Month: September 2020

“But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.”  2 Thessalonians 3:3

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.”   (Psalm 91:1)

First a couple of apologies.  One, in last week’s devotion talking about Slenderman, I didn’t mention that the little girl who was stabbed did survive.  As depressing as the story was, that was at least a little bright spot, and I left it out.  Not good.  Secondly, sorry this is late today, but the good news is that it will be shorter than most of these novelettes that I have been putting out lately.  Unfortunately I have been taught (and have taught the same thing) that we should write like we talk- and you know how I talk.

Last week, I told you about the influence the internet and this new age of technology has on all of us.  It can be dangerous, but the key to recognizing any danger that lives around us is to tune into the power that resides within us.   If we don’t keep a relationship with God and instead live spiritual  lives full of rejection, we will live spiritual lives void of protection.  We are embattled by the world, the flesh, and Satan.  It would seem we are outnumbered, but as Paul reminds us in Romans 8:31, “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”  Like someone wise once said, “God plus me makes a majority.”

The primary thrust of God’s Word is instruction on how
to abide in Him.   If we can begin to see His wonderful providence and His unfailing provision, we will begin to understand His unfailing protection.  The assurance that we receive from the Word can then be conveyed to others like our children, family, friends, and even strangers, so that they to can experience protection afforded in God’s perfection.   We need to be able to tell others, with confidence, that “[He is] my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust!”

That means that we have to sell out to a life that is full with Christ, not just occasionally touched by Christ.   The thing that I fear might be happening in our churches and families today is similar to what happens in medicine.   When we go in for  an inoculation, we get just enough of the disease to not receive it in full.   I think that often we receive just enough of God to inoculate us against experiencing Him in all His fullness.   We are satisfied with little doses of Him as though that is all that is necessary.  When it comes to God, we need to experience the real thing.  If we don’t, not only will we lose to evil, we probably won’t even recognize it.

Until we admit that Slenderman is just one of thousands of evil influences meant to infiltrate our families, churches, towns, and countries, we will not armor up.  We will float along until slowly, imperceptibly, we are taken over.  By the time that England’s Chamberlain saw the light, Hitler was so strong that it would take the rest of the world to bring him down.   We must keep our eyes open and examine everything through the glasses of God’s Word.

I was reading Ephesians 4:11-16 today and verses 13 and 14 say, “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.  Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.”  If we remain babes in Christ, not able to eat meat, we will be like infants.  We will be like those two 12 year old girls who were deceived by that which is not real.   We will be tossed by the winds of doctrine no matter where they blow and by the winds of deceit from whomever they come.

The well-known Puritan writer Thomas Brooks writes:

Satan promises the best, but pays with the worst; He promises honor and pays with disgrace; He promises pleasure and pays with pain; He promises profit and pays with loss;  He promises life and pays with death.

We can put the word always in these sentences above.   Satan never delivers on what he promises because he wants the worst for us and if we listen to his lies, the worst is what we will get.

The only way to protect those we love (and even those we don’t) is by not appeasing the enemy but by defeating him.  Satan laughs at our puny efforts if we try to stand up against him on our own.  He has thousands of years of experience, no moral obligation to do the right thing, and fights dirty.   His minions prowl around infiltrating our homes and churches.  We need to be like the FBI guys who can recognize counterfeits.  They don’t study counterfeits, they study the real thing.  They study it so closely that they will recognized any irregularities in a fake.  That is what we must do.  We must study Christ and the Word so closely that we will recognize any irregularities that confront us.

Those who are more mature in Christ are obligated to help protect those who are less mature.  That can be our kids, grandkids, new believers, slow maturing  believers and even unbelievers.  We can’t do that without be able to recognize the enemies ourselves.   There once was a man who had trekked through many miles of a snowstorm to reach his cabin.  The security of the cabin lulled him into a sense of safety, so he neglected to take off his wet clothes and just lay down to sleep.  His dog would not let it go, however, and pulled on the man until he awakened.  The man took off his wet clothes and built a fire.  The man had become numb and did not realize the danger of his wet clothes and except for his dog’s urgings, would have died in his sleep.

