victims.  Martin Luther King gave the eulogy. Over eight thousand people attended.

Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair gave their lives for justice, freedom and equality. John Cross lived his life for it, tirelessly seeking to bring us all together.

Rev. John Cross passed away last week at 82 after several years of declining health. His funeral will be held today at Greenforest Baptist Church in Decatur, Georgia.

He will be remembered at the service today as a towering, historic figure in the struggle for change in this country, a hero who dedicated his life to racial reconciliation and understanding.

As well he should be.

God and Gadgets

What is the appropriate use of technology in the church?  When does it help and when does it hinder?  C.A. Phillips has written a thoughtful post about the danger of technology becoming a substitute for the real thing, especially in our spiritual life.  The post was inspired by a conversation about someone saying they didn't need to come to church because they could listen to the church's podcast.

Since I'm no longer on the staff of a church and not constrained by the need for diplomacy, I can say it bluntly: That's just plain stupid.  When I see a commercial for Red Lobster showing me every kind of delicious shrimp imaginable, I don't stand up, pat my belly and say, "Wow, that was great.  I'm stuffed."

There's two reasons we need to come together in worship - to be fed and to lift each other up.  A technology substitute for worship - whether it be a TV or radio broadcast, live stream, or podcast - can accomplish the feeding part, but at best it can only give you some semblance of encouragement and uplift.  You miss out on being an encouragement to others.  Being a blessing to others is a vital part of your spiritual growth.  In his famous prayer, St. Francis of Assisi wisely stated that "it is in giving that we receive."  You need personal interaction with others!

My friend Kurt Kaiser is best known for writing the song "Pass It On" in the 1970s.  He says the inspiration for that song came at a campfire.  He saw a brightly glowing ember roll away from the fire.  Almost immediately the bright glow began to dim and in just a matter of moments it was cold.  That ember needed the fire to keep glowing. In the same way, you and I need the corporate setting to realize we are a part of something bigger than ourselves.

Hebrews 10:25 says "And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near." (NLT)  You'll notice that verse doesn't say anything about the "feeding" aspect of gathering together, only the encouragement part.

Let's be honest - when someone tells you they don't need to come to church because they can watch it at home, that is nothing more than a cop out.  If I don't want to come to church, one lame excuse is as good as the next one.  If it's not "I can just listen to the podcast" it would be "I can worship God just as well on the lake or the golf course."

So should we limit the availability of technology because someone will use it as an excuse to not come to church?  Absolutely not!  Why penalize the hundreds of people who will be touched, encouraged and inspired by your broadcast or podcast just because of one disingenuous person who uses it as an excuse to not come to church?  For every one who uses it as an inappropriate substitute there will be scores of folks who cannot come to church due to illness or being out of town who will use it appropriately to stay connected.

I make my living with technology, and specifically with technology that assists churches and ministries in distributing their message to a wider audience.  We help churches around the world stream their services live or on demand and to distribute podcasts and downloadble MP3s.  I can point you to case study after case study that proves conclusively when a church uses these strategies, local attendance goes up, not down.  That's because most people when they see the yummy seafood on TV want to go to Red Lobster. They aren't satisfied with just the electronic image, they want to taste and experience the real thing.

For the past few weeks I have attended the video venue at my church.  We're on the same campus, just fifty yards or so from the main auditorium.  The worship is live but when the time comes for the message, we watch Mike on a high-def screen.  It was interesting to watch the people interact with "video Mike."  They responded just as if they were in the "live" service, nodding their heads, verbally responding when appropriate, even standing in response to the invitation to say, "please pray for me." This is a prime example of where technology not only doesn't get in the way, it literally expands our territory.

Wise ministries look for ways to use technology to make them more effective at both the feeding and the encouraging components of our mission.  You can't fail to take advantage of these opportunities just because someone will use it as an excuse to not gather with the body.  That is nothing new - it was happening back in the first century since the writer of Hebrews included the line "as some people do." 

C.A. put it well in his post: "If your idea of church is listening to a sermon each week, then I guess it doesn't change much in your life."

The bottom line is this: Your goal is to communicate with honesty and integrity.  There's no reason not to use any and all technology you can to help you do that more effectively and to a wider audience.  But when you attempt to use technology to make it appear that you are something or someone that you are not, as a leader or as a church, that is wrong and eventually you will be exposed as a fraud.  Even in things technological, be sure your sins will eventually find you out.

Read C.A.'s post "Technology as a Substitute?" here.

Praying for Alpharetta Friends

I had the privilege of serving for six years - from 1997 to 2003 - as the Worship Pastor at First Baptist Church in Alpharetta, Georgia.  My former church has been in the news this week because of the arrest of the Senior Pastor for assaulting his wife.  This story and his mug shot have been on TV news and in the AJC for the last three days.  The story was even picked up by the Associated Press.

My final Sunday at FBC Alpharetta was the week before the current pastor's first Sunday. I had quite a bit of contact with him before and after his trial sermon and during the transition period, including flying out to Houston to meet him and his wife. I won't comment on the specifics of the allegations against the pastor... I am admittedly far from objective.

I have many great memories of my time in Alpharetta and there are folks still there who are dear to us.  Our thoughts and prayers are with them in this very difficult time. 

The last year I was at Alpharetta I had the great joy of serving alongside Nelson Price, who was our Interim Pastor.  As Dr. Price eloquently put it in an e-mail to me yesterday, "What a grief! That dear membership didn't need this."

My heart goes out to the Witcher family and especially to the church, both of whom face a long, difficult road ahead.  For now, the pastor is on paid leave while the case makes its way through the court system. Please join me in praying for all of those touched by this situation.

Regardless of what happens, things will never be the same in the pastor's family or in the relationship between pastor and people.  It is hard at this point to imagine how he can continue as Senior Pastor under these circumstances.

This is perhaps the most serious situation that Alpharetta First Baptist has faced in it's 102 year history.

Read the AJC story here.

Coincidence? I don't think so

Georgia's Governor, Sonny Perdue is a fine man and he's been an effective Governor for my home state for the last six years.  He is a man of integrity and sincere faith.

In response to our state's historic and tragic drought, he called for the citizens of Georgia to pray sincerely and humbly for rain.  On Tuesday, he hosted a service at the State Capitol with other lawmakers and ministers from various denominations to ask God's help in ending the drought.  About 250 of his fellow Georgians joined him in the service. 

"We come here very reverently and respectfully to pray up a storm," the Governor said.

Methodist minister Rev. Gil Watson was among those who spoke at the service. "We have not been good stewards of our land. We have not been good stewards of our water," he said. "Lord, have mercy on your people, have mercy on us and grant us rain. Oh God, let rain fall on this land of Georgia."

Our quirky little alternative news source, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution quoted Gov. Pardue's perspective on the event and it's context this way:

Perdue said after the event that Georgians have not done "all we could do in conservation" and that the drought was an attempt by God to "get our attention."

"Hopefully we will be better conservators of the blessings God's given us as he gives us more [rain]," the governor said.

This morning on my way to work I listened to Neal Boortz make light of the Governor's prayer service.  He gleefully noted that there was not a cloud in the sky.  Ironically, less than three minutes later, WSB's acclaimed meteorologist Kirk Mellish was saying there was a good chance of rain in the forecast for the first time in many weeks and that some areas could get in excess of an inch of rain tonight. 

I am writing this around 12:30 am on Thursday morning.  It has been raining hard here at our house for well over an hour.  Coincidence?  I don't think so.