This story is the story of today.  So many lie down in the numbness of sin and  deception and think they are safe.  It is our job (if I can compare us to St. Bernards for a moment), to rouse them from their slumber.  It is up to us to point out the need to take off the cold and sinful attire that will eventually lead to their demise.   Of course, we cannot do that if we, too, are lying down ready to slumber in our own sins.  God is our protector and we are to be like Him.  That makes us protectors, as well.   If we are going to be protectors we must, “Put on the full armor of God so that (we) can stand against the tactics of the Devil.”  (Ephesians 6:11)  No need to appease Slenderman and his cronies.  Let’s just beat them.

“You are my hiding place; You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.”     (Psalm 32:7)

Last week I wrote a devotion that covered our responsibility as Christians to be role models.  I mentioned the internet in passing, but I would like to talk about something that I saw on TV a few years ago that has some relationship to what I talked about yesterday.  It was on a show called 20/20 (I am sure you are familiar with it) and as usual it was very well done both in information and production.   It told a heartbreaking story of two twelve-year-old girls who stabbed a good friend 19 times in the woods and left her to die.  The little girl, also 12, crawled out of the woods and was discovered by a bicyclist who called 911.  She said that her friends had stabbed her.  The ambulance rushed her to the hospital to try to save her life and the police began a huge man(kid)-hunt to try to find the two girls.

They located them five hours later, still in the bloody clothes, still carrying the knife.  The girls readily admitted what they did and why they did it.  The shock of the crime spread quickly and for the first time most of the adult world learned of a fictional internet character called Slenderman and the strange influence he had on thousands of young people.  As I watched, I was sickened but not surprised.  I was not surprised because the pace of technology has outpaced  most adults.  This is the first era of teaching where the students are ahead of the teachers and kids are ahead of their parents.

Yesterday in class I asked a student to go to a site on the computer to use a fairly sophisticated tool for creating 3D plans for woodworking projects.  As I watched, he quickly went to the site, did a few mouse clicks, and was full-speed-ahead on creating a project.   Naively, I said that he must have already been familiar with the site.  He said that he wasn’t and, in fact, didn’t even have internet at his home!  It took me hours to negotiate the site and complete a project and he was doing it in minutes.  It is as though today’s kids have developed intuitive skills of computer principles that they cannot explain, but just know.  They are old enough to negotiate any game, site, or activity on the net but are too young to make wise decisions about what to do with what they find.  A very bad combo.  How can these kids be so smart about stuff?  Probably because the average students spends 7 1/2 hours daily on electronic media.  Young teens send an average of 15,000 texts a month.   Ninety-five percent of parents are completely oblivious to what their kids do on the net, who they text, or what they text.   No wonder they are so much brighter than us. No wonder we see so many negative repercussions from their activities.

Back to Slenderman.  The best I can tell, he is a character that was created on the net through drawings and photographs and is presented as real, but of course, was not.  He had almost a cult following of thousands of young people who followed him on the net, contributed to the stories of his sightings and actions, drew pictures of him, sent in supposed photos, and often supported his true existence.  Although his was not real, he had become real.  He was like a shadowy Sasquatch who lived in that mystical world that some say exists and some say is, well, mystical.  He was influential and scary and hardly any adults even knew he “existed.”  The two little girls conspired to murder their friend and spent months planning it. Why? It was to prove that Slenderman was real. When police arrested them, they were on their way to a patch of woods where his mansion supposedly existed, and where they would live with him forever.   The attack was their way of proving loyalty to him so that he would invite them into his home.  It is almost too fantastic to believe.

To check how prolific this Slenderman phenomena is, the producer’s of 20/20 picked out 10 families at the local school and with parent permission interviewed the kids and parents.  Not a single parent had heard of Slenderman, not a single 12 year old had not.  All of the students had visited sites, played games, and listened to stories about his existence.  Only one student was sure that he was not real. The others were unsure.  None of the students had shared their internet “relationship” with this character with their parents.  In fact, when asked, every student admitted that they frequented sites that their parents did not know about.  Some admitted that their parents don’t even ask about their internet exploration. Not to be a conspiracy theorist, but if I wanted to take over the the mind of the world, all these changes in young people would be a great place to start.  They are being moulded, some a little, some a lot, but moulded just the same.

Okay, I have ranted about the “evils of technology” long enough.  What does this have to do with God’s Word where technology wasn’t even a glimmer in the eye?  A lot, I think.   We are in a battle for our kids and for this world and we don’t even know it.  I am afraid we are pulling a Neville Chamberlain.  Chamberlain was the prime minister of England during the years previous to WW II.  He ignored the rise of Hitler, appeased him at every turn, and denied the possibility of war- that is until Hitler had overrun several countries, was firmly entrenched, and was so powerful that the battle necessitated a world war.

Today there is a group that wants us defeated, wants to capture our kids, who wants to see us all dead and gone.  I am not talking about Hamas or ISIS or Al Qaeda or any other terrorist group in the news.  I am talking about who Paul wrote about in Ephesians when he said,  “For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.”  (Ephesians 6:12).  Satan is real and he is on a roll right now.  Unbelievers fall to his possession and believers to his oppression daily.   I know this smacks of the outlandish, but that was exactly what Neville Chamberlain said in the months before Hitler had taken over half of Europe.  He made a treaty with Hitler, trusting that it would result in peace.  In the meantime, Chamberlain threw several countries under the bus, Hitler broke the treaty anyway, and continued his quest for world domination.

Here are a quotes from Chamberlain and his successor Winston Churchill that explain their opposite attitudes toward the rising unrest around them.  Chamberlain said, “My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honor. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds.”  

On the other hand, Winston responded with,  “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.   We cannot rest easy in our beds.  We are surrounded by crocodiles and if we continue to feed them, we will insure that they will eventually feed on us. “

The question is this.  How are we to approach the rising unrest around us?   Well, today was the current events and historical perspective of our problem.  Next week I will let you know how we as Christians should respond to the war-torn culture we live in. This part was obviously too long on its own, so I will finish up with “chapter 2” next week.

Here is a hint:  “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.”   (Psalm 91:1)

“Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern.”  Philippians 3:17

Years ago Charles Barkley, NBA star, was admonished for some behavior because he was a role model for kids.  He very famously snapped back, “I ain’t no role model.”  Well, he was wrong.  He might have said that he wasn’t a “good” role model, but he could not say he wasn’t “a” role model.  He was in a position of responsibility, but one he did not take very seriously.  He was castigated for living in denial of his role, as he should have been, but we should not jump too quickly on the “beat Charles like a drum” band wagon, especially if we deny that we are role models as well.

Yep, we are all role models and in fact, we ourselves have had role models.  Every day we influence someone and every day we are influenced by someone.  Role modeling is part of our walk whether we like it or not.  We can be like Charles Barkley and deny it, but that doesn’t change it.  We may not like it, because that puts some responsibility on our shoulders, but like it or not, we cannot escape it.

We usually think of role modeling when it comes to children.  Yesterday I heard some sad news about children and the internet and “smart” phones.   The statistics about kids giving out personal information to strangers, the number of hours spent playing games, the kinds of sites frequented, and the dangerous effects from spending so much time on electronic devices was sobering.  The conclusion of the study was that “smart phones” and the like were substituting for the normal activities that kids used to be involved in.

Playing outdoors, reading books, playing games, talking around the table, going for rides, eating meals together and other typical family activities of the past have been replaced by individualized time spent on electronic devices.  The final line of the report was most striking, however.  It said (I am paraphrasing) that all of this behavior of kids was learned mostly from parents.  It said that most kids who spent all their time on electronic devices had parents who lived very similar lives. 

It went on to say that the parent’s example was the most important part of the child’s development.  In other words, parents set the tone for the entire family by establishing behavior by example, not words.  If the parents wanted readers, they needed to read themselves.  If they wanted their kids to talk, they needed to talk themselves.  If they wanted their kids to pray, they needed to pray themselves. The conclusion was undeniable. Parents, through example, have the greatest influence on their kids. To extrapolate even further, everyone’s actions have great influence on those around them. We all have the power to influence- the key is, how do we use it?

When I was coaching, I often read a poem to the players to remind them of their responsibility to others. It was always in any playbook or website I put together.  If I was coaching girls, I put “she” in the poem and if boys, I put “he” in the poem.  Here is a copy of it like I would have read to my football players.

There are little eyes upon you and they’re watching night and day.

There are little ears that quickly take in every word you say.

There are little hands all eager to do anything you do;

And a little boy who’s dreaming of the day he’ll be like you.

You’re the little fellow’s idol, you’re the wisest of the wise.

In his little mind about you no suspicions ever rise.

He believes in you devoutly, holds to all you say and do; and

He will say and do in your way, when he’s grown up just like you.

There’s a wide-eyed little fellow who believes you’re always right;

and his eyes are always opened, and he watches day and night.

You are setting an example every day in all you do;

For the little boy who’s waiting, to grow up to be like you.

Although there are a lot of similar poems, sayings, and songs I could quote (and did quote) about our influence on kids, the fact of the matter is, we are all models of some kind to everyone around us.  The kids on my team were not only influential on those younger than them, but their peers and elders as well.  We are models to our children, grandchildren, nephews, and nieces, but also on our young neighbors, peers, and elders (in my case, there aren’t as many of the elder types any more).  We are, just like Charles Barkley discovered, role models no matter what we want to think.  As Christians we have an added burden.  We represent Christ; we belong to a team; we are not on our own any more.

If people know we are Christians they we scrutinize our actions even more closely.  In some cases, they will feel free to imitate them, believing they must be OK because, supposedly, we are OK.  Jesus taught us to be “flavoring” to the world.  In Mark 9:50 He said, “Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another.” The way we live should be like salt is to food: it adds flavor, it preserves, and it causes thirst. We add flavor by making godly choices. We preserve by always speaking the truth in love. We cause thirst for God by living out a life of faith before the world.  If we don’t add flavor, don’t preserve the truth, or don’t cause a thirst for God, we are still modeling behavior, just the wrong kind.

We know that we have been influenced by others in our lifetime. In fact, we are still being influenced by others.  Who do we allow to shape us?  Some in our circle are good and helpful, others dangerous and harmful.  One day a farmer grabbed his shot gun to shoot at a flock of pesky crows. Unfortunately, he didn’t see his sociable pet parrot that had joined the crows. After firing a few shots, he walked over to the fallen birds and was surprised to find his parrot badly ruffled with a broken wing. When the farmer’s children saw the injured bird, they asked, “Dad, what happened?” The farmer simply replied, “Bad company.”  First Corinthians 15:33 says that “bad company corrupts good morals” and yet we sometimes “hang” with those who are not beneficial to positive behavior.  We will experience the same  consequences of those we flock with.   If that is the case, we will soon be the person that others should not “hang” with as well.

Proverbs puts it pretty bluntly, “He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.” Prov. 13:20  So we are influencers and we are the influenced.  Both positions require discretion.  In one we must examine our own actions in the other the actions of others.  As influencers of our children and others, we should not be like the Pharisees.  Look how Jesus spoke of their influence:  “therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds”  Matt. 23:5.  In other words, though their words might be correct, don’t follow their deeds.  Do we talk bigger than our actions?  The bottom line is that should neither be Pharisees nor follow Pharisees.

Paul told the believers in Thessalonica that he had, through his actions, become a role model for their behavior.  He and his companions had proven themselves as men of God by their consistent dedication to the truth.  Can we look at our those around us and say we are setting an example of how to be and that they should try to be more like us.  Regardless of whether we say it or not- they will be, so what we are should be what we hope they will be.

Proverbs says that “A good name is to be more desired than great wealth” (Prov. 22:1).  A good name is not so easy to earn, but very easy to destroy.  Our character should gain us a hearing to proclaim the gospel to others, not shut the doors.  It is not easy to be a role model like Paul.  Next to Christ, he was what we should strive to be not only for ourselves, but for others. He lived out his faith, so that anyone watching his life would be able to tell there was something wonderful inside him.

If we want to be influenced by others in a positive way, we should surround ourselves with people with people who care about their actions.  If we want to be people of positive influence, we should care about our own actions. It won’t be easy, but Hebrew’s 12:1 says “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…” Let’s run the race well, knowing that we are being watched and many around us will try to run it just like us.

“And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.”   Luke 6:31

The “Golden Rule” used to be quoted frequently in almost all circles.  When I was in elementary school I remember seeing it on the walls of many classrooms.  Sure it was a Bible verse, but there was usually not a reference printed along with it, so I don’t think that was an issue.  Actually, in that long off time, I doubt it would have been a problem if the Bible reference was added to the verse, back then we still sang “real” Christmas songs at our Christmas programs.

In today’s society we face a dilema.  Almost all good and positive behavior is found somewhere in the Bible.  To bring up those principles in a school or government setting we must somehow disguise them so they are not from the Bible.  If secularists or humanists get wind that Biblical teaching is anywhere in the schools, they pull out the separation card and through a variety of pressures

shut things down.  So sadly, many schools disguise the wise teachings of the Word so much that they lose their “wiseness” or the schools eliminate teaching godly principles completely, leaving behavior in a huge gray area that no one can really define.

But principles such as the one found in today’s scripture can be invaluable as a guideline in many given situations.  We can keep it close to us so that we can refer to it when a “what should I do” question arises.  How should we handle criticism, requests for help, rumors we hear, treatment of others, needs found around us?  If we keep God’s instruction close to our hearts, we will have something to turn to when we face critical decisions in our daily relationships with others.

When I coached I gave a guideline to all my coaches.  I used to hate seeing coaches yelling at kids for something that was ultimately the coach’s own fault.  I would attend games and see coaches go crazy because a kid missed a tackle, but I knew that that coach never spent time in practice on tackling drills.  He was embarrassed by the kid’s performance and had to let everyone know that it was the athlete’s fault, so the coach made a big show of yelling at the “offending” athlete.

Because I saw this way too often, I put together what became known as Rick’s Rules of Reprimand.  Before any of my coaches could “loudly” correct a kid, I ask them to ask themselves five quick questions.  If all were answered “yes” they could proceed to correcting, but if there was a “no” in there, it was our job to correct ourselves by taking care of the oversight that we had allowed.

Here were questions they had to ask if a player failed to do something correctly: 1) Has he heard it?  2) Has he heard it enough? 3) Has he done it? 4) Has he done it enough? 5) Is he capable of doing what I am asking him to do?  Many times I saw coaches not yell at kids because they realized that what the kid was asked to do had not been covered enough or he was even incapable of doing what was ask. This was a form of the Golden Rule.  Would any of my coaches like to be yelled at for something they had not been properly prepared for- I doubt it.  So we were just extending that same respect to the kids themselves.

What would the world be like if we could openly teach the tenets of God’s Word without disguise.  All we need to know about our relationship with ourselves, others, and God are found there.  No one desires to be treated badly.  No one relishes abuse by others. If all would keep that in mind when making relational decisions, the world would be a different place. Other religions have their form of the Golden Rule, but most are in the negative.  “Don’t do to others what you would not want them doing to you.”  The Bible takes it one step further into the place of service.  Instead of not doing something vengeful, take the initiative and do something good.  Don’t be passive and just not seek revenge, be active and strive to treat others kindly.

We can keep the Golden Rule in its negative form without lifting a finger. If we do not want others to steal from us, we only need to refrain from stealing. But doing the right thing rather than just avoiding the wrong is much more demanding. If we want others to love us, we must first love them.  So the Golden Rule of the Word does not just say, “Don’t steal” but “Give.”  We live in a world that is amazed when someone does the right thing.  Movies have been made and books have been written about a singular display of honesty.  Why?  Because that kind of behavior is not expected.  The words of Luke 6:31 have become passe’.

During different seasons the natives in New Guinea have times of rituals, songs, and dances. They work themselves up into a frenzy and the whole “celebration” culminates in what are called “murder songs,” in which they shout before God the names of the people they wish to kill. When the natives became Christian, they retained some of the customs and that ritual, However, in the murder songs, they no longer shouted the names of the people they hated, but the names of the sins they hated, and called on God to destroy them.  A pagan custom had been captured for Christ.

What would be eliminated if the Golden Rule was demonstrated? There would be no unkind words, no murder, no gossip or slander, no dishonesty or deception, no betrayal, no unforgiveness.  Unfortunately we will have to wait for that world until we reach heaven.  We can, with the strength of the Holy Spirit, do our best to make our little section of the world as much like heaven as possible, but in this fallen world it is not entirely possible.  Fortunately, when God looks at us, He only asks us to be responsible for that which we have control over.  We should draw a circle around ourselves and ask the Lord to help everyone in that circle live for Him. Maybe in that way, we can help others draw their own circles, as well.

“His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” Matthew 25:21

Okay, this way too  long, so I suggest you read it in a couple of settings.  I didn’t want to break it up because there would be a whole week between sections, so it is up to you to. break it up!  Thanks for your patience.

We recently had a memorial for one of our beloved members, David Williams.  It was a lovely time of remembering his life and his almost 50 years with his lovely wife Virginia and his very large family.  If you have not seen the memorial,  you can click here to view the whole thing.  Dave’s memorial  led me to remember another Celebration of Life I went to years ago.  That memorial was for my good friend James Witt and it was very touching and thought provoking.   James was the  youth leader for our four children at Emmanuel Baptist church years ago (yes, it was in the 80’s!). James was only 52 when he passed and beloved by many. He found out three months earlier what he was facing and so his fight was short, but very difficult. It was, of course, very hard on his nine children and wonderful wife, Lenae. It was also hard on the students in the school that he started and where he taught.  It was especially  difficult for the boys in the Christian Service Brigade that he had started two years earlier.   It was hard on his many friends, as well. In the two-hour service we heard from people in every one of those categories.

The service was held in the Melrose church gym that has been converted into a worship center. It was packed and there was standing room only for some of the latecomers. There was no slide show of James’ life, just testimonies. I don’t think he was too big on technology.

The service started with over a half-hour of his children and a few others combining in different groups and singing all of James’ favorite songs. It was incredibly touching. Amazingly, they all had wonderful voices and could play a variety of instruments. There were also love letters to James from each of his children in the program we were given and the love that was reflected in those letters was also reflected on the stage. Then several of the individual children spoke. They all called him “Papa,” and to hear them speak of their respect and love for their papa was intensely moving.

After about an hour of testimony about James’ life, his son Timothy got up and said that James had written and recorded a message for his own memorial a few weeks earlier. Timothy said that they were not going to play it, because is seemed almost morbid in a way. But after the family buried James on a ranch that he inherited last year from a man who James had befriended, they listened to the recorded message and were blessed by it. They decided as a family to play it at the service, so they did.

It was wonderfully strange to hear James speaking at his own memorial. He spoke with love and conviction. As was his way, he did not hold back. He knew that even the hardest of hearts would probably not walk out on a dead man speaking, so he laid it all on the line. There wasn’t a person sitting in that auditorium that had excuse any longer. If they had managed to avoid hearing the gospel up to that point in their lives, they hadn’t avoided it any longer. I think the message of hope that he gave while on the cusp of death had an incredible effect on all who were there. There was no bitterness in his voice or words, only anticipation. It was truly beautiful. He ended with some wonderful verses and said good bye “for now.”  I have never experienced anything like it.

After James’ message they opened it up to those who would like to come forward and share a bit. Some of the stories were lengthy (and as usual, some people used it for a personal pulpit time that had little to do with James), but most were just short vignettes about James’ kindness and love. After that a young pastor came forward and told how he had been kicked out of houses of friends and relatives up until the age 18 when James took him in. James would get him up at 5:00 every morning and they would run two miles and talk about the Lord. The young man was eventually saved and became a pastor. It was a very touching story. Well, at that point he gave a hellfire and brimstone sermon. I mean it was an old-fashioned, “I don’t need no stinkin’ microphone” lay-it-on-the-line message. Quite unusual for a memorial, but I guess not for James’ memorial.

At the end about 15 boys went forward in their Christian Service Brigade uniforms (similar to Boy Scout garb) and sang their Christian theme song and gave their motto. So after about two and a half hours, the service ended and we went to the family meet and greet line or the food line. James was a very conservative Christian with some different ideas, none of which offset his deep belief in Christ as Savior, so it was a bit like being at an Apostolic Faith, Mennonite, or Amish gathering. Many of the females wore small head coverings and long dresses and I saw more long beards on the men than at a Duck Dynasty convention or ZZ Top concert. The whole event was what I would call serious but festive. That sounds contradictory, but that is the only way to explain it. Many parts were upbeat, but a person could never escape the feeling that everyone involved was saying, “This idea of Jesus and the afterlife is crucial. Don’t mess up.” It wasn’t that everyone was uptight, but that everyone knew that with memorials comes great opportunity.

The reason I am reliving this beautifully unique memorial is not only because our kids knew James as a youth leader (and afterwards as well), but because like every memorial or funeral it forces us to face our own mortality. There wasn’t a person sitting there that day who wasn’t asking himself at one time or another, “What will my celebration of life be? How will I be remembered? What can people say about me?” There is a wonderful poem called “The Dash” that explains that when a date appears on a headstone it records the year of birth, then a dash, then the year of death. The dates are not the important part, what was important is what took place during the dash. What I heard about James’ “dash” was life of kindness, humility, and conviction. What I mostly heard, however, was about a life committed to Christ, family, and friends.

When an unbeliever dies, people talk about his or her goodness of character (even though it may have been missing). Mourners are more or less satisfied knowing that the person was just a “good guy” during his lifetime. But as Christians we should not be satisfied with just being “good.” Our time here should be marked by our love for Christ and the actions of our life should stem from that love. Our memorials should not consist of the occasional assumption by some that we must have been a Christian because we went to church once in awhile. No one should be able to turn to another in the service and say, “Oh, so he/she was a Christian? I didn’t know that.” Our lives are to reflect Christ, so our deaths should not reveal anything less. When I spoke at my Dad’s memorial, I tried to tell stories of his life, but also tried to express, undeniably, that they were all connected to his love for Jesus. He was a simple man with simple faith, but everyone who met him knew that God was important in his life. He attended church up until it was impossible and was not afraid to defend Jesus, Ronald Reagan, and gun control (in that order), to anyone who had the guts to take on a guy you could not get mad at.

I guess what I took away from Jame’s  memorial is that Christian memorials should be different from secular ones. John said that “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Our lives should reveal Christ more and more each day, so that when we reach the end there should be no doubt who we want to glorify. If our lives reflect just a passing glimpse of who Jesus is and a whole bunch of other “stuff,” even though the “stuff” is good, we will be disappointed in ourselves when see Him face to face. When most people say they want to live with no regrets, they mean they want to pile in every endeavor possible so they don’t miss out on anything. As Christians “no regrets” should mean exemplifying Christ and living for Him as much as we possibly can. We might think that sounds boring, but I don’t think we will feel that way when the family who loved us friends who knew us, and the Savior who redeemed all say at the end of our lives , “Well done, good and faithful one.” If our lives were books, how many pages would mention Christ’s name? Would there be long stretches, maybe even full chapters, in which He never appears. Is He like the soap opera character that pops in and out of episodes every few months for convenience or is He the leading character on which the story rests?

There was no doubt at the end of the day where James’ loyalties lay. His memorial service was more about life than dying. It was more about heaven to come than earth left behind. It was, from everything I could see, an example of a worthwhile “dash” between two numbers. James died on my birthday, so it is fitting that we remember that there is a “time for life and a time for death,” and in that in life we should live for Christ and in that in our death we should meet with Him, and that no one left should have any questions about either. Mark Twain once said that we should live such lives that when we die, that everyone should be sorry, even the undertaker! When famous pastor Donald Barnhouse was going to his wife’s funeral with his young children a huge truck passed them and its shadow covered half the road. He asked his children if they would rather be run over by that truck or by the shadow cast by that truck. Of course they said the shadow because it could not hurt them. He said, “That is the way it is with death. The truck represents the death, but because of Christ’s sacrifice, the only thing that touches us now is its shadow. Death can’t hurt us anymore.”

James lamp was not extinguished, he just doesn’t need it anymore so he can set it aside. He is in the true light now. As I write the book of my life, I hope it can be entitled, “Jesus and his friend Rick.” I want Him to be the main character. I think we all hope that we will live more for Him than ourselves and that our lives will be undeniably connected in word and deed to “Him Who lives within us.”